Another Year, and I chose to hope

Another year has dawned on us and I realise that my attitude will greatly determine how it deals with me. While I may not be able to change the many sordid realities that my beloved continent Africa faces, while my efforts for a new Zimbabwe may at times seem like mere drops of water questing to water a desert and while my work for dignity, freedom and equality for the black African woman at times makes me an object of ridicule to many, I chose to continue fighting, to continue challenging and I continue to hope. Yes, I chose to hope rather than despair. I hope because hope gives me the energy and the inspiration to fight on and go on. I suppose I also chose not to be depressed by the dilapidated socio economic conditions my country has been dragged to by an illegitimate, corrupt and cowardly government. Instead, I rather focus on just how many Zimbabweans over the past 5-7 years have given themselves to the fight for a better and freer Zimbabwe.

I have watched courageous women and men putting their lives on the line to speak the truth and to live according to their conscious. I have held the hands of ordinary women who were raped, beat up, persecuted and infected with HIV for choosing to participate in the political life of their country. Countless courageous men and women who have been incarcerated and tortured whilst in the hands of those who swore to protect and serve them. A growing list of champions who have died because they were murdered by agents of their government and ruling party, several hundreds died because they could not get adequate health services due to improperly equipped or resourced health facilities, several hundreds died a harrowing slow death from starvation and not because there was no food in the country but because they were being punished for their political persuasions. All these efforts, these lives surely have not been meaningless but rather been part of a build up which will ultimately amass to a force than can not be defeated. It has been done elsewhere both in and out of Africa and it is shaping up in Zimbabwe. People are not fools even if they seem simple and ordinary my Pastor Dr Shana taught me, the people of Zimbabwe will victor in the end.

I hope because I persuaded in the depths of my soul that Zimbabwe deserves better and more than it has been subjected to. I hope because I know that Zimbabwe has the most important resource any country really needs, its people. Zimbabwe’s daughters and sons are intelligent, articulate, capable, are hardworking and more importantly are courageous. It takes courage to survive under a regime that once was your defender but has turned on you and become your accuser. It takes tenacity to survive in an economy that does not even have enough of its own currency, that has to fix its exchange rates through manipulation so as to keep its debt figure down, it takes courage to work up and try to provide for one’s family without a secure means of income, without a pantry stocked with food, without fields full of harvest.

The solidarity we have received and continue to receive from our African sisters and brothers, from our friends everywhere else in the world truly spurs us on. Sometimes it is hard to face some of them because they do not understand why we fight someone they see as a hero, someone who seemingly stands up to the hegemony of Western powers, as Mugabe seems to do. I know Africa needs heroes. I submit that the kind of hero we need is the kind that first looks into his/her eyes to check if there is a log before pointing the log in the other person’s eye.

I think we now know this is not a sprint race but a marathon because most of our fatigue, frustrations and disappointments have emanated from the fact that the desired change was not as sudden, dramatic or as instantaneous as we needed it to be. These are lessons that the women’s movement has learnt, you fight, you continue to fight and do not stop. Sometimes it may seem like you are not gaining any ground but you continue and eventually you get yours. So, welcome to 2005 and comrades, Aluta Continua!