Author Archives: zen

It’s 2007. The economy of Zimbabwe has truly fallen apart. The government assures its people that the way forward is to slash zeros off a currency that has hit billions in single note denominations.

The African within endured.

It’s 2008. Zimbabwe’s economic turmoil is now coupled with political unrest. People are tired, companies are dying and food is hard to come by.

The African within had hope.

When food became scarce my mother, like many Zimbabweans, had us plant a field of maize in our back yard. We toiled, blisters and all, and eventually reaped enough to keep us going despite the shortages. We raised and sold chickens, we planted onions and cabbages; all the while my mother would rise early and be off to work because even then, my mother was beyond mortal.

My older brother, after finishing high school sent applications all around the world and got accepted to study at a great American University. He had a simple choice, go and thus make it nigh impossible for me, his little brother, to get a good education, or stay and help my mother raise money for my education. He stayed; even then, my brother was beyond mortal.
Africa is great and bountiful, yet for the African, it seems parched and unforgiving. The royalty we feel in our hearts is not seen in our livelihoods.

Many of the Africans who will read this shall relate to having their families sacrifice for them whilst their nations let them down. They bore witness to the Kings and Queens in their lives laying down their crowns to pave a path for them. They know of the fire that rages within the heart of the African youth; a fire stoked by passion and determination. We hold a unique responsibility as a generation filled with endurance tempered in turmoil, intelligence tested by scarcity and strength born of cruel fates. We are hope filled pioneers and mavericks created by pain and yet striving to create prosperity. We will not stop and we will not tire. We are scarred enough to know the pain of old and hopeful enough to strive to see better days.

The modern-day African youth is far more than a starry eyed aspirant; we are living hope.
Though faced with massive obstacles and hinderances, the African within remains calm. Calm in the face of calamity, calm in the face of certain doom. We know desolation, we know oppression, we know pain; they are old friends. Friends that we no longer fear. We are a people that looked into the darkness and walked in with no guarantee of light. A people made up of hardened survivors capable of squeezing precious life-giving nectar from the rocks of economic and political instability.

If you feel like giving up, if the load is heavy and you can’t see a way out, remember the African in you.

Africans endure. Africans fight. Africans hope.

Embrace this, and the African within will never die.

The world has ended.

Whatever we thought we would achieve has gone up in smoke. The potential. The possibilities. All that hope. All that talk of future generations. Useless.
Sure, we existed for a few thousand years, but we know now that we were but a spark. A tiny flicker of a doomed flame blown out by our own hubris. We patted ourselves on the back for building empires and creating technology. Hell, we even prided ourselves on seeing it coming, but for what? We were smart enough to see the universe’s cycles of beginnings and endings but not enough to realize we were pushing our own cycle toward our end? Sure, we can hide in the comfort of the inevitability of our demise. Maybe that would make our destruction some sort of parallel to a great warrior falling on his sword. But that’s stupid. We could have stopped this.

Our end wasn’t a noble sacrifice based on some weird code. It was a tragic comedy. Sort of like a person slitting their own wrists in a tub of warm water then farting a bubble on their way out. Not “haha” funny. More like, “this is genuinely idiotic” funny. Not the wrists…the fart.

What was I talking about?

Ah. Yes. The world’s end. I wish I knew how exactly this came about. Its not like in a movie where it was one definite thing that you can point out. Like an asteroid or a nuclear war. No. It’s a massive combination of colossally moronic decisions, falling into each other like dominos and leading to the collapse of the human race. Maybe if I was a scientist I could point out what began the process. The first domino. But I cant. From my perspective, one moment we were watching holograms and waiting for the next trending cyber implant, the next we had no food, everyone was killing everyone and our atmosphere was on fire. In the old days maybe a news broadcast would have told us what was happening but, if I’m being honest, I haven’t watched the news in almost 2 years. Then again, it’s not like I was going to throw off my glasses and rip my shirt open to reveal an S on my chest. Even if I did know it was coming, what would I have done? Complained on a forum and started a hashtag?

God, humans are depressing.

But, its all over now. We spent so much time hating each other over what happens after we die, we never took the time to unite over the fact that we were all human and we were alive. I once heard someone say, ”On your death bed, regret is worse than fear” . Granted that lady had never been on a death bed, but dammit she was right. We could have done so much. We could have stopped this, or avoided it. We could have kept the first domino from falling, or gotten rid of all the dominos altogether. Instead we chose hate.

We hated each other over color, creed and a host of other stuff. Sitting here with my entire planet about to boil over, I can confidently tell you I don’t care what color anyone is. Black, white…whatever, we are all dead. Atheist, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist…dead. Male, female…dead. You drew lines in the sand and told your children they were
permanent. Now here we are, generations later. Those lines don’t matter anymore because, like I might have mentioned, we are all dead. All we have is regret. I don’t think that lady knew just how right she was.

