WHEN they mourned Fidel Castro, Cuban children wore T-shirts inscribed ‘I am Fidel’ but they were not orchestrating a personality cult.
They were simply saying they are committed to the same principles that Fidel stood for, for the values with which he built a socialist Cuba; one in which there are no destitutes when the so-called First World has destitutes; a Cuba in which no-one is homeless when the so-called First World has many homeless persons freezing out in the snow; a Cuba with the highest literacy rate on planet earth; with one of the highest life expectancies in the world; with free education when in the US they start saving for a child’s university education when that child is still in grade school; a Cuba with the best health care system in the whole wide world, better than anywhere in the so-called First World.
‘I am Fidel’, are words that stand for the precious values that have created a beautiful island called Cuba.
When a revolution has been successful, the only way to safeguard it is to cultivate revolutionary consciousness in the young so that these ideas are entrenched in them.
This is true of any revolution.
In our Zimbabwe, every day there are reports of corruption, embezzlement of State funds (funds which belong to the people of Zimbabwe), corruption accompanied by inefficiency in the civil service, abandoned and mismanaged projects; so many things that go wrong, that have gone wrong.
Ko nharirire dziripi?
Whenever a crime is committed, whenever there is wrongdoing, there is a second pair of eyes; what happens to the second pair of eyes?
It turns away, perhaps conveniently becomes blind.
We lack revolutionary consciousness; we lack patriotic fervour, otherwise we would brook no nonsense.
Anybody who hurts Zimbabwe would be brought to justice.
I would be my country’s keeper, each one of us would be Zimbabwe’s keeper.
This is a beautiful country, richly endowed with everything it needs to succeed and thrive.
And our greatest gift are the thousands of Zimbabwe’s children who gave up their lives for her.
If others gave up their lives for this country, why is it so hard not to turn a blind eye to all the evil that attacks it?
Everyone knows what is going on, but no-one reveals anything.
When people have worked for something for so many years and achieved it, be it a car, a business, any form of property, they protect it with all they have; and should anything destroy it or harm it, they go wild with pain and anger.
What about a country for which so many died?
Why do we not go wild with pain and anger when someone hurts her, when there is miscarriage of justice to the masses, when there is desecration of the history of the struggle, when so many use every sanitary lane as a toilet, steal electricity wires or stuff the drains with trash, the list is endless?
When this goes on year-in-year-out, it shows we do not love our country.
Why does the second pair of eyes look aside, why does it become blind?
Why do we develop opportunistic amnesia and a moment later we are all wise donkeys about each thing that does not work in the country?
Have we taught our children that little ones like them died for this dear country?
Have we talked to them about what this means to them, the meaning of this sacrifice, what it has done for them, what difference it makes in their lives and what it says about their relationship with Zimbabwe?
Do the children know they are the custodians of what their predecessors achieved?
It is a beautiful story that young ones like them gave up their lives for their country.
It is a great romance and children, the young ones, love the beautiful romance, the idealistic; they will not miss the heart of the story, they will not fail to identify with it, to identify their role in this great beautiful story.
Those born in 1980 are now 37, they are raising their families, their children, but we missed the boat so many years ago.
Many are raising their young without engraving this revolutionary consciousness in them, and that is a most severe blow to the nation.
With revolutionary consciousness, so much that goes wrong in our country would not go unchecked.
These would be our eyes and ears, they and their children’s children but they have not been cultured to say, ‘I am Tongogara’, ‘I am Chitepo’, ‘I am J. Z. Moyo’; all they can say is, ‘I am Elizabeth,’ ‘I am Diana’, ‘I am Churchill’.
They have been taught to emulate the heritage of the whiteman, of the British armed robbers and their European and American relatives and friends, the heritage of those who murdered their great-great grandparents in order to rob them of Zimbabwe.
For the first 10 years of independence, the Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) galvanised the nation to ensure our children would not become ‘black skin, white masks’, and the nation resonated with this great project but as we have clarified many times before, that effort was sabotaged and the result is what we have today.
But then so much that is so precious was given up for Zimbabwe, precious lives… what shall redeem that sacrifice, who shall dry our tears?
Their predecessors stood up for Zimbabwe; today’s children can do the same, with proper education.