Zimbabweans, we need a struggle

Zimbabwean politics is suddenly becoming very unattractive and uninspiring. With time it has been stripped of all ideological and policy content and left as nothing beyond basic arithmetic. The questions that remain topical and the expected answers used to determine political correctness have become too simple to waste time on. All those who do not like President Robert Mugabe are supposedly agents of imperialism, all those who do not like Morgan Tsvangirai are supposedly under President Mugabe's payroll, and all those who like Welshman Ncube are supposedly tribalists. Such are the simple linear equations defining our politics.

Any reference to ideological or policy issue is commonly rubbished as bookish politics and academic boastfulness. So to stay off the spotlight, everyone takes to our nation's default mode of linear political equations.

Probably the worst of our society is my generation. The young people of Zimbabwe have found comfort in reducing their political activism to either being guinea-pigs of political opinion or gatekeepers of political heavens on earth.

In our guinea-pig mode we wait for someone to say something then we use all the energy we have to expand and explain stuff that has already been mentioned. The more we get applause and media quotes while reciting what we had some leader say, the more revolutionary we are regarded and that gives us tickets to greatness. As a generation we have brought nothing new to all the struggles we have participated in, be it the devolution struggle, the struggle against sanctions or even the simple struggle for the removal of Mugabe from power. The few amongst us who have brought anything new have either been snubbed or suffered gross admonition from both fellow young people and the old ephebiphobic politicians who listening to our generational capacity for commenting.

As gatekeepers of political heavens our generation has been exceptional. At the height of every conflict we often become conservative and do all we can to defend the status quo. Perhaps we learnt this from our brothers and sisters who "died for this country". Towards the turn of this century they created an imaginary heaven of greatness whose entrance test was made up of just two questions, the first being whether or not you participated as a guerilla during the liberation war, the second being the name of the camp where you were trained. A positive answer to the first question was the only way you could be allowed to answer the second one and the choice of answers for the second one was limited to Nyadzonia, Mgagao, Chimoio, Freedom Camp, Mkushi, Nkomo and such other places. Acceptable responses to these questions got someone into a huge heaven made of many farms, housing stands and at times exemption from criminal proceedings.

Our generation of gatekeepers works in similar but upgraded fashion because nowadays political heavens are seasonal. During the anticorruption season one just has to bring proof that they have condemned corruption using private media and they get into heaven or else go to hell. During the antiviolence season one has to produce a photograph of their swollen face, torn shirt or any bruised body parts and argue that such was a product of political machinations- then you get into heaven or else go to hell. During the human rights season one has to prove that you have been arrested for violating Public Order and Security Act (POSA), Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Code of Conduct for the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA) and so on. We have thus become a generation that celebrates victimhood to the extent that we have placed victimhood as a key quality of leadership, friendship etc.

At the summit of our politics, these seasons come at once and during those times less and less people are disqualified from our imaginary heaven. One reason why it becomes difficult to disqualify people is that we always miss one question. For example, during the violence season admission to heaven is on account of victimhood but no question is asked whether or not you have ever committed violence. The same goes with the corruption and other seasons.

The final analysis is that Zimbabwe is in a crisis and the crisis is that there is no struggle. There is nothing our people want to change. If there is someone who is violent, we hate them not the violence, so we do all we can to replace them by another violent one. If another comes with a non-violence gospel we chide and reduce them to nothing. We have all sorts of non-violence, anti-corruption, non-discrimination, democratic and peacemaking organisations in our society but still non-violence, anti-corruption, non-discrimination, democracy and peacemaking remain bookish and academic politics. Such defines the absence of a struggle in Zimbabwe.

No month passes without a conference, summit, symposium or forum where there are discussions on institutional capacity, collective decision making and representative democracy in our country yet no month passes without evidence of attendants of these summits doing exactly the opposite of what we idealise. Millions want to be associated with this strongman or that one. Forget about strong institutions with internal capacity for fundraising, dispute resolution, perpetual succession and so forth- we want strong leaders. Those who challenge the strength of institutions and prove that they can be stronger than the institutions they belong to are heroes. Munyaradzi Gwisai, tried it and failed where is he? Where is Susan Makwavarara? Interestingly there are some who have successfully stood against the institutions they belong to and today they are celebrated from Plumtree to Nyanga and even from London to Washington.

Zimbabweans!!!! We need a struggle.