Esprit de corps

“I am an African, not because I was born in Africa but because Africa is born in me” – Kwame Nkrumah

Know where you are from, Ziva kwawakabva .

Growing up I always obsessively used to ask my relatives and parents where we came from and how we got to be from the South –Eastern region of the country. Let me classify my heritage to you right quick, I am a Karanga AKA  Wezhira, Vitori , VaRozvi vakuru, on the carpet we go, so for those that haven’t already picked up (smh)  my family originates  from the splendid  area now called Masvingo. 

I am told my forefathers came from Basutholand (Lesotho), they had fled from Tshakas reign (you know Shaka the Zulu)?! My forefathers grabbed the honeys and the cattle and settled in what is now called Masvingo, in and around the Gutu area. (Told by my know it all brother, any probes or questions, ask him). Once my forefathers settled in the south eastern region, we mingled, we fornicated and we multiplied and accordingly we at present, identify ourselves as Karanga (Moyo Risina Wako to be exact) (Shout out to my Risinas).

Debates still linger on how VaKaranga , Mazezuru, Manyika and Mandau alike, are not to be considered as tribes but as a dialect, so just for your own information and for classification purposes we are from the ‘Varozvi’ tribe as well. The purpose of my defining all this is not because I am tribalisitc (well maybe just a little) but I have a sense of belonging, pride and try the best to represent and carry on the legacy of my people.

As the world becomes more westernised and more diluted by those that benefit from it most (I will not mention any names) W. I sense that a number of us including myself at times, lack  the basic knowledge  and care of where we come from and in all,  lack any true identity. Surely we must yearn to have our own identity? At times I admire the Chinese, Indians and particularly the Jewish, how they uphold their ethos, traditions and religion with a great sense of pride and individuality. Nowadays people want to question everything, ‘ohh I don’t want my fiancé to pay lobola, “I am not a piece of meat”. Really?? African woman!!!! You know very well you are not a piece of meat, not only is it tradition but to our fathers it’s a show of ‘respect’ a moral gesture (ESP when she is Prego), perhaps a way of saying, I love your daughter, pleas may I marry her, meet my crazy family! I am willing to pay all the money in the world and give all the mombes (cows) for her hand in marriage. Its tradition, why lose it now and shadow other practices that don’t even care about you, and whose society is now flooded with moral ambiguity! Every tradition grows ever more venerable - the more remote its origin, the more confused that origin is the reverence due to it increases from generation to generation. These types of tradition become holy and inspire admiration. At the moment there are 54 extinct languages in Africa, only our God knows how many lost tribes.

 And please don’t get me started on people who have a green passport and cannot, in fact will not speak Shona or Ndebele , bet if the person went to France for a year they would come back trying to ‘ Je Parle’  all in our faces ,  isn’t it???!!! Am I wrong OR am I wrong?

I will admit, some  customs & traditions are just absurd, but that’s seen across the board, like genital mutilation down in the northern and southern parts of Africa and some ancestral practices, nevertheless every culture transitions at its own pace to the accepted state of civilisation.

Just to stir up the pot a little, I am also my mother’s child,    I cannot also deny my part Manyika heritage, my mother is from the eastern province of Zimbabwe; they say they are the Manyika Mozambicans. Surely I had to ask   myself, am I a real Zimbabwean?  Hongu! Not all Zimbabweans are originally from the region, displacement incidents such as ‘Mfecane’ spanning centuries, dispersed the Bantus and Khoisans all the way up to Tanzanian regions. As a matter of fact and not fiction,  borders between our nations were drawn by the colonisers and not by us, we never sought out any such divisions on or own; Shout out to Kwame Nkrumah on the Pan Africanism front!!

Don’t lose your way in forgetting where you’re from; Zimbabwe and all other African nations have been through a lot, our fore fathers Kaguvi and Nehanda where lynched because they dared to speak out against the atrocities involved  with the  labour and land issues. Surely we must respect and pay tribute to  them. Yes, let’s move with the times, but with pride or vanity in our culture, with a sense of national belonging and SOVEREIGNTY (In Bobs voice).

It grinds my gears how our generation know little of where they come from and the sacrifices our forefathers made and the liberation struggles that they fought. 

I will always remember  Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi , Josiah Tongongara, Joshua  Nkomo , Guy & Molly Clutton Block ( Yes whitees) ,  Edgar Tekere, Vitalis Zvinavashe (Risina) , Herbert Chitepo, Simon Muzenda, Leopold Takawira, Sally Hayfron  Mugabe, Julius Nyerere,  Samora Machel ( and no I am not just mentioning roads in the City of Harare, these were actually real , significant people) and someone who I have respect for ,  Che Guevera .  To mention only a  few (The are my  past time  Avengers).

In order to be sure where you are going, better remember where you are coming fro,  as cultures grow on the vine of tradition. If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being eradicated.

People without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots -Marcus Garvey

Aluta Continua

·         And yes what I am writing about can also be linked back to self-determination, nationalism, Pan Africanism, Sovereignty and Imperialism and cultural relativism.