We must now arise

We all know what has gone wrong with our country and ourselves as a people. We know what we must do and I truly believe that we have all the capabilities and the resources to develop our nation to its full potential to the benefit of all born in it.

We cannot continue to accept the artificial divisions that have only served to diminish who we truly are while serving the selfish ends of those who claim to represent our interests but do nothing to further them. We must reject those limits that have been placed on us by Zanu (PF).

Our generation has the responsibility to create new possibilities for our country and our children. We are called to carry that burden because nobody else will do it for us. Zimbabwe belongs to all who live in it and those born in it – let none among us ever claim otherwise.

All of us have been complicit in shaping the circumstances that we now face and it is our duty to change those circumstances for the better. We have said a lot, hoped for much and wished for better times for far too long and yet we seem to have given the responsibility of building a better Zimbabwe to the wrong people. We can no longer do that.

The only people who can shape a better future is us, progressive, educated young Zimbabweans who have always imagined a modern country that is prosperous and underpinned by values that respect the dignity of all and their right to do all they can to live up to their full potential. This can only be possible if each and every one of us accepts the responsibilities that history now places on our lap.

That responsibility is not to accept poverty and lack as normal, it is not to accept that we can nothing to change our fate or that only a select few of us are entitled have the right to determine what we can become. We must reject that with all the contempt it deserves. I accept that this challenge that we face cannot be an easy one and that it requires sacrifice. The challenge to create the Zimbabwe we want and truly deserve requires all of us to rekindle that spirit of self-determination and self-belief and sacrifice. In order to do that, we must first look deeper inside our hearts and destroy those limits that we have created for ourselves.

We must also hurry to destroy within us the thrones that we have built for others and become the change that we want to see. It is only when we believe that we are greater and more powerful than we have imagined that we can begin to change Zimbabwe.

I accept that not all of us might have the inclination to take this responsibility, not all of us might be destined to sacrifice and change our circumstances. Not all of us may derive benefit from the change we must be instrumental in causing but there must be among us a few who know that it is their duty and purpose to guide this nation and its people on a different path than that taken by those who have come before us. We can shape our future only if we decide now to reject our present circumstances and act.

Zimbabwe is great nation indeed with its entire talented humble people and the natural resources that God has endowed upon our motherland; we cannot afford to ignore this fact for the sake of temporary comforts of inaction and apathy. Great societies are built out of adversity, great people emerge from suffering and I want to believe that the price we have paid is adequate for us to begin to create a better society.

In order to do that we cannot afford to be selfish and only concerned with our day-to-day living but we must embrace the opportunity to change our future. We need to take meaningful action now as a collective and for once put aside our personal fears.

If we do nothing, things will not change by themselves. In fact they will get worse as those in Zanu (PF) plan to impose a Mugabe dynasty. They are taking us for granted and assuming that only they must lead this country; we must fight that mentality.

Today might be their day, but tomorrow is ours. We must show them we are better men and women by what we stand for, how we choose to live and how we die. Sometimes the world is turned by the bravery and sacrifice of ordinary men and women who risk all in the cause of liberty justice; Zimbabwe needs such men and women now.

As Zimbabweans, we must now arise from the slumber of yesterday and do what we must. Our destiny is in our hands! – Vince Musewe is an economist and author based in Harare. You may contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com