IN a previous article I referred to an address by Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao in which he said he had faith in the youth of Zimbabwe because they are cut from the same cloth as the young people who flocked to Mozambique and Zambia to fight the Chimurenga war.
During that meeting, someone congratulated the Minister on the One Million Man March, but went ahead to suggest: “What if the youth grew a million cabbages, a million onions?”
I thought this was a fair challenge.
I believe our youth are capable of this, for the reason that they are cut from the same cloth as the youth who became the founding fathers of Zimbabwe, among them, comrades Leopold Takawira, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Enos Nkala, Simon Muzenda, Victoria Chitepo and President Robert Mugabe.
These valiant sons and daughters of Zimbabwe were imprisoned over and over again, but this did not dampen the fire of their love for Zimbabwe nor their resolve to liberate the country.
What kept them going was their vision of a free Zimbabwe.
They had no money in their pockets, no weapons and no material means to achieve this vision.
What drove them was their conviction that Zimbabwe was theirs and in them, was the capacity to free it.
They did not embark on their quest because someone had assured them of a huge arsenal of weapons.
No-one had assured them of millions of dollars to fund this war.
They insisted because the country was theirs, and the means would have to be found.
They did not know how, they had no ready-made answers, but that did not stop them.
They did not begin by begging for money and material support to execute the war of liberation.
They did not measure the possibility of them liberating the country against the might of the British armed robbers who had everything, while they had nothing.
What convinced them was their dream, not the assurance that the means to execute this was available somewhere.
They felt sufficient in themselves that they could achieve this feat.
Vari mujeri, there was no assurance that they would ever be released; that they would survive the sentences.
The enemy that incarcerated them was ruthless, but their love for Zimbabwe was stronger than the ruthlessness of the enemy.
What came first, what made them triumph was an unshakable faith in their dream.
Later on, friends came to their aid with weapons, training, sometimes with food, clothing and medicines, but what drew the attention of those friends was the willingness and determination of these founding fathers to give up all for a noble cause.
Later on, young people joined them and gradually, they built a guerilla army.
They did not say: ‘First, let us see if it is possible for us to put together an army, after all it might not be possible or how can we be sure it will work perhaps no-one will follow us, perhaps no-one will want to fight for this cause’.
Are our youths really cut from the same cloth as these great freedom fighters?
Why is it that they (youths) are not accepting the mantle from these great leaders and struggle to be economically independent, to truly own Zimbabwe?
Why is it they prefer to sell air time, to wash cars, to beg, to be hawkers?
Surely this is a far cry from those youths who endured repeated incarceration because they had a dream they believed in totally; a far cry from those youths who went on to pursue their dream relentlessly until they achieved it.
Why is it they prefer to be servants of others and not their own masters?
Who or what stole their dream from them?
They line the streets and almost break their legs to be the first to catch customers looking to buy butternuts, peanuts, green mealies and others green goodies.
It is true, we have erred gravely in not schooling them in education with production.
This would awaken their consciousness as the sovereign owners of Zimbabwe, its heirs.
However, that is not the whole story.
There still are tonnes of ideological morass to plough through to get them to an accurate understanding of who they are and what they are worth; that they are Zimbabweans and they can make it in and for Zimbabwe.
That they can achieve anything, they can grow a million cabbages, a million chickens and maybe a billion eggs; to believe as the founding fathers did that this dream is possible, and that it is a far greater dream than being a hawker or an air time vendor for others.
Is vending all the descendants of Munhumutapa can be content with?
They can do better like their predecessors who walked tall with the sub-machine guns slung across their shoulders, confident that nothing could stop them from liberating Zimbabwe.
Surely, the economic war is not more daunting than our bitter 16-year war to liberate our country.
The Zimbabwe we all enjoy did not come easy.
Elders were incarcerated for many years, but never gave up.
Many died in battle and thousands of heroes, like the one we celebrate this month of November, were massacred at Chimoio.
Many endured excruciating hunger, disease, loss of loved ones, while others sustained permanent injuries, loss of limb, sight and hearing.
Even children left for the liberation struggle, but never gave up despite these massacres, hunger and disease.
They endured and persevered until the end and our youth today can still break through economically, but nothing comes on a silver platter.
The solution is not waiting for someone to create an industry for them to work in, for someone to produce so they can be vendors, for someone to give them a loan, for someone to donate; it is time to come into their own.
After all, if they are cut from the same cloth as the founding fathers of Zimbabwe who were undaunted visionaries, nothing can stop them.