Teaching the Future : The Importance of Young Teachers in Advancing the Pan Africanist Agenda in Zimbabwe

 By Takura Zhangazha*

A Presentation to the Young Teachers Association of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe

15 December 2023.

ZESA Training Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Dear Cde Young Teachers of the Progressive Teachers Union (PTUZ),

Let me begin by thanking you for inviting me to this important gathering which you are holding under the theme, “Young Teachers, The Bedrock of a Credible Teaching Profession” with the subtheme that I have been asked to hold a brief discussion about concerning, “The Importance of Young Teachers in Advancing the Pan Africanist Agenda”. 

Before I go into the brief presentation I have been asked to make, I must thank Cde Ray Majongwe the Secretary General of the PTUZ and Cde Takavafira Zhou, PTUZ president and also  the general leadership of the PTUZ for not only remaining true to their unionism on behalf of the teaching profession but also being even truer to what I am certain are their progressive ideological values.  The latter values being those I am certain you share or else you would not be part of this meeting. 

Let me begin my brief presentation with a few historical pointers.   The teaching profession is one of the most liberatory professions in Zimbabwe.  Never mind that it has be denigrated in various circles and undermined by various post-independence governments’ and neo-liberal political economics in recent years.

 It is as you say, the ‘bedrock’ of what is and can be a progressive national consciousness.  Most of our nationalist leaders and also those that left schools to become guerrillas knew that the one thing that was always important was the passing on of again, progressive knowledge through the practice of teaching.

Teaching was one of the most radically conscious professions of any African liberation struggle.  And it remained so even after our national independence.  As trade unionists you would understand this better than I do. 

It was the teacher who always brought new knowledge to a remote or marginalised community.  The one who taught young Zimbabweans to read and discern.

 It was also the teacher who was the most recognised intellectual in a village or ghetto (with or without the money) and the one who would eventually disrupt repressive colonial discourses to lead to a new national consciousness among the youth, the middle aged worker and the old. 

Hence the still revered and indefatigable term, “Mwalimu” in Swahili.  Whether in reference to the great African Julius Nyerere or in our own Zimbabwean context, just “teacher” and how he/she would make us quake in our bare feet about a pending punishment for underperforming in one form or the other.

So the teaching profession that you have chosen, for various personal reasons is almost a calling, an historical national consciousness vocation.  And let no one lie to you about this. Even though I know that the aforementioned issues may appear abstract to trade unionists, they remain an historical fact.  

Members of the teaching profession are the bedrock of our national consciousness.  Second only to our mothers and sisters in our African contexts. 

I know as young teachers you have conversations about the material benefits of your profession. Your salaries and other benefits. Or whether you bought a stand, a flat, solar panels or cattle.  It is completely understandable.  But even if you did not want it or will it, you are the contemporary bedrock of our national consciousness. 

You teach young Zimbabweans how to perceive, behave and realise success in life at an early age.   Even if in a good number of cases you get disappointed in things that are beyond your control such as family issues and also monetary/economic considerations of what was once your brightest student. 

But let me quickly get back to the agreed discussion  point. This being the teaching profession and what we now refer to as Pan Africanism (thanks to our own organic historical struggles against colonialism and neo-imperialism) 

There are few revered nationalists on the African continent who did not either start off with teaching or who did not eventually end up teaching in our refugee or training camps. 

As most of you based on your own post-independence theoretical or philosophical training may know, there was a left leaning cde called Paulo Freire who taught us what he referred to as the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. It was not only a revolutionary teaching philosophy but also one that has stood the test of time.  In this, we are all historical beings, and who better to pursue and teach that understanding than young teachers themselves!

You teach in order to let others become free of ignorance!

Not only an ignorance of letters and figures but also to free our pupils and students of an ignorance of organic historical consciousness. 

So when you are asked about Pan Africanism and teaching there are at least two key elements that you must always bear in mind. You are not only teaching mathematics, accounts, business studies, geography, agriculture, history, economics or general science. You are teaching the future. 

And let me briefly explain what I mean by “teaching the future.” The knowledge that you have, that you will also have as you further your own studies and stations in life, is knowledge that is perpetually not your own to keep. 

In your profession, in your unionism, you know that it has to be passed on.  Even if you were not adequately rewarded for it.  It is unavoidable.  As a teacher, young or old, the raison’ de ’etre of your work is essentially to pass on and create knowledge to the best of your ability. 

Let me turn to Pan Africanism as a concept as advised by the organisers. It is both geographical and more significantly ideological. By this I mean that indees you are physically in Africa but it does not mean you exude Pan Africanist consciousness. The latter is all about intellectual and cultural fortitude of what it means to be African. And what you infuse in your work about being African. 

Locations of where you teach remains important. But what you teach is even more important. Young African cdes need, want to be infused with their own African being. 

The teacher is therefore a harbinger of historical knowledge about African being and African identity. But as alluded to earlier, the teacher is also like a weather forecaster about what the future holds. 

The specifically young teacher in the contemporary has a lot more pressures beyond patriotism and nationalism.  Both at a personal and a professional level.

