WOMEN in Zimbabwe are our pride and they are priceless.
In the month of March, women are celebrated the world over.
However, let me categorically state that while we join the rest of the world in celebrating women this month, as Africans, as a people, we celebrate our women everyday.
Contrary to Western belief that Africans oppress their women, women feature prominently in our lives, playing and assuming significant and important roles in our day-to-day activities.
We dislodged colonialism with the help of our women.
They were not passive in the fight to drive-out the white menace.
Our great spiritual icon Mbuya Nehanda, whom we continue to honour to date, directed the First Chimurenga and continues to inspire the nation.
No doubt women also actively participated in the Second Chimurenga.
They were clear about what they sought to achieve; relentless in the pursuit of freedom.
It is known achievers always set clear objectives and our women have made sacrifices in order for Zimbabwe to be what it is today.
In driving our nation forward, our women do not go into it half-heartedly as an afterthought, but with mind and spirit together.
They are daring leaders who boldly leap across the divide.
In international institutions, Zimbabwean women have become vital cogs.
Their skills have become invaluable and daily, they are impacting lives.
Indeed we celebrate women everyday.
It has always been our tradition and culture to do so and by extolling dreams, desires and wishes of our women, we perpetuate and promote sustainable development.
It is commendable that, as a nation, we have not left our women behind in our development agenda as we ideologically and intellectually engage the enemy we beat on the battlefield.
In publishing houses, research institutes and at cultural centres, our women are contributing in the fight to defend what is ours.
Our women have contributed, and continue to contribute, their share of sweat in determining the history, future and identity of our nation.
No other nations can dictate this to us because that is the bedrock of our nationhood.
Our women are not inferior.
Rhodesians collectively punished the population which supported the liberation struggle and women bore the brunt of their brutality.
The Second Chimurenga was unstoppable because we all played a part — men and women, boy and girl alike — to dislodge colonialism.
Let us continue valuing and respecting our women, while supporting them in their endevours that ultimately benefit society.
Since time immemorial, we have agreed that empowering a woman is empowering the nation.
The agenda to celebrate our Zimbabweanness, our heritage, cultures and values instilling pride in us as a nation must never ever leave out our womenfolk.
Let us write books about them, their exploits, their successful business ventures as well as their success in sport.
Let us compose songs and poems about them because everyday we celebrate our women because they are priceless.