Soliloquies of a Zimbabwean patriot

Khumbulani Vodloza Sibanda
Let there be talks.

Let there be talks among the elders. Elders are entrusted with leading; leading followers to sustainable peace and development. Nobody owns Zimbabwe, instead, Zimbabwe owns us all. Let us act like children of the soil.

Zimbabwe is not for sale, neither is any leadership position up for auction. What is wanted is peace; peace for development and prosperity. Let peace be the national currency.

Let there be talks. Let there be talks in church. Let the bench in front be in conversations with that behind it. Let there be conversations in peace building the church way. The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference said let there be talks. This is not by any means hollow talk. The Bishops sat in conversations first before they made the pronouncements. Conversations are soul searching. Peace is a product of conversations. Let there be talks.

If Assad thinks he’ll bring peace to Syria without talks he is mistaken, so are his adversaries. Guns, bombs and tanks failed to establish peace in Libya. The mother of all wars, the World War II was never stopped by guns and bombs. Bombs and guns have a tendency to create more bombs and guns. The bombs of Hiroshima still simmer in the city’s atmosphere, but echoes of the Paris Peace Conference and conversations have lied low and binding in the serene hallways of international memory.

Let there be talks. Outgoing Sadc Chairman Dr Hage Geingob said let there be talks. Talks not designed to create a winner and a loser; Talks to find how Zimbabwe can win. The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and its cousin the Zimbabwe Council of Churches have echoed each other on the need for national dialogue. So has Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi.

Let there be talks. Talks about winners and losers are not talks, they are competitions. Not every loser celebrates with the winner. Neither does every winner commiserate with the loser. Let there be conversations. Let valleys be in conversations with hills; hills with hillets and rivers with rivulets. Voters want talks. They have voluntarily surrendered the power of their vote. That is a huge sacrifice.

Talks are more powerful than tanks. Let the mouth lead the gun. The gun knows no language. Talks before guns bring everything to finality. Talks after guns remain wailing echoes of inextinguishable agony and generational pain. Let there be conversation; Conversation between Devure and Gonawapotera. Zimbabwean children want conversations, not conversions. Let there not be a new game in town, a new game of political talkmanship.

Let there be talks in Bhalagwe. Talks save a billion dollars. Conversations are not expensive, guns and tanks are. Let Tsholotsho speak to Mutiusinazita. Let conversations flow from Mapungubwe to Chirorodziva.

Let there NOT be political dialogue. We do not need it. We WANT national dialogue. Politics is all about losers and winners. We do not need a competition. We want one winner but no loser. We want Zimbabwe to win. And win it must.

Consensus is worthier than winning. Winning produces losers. We do not want anyone to lose. Winning and losing produces hostilities. Malaysia is this year abolishing examinations in schools. Exams are all about competition. The knowledge acquisition process must not be a competition. Not every competition has fair rules. Let the class’ objective remain the pursuit of knowledge. So should be national matters.

National leadership matters must not be solved through competitions. They must be solved by a consensus building process.

Let there be conversations. Conversations are soul searching. They bring the best of what there is.

National conversations are like a personal meditation. Let Zimbabwe meditate. Politics is not worth any citizen’s blood. Let there be conversations. The tongue is the biggest weapon. It can destroy wars and replace them with seas of peace. Conversations need no technologies, armouries, warehouses and watchmen. Conversations are the fortress of peace and development.

Let there be conversations. Mankind started with conversations . . . Let’s make man in our own image.

Procreation starts with conversations . . . I love you . . . will you marry me? I do, I do! Let there be conversations. Let the conversations speak about leadership and not politics. Politics has poisoned Africa, in pursuit of an elusive dream called democracy. Let there be consensus. Africa survives on consensus and not competition. Let there be conversations; conversations more on future generations than present or past generations. We owe the future to our descendants and the present to our ancestors.

Let Zimbabwe speak to find itself. Let there be conversations!