MEDIA reports and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) incantations purport Zimbabwean men have gone rabid and are preying on the defenceless girl-child.
It is said girl-children can ensconce with males without something deep in them revolting; that they can be lured by sweets to the abusers’ lairs.
These sentiments about the Zimbabwean male are a smokescreen for something much bigger happening on the ground, so calculated to ensure that our society should rot while everybody is busy throwing mud at Zimbabwean men, the scapegoat of choice.
When a little girl is improperly exposed to the male body, something deep inside her is violated.
Children in general get hurt when they are exposed to sexual impropriety in whatever form, visual, auditory or sensual.
Their innocence is disturbed and they do not feel normal.
Thus children are born with sufficient armour to combat and protect themselves from sexual violation, but the so-called modern society, a euphemism for Westernised people, systematically attacks and pulls down this armour, and then screams loud for all to hear: “Ah! Vana vedu vapera!”
It is hypocritical.
Why do people sit with children in front of the television and watch dances which belong to the brothel?
Are they trying to initiate children into sexual promiscuity?
If so, why complain so loudly that there is ever growing teen pregnancy?
Why do people at parties and weddings dance with children to songs which insult the very wedding which they are celebrating, songs whose obscene language is totally unacceptable to the ethos of marriage?
Are there no decent songs?
These things are not innocent.
They corrode and children are vulnerable.
These are vicious attacks on their innocence and it is not correct.
It is not correct to accost any child to see or hear what is not sexually correct, it is not the Lord’s will.
Once, I was absent-mindedly watching a soapie with my little niece.
She was three-or-four years at that time.
There was a kissing scene and she intently looked into my face, but I didn’t pick up what she meant.
She then solemnly said: “Hazvitenderwika izvi maiguru?”
I asked: “Zvii?”
She answered: “Zvekunanzvira (kissing).
I was dumbfounded.
I had not thought about it.
She was telling me it was not correct for us to be watching that, but that was years ago.
Television, however, has since deteriorated.
It has hit rock bottom as nothing is left to the imagination anymore.
Children are its captive victims and have nowhere to hide.
If it was television alone, we would say those children without it are somewhat safe, but it has gone far beyond television.
It would seem there is a concerted effort across the board to derail our cultural heritage until we are all food for the vultures.
Radio talk shows do not spare us either.
You listen with shock as a male presenter talks of women as ‘chiheater’, an asset in the impending winter season and a female one boasts how hot she looks in bum shorts and invites her fans to come and see for themselves at a scheduled live show.
Is this who we are?
Have we sold our souls to the devil?
What meaning do we want the little girls and boys to get from this?
Every aspect of society is under siege such that our children can no longer mature naturally into wholesome beings.
They are catapulted into a world of sexual license they do not want and they shed tears deep inside them but society is relentless, merciless until they do not make it anymore.
Studies in psychology have established that exposing children to sexually-laden material in whatever form forces early onset of puberty.
Children get so disturbed by this indecent exposure.
It creates hormonal imbalances such that nothing progresses naturally in them.
Children are forced to deal with emotions and feelings they are not ready for.
This evil exposure also lowers their natural defences and moral threshold, making them vulnerable.
Little girls are dressed in a manner that lowers their moral threshold and ensures their bodies are used to indecent exposure.
Women dress in a manner that is an affront to the little boys such that they have nowhere to look; they are not at peace looking at a woman’s body that is bared for all to see.
Why are we so enamoured of the ways of the whiteman, where there is so much touching between fathers and daughters, sisters and brothers, males and females in general, male-to-male as well.
Little girls are comfortable sitting in the laps of grown men long after it is totally impermissible among our people.
There are reasons we do not do that and it protects us and our children.
Our cultural heritage has defence mechanisms to protect us.
Our values are very strict about a woman’s decorum.
No woman sits with legs apart, even little girls who may be innocently trying to warm themselves by the fire, it is not tolerated.
She has to be modest, not loud and out of control.
A woman is expected to carry herself with respect, not to throw her body all over the place when she is walking.
A woman is not expected to stand before elders, but to kneel and show deference.
Girls and women are not expected to be overly familiar with men.
They are to maintain a certain distance, to remain sacred, mysterious and pure until they are consecrated to only one male for life.
A woman has to be at peace.
People have their ways which protect their values, hence the finishing schools for Europeans.
The Japanese, the Chinese and Indians have their ways which protect who they are.
We have abandoned who we are and the symptoms are there right before our own eyes.
Teenage pregnancies for instance, unstable marriages, broken marriages and domestic violence, to name a few.
Instead of dealing with the causes, the origins of these problems, we bury our heads in the sand and claim the Zimbabwean male has gone rabid while appealing to law enforcers to solve the problems.
These are not law enforcement problems, we have to restore our cultural legacy and dignity.