“What is the Zimbabwean dream?”

On January 16, I posted on my blog the following remarks: “On a serious and sobering note, I think as a nation we are tired of the politics, we should now focus on our economy.

Since 2000 we have not known anything else but politics (and some misery, too) and if we are to be progressive as a nation, it should now be time to focus on how to make our nation work. I hope I am not alone in this dream.”

Within minutes the reactions started flowing in, and like anything on social media, there were mixed emotions.

As with such discussions, there are bound to be a few who miss the plot, and instead of addressing the issue at hand, go on to give self-gratifying reactions.

Luckily, such tortured souls are in the minority.

The majority, with measured caution you might add, discussed the remarks either for or against.

Fortuitously, three days later, a blogger by the name Jimmy posted his letter on social media, putting forward arguments why he would rather leave Zimbabwe NOW. The letter is reproduced here in full.

What led to my post was a discussion I had with friends and relatives, the preceding week, about what defines the “Zimbabwean dream”.

What do we aspire to do as we go to school, as we go to work, as we go to church, as we go about our everyday chores? What do we intend to realise at the end of our journey of life?

If we were to sit down at age 60 and look back, what would we look back at? And with gratification? That we lived a life well? Would we have realised our “Zimbabwean Dream”?

[READ ‘I am leaving Zimbabwe now’]

For starters, do we have the “Zimbabwean Dream”? What is the “Zimbabwean Dream”? What do we inculcate in our children every morning as they rise to go to school? What do we wish of them? And what do they wish of themselves?

Over the years, interaction with different levels of society has given different indicators if the Zimbabwe that is prevailing is the ideal Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe we all want.

There are those who think we could be better off as a nation, those who feel the politics of our country have weighed heavily on the national soul. And on reflection, you cant fault their reasoning, we have been obsessed by politics, by and large.

There are those who feel that we are on the right track, that a revolution is not won in a year or decade but over generations.

They will evoke memories of the agricultural and industrial revolutions in Europe, and tell you these were not over-night achievements.

Using the same premise, they argue that we might not be the generation to enjoy the Zimbabwe that we all want, but that token maybe passed off to our children and/or their children.

Those who want to live the “Zimbabwe we all want” now ask what could be the reasons why we cannot be the ones to enjoy our nation, given that we have some of the most admired brains in Africa, if not the whole world.

They will counter-argue that the agricultural and industrial revolutions mentioned above were not aided by technological advances, technological advances which should be working to the better of our own revolution, so that we see and live the Zimbabwe that we want right now, that our revolution does not take generations like did the European ones.

It cannot be disputed that politics plays a major role in affecting the other facets of life, facets such as the economic, demographic, social and, to an extent, the sexual fronts. If the politics of the country, just like in the family set-up, is not right, then it follows that everything else that surrounds it (the politics) is affected.

Admittedly, it is not that the politics of the country have not been right, but that we seem to take most of our energy and time on politics, to the disadvantage of other facets of life.

Probably reason why some citizens, Jimmy included, feel that the politics of this country has weighed so heavily on the national conscience, that it is time we make a retreat and address some of the aspects that affect our daily lives.

But as long as at the personal level, we are willing to make that transition from being obsessed with politics to a more pragmatic approach, and as much as that resolve at personal level is not matched at the national body politic, then our collective hope and dreams, the Zimbabwean Dream, will not be realised.

What is crucial is for the national body politic to get into re-alignment, into the mood, into the groove, that is shared by the majority of the nation, that we can start sharing the same dream.

Harare City is aspiring, probably that would be the Harare Dream, to become a world-class city by 2025 (a debate which we will leave for another day) but what is obtaining on the ground does not help in nurturing that dream, that hope, that aspiration.

The very tenets that would make it a world-class city are not visible, just 10 years from realising that dream.

If we take Harare to be a microcosm of Zimbabwe, then we can all understand why we have citizens like Jimmy in our midst. But is fleeing, as Jimmy has resorted to, the best solution? Granted, Jimmy will argue that he has waited a good 34 years for the Zimbabwean Dream to come true, and his frustrations are probably being shared by a thousand others.

The darkest hour is said to be the one just before dawn. Maybe as Jimmy is packing, that is if he hasn’t packed already, his bags, what he might be missing is that the country is now headed for greatness.

It is basically an opinion and largely a hope, a hope that we have all shared, reason why we are all here today in this great nation.

Along the years we had a number of blueprints, most of them economic, and nothing much has been realised from the blueprints. Remember Vision 2020? Zimprest? Esap?

So what is new? Where is the hope for a renewed Zimbabwe coming from? It is all about belief systems, that as a nation we can do it and if we put together all our enthusiasm, all our hope and all our aspirations, then the Zimbabwean Dream is within reach.

You talk to veterans of the war of liberation, they will have their misgivings; you talk to some doctors, they will equally tell their own frustrations; ditto with farmers, with scholars, with patients, but would it pain us a bit more if were to turn all that frustration into a ray of hope?

What would become of our Zimbabwe, our Zimbabwean Dream, if the collective frustration that we have, is turned into hope and faith?

I believe there should, and that there is, a Zimbabwean Dream, only that we have been exerting our energies on to the wrong front. Once we realign our thoughts and aspirations, before we know it, Zimbabwe would be the most admired nation on the continent. And that time to realign, to refocus is now.

Just like Martin Luther King Jnr, I too have a dream for Zimbabwe.

 

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