The brotherly wind blows

Published: February 4, 2010

(OPINION)Zimbabwe and South Africa have a long-impossible-to-ignore history, (a symbiosis which is punctuated by mutual dependence and independence; mutual respect and disrespect; and mutual envy and love). So nurtured the relationship between these two countries defies any political manipulation, personal hatred, disinformation or misinformation. It predates the now commonly used derisive word, makwerekwere. Sealed by a common socio-economic and political background, the relationship is unbreakable. At the risk of sounding like a revolutionary, I dare say spilled blood from both sides of the Limpopo feeds the veins of this relationship.

No natural boundaries or artificial borders could or can destroy this bond. From the Mfecane to the present day Diaspora, the South-North or North-South migration continues. The crocodile infested Limpopo River could not stop a desperate people from running away from Tshaka or Mugabe, and the boots of the border patrol agents cannot trample the natural reaction of a people who share so much. The bond withstands the test of time. It is eternal and we, the mortals, can never break it. Of course we will try, but we are doomed to fail. The wise have taken note of what is really important and they are incrementally doing away with artificial encumbrances, borders in particular. Take the European Union for example. Yes, one may argue that political and economic expediency gave birth to this Union and not the realization of the oneness of humans. And, yes, to join the Union is not an expressway but once tested it is very difficult if not impossible to sever that inherent oneness of human beings.

I can see some detractors salivating to pounce on this example and calling me all sorts of names. It’s O.K. I will survive that. Examples of expansionist empires will be cited to discredit my opinion, but empires are distinguishable from the European Union. The EU is not an empire nor are people forced to join this union. Those who join do so on their on volition and not by conquest, (a very material difference). It is now hard to imagine that the French and the Germans were always at each others throats. Once allowed to play out, the humanity in men and women will always overcome the imagined fears of those we perceive to be different from us.

A people separated by borders and boundaries; political manipulation and political bickering, may be confused but ultimately they always find their true selves, that is the human in each and every one of us. Fact: throughout history people have migrated. Tensions have played out, wars fought, women and children killed, in the process men have nursed their egos but humanity refuses to die with time. When we mix and cohabit do we really dilute a culture or do we enhance it? Is there any pure ethnicity? Pre-historic purity maybe, but given the lapse of time, the movement of people from all the four corners of the world and the realization of the oneness in humans, tolerance is agonizingly encroaching the human psyche.

I will never say Zimbabweans deserve the treatment they have receive(d) from some South Africans. Xenophobia is never justified. No human being deserves such kind of treatment, but do Zimbabweans still remember MaMoskeni and MaBhurandaya? Or have we conveniently forgotten? Oh, those good old days. In our small world we were the cream of the crop. Or so we thought. The same goes for many South Africans today. One maybe tempted to argue that the Zimbabweans’ situation in South Africa is different from how some Zimbabweans treated Mozambiquans or Malawians. I would argue otherwise. Maltreatment of foreigners emanates from the same deep seated and misguided sense of a superiority complex. It may feel different because us, Zimbabweans, are now on the receiving end. We have watched the xenophobia in South Africa play out on television which Mozambiquans or Malawians had no leisure of doing because media technology had not advanced to the same stage as we have today. Maybe the wave of xenophobia was not as dramatic as the one we saw playing out in South Africa but the point still remains: many Zimbabweans did not treat our Malawian and Mozambiquan brothers and sisters with the respect that they deserved. There are a lot of Mozambiquans and Malawians who were mistreated by Zimbabweans when our situation was very different from the present day. The fact is twenty to thirty years ago, Zimbabweans collectively, looked down upon Malawians and Mozambiquans.

I just hope South Africans are looking to their northern neighbor, learning, discerning and getting blown by the same brotherly wind which many Zimbabweans belatedly feel today. This wind usually blows from the north, occasionally from the east, west or south but it is always preceded by a wave of a suffering people who end up migrating, (a suffering which is almost always injected by a very sick leadership). During the days of Kamuzu Banda in Malawi and the Frelimo-Renamo fratricide in Mozambique, Zimbabweans shielded themselves against this north-easterly wind. Unfortunately, stupidity is not a preserve of a people who choose to identify themselves by artificial demarcations. Colonialism is evil. Surprisingly, it is very welcome when the artificial borders which were established by colonialist are expediently used for xenophobic and political purposes. What a pathetic thought process. Fortunately, future generations are poised to rid themselves of this idiotic way of thinking and the brotherly/sisterly wind will become the order of the day. It does not have to blow so as to be felt. Its relevance and importance will no longer be predicated on the unnecessary human suffering. It will plainly be the oneness of a human race. Utopian thinking one may want to argue. But, what is wrong with a utopia? It all depends on what one calls a utopia. I doubt very much that if one had, two centuries ago, said different countries will be able to sit down together and usher in a Charter advocating a group of nations to be united by the same purpose and causes, those present would have identified themselves with the speaker.

Let us all reflect.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

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The brotherly wind blows

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