The tragedy of forgetting children in the new dispensation: Michael Chipato

The United Nations News Centre published shocking statistics on Zimbabwean children in November 2009 and if they are a true reflection of the Zimbabwean children and women’s situation, then there is immediate need to visit the domain of human reason and basic logic- Children are the future.
The Zimbabwean experiences over the past decade and a half have been tumultuous, challenging and tragic for the future. Losses have been incurred across the social strata and children have not been spared from this impact. The Multiple Indicator and Monitoring Survey (MIMS), which was conducted in May 2009, reported a decline in access to many key social services for women and children, particularly for the poorest populations and in rural areas. The greatest impact of poverty always hits hardest on women and children who occupy the ‘highly risk vulnerable category’ especially in the developing countries.
Dr. Peter Salama, UNICEF Representative issued a statement that “... everyday in Zimbabwe 100 children below five years of age are dying of mostly preventable diseases.” Health and education provision collapsed and became affordable only for the rich, with teachers earning 100USD per month, the challenge that the government faces is huge. Employment creation, economic stability, increased trade to boost to build foreign currency reserves, human rights observance on the Rights of the Child can energise the nation to new levels where the welfare of the child occupies the centrepiece of the national economic regeneration agenda.
The data from the national survey, which had a sample size of 12,500 households in Zimbabwe, revealed constricted support to the country’s orphaned and vulnerable children. With 79 per cent not receiving any form of external assistance this exposes a wide gap in the welfare system which needs to be filled. The operations by NGO’s have effectively cushioned the violence inflicted by poverty on children through supplementary feeding programmes and rural microfinance initiatives for rural women in running programmes like Rural Microfinance Project (RMFP) by CARE International amongst many others which have community empowerment components.
The survey provides data on Zimbabwe’s progress in attaining international priorities like the MDGs, which includes among its targets reducing under-five mortality by two thirds by 2015. Health care services are a core component in managing the destiny of the nation’s children as they are future leaders and national participants in the nation building mission. The process is continuous and like a relay race in athletics, the baton must be passed on to an equipped team of healthy and educated children.
Zimbabwe has prided as the beacon of educational excellence from independence onwards fulfilling the demands of Article 2 of the Human Rights Act which underscores the centrality of educational rights. In his comments on the unity government’s commitment, Professor John Makumbe described it as,"... a standstill government; it's limping heavily because the involved partners are pulling in the opposite directions ... there is little this unity government can claim credit for.’’ The education crisis which started last year saw a marked depletion of teachers, plummeting school attendance rates from over 80 per cent to 20 per cent and postponement of national schools’ exams.
As long as the future is forgotten by half digestedly approaching child welfare and education in Zimbabwe, energies will be laid to waste. The welfare of the child must be central to demonstrate government’s commitment to rebuilding the country.
In his Christmas message, the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai underscored the shifting in focus by government, ‘from stabilisation to consolidation’. For the sake of Zimbabwean children and the future of a onetime prosperous nation, the cattle need to come back to the kraal, leaders need to disengage from disagreeing and favourably agree on what is best for the nation.This is an opportunity for all stakeholders to show their commitment to Zimbabwe and its children.
For too long the education system in Zimbabwe has been a shame and in shambles, yet this is the very empowering tool that can continue to liberate the country for the future.

The language tragedy: By Michael Chipato

Many sociolinguists have emphasized on how language inevitably carries the core values of any given culture. In other words when one chooses a language they also inevitably choose a culture. I wish to stir some turbulent waters in the language debate and at the same time rekindle the love for vernacular languages amongst Zimbabweans both at home and in the Diasporas.

For me to use the English language in this article appears to be the first contradiction as I will be encouraging both the young and old to embrace their first languages as they are part and parcel of an individual’s identity. Ngugi Wa’Thiongo argues that within the context of the colonial experience, ‘Speaking and writing in the language of the colonizers will naturally be different than in the language one speaks while at play or with one's family. In addition, the language of the colonizer is often a truly foreign one: segments of society understand it badly, if at all, and so certain audiences can not be reached by works in these imposed languages’. The essence of language is communication and the moment a child from Zimbabwe fails to communicate with Grandmother when he /she goes kumusha, becomes tragic.
A lot has been written in literature and for theatre about the loss of culture as individuals half digestedly embrace foreign languages and their respective cultures. There is nothing wrong with the use of English and the respective culture, but there is a sad tragedy in the way things are today where a 10 year old boy who arrived in the UK six months back miraculously loses his native language to the point where it becomes extinct even in the home. The problem appears to be the parents who are often heard saying ‘Tee haachagoni Shona uyo…’ (Tee can’t speak Shona anymore)
A domestic social context that embraces the excessive use of other people’s languages at the expense of one’s own is essentially destructive. Language has the potential to take us further from ourselves to other selves, from our world to other worlds. This is the tragedy of the migrant communities across the globe. What communities lack is the ability to hold on to that which defines them.
Speaking during a telephone interview Mbuya Zvabva said that she was nauseated by the extent of irresponsible cultural neglect in parents who do not make an effort to teach their children their mother languages at home, let alone use them for everyday commmunication. ‘Pavanotofonera handivanwzisisi, pavakauya kumusha handina kumbomunzwa ini, aingotaura chingezi chete. Baba vake vakati haachagoni Shona. Zvakandirwadza kutadza kutaura nemuzukuru wangu nepamusana pekusagona Shona kwake , iye ari MuShona’. This social lamentation by Mbuya is just the tip of the iceberg; there are endless examples that are likely ringing bells in your mind as you read this.
Even in the wake of diffusionism and acculturation as inevitable in the context of the world we live in as a global village, it remains imperative for all generations to hold onto the core values of a people, their language, identity and this inevitably builds dignity and respect in the communities we live in. The danger with half- digested consumption of foreign culture, language, value systems and other anthropological concepts is that when you make a mistake it exposes and ridicules you more. Alfred Masayire from Luton said that, ‘The best thing to recognize you as somebody from somewhere is your language, how would you identify yourself as Ndebele outside the linguistic framework?’
Sandra Brown from Birmingham blasted Africans who have no pride in their identity and language saying that ‘I am angered by Africans who promote cultural loss by not promoting the use of vernacular languages in the home’. There is no doubt that English and other languages are key in business and commerce, but English is not a value asset for cultural sustenance.
Those who have disconnected themselves and family from VanaMbuya ekhaya, they become fixed in the no-mans zone and both ends of the cultural battlefield may fail to call you their own.