Sundaymail Editor
Growing up as a kid in the village, one thing Bishop Lazi often found gratingly off-putting and uncomfortably invasive was the habit of rural folk to always politely “detain” and “interrogate” you to extract as much information as possible.
In this overt intelligence-gathering mission, they unfailingly made it a point to ask whose child you were, which invariably involved the ignominy of invoking your parents’ first names, and intimate details about your siblings, what they were doing, and any such useful intel.
By the time they were through, they would have wrung every ounce of information to satisfy their curiosity.
Weird enough, they would even capture your biometrics through studying both your footfall and footprint; worse, if you were in the habit of walking barefoot as most of us were wont to do. Kikikiki.
Time without number, small-time village crooks were given away by their distinctive footprints.
With time, however, the Bishop got to know that being the intimate and well-knit villages and communities that they were, most of this information was usually used to update genealogies, family trees and deepen relations.
Village elders were obsessed with both family and community relations and bonds.
It was, therefore, unsurprising that one of the most popular programmes on radio was “Zviziviso Zverufu/Izaziso Zemfa” on the now Radio Zimbabwe, which was called Radio 2 then.
Everyone knew that when it was on, they were duty-bound to put a sock in it, as the elders listened intently to the broadcast, always looking out for the name of a beloved relative or acquaintance.
Bishop Lazi would never forget the day his granny floored one of his nephews, who was quite a chatter box, with a ringing slap across the face after he ignored repeated warnings to zip it. Kikikiki.
So, in essence, the organic link that people had in communities also extended to the radio station, which naturally became an indispensable part of people’s lives.
The same can be said even today.
Radio Zimbabwe continues to command legions of listeners and followers across the length and breadth of this teapot country.
And this is not mere conjecture as it can be empirically proven.
An annual independent market research by the Zimbabwe All Media and Products Survey (ZAMPS) — an independent board mandated to monitor and undertake research — claims that the station spell-bindingly enjoys 51 percent of the market.
That is huge!
At one time, it was the goose that laid golden eggs for ZBC. The station’s DJs also enjoy rockstar status.
Which brings me to the crux of the Bishop’s homily.
You see, if you cannot easily recall the top five songs on Radio Zimbabwe’s 2021 Top 50 songs, then you cannot possibly claim to know anything about the anatomy of Zimbabwe’s body politic. For the record, DT Bio Mudimba’s Kujata jata was the listeners’ favourite, followed by Ray Bopoto’s Tsotso, Simon Mutambi’s Mr Ibu, Dorcas Moyo’s Bvisai Marara and Martin Sibanda’s Uyavuma.
You will be lying if you say you can pick these artistes from a crowd.
They are rarely seen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, yet their music remains immensely popular with the masses.
In fact, the odd musicians in the Top Ten, which also has names such as Romeo Gasa, Tryson Chimbetu and Tongai Moyo Jnr, are Mambo Dhuterere and Jah Prayzah. Kikikiki.
It was the same in 2020 when Mark Ngwazi won it after unleashing his scorcher Taurai Madzoka.
The dissimilarities between this Radio Zimbabwe list and the list from other radio stations that enjoy a captive urban audience is quite stark.
The fact that these artistes, the majority of who survive on live shows in relatively unfamiliar venues such as Gokwe, Chivi, Karoi, Mberengwa, Nyabira, Mhangura, growth points and mines, live fairly comfortable lifestyles than their urban counterparts is quite telling.
Do you still remember System Tazvida back in the day? The dude was so loaded that he could afford to support a football team, Chazezesa Pirates.
You see, popularity is all about numbers, which is the same with politics.
Harare is not Zimbabwe
It is small wonder some folks are always surprised when elections always produce unexpected results for them.
Do you remember how the opposition freaked out when ZANU PF’s Roy Bhila of Chiredzi North amassed a hefty 35 893 votes in 2018, which is roughly the same number of people that can fit in Rufaro Stadium.
This pattern was also replicated in constituencies around the country such as Mhangura, where Precious Chinhamo Masango garnered 26 072 votes against 3 466 polled by MDC-Alliance’s Garikai Gorejena, including Chakari and Muzvezve.
Rigging claims that are often made by the opposition are a wishful fantasy to try to ineffectually convince themselves that voters cannot possibly support ZANU PF.
Yet they actually do.
It has to be appreciated and accepted that people’s experiences, preferences, likes, dislikes, beliefs, religions, worldview and lived realities are different.
1 Corinthians 12:12 reminds us that “the body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body.”
The greatest strategic mistake that is often made by political parties that heavily lean on urban constituencies is to think that cities and towns are the sun around which all planets orbit, which is clearly not the case.
Just as Harare is not Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe is not Harare, there is a diverse and unique world out there that has to be experienced in order to be appreciated.
Its content and character is equally diverse and unique. It is part of the strand that weaves the colourful tapestry of what we come to know as beautiful Zimbabwe.
However, this is not peculiar to Zimbabwe.
The Bishop always chuckles when he hears talk that ZANU PF has been reduced to a predominantly rural party — if there is any such thing at all. Of course, the import of such a supposition is to regard the liberation party as an unsophisticated entity that is no longer fit to govern supposedly urbane voters.
What a load of bullcrap!
They forget or actually do not know that the Republican Party in America is often carried by the rural vote.
Donald Trump, for example, managed to land the top job in America after garnering 62 percent of the rural vote in 2016.
This was marginally better than the 60 percent which got George Bush Jnr to the White House in 2000.
Try as much as they can, Democrats cannot seem to connect with this key constituency.
Even at the peak of his powers, Barack Obama, who is regarded as one of the most popular Democratic Party presidents because of his oratory skills and charisma, only managed to win 452 of the 2 135 rural counties in 2008.
This fell to 328 counties in 2012.
Hillary Clinton was worse, as she only managed 194 in 2016 when she was trounced by Trump. Although Joe Biden triumphed in the recent elections, he had roughly the same share of rural counties as Clinton.
One can hazard to say this is the same predicament that the opposition in Zimbabwe, in all its manifestations, finds itself in, as it increasingly struggles to connect with the rural folk, who have always been historically and organically linked to ZANU PF’s philosophy, ideology and ethos.
But every time before elections, we are told how rural areas are switching to the opposition.
You should see the poor attempt at propaganda by Hopewell Chin’ono, who abuses his cover as a supposed journalist to launder commissariat work for Nelson Chamisa, as he drives the narrative that rural voters are abandoning the ruling party.
“There is a ruling party which was in trouble in Murewa (He cannot even tell the difference between Murehwa and Murewa).
“Its supporters walked out today as its leaders were addressing a gathering which was meant to be a clean up (poor punctuation, it had to be hyphenated to clean-up).
“Citizens are tired of the old lies that they have been fed for 41 years!
“Villagers want jobs not handouts!” he tweeted from the comfort of his home in Harare on Friday.
Well, lies run sprints; the truth runs marathon. No matter how many times a lie is told it can never be the truth.
These people seem to be trapped in their own echo chamber.
They must not be shocked when the votes are counted in 2023.
Bishop out!
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter