A Debt Of Honor, A Debt Of Gratitude

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now" - Chinese Proverb 

My Homeland. It is criminal neglect for any country in Southern Africa to fail to feed itself.

If a sufficient number of development minded, progressive (indigenous) people start development projects in their rural areas all over the country (coordination is not even necessary); the end result has to be, must be, palpable good for Zimbabwe. Let me also point you to the fact that it is not an oversight that I do not mention Western aid ANYMORE in my writings.

by Kudakwashe Kanhutu

I have always thought that there needs to be a thorough redrafting of the way people reach positions of political leadership in Zimbabwe. I have always thought that people should not assume positions of political authority until they have paid a debt of gratitude to society. Some people only go into politics because of vanity - to imprint their names in history books - and above all to amass wealth. Our next generation of politicians have to be different in that one aspect: one should not, cannot, no, must not run for political office until they have paid their debt to society. This debt is a debt of honour, and it is a debt of gratitude: the communities that fostered us were the happiest possible communities and we have to make an input towards their continuity. We have to use our talents to develop the communities we come from before we seek to represent them.

In this regard, I am buoyed by the fact that fate has gifted Zimbabwe a unique opportunity to realise her development potential. I am not alone in recognising that the political problems that led to our exodus from Zimbabwe must have a positive side. I will not dwell long on this, but the poor treatment we have received in our host countries has imbued us with the spirit to return and build a functional country so that we will never have to leave again. Most importantly, perhaps, most of us have managed to pursue university and college educations of our choice. Also, the contact and work experience (in a host of development fields) in different countries is a gift nothing but fate could have conjured up for us. If I am right, Zimbabwe is poised to be Southern Africa’s Switzerland in a few short years. What needs to be done is to harness the skills of returning individuals. The most important thing for me is that this should be done in an apolitical way. It should not be done under the banner of this or that political party. It just has to be the individual or individuals giving back to the community that gave them so much.

To give an example, my family followed my grandfather to a protected village in the Zambezi Valley, having moved from Chivhu. The place we moved to was a former ‘protected village,’ this was a cluster of huts closely resembling each other, housing innumerable families. On my first night there, since I was only five I wandered and got lost. To make it hilariously worse I only knew my grandfather's first name - John - so it was quite a mission to find my family. The family that found me waited until day break then took me to the Chief and I was reunited with my family, eventually. Indeed this sounds anecdotal but given the depravity of some communities in this world, this anecdote could have been a tragedy. Among many other things, this indicates my community was functional as we pulled together. My debt to this community is this: the children of the people that made my community so great should also live under the umbrella of safety and happiness that I found when my family joined this community.

Every single one of us  - except the most conceited - has a debt to pay to our communities. This MUST be paid in full before we can hope to be capable representatives. Of course, there have been changes as to what makes communities great - advances in technology, economics and knowledge have supplanted historical routes of acquiring basic needs. I will venture that it is not enough anymore to just help an old widow with the harvest. Sustainability of any project we undertake is the target.

In outline, my personal debt will not have been paid until I have built 3 libraries across Mzarabani District and supply them with books sufficient to start a civilisation. Until I have paid for sports field developments and supply all the schools with sports equipment such as footballs, volleyballs, netballs, standard goals, nets etc. IMPORTANTLY as lack of food security is the bane of our community, I want to construct an agricultural supplies depot where our rural farmers will get seeds, fertilisers, chemicals and farm equipment spares at token prices. At the same time my great wish is to also build grain silos here, the first in the area whose sole purpose will be to store grain that will be given back to the same rural families in drought years.

This project will be one whose success will not be evident for at least five years, which time I think is the minimum for anyone interested in uplifting their communities to make an impact. If a sufficient number of development minded, progressive (indigenous) people start development projects in their rural areas all over the country (coordination is not even necessary); the end result has to be, must be, palpable good for Zimbabwe. Let me also point you to the fact that it is not an oversight that I do not mention Western aid ANYMORE in my writings.