WHENEVER I visit the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (ZIMFEP) Secretariat in Belvedere, I always have this exciting feeling, almost as if we were back at Matenje, as if we have come full circle, which I think we have. Cde Ephraim Chitofu, our Cde Mushatagotsi during the struggle or Mushatimbi as we affectionately called him, was the director of the Research Unit of the ZANU Education and Culture Department, headquartered at Matenje Base in Tete Province. This unit authored the curriculum that was taught in the camp schools throughout Mozambique, also the teacher education programme which is the precursor to the Zimbabwe Integrated Teacher Education Course, ZINTEC. At Matenje, he was my senior commander. He was third in command from Cde Dzingai Mutumbuka, Secretary for Education and Culture, who was deputised by Cde Sheba Tavarwirsa. Cde Chitofu is a fount of wisdom always, but sometimes he just surprises you. This is the story he told me which amazed me: In a certain village they could have no peace, they were terrorised by three squads of baboons. They ravaged their crop of maize year after year. This vexed the villagers as they watched their crop yields dwindle year after year. They could never catch these baboons, they were always ahead of them. This happened for a long time and in this period no-one ever got close enough to the baboons to study them so as to come up with a strategy to combat them. When it seemed the village could never solve this problem, some experts came to their village to study this phenomenon. After some observations, they noticed that one of the squads of baboons behaved in some strange ways, they isolated it for further scrutiny. They found out that in this group there was one baboon which behaved in a rather peculiar manner, but they could never get close enough to study it because it was always surrounded by the others, closely guarded. They became even more curious and determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. They set up an ingenious trap and they were able to catch this strange baboon. They were shocked when they examined it. Everything about it was human, every feature, in every physical sense it was human. They tried to talk to it, but it mumbled something strange, almost baboon like. It could not stand upright, it only walked on fours like baboons, it climbed trees with the agility of baboons, it was very strange. They widened their investigations to the surrounding communities to see if there could be any explanations. After sometime, their search for answers was rewarded. Years back, a toddler had been lost and had never been recovered. It was this toddler who had been raised by baboons. Over the years it lost normal human abilities hence it behaved in every way like baboons. I was still lost in the story just wondering when he put it altogether. Our children have been lost and taken over and raised by baboons, he explained. In everything, in every way, they have been raised to be as the former white ‘master’ wants them. They don’t feel so normal, but they are accustomed to it. It is almost impossible to rehabilitate them so that they can be who they once were before they were captured and raised by baboons. He said it is therefore necessary to raise our children as Zimbabweans from scratch, not to teach them according to the former colonisers for 11 years and then give them five months of rehabilitation because this will not work, it is too late. From Grade One, the curriculum has to be such that it raises our children to be proud Zimbabweans who own and control their resources, who can produce their means of livelihood. As long the curriculum remains Euro-centric, serving the interests of the former white master, it will produce baboons which will continue to ravage the village, and we will never be at peace. He reiterated that each school should be given some hectares of land so they can carry out productive activities there. The trucks, buses, the schools have should be used to ferry children to the fields, the equipment the schools have, the tractors, the harrows should be used for productive activities. Starting from Grade One, the children can participate in productive activities and this will give them the correct orientation to life, that they can be masters of their destiny. Once they grow their own potatoes then no-one can ration the amount of fresh potato chips they are given at dinner nor chicken for that matter. It is the life of Queens and Kings that we are depriving our children of, condemning them to be paupers and beggars who think there is something so special to eat at Chicken Inn when they can grow their own potatoes, raise their own chickens and feast on them. “Where are we rushing to?’ he asked. “Why can we not sit down and plan and do precisely what will benefit Zimbabwe, because that is our mandate and responsibility? “What stops us from doing the correct thing, who are we afraid of, who stops us from doing what we want, what will benefit Zimbabwe? “What it then means is that there are some in our structures who are opposed to the Zimbabwe agenda and we are not able to break through.” Dr Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University. She is currently doing consultancy work.