The Sunday Mail
Dr David Broom —
Over the decades, there has been much talk about reconciliation in Zimbabwe and beyond. Lord knows the world needs it. Desperately!
However, the question is, how do we accomplish it? Many people – even leaders – continue to stir racial hatred and suggest harsh solutions to our current problems, which will surely continue the cycle of sin and retribution.
This observation leads me to what my mother used to say to my siblings and I all the time. As young children, we were often left to sort out differences amongst ourselves. However, in our immaturity, we believed that one wrong turn deserved another.
As you can imagine, this never led to harmony – quite the opposite! Small differences soon escalated into major conflict, at which point my mother would usually step in and tell us that two wrongs can never make a right.
I would be annoyed by the obviousness of the statement and wonder why she needed to say such a simple thing. In the midst of conflict, it made no sense because I believed my retaliation was purely justified. I particularly did not want to hear this truth when it was my turn to revenge!
Now that I am a father, I hear myself saying the same thing to my children in the hope that they will see that we cannot continue to hurt one another, repay evil for evil and expect to have a good life for any of us in the family.
The same truth applies to our national family. No one in their right mind can deny that wrongs were committed in the past, whether by whites, blacks or amongst ourselves.
For a good outcome to be achieved in our nation and the world at large, we have got to stop the negative cycle and chart a way forward. Someone has to be the big person and say “you do not have to pay me back.”
From there, we can stop acting like children, grow up and get a vision for the future. To break a negative cycle of wrongs, somebody has to step up and do what is right because two wrongs or three generations of them will never make it right!
One generation needs to step forward, acknowledge the wrongs of the past, forgive and provide a way forward. May we be that generation? Could we step up and provide a better future for our children, or will we continue in our ways and just hope to raise better people than we were, while we continue to perpetuate the hurt of the past?
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