But the default Pan Africanist knowledge in the young teacher is also about contextual presence, being, analysis and foresight. 

You have to ask yourself, “ Why do we teach?Is it only for the money or for a newer Pan African Educational Consciousness?”

 Indeed teaching is a profession but it remains beyond meagre salaries.  I know some of you young cdes want to quit it to pursue for example care work abroad.  But even in your departure your students look up to and  yearn for your knowledge and expertise. 

Yours is a noble profession.  It is a profession that helps shape Zimbabwe’s future.  Even if you are in the deepest of a rural area. You matter.  Never forget that.

Let me conclude my brief remarks by way of encouragement. Times are tough in the teaching profession.  They may even get tougher.  Hold fast to the future.  You are always going to be organic to this country and its future.

I will end with a Marechera quote about teaching.  He was asked why he does not want to be a teacher.  He replied, and I am paraphrasing here, “I would not want the next generations’ mistakes on my conscience”.

If you read and understand between the lines, what Marechera recognised was the historical burden you have on your shoulders. Even when you are frustrated, dissapointed, keep at it. 

Young teacher cdes, you will rise. I am confident. Believe in your work and the future of Zimbabwe. 

*Takura Zhangazha presented here in his own personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)

 

 

 

 

Why Zimbabwe’s Global Narrative/Story Appears Negatively Set in Stone.

 By Takura Zhangazha*

I have on occasion grimaced in international fora when Zimbabwe is mentioned.  Or when watching a media programme about any new developments that will have occurred in the country.   From a cholera outbreak, to a naturally occurring tropical cyclone, a general election or even a visit by one or the other international celebrity. 

This is mainly because Zimbabwe’s narrative and placement in global discourse appears to be set in stone. 

Its without doubt a negative narrative.  One that is neither preferable nor always truthful.  But one that has become somewhat almost run of the course, pre-ordained perception of what our country was, is and will ‘inevitably’ be.  Unless specific and somewhat pre-approved  ‘things’ or ‘events’ happen in it.   Especially as they relate to our recent history. Be it in relation to the globally derided fast track land reform programme (FTLRP), our continually contested general elections and as with many other countries on the African continent, a perceived failure to meet the requirements of a global capitalist economy. 

Our narrative in global spaces however remains particularly unique.  We pop up in narratives of failed states as though one cannot land an aeroplane at Robert Mugabe International airport. Or stories about cholera outbreaks that have a unique angle to them when it comes to Zimbabwe when this is clearly a general sub-regional problem with the same occurring in neighboring countries.  

Never mind stories about our Diaspora when again, across the whole African continent we have very serious problems with emigration to the global north where it is now increasingly clear we are not wanted.  Even, in some cases, for the cheapest of our labours.  All the while losing precious lives in the Sahel or in the Mediterranean sea on what are more perilous journeys than a flight via Dubai to Europe or North America. Or an illegal crossing of the Limpopo river to South Africa.

Even when we crosscheck how the Zimbabwe story is perceived by those that are our neighbors such as South Africa, they also look at us through lenses that assume a Conradian ‘darkness’ about us.  Even as they lynch us.  While this also happens to other African brothers and sisters living and working in South Africa, we, thanks to social media, generally get falsely blamed for issues we have no inkling about. 

The key question is why does this narrative persist?  Moreso when we have one of the most neo-liberal governments since 1980 under the present Zanu Pf leadership of Emmerson Mnangagwa. The latter has been attempting to tick all the neoliberal boxes as it were under his engagement and re-engagement policies.  Something that it appears private global capital appears not to have a major problem with.  Except where and when it comes to political matters such as elections, human rights- and where it concerns in particular the human right to private property. 

So the first reason why Zimbabwe’s narrative in the global arena will probably not change in the lifetime of persons my age is because of the fact that our country defied that one most seemingly sacrosanct right to private property with the FTLRP.  And also former president Mugabe’s ‘indigenization’ economic policy.  Hence we now have a national ‘compensation’ policy for former white farmers.  And also a courting from the highest national levels of global financialised private capital into our mining industry in a relatively clumsy attempt at ‘normalisation’ of the national political economy.  I use the term ‘clumsy’ here because it is a mixture of nationalism and profit, two elements that in a globalized economy are not good bedfellows.

The second reason why our negative narrative persists is because it has become almost a given culture when people in power in the global north look derisively at African and/or global south states that they definitively do not agree with ideologically or in some cases, historically.  Or at least those that will not side with them.  Be it in favour of their erstwhile rivals such as China, Russia or any of the left leaning governments of South America. 

And this is where the global media comes into the mix.  Zimbabwe has been lumped with almost propagandistic comparisons with countries where there has been or is existent outright conflict/war.  So much so that when you watch cable television or view clips on social media you ask yourself, “How am I still in this country?”  Yet there are still millions of us here. With variegated understandings of our own existence and futures.  But no, we are not dying in numbers or in the equivalent of concentration camps that we are now clearly seeing in some parts of the Middle East.

The third and final reason why our house of stone’s narrative appears set in stone, is that in most cases, out of general naivety, we will it on ourselves.  In contrast to the rebelliousness that for example Fanon and Biko among many others so desired. It is regrettably almost as though a good number of influencers want this negative narrative on Zimbabwe.  Even where it has no factual basis but fits a specific twenty-plus year narrative. 

