FIRST LADY AMAI AUXILLIA MNANGAGWA has done many great things for the family of Zimbabwe, but this week I am focusing on what she has done to teach Zimbabweans a fundamental: What it means to be muDzimbahwe.
In these days when so many think it is the height of civilisation to be Western, Amai Mnangagwa has embraced her true identity.
She has stood resolutely for the cause of hunhu/ubuntu.
A mother is the custodian of cultural values in any society, community or nation.
She is the repository of all that is precious in a people and that is why she is mudzimai, mudzi werudzi.
She anchors the nation, the people.
Each child looks up to the mother and when the mother not only nourishes the child physically but nurtures each into a dignified meaningful person, then the family and the nation survive.
Amai Mnangagwa has ensured that the sick are taken care of, the hungry are fed, the jailed are clothed, fed and corrected.
With the correct teachings, she has achieved an even greater milestone; with the correct teachings, some sicknesses can be avoided or cured, hunger can be averted and incarceration avoided.
Therefore, when Mai not only sutures the wounds but decides to go on the warpath against ignorance and miseducation, she is sending the monster packing.
It is miseducation, dangerous ignorance, to discard the ways of our people in favour of Westernisation claiming ‘then you are free’.
If it means freedom to sink and drown yourself, we don’t ensconce because the waywardness of the West does not free anyone — it ensnares and the snares are deadly.
In collaboration with chiefs, community leaders and women elders, Amai Mnangagwa has rejuvenated the teachings of our people so that the young mature into dignfied men and women.
The Mugota/Munhanga/Ixiba lessons warn against the hazards of loose living.
At the launch of the Munhanga/Mugota/Ixiba Programme at Chief Nhema’s homestead in Zaka, Masvingo, in February 2021, Amai Mnangagwa underscored:
“We have come to teach you and remind you as young girls and grandchildren that you are important.
We want to lay a foundation for you to protect your bodies.
We also want to know whether you are performing domestic chores and the way you relate to elders and whether or not you are keeping yourselves pure.
We still want to know you still treasure education.”
At this first session, Chief Ndanga, also advocating a return to the ways of our people, highlighted that: “In the olden days, boys and girls used to swim together (in the nude) without challenges since they grew up with good morals.”
Sekuru Adonia Mberikwazvo also explained: “As boys we were warned against rushing after girls.
These days, they meet in the kombis and the next thing you hear they are living together.”
Slovenliness, rudeness and generally being cantankerous, is the new garb for those who think it is too pedantic to be a normal African child.
Their trousers are falling half the time; they don’t bath, their language is foul, rudeness is their signature and the clothing reveals everything.
They call it aggressive marketing to the highest bidder; bronco is their ‘soul food’, they deal fast, are allergic to hard work and can be bought for a penny.
It is crystal clear to everyone that this is not material that can build a family, let alone a nation.
They too know this, that they are not material that can be useful for anything, but they believe in anti-establishment, the immediate gratification of material lusts, for tomorrow…they don’t care.
Tomorrow they are found dead at the bus termini, or they collapse and are rushed to the clinic where they expire.
The West entices you to be ‘free’ to perish, and they walk over the fresh mounds of earth, your fresh graves, prospecting for gold in your land, the gold you have left, have lost because you chose to be ‘free’ to perish.
This is why Amai Mnangagwa teaches relentlessly.
Concluding her Zaka session, Amai Mnangagwa was unrelenting: “I have come here as a mother so that we start reverting to the teachings of yesteryear which we received as we grew up so that our children grow up in the track.
This is not my responsibility alone.
As the community you are already in this programme of teaching and moulding them.”
It is instructive that Amai Mnangagwa, unlike NGOs, does not advocate contraceptives.
Hers is the choice of a true mother; to raise her children correctly, not to treat them as no more than biological entities.
After taking the Munhanga/Mugota/Ixiba Programme to the 10 provinces of Zimbabwe, her findings were that parents are key to remedying the problems bedevilling youths in our land.
This led her to launch a follow-up programme, Nharirire yeMusha.
At the launch of this programme in Manicaland, in August this year, Amai Mnangagwa was testy and with good reason too.
Parents are the custodians and guardians of the children hence when things go too far, someone is no longer at peace.
Said Amai Mnangagwa: “My aim is to discuss certain issues with mothers and fathers because watching over a home concerns both men and women.
What are you doing as a person watching over the family?
Do you know what you are supposed to do?
As a married woman do you know your rules?
As a man you took your wife from her family, do you know your role as a father/husband?
Are you teaching your children proper dignified ways?
If you are playing your roles, why is the child doing bad things, like stealing, killing, prostitution and drug abuse.
Whose daughter is this who is bringing children of various totems at home?
Whose son is this who is sleeping around and spoiling girls of school-going age?
We want to look at parents today; are you playing your role.
“We want the home to remain solid.”
Thus Nharirire yeMusha focuses on the parents; teaches them and challenges them to ring-fence the home, defend it and ensure that it is a dignified home.
“We want dignified people in our country,” underlined Amai Mnangagwa.
Amai Mnangagwa has the nation close to her heart. She is battling the monster that seeks to devour her children.
We are deeply grateful and we honour her for this.