I agree with you, Victor. There are things we can do for ourselves without waiting for a government, be it of a benevolent nature or malvolent character like we have right now. We can start off at the village level, given the resources at our disposal. Here are some examples:
1. Growing our own food in our villages where land is free is a way to improve food security. We can produce a variety of products all year round. For starters, this is food we have to produce for our own consumption. The surplus will then be preserved or sold for accumulating cash reserves. This is not a new concept at all. It has been with us since creation time. On this one, let me simply say that the nature of the food we will produce has to be dictated by our climate, soil quality, land relief features, rainfall patterns, storage facilities to minimize spoilage through pestilence and natural decay. There is no need grow crops that demand a lot of water over a long period of times when there are better and appropriate alternatives at our disposal. Along the same vein, it is pointless to grow crops that have a short shelf-life. Growing yams, madhumbe and mbambaira that deteriorate within a year after harvest will not be very helpful. We can go after small grains that is less prone to attack by pests like zvipfukuto, and yet are so hardy they have a storage life spanning more than a few years.
Both the quality and quantity of the food matter greatly. We have to produce the kind of food in which two or three teacupfuls can feed a family of three or four to satiation. As an example, three cups of hupfu are not sufficient to prepare enough sadza to feed family of four in one sitting. On the other hand, mupunga of the equivalent quantity definitely suffices to feed the same family. Please note I referred to mupunga, the native Karanga rice. Mupunga, harvested straight from matoro and dehauled without further processing comes packed with nutrients. Where we can replace chibage/mabarwe/magwere with mupunga, we can do that. Using this for illustrative puproses, there is no need to ask the government, or anyone else for that matter, to do it for us. We can do it for ourselves and, consequently, for our country.
2. We are constantly demanding clean water, as we must. There is the option of digging deep boreholes. It is a relatively inexpensive project, speaking from a personal experience. People will have access to clean water. I am talking about this with the rural communities in mind.
In a step above getting water from boreholes, if a number of villages, and its residents, pull together, they can easily construct weirs on nearby streams and middle-sized rivers. I live in a neighbourhood with a number of such low-lyng dams. They retained a lot of water even in times when the area has gone through a period of Hellish droughts. Zimbabwe generally has a lot of streams and rivers. Once damed, even seasonal streams may become perennial, more so if the appropriate protective vegetation is planted in the adjacent land. Again, this in not something entirely novel. We can go and learn from natural rivers where human intereference has been nominal. There are trees and grasses that not only survive but thrive on wetlands or shallow pools of water, indigenous trees and grasses found in their natural habitats of makan'a or majahwi. I have in mind examples of natural grasses like tsanga, nhokwe and jekawacheka. Examples of protective trees are mikute and mitsamvi. These trees and grasses serve a multiplicity of purposes such as preventing erosion, siltation, abating ambient heat to reduce water loss through evaporation. Like I said before, this is not new but a replication of what nature does on its own.
The government or large commercial entities can construct big dams. At a village level, we can easily construct weirs. Long before I knew what the low-level dam was in books, I witnessed a customary uncle single-handedly construct what I later learnt to be a weir. He used nothing more sophisticated than boulders he rolled down a nearby hill. He then compacted the dam with mud, simple rondo or munyakwe, gathered at an anthill that was closeby. It took rudimentary material like mabwe and rondo. The monetary cost for him was nil. By digging migero, he then redirected the stream to flow through his field. The water from the canals was used to irrigate his vast array of vegetables. He had onions, tomatoes, beans, peas, tsunga, cabbages you name it. I witnessed all this in the village, and my uncle was not supremely educated at all. He had learnt basic agriculture by observation the work of his elders in Domboshava. When he moved to my village as a strapping bachelour, all he did was imitate to great effect what he had previously observed. His rewarding effort did not require the approval or imput of the government. Here was a young man who neither asked his country nor himself what he could do for him. He simply went to work, most of the time happily whistling a tune of a traditional working song.
3. Urbanization is great and clearly glamourous. However, this is mostly true provided there are jobs and enterprises that create sources of revenue for the ordinary citizen through wages and salaries, the business owner through profits, and on the other hand local and national governments through taxes. The money thus generated is used to acquire or put in place amenities for social services; maintenance of order, enforcement of the rule of law, schools, clinics, roads, affordable and comfortable houses, et cetera. These are some of the essentials required for ensuring social justice. As things stand right now, Zimbabwe is in a dysfunctional state. We have a gang that cannot guarantee peace let alone social justice.
The situation might appear hopeless, but, to me, there is a way out. We can simply pivot back to the old order. The village, therefore beckons. Whereas urbanization comes with the social scourge of homelessness, no one in the rural setting of my memory has ever slept under an open night sky in desperation and lost hope. Moving back to the village immediately solves the social problem of people struggling to find shelter. Frankly, we need to thank God and our ancestors for the land we have. Out here in the West, land is only for the super rich. In Zimbabwe, even a beggar has land in his or her village. A homeless family in America or the United KIngdom is doomed to sleep under a bridge or in a train tunnel. A Zimbabwean family can simply move to the village and, within a matter of a few months, it will have a home. So, as individuals, we can solve homelessness by going back to the ancient social order.
Some will balk at the idea of living in a hut constructed out of poles, mud and a grass thatch roof. Fair and fine, but this need not be a permanent state of affairs. In due coarse, one can build a home that is akin to an urban home in its physical appearance and general comfort. Unlike in the urban areas, one can build a fairly good home without having to deal with the city or town officials and their emotionally and financially draining protocols.
4. Since ancient times, particularly in times of peace, our rural communities have been quite spectacular when it comes to self policing. Ensuring law and order has always been looked upon as the duty and community obligation for each and every member of the community. This has been so successful such that unto this day, we have neither an indigenous institution of an active police force nor jails and prisons. Where crimes are committed, our own indigenous judiciary institution has proven to be effective time and time again. It prescribes both punitive restitution while simultaneously putting in place preventive measures.
Let me pen off by saying that we do not have to ask the government to do this for us. If we do this for ourselves, our families will be the primary beneficiaries, no doubt about it. Our communities, villages and country will be the ultimate beneficiaries if we reproduce the same across the country. Let the government do its part. Whether it succeeds or fails, let that not be an impediment to what we can and have to do for ourselves. If we are to reprimand a failed national leadership, let us do so by pointing out at what we, as ordinary people, have done for ourselves. It will be a government run by by people who are completely mentally deranged to then set loose soldiers branding assault rifles loaded with live ammunition upon such a citizenry. We can shame these devils.
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