By Farayi Mungoshi

IN recent weeks we’ve been discussing film, television, radio and social platforms through which information is being passed to the masses to inform and educate.
The internet and social platforms such as facebook and whatsapp are easily accessible and do not cost much for people to air their views and as such, have become the major drivers towards mindset building.
Somebody once said a picture can tell a thousand words and that later became one of the many reasons why I chose to venture into film and television – to tell a story, to inform people and educate them, to entertain and make them laugh, but I never for once thought that in order for me to do that and also make a living at the same time, I would have to alter my story accordingly to fit the agenda of the donor funding my project or else I would never ever see the end of one film or drama.
I find I have to please a donor who has to please a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in order to access money that can either build a people and nation or destroy it.
Living in a country where funding for films or any project for that matter is almost non-existent, people have become experts at telling a story that suits the donor, rather than their own beliefs because of the conditions that come with the fund.
One will not receive money if his/her project does not conform to the funding organisation’s call.
It reminds me of the time when David Cameron said that those receiving UK aid should ‘adhere to proper human rights’.
When you reflect on the fact that 41 of the 54 Commonwealth countries at that time had laws banning homosexuality, you realise then, that Britain was trying to use money to arm-twist people’s cultural beliefs into adhering to Western culture.
‘Ane mari ndiye mukuru’ so they say.
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
‘Ane mari ndiye mukuru’ is a saying most people use in Zimbabwe to say, ‘he who has money is senior, even if he is 24 years old, he has the power and authority to command and send around men twice his age, it doesn’t matter they are elders from his village’.
In one agricultural economist, John Farrington’s description of NGO characteristics, he says some are set up by left-leaning professionals or academics in opposition to the politics of government or its support for or indifference to the prevailing patterns of corruption, patronage or authoritarianism.
Some are based on religious principles, others on broadly humanitarian ethos.
He further writes that some NGOs reject existing social and political structures and see themselves as engines for radical change.
It is this last description of an NGO given that should draw great concern for any nation trying to build itself.
NGOs are agenda-setting.
Not only do social and political structures differ from country to country, but so do beliefs and culture.
Eventually, you will get a nation full of people who have lost their way simply because the only way they could get funding for their projects was by telling a story which the NGO views according to them and their country of origin as socially, politically or culturally correct.
Their main aim would be to destabilise the country because they have differences with the governing body of a nation and want to replace it.
Because of the conditions in Zimbabwe and the scarcity of income and jobs, most people are ready to sup with the devil that brought this calamity upon the nation just so they can put food on the table.
Many have betrayed their country, called their leaders names and lied about their statuses so they could get asylum in foreign countries such as the UK and US. There are also ‘straight’ Zimbabwean men and women who have claimed they are gay and through the help of certain ‘organisations’ got visas to Western countries on the basis their lives as gay people in Zimbabwe were in danger.
The truth is they are not even gay, but because of sanctions imposed upon the nation they are finding life hard, hence the need to escape.
Such people devise plans they know the West will buy, even at the expense of the country’s pride, sovereignty and their own pride.
However, I would also like to believe that not all NGOs have hidden agendas in Africa.
There are those that work hand-in-glove with governments providing educational materials to the less-privileged, bringing aid and care to impoverished areas.
There are also countless numbers of women rights organisations making sure that women are informed of their rights and so on, but that is a topic for another day.
It is vital to have a discerning eye, and for us as a people to understand before engaging NGOs the role it is playing in our lives lest we find we’ve made our own beds in hell.
I recall a time when Jesesi Mungoshi refused to act in a stage play for the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) because she felt the story’s plot attacked our culture, beliefs and heritage as a people.
It was the manner in which she was asked which seemed harmless and you could tell that for a person to act in such a play meant either the actor was very desperate for money or that actor had no insight of the goings on.
No matter how hard things become, we should be able to say ‘no’ as filmmakers, visual artistes etc to certain things imposed upon us to sell our country.
These are tools and mechanisms being used against us just like Pik Botha said in his speech in 1985 that blacks are the symbol of poverty, that they are created to be ruled by whites, that the black is the raw material for the whiteman.
In that speech he also tells his all-white parliament that he would be setting aside funds to get rid of the black devil.
It should therefore come as no surprise that there are still those who share these same sentiments with Botha, whose funds we unknowingly rush to gobble up at the expense of a whole nation.