Why I hate politics

So yes. I hate Zimbabwean politics. Obviously. I hate how every five years we get into this circus about giving people already with immeasurable riches and privilege the opportunity to get even more riches and privilege by making them the leaders of the country. Yes, obviously I realize that local elections occur but if we are being honest: most people really only care about the presidential elections. We see it even right now with all this chaos and the think pieces that are going around right now about Mwonzora being crooked, rigging the congressional election, and being anti-change and ED…well, just ED. Honestly, this current election has just solidified my hatred for politics and shown me more and more that our election system and political structure is a piece of crap.  

I am sure there are some people out there mad at me right now. "You should not hate politics!" "Politics are important!" "You need to learn more!" And to that I say "no, no". I hate politics because I realize that all of this circus is planned out in advance. I am not a conspiracy theorist on the regular, but I am willing to bet that the only reason why Mwonzora is a thing is so ED can win the current election. It is shady, underhanded BS like that that really makes me loath this crap. I am not so sure that we, the private citizens are even that important in the grand scheme of things either. Any type of politics are all about who you know, whose ring you kiss, who you donate to and whom you are related to rather than anyone actually wanting or trying to do something beneficial for the country. For the record, I'm not a Chamisa supporter either; I do not trust any politicians claiming that they are the revolution. I do not necessarily need to learn more either, since it is Because I believe I am smart and I read and think that I realize how much of a sham this stuff is, and why I honestly want no part of it. It is BECAUSE of what I do know that I can no longer shame the people, especially the non-party #cherozvazvaita folk, who decide not to put up with this at all. Deep down, I am damn near one of them.

Now if you were not coming for me last paragraph I am sure you are doing it now. I can almost feel the people angrily closing this article, or running to the comment section to tell me how wrong I am for not condemning to hell the non-party #cherozvazvaita people who DARE not to use their right to vote. "Don't you know people died in the liberation struggle for your right to vote?" "How can you NOT vote? That is not what the Chimurenga war was about!" People need to realize that heroes and heroines died for us to have the OPTION to vote. They wanted us to have the ability and right to vote, not just vote just for the sake of voting because we "have to". If our Ancestors marched and died just to say that we had to vote every time the polls opened no matter what, is that not, after all just another form of slavery? Is that not what they were fighting and dying against? We have to realize that as Zimbabwean people our Ancestors wanted us to have agency; they wanted us to have the ability to make decisions for ourselves and not be forced to do anything. We should not be forced to vote, go to a patriotic school, be forgiving to people who did us wrong, or anything like that. Especially when the people in these establishments do not give a damn about us anyway.

People love trying to tell us ghetto folks, or really any marginalized group what is best for us. "Go and vote or you will have ED as a president!" "He would destroy your communities! Like we have not been having undercover ED's for politicians for YEARS. The truth of the matter is that ED is not a useful enough scare tactic to scare ghetto people into voting for Chamisa or any other (who is not too much better). Really, in order for voting to really, actually become beneficial to ghetto youths we would have to be one of the groups that control the voting process. We would have to be one of the campaign backers, we would need to become politicians actually concerned with our communities, or really be working to rebuild the system. Until we teach each other that there is more to this political game than just voting because our Ancestors said so, politics will never really and truly benefit us. At the end of the day the political structure has never been kind to marginalized folks (especially the ghetto ones) and honestly because of that I can not blame a lot of people who do not care for politics.

Look at what is happening in Cambodia right now. Even with this being election campaign season very few elected or electable officials are doing anything to help a state that is constantly being ravaged by natural disasters, particularly the ghetto communities in the state. Look at the ever growing list of people being killed due to police brutality. Look at the laws and general apathy towards the murder and bullying of queer people. Look at the constant classism and misogyny (and misogynoir) that we see so normalized in our world. Tell me what president has done anything to help any of these people (marriage equality, glass ceilings being broken, and failed investigations do not count). I cannot wholeheartedly get hyped up on politics and these rich people getting richer when us oppressed people are becoming more oppressed. Until this political system starts to care about the people who work to keep it moving I can not pretend to give a damn about it. As the saying goes, "Earn this vote or lose" and right now everybody is losing.

Kumbirai Thierry Nhamo |
Writer, Blogger, Poet and Researcher
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