By Shephard Majengeta
IT has been argued and proven that culture, and nothing else, is the soul of a nation.
And time and events have shown that those who lose their culture are as good as the dead.
People and civilisations that have disappeared or been swallowed by others are those that have lost their history and ways.
Ancient records show us people who, at one time, were the beacons guiding humanity but today are at the periphery of development.
And the question we all should be asking is: What happened to them?
The correct answer, always, is that they lost their history or now disregard it, paying it little attention.
And so they have ‘died’.
A people with no history or not interested in it are no different from animals.
They become a people living to eat rather than eating to live.
And in most instances, if not all the time, instead of crafting and following their own agenda, they choose to follow whoever provides them with food, just like animals do.
Sadly, if they are set free, they cannot exist on their own and will come back to their master, just like dogs do.
They refuse, adamantly, to be free and do not want to hunt for themselves.
But they are more than happy to hunt for the master for the prize of bones, with the master taking the meat.
This is so because dogs have no culture and cannot think or decide for themselves.
And should we, as a people, as Zimbabweans, behave like dogs?
The master thinks for them and decides the destiny of his dogs.
Our destiny is in our hands.
We cannot contract another to do for us what we should do for ourselves.
The business of the master’s dogs is to bark and scare away other dogs.
And without a culture, without our own way of operating that is distinctly African and Zimbabwean, we are no different from the master’s dog.
It cannot be our business to think but to bark and protect the ‘masters’ interests.
The ‘Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ Ilizwe liyakhwa ngabanikazi’ philosophy humanises us as a people; it makes us think and decide our own destiny.
The mathematics is very simple; people who impose their cultures on others become masters over those who adopt their cultures and those who adopt alien cultures become slaves to strangers.
And the answer is that they cannot think or decide for themselves, letting strangers think for them and tell them what to do.
Behavioural scientists have proved that when you control a person’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions or tell him/her not to stand here or go yonder, he/she will find his/her proper place and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door.
According to one Dr Woodson: “He will cut one for his special benefit. The culture he has adopted propels him to do so without coercion.”
If we imbibe white values and white attitudes, we are not good for Zimbabwe and are a disservice to Africa.
If we partake white values, hook, line and sinker, we are mere black shells without Zimbabwean or African content.
As a nation, as a people, we have a voice that the world must hear; we should not be reduced to the level of a mere spokesman and protector of white interests on African soil.
As Malcolm X once said, once the whiteman has stripped us of all human characteristics which include our language, our history and cultural knowledge, he brings us down to the level of mere animals and begins to treat us like his dogs.
Even the Bible itself is against adopting other people’s cultures: “Thou shall not have other gods besides me.”
Is it not strange or curious that while the whiteman invites us to abandon our cultures while never abandons his own culture, gods or ancestors.
He names his roads, schools, buildings and Africans he has colonised after the names of his European ancestors.
He numbers his streets and buildings 12a and 12b and omits the 13 according to the superstitions of his ancestors.
We see Westerners honouring their ancestors and cultures while Africans denounce theirs, adopting those of whites with ignorant pride.
Is it not frightening that were it not for their surnames, Africans would go down in history as if they were white.
So-called cultural liberalism in Africa is a ticking bomb for African destruction and we Zimbabweans should be guided by our ways and agendas.
Vision 2030 of an upper-middle income economy will be achieved for us by us, through our own effort.
