By Davet Muzvidziwa

A ZIMBABWEAN is a person who holds a Zimbabwean identity card. This identity card would have been acquired by one of the following ways. The first is that the person was born in Zimbabwe and calls Zimbabwe, ‘Home’. This is citizenship acquired by birth. The second group is of people who claim Zimbabwean citizenship for any other reason, other than birth.
Whatever the basis of citizenship, once Zimbabwean, a person becomes us. What value do we place on being Zimbabwean is the question we should be asking ourselves?
A year or so ago, I travelled to Iran. From Qatar’s Doha airport, passengers in the plane cannot tell who is who. Upon reaching the Airport in Teheran, you begin to see blood turning thicker than water. Iranians will have their own entrance routes through which clearing procedures are swift. If you are Iranian you begin to feel how important you are to your country. Your self esteem is raised a thousand fold. Non Iranians will not be allowed through citizen gates even if there is no one being served there. I was filled with envy and wished Zimbabweans were valued the same at home.
Some months ago, I travelled through the Plumtree Border Post on my way to Botswana. From the Zimbabwean side we were all bundled together in queues without special recognition of who is who. Aingova madira ativhange. However, as soon as we got to the Botswana immigration side, blood began to turn thicker while water was turning thinner. There is a counter serving citizens only. An officer will be always sitting waiting for citizens to arrive. If no Tswana passes by that day, this officer will spend the whole day painting nails. As soon as a single Tswana appears, you begin to feel how good it is to be a Tswana. All systems are put in place to expedite his safe passage. No delays are permitted on a Tswana. Unconfirmed reports say that in DRC if a foreigner’s car is involved in an accident with a local one, the foreigner is always considered wrong. It is alleged that they say if your car had not travelled to their country, that accident would not have happened to one of them in the first place. That is how far some nations go in valuing their own.
When Zimbabweans receive services in their motherland, there is no special treatment that raises the Zimbabwean esteem. In Zimbabwe, a Zimbabwean is just another person. In Shona we say, “Mwana washe muranda kumwe”. But when I am home I am King. Where is the royal treatment in my Kingdom? Why is a Zimbabwean treated like a stranger or with strangers in his/her kingdom? Where is the royalty in our Zimbabwe? The mindset created by colonialism continues to haunt us to this day. We among ourselves look down upon ourselves. This is regrettable as some Zimbabweans continue to think that we are less important than other nationalities. This explains why we export our high valued goods and retain inferior goods for our citizenry.
We export high quality flowers, vegetables, beef, diamonds and retain poor quality goods for ourselves. The good quality tourist destinations and hotels are priced for foreigners as they are out of reach for their own local tourists. Thus a person in America will know Mosi-oa-tunya Falls (Victoria Falls) better than a person who grew up in Hwange only 100km away.
By the same token, we import rejects from China and other countries for our precious people. When are we going to rubbish this colonial mentality? When are we going to be proud of who we are? Who will value us if we do not value ourselves?
The Great Zimbabwe Monuments according to Michael Tellinger are older than the pyramids and are believed to be over 260 000 years old not the less than 2 000 years you are told by jealousy politicised historians and archaeologists. Great Zimbabwe Monuments according to the Sumerian Tablets are believed to be the ABZU a land in South Eastern Africa and believed to have housed ENKI, the architecture God of modern civilisation through his son Thau Thau Haramas (Hermes Trismegistus). Njelele was his spring for fresh water and remains a very important place that Cecil John Rhodes had to travel thousands of kilometres in death all the way from Cape Town to be buried.
Zimbabweans should now put a value tag for being Zimbabwean. Being Zimbabwean is royalty. When every Zimbabwean sees one Zimbabwean, it must ring in his or her mind that she /he has seen royal blood. At points of entry into Zimbabwe we need routes for Zimbabweans where VIP treatment is provided.
I am not saying others should be treated poorly no, all I am saying is that visitors should be given very high quality treatment but Zimbabweans should be given royal treatment in Zimbabwe because they cannot get royal treatment anywhere else in the world except at home.
Zimbabwe cannot give foreigners royal treatment because Zimbabweans cannot get royal treatment abroad. The foundation to this assertion is that;
Zimbabwean blood is royal blood in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean blood cannot be allowed to spill for any reason anywhere. There is no reason more important than the Zimbabwean for anything we do as a people
Zimbabweanness is more precious than any precious jewel on earth
Colonial self-pitying is the worst state of mind that Zimbabweans must seek to exorcise.
If we do not value ourselves, do you think anyone else will?
It begins with us to respect ourselves.
As Zimbabweans in our diversity, let us have insatiable love for one another. Let nothing be more important than each one of us. Lets drill this as a culture into the soul and spirit of our children. Let us psyche our children to love one another. Zimbo-for-sho. Zimbabweanness is our space. We should value our Zimbabweanness beyond material measure. It is the greatest privilege to be Zimbabwean and we should make ourselves unimaginably important here in Zimbabwe as it is the only home we have.
We can be subjects in other territories, but we must be royalty in our motherland. Mwana wamambo ndimambo munyika yokwake.