Online Reporter
Stephen Mpofu, [email protected]
THE message in the headline above reads like a heartfelt summons from our beloved motherland, Zimbabwe, calling out to sister nations in the Southern African Development Community and across our continent to stand by one another whenever disaster strikes.
It is a reminder that in moments when nature bares its unforgiving teeth — as seen in the recent floods that wreaked havoc in Mozambique and Malawi — solidarity must not be an abstract principle, but a living, breathing duty. These calamities have once again shown how fragile our borders are in the face of storms, and how closely knit our destinies remain.
Such assistance embodies the spirit of the saying, “one good ten deserves another” or “ikhotha eyikhothayo/chindiro chinopfumba kunobva chimwe,” those proverbial threads that bind African kinship.
They speak an ageless truth: no African nation, no matter how secure or self-sufficient it may feel in its freedom after liberation from racist foreign rule, can afford to retreat into insularity.
Natural disasters respect no flag, no boundary; they sweep across landscapes, not passports. The devastation in Mozambique and Malawi has once again shown that we are only as safe as the neighbour we are willing to help.
In Mozambique, the floods carved a grim path through four provinces from January 22, 2026, affecting 723 500 people and claiming 124 lives.
In response, our Government wasted no time. Zimbabwe dispatched, through the Mozambican embassy in Harare, about 300 metric tonnes of grain, medical sundries, timber, blankets and other essentials, and even sent helicopters to aid human rescue operations — a gesture of gratitude towards a country that once served as the backbone of Zimbabwe’s armed revolution, hosting bases for our fighters who toppled the rebel, racist Rhodesian regime of Ian Douglas Smith and ushered in the Uhuru we cherish today.
In Malawi, the rains were no less unforgiving. More than 163 000 people saw their homes and property swept away, and at least 40 lives were lost to lightning and flooding. And once again, Zimbabwe stood up.
Through ZimAid, we sent 1 000 tonnes of food, blankets and vital supplies to help a sister nation whose tears echo our own memories of hardship, resilience and hope.
This pen humbly wishes that other regional and continental states had shown the same solidarity during the long years Zimbabwe endured illegal economic sanctions for the land reform programme — solidarity of the kind our Government, guided by the revolutionary ruling party, has demonstrated so readily in the wake of the floods in these two SADC countries. When hardships bite, true friends reveal themselves not through speeches, but through action.
There is no doubt in this communicologist’s mind that a united Africa stands as a powerful deterrent to destructive foreign adventures on our soil. The lesson is as old as struggle itself: “united we will stand, divided we will fall”, vulnerable to imperialist machinations that recognise no boundary and bear no conscience.
Hooray to our benevolent Government’s commitment to helping fellow regional states in their times of desperate want! In stepping forward with compassion, Zimbabwe has not only honoured its history but reaffirmed the timeless philosophy that the strength of Africa lies not in the might of one nation, but in the shared heartbeat of many.
