COUNTRIES in the West are eager and ready to do business with us once again.
They are re-engaging us, to mend relations that had broken down due to their bullish behaviour and our refusal to be treated like brutes only good for physical labour.
Their arrogance and our assertive stance on matters of principle led to the collapse of relations with them.
We still stand by our principle.
But words of one senior Government official keep ringing in my ears.
The sanctions might be the best thing to have happened to us, they were a blessing in disguise said the official or something to that effect.
We might still be facing challenges and difficulties to turn around the economy that was for many years hinged to the West and suffered when our relations became strained but I agree that the embargoes were a blessing in disguise.
I for one am a proud African and truthfully I was not impressed by how our people, prior sanctions, had developed a devastating dependence syndrome.
Fertile pieces of land lay idle despite good rains and availability of inputs.
It was, for lack of a better word nauseating, to see able bodied and healthy people queueing for food handouts from Western supported organisations.
As we re-engage we do not want these types of relations anymore.
We do not want assistance that cripples our citizens.
Assistance that turns able bodied men and women into vegetables.
We seek mutually beneficial relations that will promote sustainable development of our people.
During the most difficult years our people dug deeper into their inner resources and through ingenuity and innovativeness found ways to earn a living.
Many discovered hitherto unknown skills and abilities.
These abilities must not be blunted but enhanced by meaningful mutually beneficial relations.
Our people are engaged in various businesses, a majority of our population is made up of entrepreneurs.
And if the West can assist with linking them to international markets where they can get best returns for their products then we shall be happy to work with them.
We seek no alms or mercy for we are a capable people.
The West is obsessed with ‘giving’, ‘assisting’ and ‘developing’ the rest of the world, especially the so-called Third World.
They describe all this as philanthropy but in the past this philanthropy did not transform lives for better.
Our people were on a daily basis given fish, but never the rod to do own fishing.
Thus we implore those ready to engage us to be sincere in their efforts to help transform lives.
We are aware that these countries have ghettos in their own backyards and we will not buy that they are helping our poor for the sake of helping.
Days of cheating, of insincerity, of double standards and sinister motives are long gone.
Chicanery will not be entertained.
Chabva kumwe ngwarira chinoda kubatwa nemushonga and itsiye nyoro dzeyi tsvimborume kubvisa mwana wemvana madzihwa?
These words of wisdom by our forefathers and mothers must always be in our mind as we re-engage with our fair-skinned brothers and sisters from the West.
As we re-engage, may words such as good governance (whatever that means), regime change, ‘human rights’ may be dictated and defined for us.
We have a responsibility to future generations let us strike deals that take posterity into account.
What we do today will impact them as well.