The Sunday Mail
Munyaradzi Hwengwere
The Zimbabwean story is a moving paradox. So much continues to happen but for some reason is poorly told, distorted, trivialised and in many instances never told. The culprits in general are those charged to tell the story , the media , both private and public and of course those privileged to be at centre of information, the state and related elites.
It is strange, isn’t it, that the state which has an inherent responsibility to ensure that present and future generations are able to construct a world-view based on a correct understanding of history, national aspirations, challenges, constraints, opportunities and achievements continues to pay little attention to story telling, its packaging , presentation and content. Perhaps this says a lot about developing countries incapacity to locate culture at the centre of development despite a well known fact that nations grow and prosper because of their mindsets. It all begins in the mind. If you let it wonder, you equally become a wondering nation.
Presumably because the Zimbabwean state is so poor at telling its own story it is no surprise that the media has become such a farce, excelling at continuous trading of insults in the name of news or at best fascinated by the trivial and totally out of depth when constructing and deconstructing the story as it takes place on a daily basis. No wonder , ‘Whatsapp’ with its lack of verifiable information has become the number one source of news and information in the country . There is just no trustworthy alternative.
Let us turn to the specifics. I was one of the thousands who joined the multitudes as we matched in the City of Harare in celebration of the inevitable end of an era and hope that a new dispensation was indeed in the offing. I also happen to be one still very optimistic that Zimbabwe has entered a different era. However, I worry that the optimism is slowly being chipped away by negative sentiment fuelled by and large by a collective failure to realise that a national psyche that correctly tells the story is critical to development. Instead, the Zimbabwean Government continues to pay scant attention to institutions such as the ZBC and various other forms of media to professionally and objectively tell the Zimbabwean story.
Imagine that since Operation Restore legacy, we are still to have a book, a documentary or movie that fully tells us that story and locates it within the global context where a similar event has occurred. Is it because we are so obsessed with pressing bread and butter issues, we have lost the desire to make reflect, fall in love and hold on to our historical moments of triumph . Have we become so caught up in our quest for a better world that we have ceased to understand that momentum is built on previous successes and that if you do not invest in understanding what got you to where you are you may not get to your destination
More like Christians failing to link their faith with the death of Jesus Christ.
The effect of this is now clear for all to see. Despite an evident change in fortunes for the country the general perception remains gloomy. The youths are becoming even more discordant and seemingly not interested in joining a national discourse of development . What seems to fascinate them is peripheral issues and the comic. To their defence, they have not been made part of the story. They have not been told the story in ways and manner that they can understand. They have no connection with structures of the state and as such they create their own world, whatever the risk of such a choice.
Perhaps the pace the of development has been overwhelming for both the state and story tellers, that the task seems impossible. Just looking at the events of the past few weeks suggests a nation that is galloping. First was the supposed expiration of the 100 day programme, then former president Mugabe was back in the media, the release of externalisation list , the signing of the historic USD4.2 platinum deal, opening of Kariba South extension and many more events.
While it may thus be tempting to forgive the media and even State for failing to properly package such an enormous amount of news, the opposite is true. The responsibility to create and make meaning of things resides with these two institutions because their failure can only create more confusion in greater population . Imagine, the externalisation story ran for one day. Very little was said about the companies that externalised. Where they are? Who owns them? Why they did what they did? The same fate befell the platinum deal. Who are the investors? When they will start? Who they will employ? What is procurement policy? The same again befell the lithium deal Across the media it’s a bullet approach. Before you blink twice we have moved to the next story.
Compare and contrast with the USA where months after Donald Trump was elected into Office the story on Russia continues to run across all channels. The reason is because while news events come and go everyday, real development concerns are stable over a period of time. The nature of the human mind is that it is unable to absorb too many issues at once. The story of the new dispensation has thus not changed from November except of course in our media.
So why are we doing what we are doing? Evidently, the new dispensation started without correctly aligning with other carriers of the message. In biblically terms we put ‘’new wine in old wine skins’. A strong vision was articulated and a pace launched without focusing on the walkers of the journey. Little focus was also paid to assessing the story telling capacity of the State. The result is that the same pace has become a source of grumbling by those used to an old order of doing things. More like the Israelite lamenting to be taken back Egypt. Suddenly they had forgotten the many miracles that had been performed to get them where they were.
But there is a solution. It is both institutional and recruiting new story tellers. Zimbabwe has a group of people who for long have taken a passive view of developments. Because of the structure of the State many do not have access to anyone in Government and thus have failed to make known their views and contribute meaningfully to creating a new national narrative. Worse still because a number of officials in government have remained the same they continue to restrict access by progressive minds who are dying to serve their nation.
The sad part for Zimbabwe is that owing to years of economic stagnation a number of these progressive people are man and women of means who are comfortable where they are. So they are unlikely to beg to be given space to contribute. It is the state that must invite them and be seen to transforming and ready to engage new minds. Such minds can they work especially with ZBC and main means of communication to reshape the way stories are told. This country is dying for story tellers. There are there but they must be given space.
The risk is the new dispensation will go up in smoke because we are over investing in the negative and losing people on the ground who have real issues they want to be brought to the fore.. Despite multitude of bad news I submit the Zimbabwean person continues to hope for a better future. The same person is rational and knows things don’t happen on a day. That person lacks at the a story to cling to. The government has an obligation to ensure the story is told well.
