Better to die in peace than live in war

20 Dec, 2020 - 00:12 0 Views
Better to die in  peace than live in war

The Sunday Mail

 

MUSIC is as old as humanity.

It has always soothed the grieving and cheered ebullient souls throughout the ages.

It is a worthy partner and accompaniment at funerals, weddings, festivals, ceremonies and even during lonesome moments.

During the darkest of times, it flickers like a stubborn cinder from within the depths, from where it eventually flares up and glows, providing the light and warmth needed for humanity to find its way.

By any measure and by all accounts, 2020 has been an incredibly ghoulish and tough year due to the scourge of the coronavirus, which has snatched away more than 1,6 million loved ones in our middle.

But, most fortuitously, a ray of light is beginning to break through the darkness during the current season of festivities, as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines begins.

Zimbabwe, however, has more to celebrate this week.

On Tuesday, we celebrate a commitment to peace that has endured over the past 33 years after the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987.

On Friday, we celebrate one of the most important days on the Christian calendar — Christmas — the birthday of our Lord, Jesus Chrst.

Sulumani Chimbetu

And also this year, after two hectic years of economic tumult, the festivities will be spiced up by the feel-good factor of relatively stable prices, which continue to take hold.

Inasmuch as doomsday prophets would have wished otherwise, it is not turning out to be quite as they would have liked.

It has been an awfully difficult couple of weeks for pessimists, who often reel out their favourite headline — “Zimbabwe set for a bleak Christmas” — during this time of the year.

Well, not this year.

Janet Manyowa

Don’t get the Bishop wrong: It is not all hunky dory yet; however, it is neither bad nor perfect, but it is promising.

Exciting duels

Perhaps what is even more gratifying and soothing for the Bishop of late has been the happy realisation that even after such a dark chapter in recent times, where Covid-19 effectively kept our artistes under lock and key, our music, which encapsulates our joy, pain, hopes and aspirations, still lives.

Artistes are surely coming up with the goods as they seek to outdo each other in providing the soundtrack and anthem to what would certainly be unique festivities.

The effervescence in the industry is more than apparent.

Alick Macheso has huffed and puffed through his new single “Zuro Ndizuro”, but he seems to be finding the going tough.

While the latest offering, with its distinctive and trademark giggling lead guitar and droning bass, cannot actually be called a dud, the problem is exactly that — the monotony of an unevolving sound that is all too familiar to the ear.

But his rabid and starry-eyed fanatics reckon it’s a scorcher. Kikikiki.

The stampede for the prime spot in listeners’ hearts has attracted frenetic duels from the dancehall posse with laxative tongues — vemadhudhucha.

Freeman and Winky D form part of the cast in this musical battle royale that is slowly dividing fans.

The human towerlight that is Jah Prayzah, who has already made it known that his latest song — Porovhoka — is not meant to be didactic but a party song, hopes that his bubblegum offering will be sweet enough to form the anthem for the festive season.

And there are also heroes for Zimbabwe’s “silent majority”, most of whom are succoured by Janet Manyowa, John Munodawafa, Mark Ngwazi, Paradzai Mesi, Obvious Mutanhi and Reverend Chivaviro.

It will be epic.

Boy oh boy, let the games begin.

As you might know by now, the Bishop is rather a sungura freak who is much more enamoured to the latest albums by Suluman Chimbetu “Entanglement” and Allan Chimbetu “Urgent Matter”, especially the latter.

It is the older Chimbetu who seemed to have really put his heart, mind and all into his new effort.

His sound is more mature, clean and on-point.

But the video to “Ndisina Mari” got Bishop Lazi excited.

The suave dance moves and svelte choreography and visuals are something to behold.

Argh!!!

It is manna for the hungry sungura soul.

Bedrock

What, however, makes Tuesday, or Unity Day, more poignant is that there cannot be any festivities without peace.

The invaluable lesson that has been learnt by the generation of old is that it is better to live in peace than to die in war.

As Bishop Lazarus always says, it seems that the generation that knows peace craves war and conflict, while the generation that has lived through war obsessively craves peace and is prepared to defend it by any means necessary.

Proverbs 12:20 reminds us,

“Deceit is in the heart of those people who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.”

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord,” adds Hebrews 12:14.

There is a song by the late Dendera patriarch, Simon Chimbetu, off his six-track album “Nguva Yakaoma” that was released in the ‘90s.

“Hondo” was, and is, a song whose didactic theme is eerily riveting as it speaks to the fatal folly of war and conflict.

The lyrics go as follows:

Hondo ineropa, rufu, kuparadza,

Matambudziko mukati mehondo

Usatanga imwe (hondo)

Seiko uchitanga imwe (hondo)

Umwe wangu wee, wafunga imwe (hondo)

Seiko uchitanga imwe (hondoooooo)

Imi muchapera, tese tinopera, vana vevamwe vanopera

Tichasvitsana kumakore

Usatanga imwe (hondo)

Seiko uchitanga imwe (hondo)

Umwe wangu we, wafunga imwe (hondo)

Seiko uchitanga imwe (hondo)

The only thing that can come out of war and conflict is mutually assured destruction and everything diabolic that comes with it.

It reduces man to his basest and bestial instincts.

If Zimbabweans could only ask Tigyrians who are currently in the throes of a major armed conflict with the federal government in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared war against the region — one of the many parts of the federal state — on November 4 for defying the federal government in an act that was largely interpreted as an attempt at secession.

Ironically, on December 10, 2019, Ahmed had been given a Nobel Peace Price for ending the two-decade war between Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea.

In his address, he explained why the horrors of war he witnessed when he was still serving as a soldier had inspired him to be a man of peace — or at least to try to be a man of peace.

“I crawled my way to peace through the dusty trenches of war years ago,” he said in his Nobel lecture in Oslo, Norway, last year.

“I was a young soldier when war broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

“I witnessed, first-hand, the ugliness of war in frontline battles.

“They are those who have never seen war but glorify and romanticise it. They have not seen the fear; they have not seen the fatigue; they have not seen the restriction or heartbreak, nor have they felt the mournful and bitterness of war after the carnage. War is the epitome of failure for all involved.”

He added:

“I know because I have been there and back. I have seen brothers slaughtering brothers on the battlefield; I have seen older men, women and children trembling in terror under the deadly the deadly shower of bullets . . . You see, I was not only a combatant in war; I was also a witness to its cruelty and what it can do to people. War makes for bitter men, heartless and savage.”

The conflict, which was sparked by a border dispute between the two neighbouring countries, was catastrophic.

More than 100 000 soldiers and civilians died.

Families were broken and communities were permanently shattered.

Ahmed, however, crucially observed that peace has to be worked for.

“Peace is a labour of love,” he said, adding:

“Sustaining peace is hard work, yet we must cherish and nurture it. It takes a few to make war, but it takes a village and a nation to build peace.

“Peace requires unwavering commitment, infinite patience and goodwill to cultivate and harvest its dividends.

“Peace requires good faith to blossom into prosperity, security and opportunity.”

It was a powerful speech, but one that has since been lost to the festering civil conflict that now plagues Ethiopia.

For the Bishop, it shows that peace is fragile.

Even against men’s best wishes, humanity constantly lives with the spectre of conflict.

We must, therefore, hold fast the values and commitment to peace that were consecrated in the Unity Accord.

So, this year, we have more than one reason to celebrate.

Dancing shoes — check!; beverages — check!; food — check!; mask — check!; sanitiser — check!

Happy holidays.

Bishop out!

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