AS a people, as Zimbabweans, we should, time and again, pause and reflect on some of our own weaknesses which are often taken advantage of by our enemies.
For instance, the belief which most of us have that everything Western is better than anything African or indigenous to our continent betrays a deep seated lack of self-belief and confidence in who we are as a people.
This blind belief affects everything we do and the decisions we make in relation to social, cultural, economic and political aspects of our lives.
It is important, as we head towards our polls, to reflect on what is important to us as a people.
Lack of self-belief has the unintended effect of blinding us in terms of defining who our real friends are and who our serious enemies are.
We should not deny ourselves information and knowledge about the world in general but we should know the world and everything useful in it, albeit from an African point of view.
Put another way, we should know the world and whatever is worth learning from it, but do so in order to strengthen the position of Zimbabwe and to promote its interests.
But for us to know and define Zimbabwe’s interests properly, we need to know ourselves well, first and foremost, in regard to where we are coming from historically and where we are going as a nation.
We should be super conscious of the epic journey which Zimbabwe is travelling in its quest for emancipation from the legacy of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism.
We must bequeath our children and grandchildren the values, beliefs and practices steeped in our heroic and successful struggles against foreign domination.
If we are to protect the freedom and independence which we fought for, with tenacious ferocity and persistence, we must invest heavily in our youth and in a big way.
The key challenge is how to protect the achievements of our liberation movements across Africa and how to reproduce those aspirations and ideals which motivated them and pass them on from one generation to the next.
This is the legacy which our current institutions must put across in a manner which is relevant, timely and compelling.
Right now, one of the biggest threats to our survival as a free continent is collective amnesia which haunts practically every nation in Africa.
It is a telling example for the rest of us that some Libyans embraced Western countries as allies and forgot that those very countries had always envied and looted African resources from the time of African slavery right up to colonisation and the neo-colonial era.
Today, both Britain and France are doing what they have always excelled in when it comes to Africa: looting Lybian oil on a ‘non-stop-24/7’ basis, without opposition from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi whom NATO ‘took care of’.
Western Europe is a small continent with a big population and will always be keen to help itself to African resources as it has always done in history.
In contrast, Africa is a big continent whose size is matched by its vast wealth lying below and above its rich soils. Unless we defend these vast African resources for our use and that of our children, others from outside the continent will not hesitate to come and loot them.
