By Takura Zhangazha *
I am from Bikita, Masvingo province in
Zimbabwe. I was born there. But I grew up in Harare with the regular
school holiday visit during public holidays. As instructed and directed by my mother
and father.
Upon attaining adulthood and sort of passing my
Advanced Level courses and arriving at
the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) I did a Political Sciences course on the Theory and
Practice of Public Policy research project in Bikita.
I went to the Nyika growth point
satellite office for the Bikita Rural District Council and got the necessary
information for my short term study. And at the same time my father,
Teacher Francis Zhangazha was in a bank queue at the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB)
collecting his savings book recorded salary. We had met on a Tanda Tavaruva/Mhunga bus
that day. And happily accompanied each
other to Nyika growth point. And no he
did not buy me a beer that day.
This was in 1998 and also at least 7 years after my own father, his younger brother Ignatious Zhangazha had passed away. And where he had already decided (as my
mother explains) to be buried at his own homestead in Tamirepi village.
This was a homestead he had acquired via his
elder brother Teacher Franics Zhangazha who persuaded the local headman to give him and
now by defualt his children/us the land on which we can live without being questioned.
When my father passed my mother and
uncles kept the land for us. She did not have to but chose to do so.
We then inevitably grew up knowing
that Bikita is home. Even as we grew up in Harare. And went to Mission schools
that both our parents in their devout Catholicism valued greatly.
In this growing up we did not know
that the question of our rural and urban upbringing would come back to haunt
us. Not as a horror story that is seen in movies. But as a lived reality where
we are faced with the primary question of the fact that we are, as Zimbabweans,
saddled with a dual consciousness. And this is the key issue of the matter.
A majority of us black Zimbabweans are
rural by upbringing. And where we claim we are both combined urban and rural in
the minority, we still want to be urban. And be recognised for the material
success that comes with the same said urban success and recognition.
We are forgetting our own historical
realities of where we have come from. And who we are.
Including the fact of as is now
generally said in times of crisis (funerals) and even happiness (weddings), " ngatimirire
vakomana or vasikana vari Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo, Jonhi kana ku UK ne
Canada".
The key issue however is the fact of
the reality of our rural, urban and Diaspora contradictions.
With the key point being we have to
recognise our origins as important. No matter where we now are. And how
we cannot change that particular historical reality.
As alluded to earlier, I am from
Bikita. And I recognise that basic historical fact.
One that I cannot and do not want to
wish away. Even if I tried.
Just like a cde from Gokwe,
Tsholotsho, Nyanga or Gwanda cannot wish their historical realities and
existence away.
What however remains in focus is the
fact of balancing our rural life experiences with our urban and also Diaspora
ones.
When we read Charles Mungoshi's
"Waiting for the Rain". Or Dambudzo Marechera's "House of
Hunger" the prominent narratives were about the contradictions between the
urban, rural and colonially induced poverty and again contradictory national
consciousness induced by cultural colonialism.
What has since happened is the fact
that we cannot wish the 'rural' away. It's intrinsic to who we are as a
Zimbabwean people.
Even if colonially designed. And
countered by our national liberation struggle. And then reinforced by post
colonial education and administrative systems that oddly we are still using to
this day.
My conversations with the Zimbabwean
rural life are more aboit the recognti9n of colonial migration and how to
handle it.
Rural cdes are not at all dull. They
know who tbey are and they now how to handle their challenges with or without
central government.
To conclude I mentioned Bikita my own
rural home because I have an historical sense of belonging to it. Not only by having
been born there but because there are very many Zimbabweans that do not come
from the same historical background.
Our historical native reserves remain
intrinsic to who we are. Historically. But I have no idea what the future
holds.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his own personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com takurazhangazha.com
Takura Zhangazha
Email: kuurayiwa@gmail.com
Skype: kuurayiwa1
Blog: takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com
Twitter: @TakuraZhangazha
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