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When
people decide they want to be free . . . there is nothing that can
stop them
Judith Tsoka
February 09, 2005
The people of
Zimbabwe are scared to change their destiny or the situation that
they find themselves in. I have never encountered such cowards as
Zimbabweans. Zimbabweans are waiting for a saviour to come and save
them but they shall wait for a long time as no one is going to come
and do that. These are statements that I have heard from so many
corners of the country. I used to subscribe to that statement as
well but now I believe that: when people decide they want to be
free . . . there is nothing that can stop them.
I live in a
community where buying bread is becoming an occasion that is reserved
for visitors or over the weekend. Where if you open your mouth and
say something slightly political everyone looks around to see if
people are listening to you. And they stay away from you until you
change the topic. A community where mother, father and children
share the same room that is a bedroom, kitchen and sitting room
all rolled into one. A community where if you visit relatives they
become resentful, not because they don’t want to see you, but because
you’re adding more stress to their life as they do not know how
to feed you.
In my community
death has become so common and funerals are considered get-togethers
as families cannot afford to have parties or go on holiday in the
rural areas. At the end of the month you have so little that you
want to stop but know that you can’t because that little bit at
least counts for something. My community is now a community where
young people have unprotected sex for entertainment. And, of course,
children are born from these encounters.
As most of these
young people are unemployed and have no hope of getting a job their
children end up as street children or thieves. HIV/AIDS is so common
among them that it is only a matter of time before they die. And to
add icing to the cake, they go prostituting as a means of ensuring
that there is food on the table for the family. Family members get
angry these days if their brother or sister dies because it means
that they now have to look after their children.
Who is to blame
for all of this? Why is no one doing something? Why are people allowing
themselves to get this way? How did the situation get so bad? Are
the people happy with their situation? If not then why are they
not doing something about it? I am not going to play the blame game
and I certainly can’t provide answers to all these questions. Perhaps
we should look at what the balance is between rights and responsibilities.
What is the role of the citizen in the community, and the nation
and as a member of the world?
Watching a video
called Freedom In Our Time in which ordinary people sought
change through their buying power made my heart ache. What made
people come together when there was so much threat of violence,
arrest, hunger and beating? Why were they not afraid? Where did
they learn their skills and what drove them? I cannot answer these
questions but what I realized is that everyone in that community
found a role. Everyone persevered and persisted and they were united.
What is also amazing is the non-violent stance that the community
and their leaders took.
When I compare
my community with the community in Port Elizabeth I ask: is this
possible? When I walk down the street I can feel the tension that
there is between people simply because they belong to the "wrong"
political party. People do not even want to go and exercise a simple
right like voting. Discussions always end up with people blaming
each other or asking whether one is Shona or Ndebele. Mass actions
and stay-aways have been tried but these haven’t worked and have
only brought more laws. People are so busy trying to survive that
they have no time for anything else. Trust is lost because people
believe that everyone out there is trying to get them arrested.
Through all
of this there is light at the end of the tunnel. I can see it and
I smile because I know that my community will change their situation.
They once did it during the liberation war when things were hard.
What I am concerned about is the violence that could emanate as
they try to get this change. There is the fear that without violence
nothing can change. Also people have a tendency to retaliate with
violence after they have endured violence themselves. My community
is going to overcome this by having good leadership, training and
strategizing. We will need systematic persistence and a lot of support
from the whole country and the world at large. When people decide
that they want to be free, nothing and no one is going to stand
in their way.
*This essay
was written during a Kubatana motivational workshop, 9th
February 2005
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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