adminjostle for her affection by all unattached men.
After a lengthy assessment of prospective suitors, the girl narrowed her choice to two boys — one from her home area and another upstream from her village.
Both had figured out that the entry point to the girl’s heart was mango, which she craved so much. To the girl, the choice was simple. Whoever guaranteed her a constant supply of mango wins her hand in marriage.
The local boy did not take long to come up with a solution, one that guaranteed a constant, abundant supply of mango and ensured that the girl would never worry about interrupted supplies in future.
He offered to plant an acre of mango trees at their homestead if they married.
That way, the girl would have guaranteed supplies whenever the fruit was in season. But his plan had two critical weaknesses. One, it was a drought year and so the orchard he planned would not easily establish.
The village upstream was also hostile and had diverted waters, depriving his village downstream of the precious liquid. Irrigating the orchard was, therefore, going to be problematic.
But the main weakness of the local boy’s plan was its long-term nature. It was going to be years before the first fruit became available from his orchard and he was unsure the girl would agree to wait that long.
The other suitor from the village upstream whom the girl had also short-listed came up with a supply plan which was the opposite of that of the local boy.
Mango grew abundantly in his village and there was plenty at his parent’s homestead, thanks in part to sufficient watering from diverted waters. The fruit was particularly juicy. And, unlike the local boy, he offered immediate supplies from his upstream village and in future to be regularly collecting the fruit from his parents for the girl.
The girl was confounded and spoilt for choice after the two suitors made their “bids” for her hand in marriage. She decided, wisely, to seek her grandmother’s counsel and guidance on the most important decision of her life.
The girl was amazed how the granny easily “unlocked” what had looked an insurmountable puzzle. “The local boy has a history with us. We know his roots. And by planting mango trees in your homestead, he is offering you guaranteed supplies on a long-term basis. He is, in fact, empowering you as far as the supply of mango is concerned,” the grandmother told the girl.
“On the other hand, the boy from the village upstream may be offering juicy mango immediately, but he comes from a people that are traditionally hostile to us. His people have diverted water from our village, for example and there is no guarantee this will change once you marry him,” the old woman noted.
“Besides, this boy’s proposal does not empower you as far as the supply of mango is concerned. Supplies will still be coming from his village and this will be at the whim of his family and people.”
Like the young girl, Zimbabwe stands at the cross roads in the upcoming general election slated for early next year. In the polls, the choice is also narrowed to two parties — Zanu-PF, which fits the description of the local boy and the MDC-T, which resembles the boy from the village upstream.
Zanu-PF has both history and roots, and is offering full empowerment through land reform and indigenisation. The former is accomplished and the party is now seeking a new mandate in the election to push through the latter.
But the party’s plans, like the local boy’s orchard, will not bear fruit immediately. In part this is because the country is under sanctions meant to frustrate Zanu-PF’s economic empowerment agenda, the same way the upstream community diverted water from the girl’s village. The West, standing in for the hostile village upstream, has withdrawn investment, critical balance of payment support and access to bilateral and multilateral credit facilities, to mention, but a few, from Zimbabwe as punishment for land reform and indigenisation.
But in the long-term, Zanu-PF’s plans will bear fruit. And with land reform and indigenisation, Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans will be fully independent, and economically empowered. On the other hand, the MDC-T is offering Juice, short hand for Jobs, Upliftment, Investment, Capital and Environment.
It promises to offer these in choking abundance once elected, a massive one million formal jobs, for example.
But the promised national “upliftment” is anchored on the benevolence of the traditionally hostile West — something the grandmother advised the girl against falling for, however juicy this tastes or appears.
Third world history, especially the African component, shows surrendering control of the pace and levers of national “upliftment” to foreign benefactors is fatally flawed. Yet Juice is naively premised on Western “philanthropy”.
Substantial national interests would have to be “traded-off” for Juice, and this, certainly, will not be juicy for Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans. — New Ziana.
Online Reporter