Father's Day Challenge 2008

Father’s Day Challenge by Michael Chipato

Families all over the world celebrated Father’s Day this past weekend. When my 7 year old son handed me a gift, I stopped to reflect on what my fatherhood meant to him. The day comes once a year and goes, but the responsibilities of fathers in the home and society are a permanent imperative command feature in the overall social symmetry of society.
There are key roles that culture, religion and society amongst others bestow on fathers. Allow me to steer outside the parameters of female headed households in this article and dwell on the role of fathers without offence for other significant parenting statures. The moment a father negates the expected moral guidance role, ignores the duty to provide for and being the biblical cornerstone; then the family as the micro-constituent of society suffers and this has a domino effect on macro society.
Fathers throughout the ages regardless of cultural considerations have always been of role model significance; firm pillars of security, models of moral existence to the extent that even an immoral father by any standards would not want their child to be like them!
Issues of how HIV/AIDS can be combated, fighting child abuse, battling with gun and knife culture, tackling terrorism and creating a humane society is a responsibility of families and fathers are at the core of this creative process.
Oliver Mutukudzi in his hit song Tozeza Baba lampoons fathers who have the fear factor in the home and goes a mile further in another song where he mourns the loss of moral fibre in adults /fathers who deflower innocent children (Kubata mwana chibharo asati akomba). The universal obligations of fatherhood transcend the element of provision of material items for children, they need protection, and father’s parental capacity should be exhibited through responsible conduct. The universality of this obligation is enshrined in human rights and child protection legislation worldwide and the message from children to fathers is loud and clear as one father’s day card read, ‘Please continue being there for me. I love you’. The innocence of the tone resembles the trust and inevitably the expectations of children and the father’s duty to respond daily through positive conduct.
The problems society faces today, apparently emerge from within families and communities, so do the solutions! The late Leonard Dembo’s poetics in the song- Regai nditaure(Let me speak) has a narration exploring the impact of parent’s role in the establishment of a child’s moral stature. ‘Baba namai, regai nditaure zvandaiona ndiri mucheche, Kotora chinhu usina kukumbira kutyora mutemo’ (Mom and Dad, let me say what I saw when I was young, you taught me that taking anything without requesting for permission is breaking the law) .The child behind the voice has a firm connection with his/her upbringing, a past that has left indelible social and moral imprints on the psyche. It is this imprint that shall be reflected throughout the child’s life and proverbially mbudzi kudya mufenje hufanan’ina (The young borrow traits from the elders).
During the International Day for Families marked this year by the United Nations, the Secretary General Mr.Ban Ki Moon called on families ‘to honour fathers for their contributions to family life...and to build a social environment that sustains a positive fatherhood.’ The Zimbabwean national anthem has a core element in which it stresses on how important it is for leaders to be exemplary… (Navatungamiri vave nenduramo).
Finally from a consequentialist perspective, it is important to note that you reap what you sow. It is irresponsible for fathers to underperform their natura- cum-social obligatory role and expect children to perform and behave appropriately. Fathers are part of the social creative mission and must play their part and society will do the rest.