You may ask is there a contrary narrative to what obtains.  My answer is yes.  It is a narrative that relates to facts and not what you feel you want to hear.  Zimbabwe is not by any stretch of comparison a ‘failed state’.  It is not at ‘war’.  We need to counter these ‘set in stone’ narratives. We may not be up there in terms of various neoliberal global indices, but we will be alright.

I will end with an anecdotal comment.  Upon arriving in the United Kingdom in the early 2000s, a British cde asked me if we had an airport back at home.  I asked him why? He said based on what he had seen on the media and heard from his local MP and the asylum seekers, he thought I had arrived by ship from Zimbabwe! I replied, no I came on British Airways.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his own personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)   

 

 

 

 

 

Belief, Passion and a Newfound Functionalism in Zimbabwe.

By Takura Zhangazha*

On occasion you get asked the awkward question, “What do you believe in?”  In most cases this is a question that relates to religion and religious affiliation.   With an assumption that religion is largely Christian in Zimbabwe the question also has connotations about which version of the same religion do you follow.  With the caveat question, “Why”?

You rarely get asked about any other forms of belief. Or derided if you indicate that this is a private matter that requires no personal intrusion or judgement. 

You may also get asked, on rare occasions, your political beliefs.  In relation to which party you support, and again also, why?  Most Zimbabweans choose to wait for their day at the ballot box and depending on the result and their happiness or sadness it is easier to discern after the electoral event.  But again without having to explain why they hold specific political beliefs if they can be called that at all. 

In all likelihood, when it comes to political beliefs, these mutate into “political passions”.  Motivated more by either personal experience or by following fashionable populist political opinions as they occur.  Or as they relate to available electoral leadership positions (council, Parliament and even the Presidency). They are rarely about any organic ideological persuasions.  At best and only by default they mirror and mimic culturally popular ones that will for example laud big business while at the same time not realizing that a majority of our major global or local wars stem from the cultural, political and military industrial complex as controlled by global superpowers.

But this does not just apply to political ‘passions’ as it were.  It also applies to personal and materialist desires.  The car, the house, the job, the individual family recognized ladder of success that one has achieved contributes to your own understanding of “passion”.  Or things that you are willing to either personally fight for in multiple social conversations or attend an online convoluted and neoliberal motivational speech about.  Even if the latter ‘motivation’  is as racist and ‘mimicry’ driven as they come. 

It is when you combine both your abstract beliefs and mutative passions that they then become functional.  And I use the term “functional” in a very sociological and socio-psychological sense (crosscheck Emile Durkheim on this one.)   That is when both of these, your abstract religious or other superficial beliefs and passions serve to make you a somewhat ‘normal’ human being.

Where one who shares these beliefs and passions through the gaze and cultural practice of those that you either value the most or those that you envy in relation to their, again, assumed measurements of societal success.  Be it in your local church, where your kids go to school, what your work boss recognizes/affirms about you and your salary or what your extended family values the most about your capacity to get things done.  Even what your friends think is the best societal practice about being successful.  Not only material success but the way in which you should think, act, behave and interact with those that are like minded.  

In my view, Zimbabwe is now what one can call a “functionalist” society.  This is in the social, political, economic and probably socio-psychological sense.

It is almost as though everything must sort of fit together in a specific way.  Your beliefs (mainly religious), your passions (mainly emotive political/ politicized and economic status anger) and how all of this leads one into a functional mode of existence as a Zimbabwean.  In a comparative sense.  That is, checking out what it means to be as successful as your next door neighbor including how they again, have a car or multiple urban or other properties while affording to go private medical centres. Even at the height of the then Covid 19 pandemic.  Or oddly enough, which church they go to and its concomitance with material success.

It is a functionalism that creates a specific national ‘survival’ culture.  One that focuses more and more on the individual and less and less on collective well-being. Almost like arguing that anything we are doing, we are doing for our “own” children while forgetting that the same said “own” children will grow up and be part of a collective society, let alone a country with those that we will have neglected.    

There are therefore at least two issues that we need to reflect on about our long duree “functionalism” as Zimbabweans.  Indeed historically we have been through the worst of economic and political times with many pitfalls that have shaped our reaction to not only the state but to matters concerning our individual (and individual family) well-being.   We have had to live almost in a survival mode that has brought forth some of the most individualistic values of who we think we are or we can be as a country. From the rural to the urban, the middle to the working class and from the educated to the uneducated or even to those with proximity to the political and capitalist elite. 

We need to shed off the proverbial skin of “societal functionalism” and return to a value based progressive societal pragmatism that makes each life important and gives a fair opportunity for all.  Especially where it relates to basic social services such as education, health, transport, water and energy. 

And finally, we need to understand that we all have specific belief systems.  While we may want them to be individually self-definitive about our lifestyles and desires, unfortunately if they become “blind passions” they return us to being “functionalists”.  People who do not think beyond what they feel or who do not feel beyond what they consider their own personal experiences. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com) _