Opinion / Columnist
'I am nationalist'
19 Dec 2014 at 09:44hrs | Views
I believe that, though an accident of both colonisation and decolonisation, the land surrounded by the great Limpopo, Zambezi and Ramakgoebana Rivers is an inseparable whole whose peace, unity and prosperity should be defended ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
My great grandparents from both the paternal and maternal sides were born bred and laid to rest on this land. Thus, the blood that runs in my veins is Zimbabwean. I pride myself in sharing an ancestry with the monarchs who organised our society in precolonial times. I pride myself in being a descendent of warrior men and women who, despite the absence of formal education and global viewpoints, understood that colonialism was a bad thing and did all in their might to resist it the first day it showed its face on our land. Most importantly I derive great pride from being a first generation offspring of the veterans who mobilised the masses and the international community to help bring racial minority rule to an end in my country.
With time I have had an opportunity to study general concepts about a NATION and its components. From the various concepts I studied, I have accepted and decided to teach those within my sphere of influence that the smallest unit of a nation is a community. This concept helps me understand and appreciate that while I have rights as an individual I should always know that there is a time my rights should be streamlined with those of the community I live in. However never at anytime should a community suspend its needs and wishes to accommodate those of its neighbours no matter how many neighbours disagree.
At a broader level, I have fought to install a government that understands that all communities are equal regardless of the individuals that make the community. My safety in the political organisation that fights for proportional representation, devolution of power amongst other things is always informed by my belief that all communities must be treated in accordance with what due to them regardless of the number of people who form them. It is the role of government to create a context that accommodates competing needs of the individual needs of the nation's component communities. A government that participates in the promotion of a community or a group of communities' needs at the expense of another deserves to be fought ruthlessly and defeated.
In my community of birth there is a belief supported by evidence that the black government that came into office at the demise of minority rule is an active participant in efforts to ensure that we as a community suspend our needs and wishes to accommodate our neighbours. We aren't sure yet whether this is because of the fact our neighbouring communities have more individual citizens than us. For example, the oldest language in my community Kalanga is at verge of extinction, now the last one standing, Ndebele is under attack by both government and corporates.
The able-bodied people of my community work mainly in South Africa and Botswana because the few porous safety nets in the country have never been able to accommodate them. The Zimbabwean Passport is therefore a sacrosanct document in my community because while we can travel to South African and Botswana despite the passport we have recently discovered the comfort associated with travelling through formal channels. As if to raise the middle finger unto our job-seeking faces the government in its collective insanity has used the Zimbabwean Passport as a tool of saying to us that our language is not as important as the others used on the same document. There is no better way to insult and destroy a people than to abuse the language in which they DREAM. This government is bent on destroying me and the people of my community.
In response to this the people of my community have debated and continue debating amongst themselves. Some suggest the need for a National Governance System that will allow each and every community to recruit its bureaucracy and gain full control of matters relating to its independent (not sovereign) development. It is argued and believed that such a system will eliminate pedestrian but unity threatening matters like abuse of other communities' languages and general deprivation of requisite amenities. These have gone a step further and sought working relations with fellow Zimbabweans facing similar problems. Together they produced Chapters 6 and 14 of the new Constitution.
Others have gone a step further and suggested the separation of Zimbabwe into two states. They believe and have often produced evidence that there is a section of communities in Zimbabwe that have been engineered to assume superiority over others. They believe that this superiority complex has become so pronounced that it is now impossible to coexist.
One thing for sure, so long the government does not change its attitude and system of operation my people will continue to discuss solutions to the challenge. They are not for a second prepared to suspend their cultural and economic interests to please their neighbouring communities no matter how many people stay in those communities.
As a Nationalist, I believe that the attitude of government is the biggest fuel for secession and I will do all I can in my small corner to mobilise for its removal
Source - Discent Collins Bajila
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
