By Takura Zhangazha*
In Zimbabwe we rarely talk about the future. Our focus is at best on the present. Or even more callously the immediate. Almost as though our lives are defined by shrugging
our shoulders each day as it passes and helplessly waiting for the next
one.
There are many reasons for this. Not least among them the fact that our
political economy is highly individualistic.
And that individuals rarely think beyond themselves. Or at best beyond
their immediate families. All aided by the fact that our present day economic system
is designed in the same way with not only individualism as a preferred way of
living but also its accompanying materialism and consumerism.
We however do have a penchant to discuss the past as far as
it affects the immediate. And again at
very personal levels. For example a lot
of cdes are wont to discuss what occurred in the past as it relates to their
immediate material well-being. And often
times this is done on the basis of religion and assumptions of not being successful
or facing individual challenges because of a lack of one faith or the
other. And basing any assumptions of
individual futures on the same.
We rarely think of our collective national future in an
organic manner. Its either based on our
individual political preferences or even more stubborn assumptions or our individual
‘feelings’ as mediated by social media to 'algorithmically' point us to its owned preferred future.
However this is not unique to Zimbabwe. ‘Ephemeralism’ is now almost a universal given. As are assumptions of the significance of the individual as being most superior in
society.
What is important however is that we need to always consider
Zimbabwean futures beyond our individual concerns, material desires and ambitions. Mainly because where we think of the future with our own personal children in mind we can never run away from the reality that they too will live in one society or the other.
Be it in Zimbabwe or other countries where a decent number of parents continually, and
wrongly in my view, continue to encourage young Zimbabweans to depart to.
In discussing Zimbabwean futures we need to remind ourselves
of that key word, ‘posterity’. In whatever leadership positions we hold.
Wherever we hold them, we must understand that we never lead for ourselves but
for others. And particularly others that are already and will inevitably come after us.
It is therefore on this initial 'posterity' principle that we can then
understand that because the past informs the present as the latter does the
future, we can still imagine and try to predict our collective futures.
Whereas our own individual circumstances of existence may
have made us particularly sensitive to certain things such as political
repression, individual health, education, jobs, intellectualism and even gender
inequality, we are always obliged to think beyond our own experiences. And to
think for others and their betterment.
So what are Zimbabwe’s futures given our past and our
contemporary context?
In the political it is relatively apparent that we are
caught in a whirlwind of a lack of organic national consciousness. One in which
we are almost schizophrenic because of our divisions and our own lack of
national self confidence. It is a
dilemma that we run the risk of passing on to the next generation because in
many instances we cannot confront our collective historical realities. But be
that as it may our collective political future looks like it will most likely
be typically nationalist in identity but not necessarily in economics. Like a
number of other countries we will be captured by global political events and
discourse because of our penchant for mimicry/admiration of the global north
societies. We will likely move further away from Pan African discourse to a universalism
in which we will not recognize our inequality.
And sadly we will still pander to philosophies of life that are not
intended to make us universally equal.
On the economic front we are likely headed to neo-liberal
global integration and subservience to private capital. All based once again on our own individualist
materialism that suits the same said neoliberal economic frameworks. It may however suit us now to pursue this
path but it will most certainly not suit those that come after us because it essentially
creates a narcissistic value system that is unsustainable. Mainly because we
refuse to learn from history that existence is not singularly about our
consumption and enjoyment but also for future generations. But as the adage
goes, ‘the only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history.’
On the social front Zimbabwean society is likely to evolve,
based on our economics into even more individualism. Where almost everything including water,
education, health will eventually be pre-paid.
Not necessarily via a pre-paid meter but all the same via our own convoluted
sense of individual self-importance.
The signs are already there. And
the sings will remain with us for a while.
And we will rapidly urbanise our society so the rural folk are quite
literally living on borrowed time.
To conclude, writing this short blog was about my own
personal fear about Zimbabwe’s future. For my children and those of all of us.
It wasn’t intended as an intellectual exercise but just an abstract stream of
consciousness. Either way, we still need
to think about Zimbabwe’s future(s) in realistic ways.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
(takura-zhangazha.blgospot.com)
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