adminFredrick Qaphelani Mabikwa Successful Solutions
Continued from last week
The big man couldn’t have had his body seen put in such a hut to lie in state.
This “I can’t be seen …” philosophy comes to an end when we lose our jobs in the city, when our businesses fail to perform and in a worst case scenario when we die. Now you are dead. What are you worth? Is there an estate to talk about? What is there for the children to inherit? Do your children have a roof over their heads and some source of income to continue with their education? All those things you were saying you can’t be seen doing, we the living start seeing your family doing them and it is sad because you are gone. Your family relocates to that high density surburb you were saying you can’t be seen staying. They will be lucky to relocate to that high density surburb. In another case I know, they moved straight from the house in the low density areas to the rural areas. Now your children start going to those schools you were saying they can’t be seen going there, they start eating that food you were saying they can’t be seen eating. Your dogs, we can’t even mention, they now eat from the dust bins. Your girlfriend moves out of the flat you were renting, she is a closed chapter.
We are lucky in Africa, to be privileged to be allowed to own two homes, a rural and an urban home. Our law presupposes that every black Zimbabwean should come from a rural area. Those of us who are privileged to have both or at least one parent still alive and are in the rural areas (or cities), can we confidently say that we are taking care of our old people? Why are we not heard saying “My parents cannot be seen…?”Half the time the old people are struggling in the rural areas and surviving purely on God’s grace and we are busy in the urban areas speaking the Queen’s language “I can’t be seen…”The Queen’s language which we learnt in school when the same parents wearing rags at our burial had sold almost all their livestock to send us to school.
As Zimbos we cannot run away from the fact that the majority of us have strong rural attachments, “strong rural backgrounds”. I remember at the University of Zimbabwe in the 80s and 90s most of us were referred to as SRBs (strong rural background) by those students who had come from affluent schools and spoke the Queen’s language through the nose.
There is need to keep our lifeline with the rural backgrounds strong. If you can, why not have your own rural home apart from that of your parents? The Government is giving land to everyone. If you can’t have your own rural home, why not have a decent house in your father’s homestead and also build the old parents a decent house as well. So that even if we are forced to visit your rural home for any reason, we really find that you are organised, so that we can see you are the real you. I know of a certain gentleman who when his workmates went to bury his mother, he moved the funeral to his elder brother’s homestead because he couldn’t have his colleagues see where his mother was staying. This is really sad and we are busy in the city saying “We can’t be seen…”
You find a 50 year-old-man is dressed like a teenager, in the company of teenagers and speaking their language saying “What’s Up, What’s Up…”.You ask yourself but “Why?” They are driving a big car and where ever they go in the city everyone is saying “nice car, nice car…”Do you eat a nice car, can your family sleep in a nice car? I used to think maturity comes with age; no it doesn’t, as I am saying I have seen 50 year old “teenagers” who still think a car is an investment.
For those who partake of the “wise waters”, a man says they can’t be seen drinking at …., yet that is exactly where they belong. He follows the rich in a five star hotel after pay day and only drinks there for a few days and ALL his money is finished. He disappears to borrow and reappears again after borrowing and he finds the rich still drinking. He finishes the borrowed money and disappears again…why kill yourself… just to be thought and seen as rich? Why not just go where you belong? The man buys some cheap brandy and pours it in a bottle of an expensive whisky and goes about showing people (especially the girls) that he is drinking an expensive whisky. You know you are drinking thathankawu but you pose as if you are drinking an expensive whisky, this drama, performance fit for Theatre.
In these times of a world recession, which has not spared Zimbabwe, it is important to for us to be realistic about who we are and lead simple lives, lives that can allow us to at least keep our heads over the water while we wait for the current situation to improve. We cannot afford borrowed luxury in this day and age. We cannot afford to be extravagant with our finances. We cannot afford to be staging pieces of high school drama in the city while our people are languishing in poverty in the rural areas. We cannot afford to live for other people, to lead unrealistic lives, going about saying “I can’t be seen…” so that people view us with a certain lens. There is need for us to be realistic and practical about our lives.
So us, who can still see, let’s be seen doing the right things in those places that we should be seen.
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