When Zimbabwe's uneducated raise the educated, and the educated are raising the lost

Uneducated parents in the 90s raised engineers, lawyers, doctors, teachers and other professionals. Yet, educated parents nowadays are raising street idiots, disrespectful and trashy children. What went wrong?

The professionals of the 90s were mostly groomed in rural areas.

They walked long journeys to school - 7km, 10km, barefoot. No shoes. Hot sand burning feet in October, frost biting toes in June.

The generation that burnt candles studying. No ZESA. One candle shared among four children. The soot on the nose in the morning was our evidence of hard work.

No internet for research. No Google. Research was teacher, library book with missing pages, and old man in village who knew herbs.

They went to school on empty stomach. One meal of sadza and wild okra. Stomach growling, but mind sharp.

Crossing flooded rivers on the way - Kanyemba, Mwenje, Save - holding books above head, uniform wet up to chest. Tattered uniforms, patched by mother with sack thread. One pair for whole year.

They woke up at 4am to help parents yoke cattle, milk cows, fetch water from well, before going to school. After school, no TV. Help weed in the fields, help pen livestock, chase baboons from maize field, fetch firewood.

This hardship gave them zeal. Lying on reed mat at night, they would whisper to themselves, "I must work extra hard to escape this miserable life." Poverty was their teacher. Hunger was their motivation. That burning desire made a doctor, made an engineer.

Come to their offspring. The professionals now live spaciously in urban towns - Bluff Hill, Borrowdale, Selbourne, Queens Park.

Children bred in opulent mangers. Well fed - chicken every day, pizza, takeaways. Well clothed - new uniform every term. Cycled or driven to school, or to boarding school with tuck of $100.

We say with pride, "We don't want to raise our children the hard way we grew up." And there, we made our biggest mistake.

We spoil them with phones at 8 years, laptops at 10, pocket money $20 a week for a Grade 5 child. What does an 8-year-old do with a smartphone? He is exposed to explicit material, pornography at 10 years, TikTok trash, WhatsApp groups of nonsense. He has extra cash to buy drugs, to buy Bronco, to buy mutoriro in town.

We have given them everything except character. We gave them basics and luxuries, but we forgot basics of life - respect, hard work, fear of elders, hunhu/ubuntu.

In the 90s, parents said, "Don't spare the rod." Today, we say, "Don't beat my child, you will traumatize him." Now child beats us in our own house. He shouts at mother, insults father, fails to greet neighbour, comes home at midnight and we are afraid to ask where he was.

Uneducated mother in 1990s had no book, but she had wisdom: "Mwana asingacheme anofira mumbereko." She would wake you, inspect your nails, check your books, beat you if you disrespected elder. That beating made a lawyer.

Educated mother today has degree, but has no time. Child is raised by maid, by TV, by phone. Mother comes from work tired, gives child phone to keep him quiet. Father is on business trip. Child is raised by internet, not by parents.

My fellow Zimbabweans, let us go back.

Parents, let us give our children basics, not luxuries. Give them food, school fees, clothes, love, discipline - not iPhone 15 at Grade 7.

Don't spare the rod, but discipline with love. Teach them to fetch water even when there is tap. Teach them to weed garden even when there is maid. Teach them to respect elder even when elder is poor. Teach them to wake up early and work.

Lord, we no longer wish a fortune to leave for our children. Gold, stands, cars will be wasted by spoilt child. We wish to leave responsible children for this nation. A respectful child is better than a mansion left to a drug addict.

We must decide: Do we want children who will bury us with dignity, or children we will bury because of drugs?

The village made us strong. Let the town not make our children weak.

I thank you.

_I remain, Ambassador Masarira