HomeOld_PostsHow to teach our children to be heirs of Zimbabwe

How to teach our children to be heirs of Zimbabwe

Published on

THE male is special as it is, the female is special as it is, nothing can replace the female, nothing can replace the male, they are not interchangeable.
It is sad and tragic that too often our agendas are set by Western styled NGOs whose main impetus is cultural imperialism aimed at imposing a deficit model on the hearts and minds of our people.
There is such a hullabaloo about girl children in our country that one can be excused to think that these NGO’s are talking about another country on another planet.
We are not perfect but our strength does not lie in the abuse of girl children, the record has to be set straight.
It is their model that is deficient, not ours. In the West, the female is reduced to an object of pleasure for the male, it does not have intrinsic value.
Her ‘value’ lies in her looks, not in her heart, soul or mind. In the Western capitalist ethos the female is there to be exploited.
This ethos is symptomatic of the depravity the capitalist system, in which the dollar is the bottom line. In capitalist culture, the female is a status symbol, like the Merc or whatever car is in fashion.
The female depreciates just as the value of a car or other merchandise depreciates. She is merchandise and he who possesses the one with the ‘correct’ looks has the trophy.
This depravity of the Western capitalist ethos is also evidenced in their sick perception of our beautiful country, Zimbabwe. In a book titled Call it Rhodesia published by Mayflower Dell, London 1966, Ballinger writes:
“It was then Strange had the idea of striking North. He had heard from the prospectors and travelers about the rich beautiful land that lay beyond the Limpopo. The place called Mashonaland.
“‘She is lying there’, he said to Hamish McIver, ‘lying up there like a woman, a beautiful woman with her legs apart — waiting for the first man to come along and take her. She doesn’t care who he is — black or white, just as long as he comes soon.”
To them Zimbabwe was no more than a whore to be used for their purposes. This obscene imagery demonstrates that the capitalists cannot think outside the box of the most depraved immorality.
This paper has previously published stories such as that of Sarah Baartman which reveals the lurid depravity of the West European male, its inability to see beyond the body.
God help us if we are to be guided by such obscenity in raising our girl child.
We have sufficient moral, ethical and aesthetic reserves in the Zimbabwean ethos to raise our girl child without ever hearing a word the West has to say about this delicate, most important task.
This sufficiency was amply demonstrated during the liberation struggle when the Zimbabwe ethos, from the Zambezi to the Limpopo, successfully recruited the Zimbabwean girl child to the liberation struggle.
As girl children we came into our own during the liberation struggle. We worked side by side, with our male counterparts at the front and at the rear though the males dominated at the front, which is quite normal because the male physique is quite different from that of the female and that is determined by nature.
Equality isn’t sameness. ‘From each according to their ability and to each according to their need’ is the maxim that was practiced during the liberation struggle and it was the guarantee of justice in our way of life.
The ethos we developed during the liberation struggle, not only addressed the ills of colonialism, but also whatever in our traditional lifestyle compromised justice and equality in any way and that is something the West cannot teach us; they are perpetrators of slavery and colonialism.
And though we were so far from home, from our parents, guardians, we were very safe in our camps deep in the womb of the Mozambican forests, we were safe, and we came back home whole and normal.
One was safe every night and day in their posto with at least three exits that were permanently open, among thousands of male combatants
It is in the Western capitalist ethos that the male preys on the female, not in ours.
When it does happen among our people it is a form of deviance, it is an aberration, an abomination ‘Mvura hainaye, munopera mose’. It is not the norm, it is not the dominant form of behavior and it is rejected in the strongest of terms.
So when we teach the girl child, we have to tell her that she is correct and equal as she is. We do not have to tell her she is like a man because she is not, and it is not desirable that the world be all male.
Comrade Tongo with a girl child
Whatever she comes endowed with is what we should explore and nourish so that she blooms and we can all benefit.
Yes, there are stereotypes about males and females and these were busted during the liberation struggle and the way this was done during the liberation struggle is the way that should be followed today and the formula is: From each according to their ability.
What this means is that there should be no pre-conceptions about what girl children can do or should do.
In-class teaching and learning activities and those beyond the textbook should explore the nine intelligences of the girl child as much as is done for the boy child, be it bodily kinesthetic, spatial, naturalistic, logico-mathematical, intra-personal, interpersonal, linguistic, existential or musical intelligence.
In raising and educating the girl child therefore, the home as well as the teaching and learning environment, has to allow her to come into her own, to be confident about who she is and not to be railroaded into becoming a she-male, which would be a caricature of the best that nature has bestowed.
It is laudable that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education does not allow school girls to wear synthetic or foreign human hair. These girl children need to know that they are correct as who they are; Africans.
It is important to teach them to cherish their Africanness. We need these special intelligent African girls to raise the Zimbabwe flag high and they can. After all, they descend from Mbuya Nehanda, and not Queen Elizabeth and that’s a world of difference.
They need to grow up imbued with the moral, ethical and aesthetic attitudes, values and feelings that have made us the people we are proud to be, a people who are humane, affectionate, brave, self-sacrificing, fiercely and proudly independent and of high morale rectitude.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest articles

FOZEU’s call for strike…an attempt at provoking anarchy

By Elizabeth Sitotombe IN an attempt to sow anarch across the country by calling for...

Chitepo’s fight for land

This story was first published on 21/03/2016 By Patience Rusare LAND ranked highest among the grievances...

Winning mindset in post-elections

WE, in the village, are known for our resilience, we never give up and...

Import of US illegal sanctions

By Jonathan N. Moyo TWENTY-ONE years ago, on March 6 2003, US President George W....

More like this

FOZEU’s call for strike…an attempt at provoking anarchy

By Elizabeth Sitotombe IN an attempt to sow anarch across the country by calling for...

Chitepo’s fight for land

This story was first published on 21/03/2016 By Patience Rusare LAND ranked highest among the grievances...

Winning mindset in post-elections

WE, in the village, are known for our resilience, we never give up and...

Discover more from Celebrating Being Zimbabwean

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading