Rediscovering our moral compass can spur change

Rediscovering our moral compass can spur change

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By Tendai Huchu
Posted to the web: 13/05/2009 02:02:16
THERE is a direct correlation between the decline in moral standards and Zimbabwe’s current socio-economic predicament. All spheres of public life are now dangerously polluted with vice and decadence which has wider ramifications to the nation as a whole.

Zimbabwe’s moral norms are a mash of Christian values and traditional African values all mixed up with the cultural leftovers from British colonialism. The current state of affairs is a betrayal of all those values, and the effects are plain for all to see.

The African values that shape the upbringing of most Zimbabweans above all else emphasise the supremacy of the community over individual desires. The individual is seen as an important unit of a larger more complete whole.

The individual was always defined in relation to his extended family and ancestral blood ties. In this, an individual’s efforts are always directed toward the greater good of his community as a whole. This ethos emphasises respect for ones elders and by extension all figures of authority.

Those figures of authority must be seen to respect the rights of the community. But when people die of cholera en masse, children lose parents to HIV/AIDS, adults can’t find work and those who protest their conditions are tortured or killed, then one has to doubt that the leaders still subscribe to those ancient African traditional ethics.

Their individual desires have supplanted the communal good. Perhaps this is a result of the fact that traditionally, the power of a chief extended to people in close proximity both spatially and by blood ties. Could it be that Zimbabwe’s modern leaders locked up in their mansions and driving their Mercedes can no longer relate to their fellow man on the street walking about on an empty stomach?

These African values though have largely been superseded by the Christian values brought initially by the missionaries but which over time have become encoded into the nation’s DNA.

These values emphasise virtue, honesty and truth with the ultimate belief that at the end of this life, we shall all be judged and punished or rewarded according to how we live our lives here on earth. The central theme of the Christian message is love,

Love others as you love yourself

The dignity of human life is a central and recurrent theme in the Christian faith and the Bible is awash with examples of how God punishes leaders who abandon His path.

Zimbabwe’s Christian exterior is just a front and merely a superficial whitewash on an immoral state. The corruption of the nation’s leaders has gone beyond repulsive and worse still they no longer care even to disguise it but flaunt it for the whole world to see.

Basic decency and self discipline are alien principles. It is widely known that many of the people in prominent positions have “small houses” or girlfriends on the side who are pampered with money pilfered from the taxpayer.

With people dying of cholera and hunger, obscene amounts are drawn from the central bank to fund foreign holidays and they don’t even bat an eyelid. This despite the fact that the President is a devout Catholic and every member of the cabinet belongs to one church or another. So much for Christian values!

It is mere simplification of the situation to point a finger at the politicians alone. What of those figures in the country to whom we should look up to for moral guidance?

An arch-critic of the government who appeared in his collar on various platforms many times and spoke on behalf of his flock, the Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, was exposed as an adulterer.

The Protestants have Pastor Admire Kasi and Ivy Kombo who shocked the nation by abandoning their spouses and formalising their illicit union. The list of examples goes on, many people complain about the luxury flaunted by the leaders of the ever-mushrooming evangelical churches.

This moral rot has consumed the entire nation and our HIV/AIDS statistics are one barometer by which we can measure just how deep this goes.

Another scar on our nation is the high levels of corruption, mainly bribery in the civil service and private sector. It is horrifying that a whole generation is being raised in Zimbabwe in the conditions where the abnormal seems to have become the norm.

A return to our central cultural values is a necessary element of Zimbabwe’s recovery. No amount of aid and regulations can ever substitute the need for decency and self discipline as a prerequisite for our advancement in our various capacities as leaders and citizens.
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