Tendai Ruben Mbofana
The scenes themselves were not what particularly attracted my attention – as almost every Zimbabwean is now accustomed to fetching water from boreholes as the ‘new normal’ in our country – ever since the economy has been in a free-fall for the better part of the past two decades, and the sight of running water in our homes now a distant memory.
Nonetheless, what struck me was the apparent joyful and carefree attitude of these people, as they went about their business, as if all was well.
In fact, judging from the celebrations we witness on state television – as residents of urban areas in many parts of Zimbabwe excitedly praise and thank President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa for the boreholes his administration is drilling – having these primitive and backward equipment in areas which previously had their own running water, but had since run dry, is something phenomenal and the work of brilliance.
Surely, how else can anyone explain it when crowds gather to ululate and sing jovially, as boreholes are commissioned in their towns and cities?
Yet, should these not be seriously disturbing scenes?
Does nature and common sense not dictate that, being reduced to fetching this life-giving precious liquid from bush pumps – when, we had water coming out of our homes taps, uninterrupted and reliably, even during the colonial era – should actually be a disgraceful sign of our lives and livelihoods being taken back to some bygone age?
This does not only apply to boreholes – but, transverse the entire spectrum of Zimbabwean life – with university graduates celebrating vending stalls, professional men and women overly glad finding accommodation as ‘lodgers’ or tenets in one or two rooms, or children growing up not knowing what a bacon and eggs breakfast looks like (but, only know having a small serving of porridge in the morning, which is expected to last them the whole day).
What is so normal about that?
What is there to be so jubilant about – when the state president personally officiates at the opening of a clinic – since that would be the only ‘development’ (and, worth all the pomp and fanfare) in the country in a very long time?
Delivery of equipment and machinery for a single company is headline news on state media – heralded as a sign of the good times!
On this journey to Harare today, I found myself asking, ‘is it so easy to oppress people, and even making them so grateful of the most primitive and backward things in life – merely by making them suffer and allowing them to go through unbearable misery – and, then finally giving them some respite and something to be so thankful for…no matter how banal’?
I just imagined if I were to deny my son any food for an entire week – then, when he has reached a point of starvation and near death, I finally handed him a slice of stale bread.
Would he not regard me as the greatest Dad this world has ever seen?
Yet, in fact, I would be the most evil and cruel person – the devil incarnate himself – for even permitting, or orchestrating such harrowing pain and suffering upon my own flesh and blood, or anyone else for that matter.
How different is that from what we are witnessing in Zimbabwe – as the ordinary citizenry have been reduced to sorrowful pathetic paupers, wallowing in poverty, authored by the cold-hearted and savage hands of those in power in the country – yet, as they reach their most desperate point, the government throws them some boreholes, clinics, handouts, and so-called ’empowerment projects’ (in fact, largely turning university graduates into vendors, and artisanal gold miners)?
Is the Mnangagwa regime not deliberately impoverishing the people of Zimbabwe, in an effort to make the ruling elite appear as knights in shining armor – when they come in as saviors, ostensibly to the rescue of those whose misery they themselves designed?
What is even more troubling is how the poor and suffering have now been conditioned to regard the primitive backward livelihoods they have been reduced to, as some form of ‘development and progress’.
How can they not believe this misconception and lie, when a whole generation of Zimbabweans have grown up never having ever laid their eyes on a functional manufacturing industry, or a freight train ferrying raw materials or massive finished good, or a new skyscraper going up, or an interchange or road being constructed?
That is why a block of two or three classrooms – built out of farm bricks, without any electricity or running water – is now a thing of delight and pride in Zimbabwe!
For them, anything is ‘development and progress’ – as everything is new to them, even if it is the most basic of what is expected of any country.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, researcher, and social commentator. Please feel free to contact him on WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or Calls Only: +263788897936, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com