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It is estimated that more than 500 million people are now on Facebook. Besides its obvious function of linking up individuals with their family and friends regardless of their geographical location,
Facebook has emerged the most entertaining platform in the public domain.
Having realised that the platform is where everyone is rushing to, innovative individuals have seized the opportunity to even spice it up, creating group pages that serve different purposes chiefly educating, informing and entertaining while at the same time companies are also taking the opportunity to reach out to their different markets.
However, there is a Facebook page that has become a record breaker in Zimbabwe. Just a year ago, the page was just like any other group on the platform with countable members, but right now, it is arguably the largest Facebook page in the country, striking 100 000 members last week. “Kuzeya Nyaya Dzese natete Rose nasekuru Joe. Dzerudo, dzebonde nehupenyu” is becoming astonishingly popular in Zimbabwe. Its name literally means “discussing all issues with Aunt Rose and Uncle Joe. Issues about sex and life”.
But perhaps what the nation has been questioning is the secret behind this amazing expansion. Kuzeya tackles all issues, just as the name suggests. At a time when most Zimbabweans are feeling excluded in the mainstream media, the forum has proved to be a great alternative to be produced in the nation’s history.
Padare, as the group’s members prefer to call it, is the only existing exemplary public sphere in which all issues are openly discussed, problems are openly told, solutions weighed, advice given, spiritual support offered and at the same time healing to troubled lives is given, hope is restored and focus to the depressed and struggling individuals is freely instilled.
While this is so, the platform is a fundamental discursive arena as much as it is poison to our young generation. The content that no doubt made the group so popular are by no means acceptable to be at the reach of our children.
Painfully though, with the growth of internet access in the country, especially via mobile phones, it is now almost impossible for any parent to bar their children from going on Facebook or any other social platform that has become part of present day’s generation, a daily bread.
The factor that influenced this pen was an incident witnessed in Bulawayo just a month ago. A Form Two girl from a college in the city was almost hit by a car while busy reading on her phone. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the teenager was on Kuzeya. What are these children doing on a platform whose content is meant for adults?
Perhaps it will be wise if at this moment few examples of the kind of posts that routinely find their way to the page be explored.
“I wanna know if I am normal or not. I am a man aged 30 and not yet married. My problem is all the women I have slept with complain that I take long to ***e . . . . I don’t enjoy sex anymore because before I … there will be complaints. I have slept with three ladies and it was the same problem. Is this normal? Please help”.
“Hi tete nevazeyi. I am 28 married for seven years and I was not a virgin when I got married but my husband was a virgin. He is very loving and caring I can safely say he saved me. My problem is the guy akandibvisa got married five years ago and up to now havana mwana. Ndakambosangana naye some two years ago akanditi sei usina kuita nhumbu pandakarara newe coz he was suspecting that haazvare. Now I heard he is looking for me saying bcoz akandikanganisira kwaari kufamba akaudzwa kuti mwoyo wangu ndiwo wakasunga production yavo “
“Hie tete nedarei need help plz. im a single mum 30. problem found out some years back kuti ndine spiritual husband. Ndodii vehama kuti zvibvepandiri. i know vamwe vachanditi ndinamate, veduwe ndinonamata, kutsanya, kushandirwa mumaporofita. Hapana chinofamba muupenyu wangu. Ndofa ndiri rombewo here ende ndisinawo murume here. Ndibatsireiwo nemazano plz kana paine vakazvikunda or vanozivakutindodii. Kunevanotuka, God help you”
” To all man out there ungaita seiko musi wehoneymoon yako waona kuti mukadzi wako anga asiri virgin but iye aikusungira makumbo achizviti imhandara?“
“Chitupapa musango.. tete nedare ndibatsirei. My wife and l have bn married for ten years now am 31. Dambudziko nderekuti for all these years I hv been vry faithful to my wife asi bonde chairo handizivi kunaka kwaro. Iye anototi tapedza anotonditenda asi ini ndinenge ndatambura kuti ndipedze. Ndinogonakurova 30 to 45 minutes tichiromansana……. Veduwe ndibatsireiwo ndinonzwa vachiti bonde rinonaka rinodii. Shld I find a small else kana kuti I should enhance my wife with herbs kana ariko anobatsira.“
These are some examples of the kind of content that the forum is offering to people, children included. However, members of the group can testify that the page has in a number of ways educated, informed and entertain them in their daily life encounters.
What has also emerged an ever unanswered question is who are these people who constitute more than 102 000 tete and sekuru’s grandchildren?
An analysis of the kind of names of the group members is an open portrayal that the majority are using fake names as they are ashamed to be seen commenting or saying rubbish on the forum.
Funny names like Sabhuku Fasibook, Ndinonaka Chose, Harare Yanetsa, Bulawayo Hoza, Sabhuku Mangwende, Good Size, Baba Vepanext among others constitute just examples of an endless list of crazy identities found on the forum.
While this is so, it also remains a mystery as to who are these individuals using these fake names? Perhaps these schoolchildren who are finding the pleasure of sacrificing part of their school time to be on the forum are also among the culprits using fake names.
Before sitting down for this writing, the writer found out very strange responses about this page from a group of women who were having a good time in a salon in Glenview, Harare, while at the same time enjoying the issues on Kuzeya.
A 27-year-old lady from Glenview 8 who identified herself as Mai Rudo was the first to ascertain her commitment to the forum.
“No matter how long my husband takes to come home from work, I will never feel lonely. Kuzeya will be there for me. There is no single day I will spend without having visited the page,” she said.
An airtime vendor Mr Jonathan Gwati said he is now addicted to the page to the extent that he always misses some of the daily duties he plans for a day.
“Not only has my phone expenses increased, but I also find myself even using the airtime for my business just because I cannot afford to have my phone starved of GPRS even for just an hour because I need to visit Kuzeya often than you can imagine.”
From the views that this writer got from different people across all ages and gender divide, the more than 100 000 members on the forum are just examples, thousands more visit the page so often.
“The page is now an open group, even if I didn’t like it, I can still have access to all the content, and I can even put up my comments to the posts there,” said another Kuzeya fanatic Melody Chimwe of Budiriro, Harare.
What can also be realised is that even those religious people and church-goers are also enjoying their lives at Kuzeya.
“I knocked on my pastor’s door more than five times the other day, but I did not get a response. Upon opening the door, I realised the clergyman was busy on Kuzeya,” said a lady who requested anonymity.
What are these pastors doing on such a forum whose content some claim is dirty? Are they not among the individuals hiding behind these pseudonyms just to gain access to the content they would be ashamed to be seen commenting on or “liking”.
What is said on Kuzeya, who is saying it and when and how are not anything to worry about for now. The concern is on schoolchildren and other young children who are also becoming instant Kuzeya addicts.
However, as some would want to argue, the things on Kuzeya are much lighter than some of the things that these juveniles are accessing on other sites on the internet.
Kuzeya will probably continue to grow, even much faster than it has been doing as more and more people join Facebook. As probably the largest Facebook group page in Zimbabwe, the administrators, Rose and Joe, even though they refused to reveal their genuine identities to this writer, need to be respected for coming up with such a celebrated platform that has become the darling of the Zimbabwean populace.
Online Reporter