A nation locked in negativism

A nation locked in negativism

• Zimbabwe's scattered marriages

• Now recruiting: traditional healers and prophets

• The double life of exiled Zimbabweans

By Norah Spie

I BELIEVE in God but I often wonder why he lets some people suffer so much while others seem to have it all.

Once, when I asked why that was the case, I was told that God knows that the people who face difficulties are strong enough to handle it. If that is the case, then I don't want to be on the strong side! But then again, we don't get to choose which side we want to be.

Having said that, I am convinced Africans were created to be extremely strong human beings, both emotionally and physically because we have seen it all: natural disasters, corrupt governments, colonisation, civil wars, famine, killer diseases, the list is endless. And yet despite all this, Africans are still warm, loving people full of fun and hope.

So why then do we pull ourselves down? We have enough enemies -- that goes without saying. Recent history and individual memory is littered with stories of Zimbabweans betraying others, especially in foreign countries. Is it being naive to assume that fellow countrymen should unite especially if they are so far from home?

As a nation, we are very competitive. That cannot be a bad thing surely, as it encourages individuals to dig deep inside themselves and produce nothing but the best. But a problem develops when competitiveness mutates into selfishness.

I would have thought that it’s better to lose to a brother than to a stranger. Zimbabwe has a clear class system (or at least it used to). Everyone knew their place, but now because of migration, people who would have never met in Zimbabwe are now finding themselves competing for the same things abroad.

Some still have the superior complex in an environment which reduces all to the same level. Then there are those that never dreamt of having a semi-luxurious life and now find themselves flying high and their heads start to get big. This has produced a whole new type of players in an unknown territory.

Furthermore, we are finding ourselves in competition with other nationalities. If you don't know much about a person, it’s hard to bring them down. This possibly explains why Zimbabweans would rather engage in a sport of pulling down other Zimbabweans.

I had a chance meeting with a British man who works with a number of Zimbabweans at a factory outside London. He says we are very nice people but not to each other. Even the British authorities now know that if you want to get a Zimbabwean, you send a Zimbabwean. How pathetic is that?

This problem is so bad that they should consider handing out booklets on 'How to behave abroad' when people are leaving the country! It is a known fact that populations of other countries now resent us as a group too. Top of the list are South Africa, Botswana and the U.K.

Do people like Tinashe Rioga -- the student who attempted to hijack a plane in South Africa -- cast us in bad light with the rest of the world? It is human nature to easily forget the good but hold on to the bad. I'm sure if you ask locals in Cape Town about Zimbabweans, the Rioga story is all they will remember.

Police in South Africa were celebrating this week after catching the man they called, “a notorious Zimbabwean car hijacker.” Even Zambians don't want us anymore! This means we only have each other (and the Chinese!).

I am not denying that we have our fair share of people who go astray like notorious armed robber Edgar Masendeke, but they are the minority. Recently in the U.K, we had another negative headline about a Zimbabwean who allegedly spread HIV to unsuspecting lovers. That was after we had just recovered from the story of the asylum cheat, Joseph Dzumbira, who took payments with false promises of getting people asylum. I can understand why other nationalities could easily choose to hate us but it is more among ourselves.

Some people I spoke to said colonisation is partly to blame. They say the white man used to encourage negative competitiveness and rewarded those who reported others in order to get a step up the ladder. Most black people were working in farms and the colonial masters created an atmosphere that made us want to attack one another in order to gain favours from the boss. Has this seed grown among us? In recent years after the collapse of our economy, I thought we had managed to restrain ourselves to avoid civil war like what happened to countries like Mozambique, Angola, DRC and Sudan.

As hard working and educated people – most of us are -- we have moved in and literally taken over in countries like Botswana and of course that is set to raise some resentment. Maybe what goes around comes around. Remember how we used to treat people from Malawi and Mozambique who were trying to make a better living for themselves in our bread-basket, gold plated, mineral infested, tobacco giant, tourism haven that was Zimbabwe? Oh yes! It seems like a lifetime ago, but we were generally hostile to those people and now it’s our turn to taste the medicine.

There are a lot of Zimbabweans doing us proud worldwide -- footballers, musicians, academics and so on. If you talk to these people, they will tell you that they suffered a great deal of hostility abroad from fellow Zimbabweans. Constructive criticism can help one to improve on weaker areas but we find there is a lot of harsh criticism which does nothing but destroy.

You only have to visit some online forums and see how far some of us will go to spread hate about certain people trying to do their thing. From Peter Ndlovu to Sandra Ndebele to Oliver Mtukudzi, it is constant bashing. Positive thinking attracts positive things. We ought to give our people support to encourage the younger generation, or else we are just going to end being a nation locked in negativism.

For those who are hated so much, please take comfort in knowing that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. When you hate, that means there is an element of passion but when someone feels indifferent towards you, then that is a cause of concern!
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Last week I started something that unfortunately, I cannot finish. My aim is to write about thought-provoking issues but it does not mean I have all the answers. Many thanks to all those who wrote to me as you made me realise that the article was just touching on the tip of the iceberg. I will try to come back to the broken relationships issue after I do a bit more groundwork. In the meantime, stay positive.

Norah Spie's new weekly column appears here every Wednesday. You can e-mail her at n_spie@hotmail.com. Her new book, Parallel Lines, is available at many good bookshops and you can also order it online from AMAZON

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