Close gap between rich and poor

were ill-informed, however, he experienced culture-shock. He realised that some urban Zimbabweans were living a far better lifestyle than he was. He asked why he is looking after our orphans when we obviously can do it ourselves from what he saw. The gap in lifestyle between rich and poor was amazing to him.

I first saw a child living on the street in Harare in the late 1980s. I was deeply troubled to see that and passionately wanted to see the end of it, but sadly it was just the breaching of a dam wall that I was seeing, the full force of the rushing waters was yet to come.

In the years to follow it became a more and more common sight to see children on our streets. One of the questions that intrigue me is why is it wherever you go in the world you will not see a white child on the streets, but black children are found in abundance on the streets.

Some would answer that it is because the whites are economically advantaged, but that answer is a little too simplistic in my opinion. Blacks, especially Africans, are communal people whereas whites are more individualistic. Our extended families and community-based cultural values would seem to say that it would be impossible to have a child on the street.

A human life is too precious to leave on the street, an African mind should be horrified by the picture of destitution we see on our streets, but the truth is the situation gets worse and worse and we generally go on with our lives pretending not to see it. As the American visitor rightly acknowledged it seems when we get money we are happy to build our mansions and live our ostentatious lives right in the middle of squalor and poverty. The Nigerian movies paint a picture of typical Africa for me.

The rich often drive into a Beverly Hills or better type mansion while right outside them the street looks like a squatter camp. How does a person stomach building a mansion in a squatter camp? What level of heartlessness is required to do that?

A community with a wide gap between the rich and poor is an unstable community; sooner or later the poor will rise up and attack the rich. This may become a war of liberation as happened in Africa against the colonial regimes which grabbed our wealth and impoverished us.

Or it may become a revolution like the French Revolution in which the people revolted against the rule of the monarchy and aristocrats. Originally, in Ancient Greece, aristocracy was seen as a good model of leadership, it literally means the “rule of the best”, they saw it as the rule by the best qualified citizens.

By the time of the French Revolution, it was usually seen as rule by a privileged or elite group. Africans rightly rose up and rejected colonial rule because of the oppressive nature in which whites ruled, however, it seems something rubbed off and the oppressive spirit of leadership in which a few benefit and the masses languish in poverty continues.

We have our own aristocrats, people in privileged position in both business and politics, who we thought were the best among us, and who we had hoped would help us, but instead of it being the rule of the best, it has become the oppression and plundering of the people by the privileged elite.
The phenomenon of children on the street is a symptom of a bigger disease, the economic inequality in our nation. If a child grows up deprived and sees others living in abundance, a strong yearning to have what they see others with and anger against the community which does not care or seem to help, brews.

For example, if a child growing up on the street’s life is tracked, what would be the likely direction of that child’s life? This child is destined towards drug addiction, prostitution and violence, he or she will become a danger to society. A child that is given the basics of life, food, shelter, a family and an opportunity to get educated has a fighting chance of coming out as a useful member of society, benefiting and not harming others.

The long-term solution to political violence is to redress inequalities in society. Most perpetrators of violence in Zimbabwe are unemployed frustrated young people who have become social dropouts, willing to harm and maim for a few dollars.

The picture is not all bad though, I am seeing a few glimmers of light and hope in the horizon. A few of us are doing something about what they see. A few orphanages funded and run by black Zimbabweans are coming up. A few business people are coming together and encouraging what they call corporate social responsibility, which is basically a business giving back to and helping a community from which it profits.

A great flagship example is the way in which Econet has organised the Higher Life Foundation and is helping thousands of disadvantaged and vulnerable children have a better life. They are helping the nation in many other ways and have become heroes of our day, keeping our hospitals going and doing many other socially beneficial projects.

More efforts and initiatives of this kind are needed in all parts of the economy and from more players to redress the situation.

The more the gap between rich and poor increases, the more volatile the environment becomes, ready to explode at any time, stable nations are nations that have addressed this issue and closed the gap. Researchers have shown that once a nation passes a certain economic threshold the likelihood of conflicts escalating and becoming destructive reduces.

Common sense prevails, there is too much to lose for all and a reasoned solution is found. We need to get to a place where there is too much to lose for everyone in our society, only then will we experience the levels of stability experienced in developed countries. This is not just a job for a privileged elite, it is a job for everyone.

The United States visitor I mentioned earlier represents a strong mass of people from that nation and others like it who are just ordinary every day people that give from what they have to help others.

Organisations like World Vision are funded through the giving of individuals in order to improve the lives of others around the world. The closing of the gap between rich and poor begins with you and your attitude towards those less privileged than you. As Africans we have long looked after our relatives and their children.

Let that tradition continue, look after your relatives’ children, extend it beyond that and look after children that have no relatives. Visit an orphanage, befriend an orphan, open your home and send money to look after people that you may never know or meet. Let us all do the best we can with the little we have.

Dwight Mutonono is the Executive Director of the African Leadership and Management Academy and can be contacted at [email protected].