My painkillers are wearing off now, so I think I should get to the point here. When I was approached to type this letter to you, I didn’t even hesitate. The scientist who invented this machine said he had nothing to say. He couldn’t think. I get that. Sending a message a thousand years back in time can be daunting. Worse still, sending a message that’s supposed to be moving enough to create a ripple effect strong enough to change this dire future into a sunny paradise; and to an unknown old tech platform? Yeah, no pressure. I didn’t hesitate though. I didn’t hesitate because I knew what needed to be said. What my ancient ancestors, you, needed to hear.

Dear humanity

Stop being stupid.

With love
A GUY FROM 3018

My continent needs to improve. But how?

 

The answer is simple; trust.

 

Whilst the reader may be wondering why an article would defy writing norms and spill the beans this early, the writer would like to assure you, there’s more to it.
Various research papers have made the assertion that up to 70% of Zimbabweans don’t have access to clean water sources or reliable electricity supply. Whilst education is a cornerstone of our social constructs, most Zimbabwean students struggle to access books, educational infrastructure and the Information technology required to keep up with modern educational norms; all this and we haven’t even begun to explore the deeper economic realities that constantly haunt the average Zimbabwean. The idea of “changing” the country and, more immediately, individual communities is one that has plagued every single Zimbabwean’s mind because, unlike more stable communities, ours is an issue of survival; but that, at least, can be somewhat relatable, no?

 

Humanity is defined by its ability to evolve. Evolution itself being the quest to modify ourselves and our environment to equip us with whatever we need to live better lives. Through things like compromise, adaption and innovation, we have progressed as a species from being cave dwelling groups, to massive communities made up of complex hierarchies and technological advancements. My immediate community has a firm understanding of the first two; compromise and adaption, but the last one seems to rear its head on rare occasion; innovation. The problems that plague us today are the exact same that have haunted us for the past decade and there seem to be no signs of improvement. We can survive for another decade, but the stark reality of this situation is, unless we begin to innovate and create solutions tailored to us, we are going to be in this exact same situation come 2031.

 

Innovation requires three basic steps, namely, research, brain storming and implementation. Research means understanding our precise problems; without a shadow of a doubt my
community has that pinned down. We don’t have the means to make an effective living legally, we don’t have proper access to basic necessities and we feel powerless to fix any of the above. Ask anyone and they will reiterate these points, albeit in a myriad of synonymous phrases and words. Research, check.

 

Next, we must brainstorm. Interestingly, this too seems to be ground we have covered. A community finds themselves with plenty of time to brainstorm when their populous is suffering from 90% unemployment. Through individual day dreaming and various road-side discussions that I have found myself privy to, I have come to realise we know precisely what we need. Independence. A shift from depending on municipal and government solutions and band together as communities to provide all the things we require. Solar solutions, boreholes, affordable private schools and community projects to build and utilise infrastructure. We need to stand together and equip each other. Brain storming, check.

 

Now for implementation.

 

Implementation is where we fall apart. Local organisations are plagued with needless squabbles, mistrust and abuse of resources. It works here and there, but oddly the communities that need it most seem to have the most trouble putting things into action. The individualistic survival mentality has penetrated our communities so thoroughly, we can hardly make a move without tripping each other up. We refuse to trust each other to the point of actively sabotaging each other and ultimately ourselves, leading to us closing ourselves off and bringing the entire process of innovation to a screeching halt. All the research and brainstorming in the universe is entirely useless if we don’t trust each other enough to work together and actually implement. “The thorn in the Lion’s paw”, though cliché, becomes the most apt phrase to describe mistrust ruining any hope of improvement in my community.

 

All that said, let us reiterate our wild and ground breaking solution to a crisis that wears so many faces its genuinely difficult to look it in the eye; trust.

 

So, what’s the plan? Well, we can start small; as a neighbour, try earning and being worthy of your neighbour’s trust. Form small neighbourhood communities, watch each other’s backs, contribute and repair a road, join and be active in the parent teacher associations and start a neighbourhood fund to pay local unemployed people to build things like parks for your children on the cheap. Take small steps, check on each other, pool resources and, eventually, actually actively improve each other’s lives. We are all facing the same enemies. We are comrades in the fight for improvement, not competitors and it is time our communities
reflected this philosophy and ultimately earned the title of “communities”. After all, what is a community if not a group of people working together toward a common goal? If we do this, if we simply trust, we can all utilise our research and brainstorming, pair that with our skills of adaption and compromise and ultimately, evolve as we march forward as one.