By Pearson Mbendera.
The last twenty years have been the one to forget in the history of Zimbabwe. For a country with only 36 years of independence, that’s too much time living beneath our potential.
We have a lot to offer the world, but we haven’t made the most of it. Zimbabwe boasts with an abundance of resources, natural and human resources, that can be easily turned into massive wealth for the nation. But problems have hit us so hard that we have fallen and finding it hard to get back up. While the problems are both natural and man made, getting from underneath them will ensure that we use our resources wisely, and be a world leader.
But a lot of mismanagement of these resources has led us into poverty,with the vast majority of the nation unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. But despite having the resources and the mental ability to turn things around, we haven’t exercised that and our problems still continue into exist, hopefully, not for long though.
But there is a silver lining, we can get something out of this suffering and turn it around to prosper this nation. There is a lot we can learn from this, and we can turn this period from being a trial to triumph. Its not that farfetched an idea.
With many Zimbabweans now living and working in the diaspora, we can benefit from them as much as the countries they are in have benefited from their input. Granted, some aren’t doing well outside the borders of Zimbabwe but surely that cannot stop them from picking up a thing or two from the countries they are living in and bring back all that knowledge to Zimbabwe.
But we have to make the country better first before we can even ask for these people to return home with their newly acquired skills and expertise and help build a better Zimbabwe. After all, home is best.
And these years have taught us a lot, surely no one wants to see this current period repeat itself once more. While I would like to believe that going through this trying period has made us immune, that’s not the case. I just hope that we will see the warning signs when we are about to fall in the same pit and take necessary steps to prevent it. If we are to fall, let it be falling into a different pit all together, suffer from a different problem, not the same one.
While it won’t be easy to get back to where we once were, given that the other nations are developing while we are stagnant, this period has shown us that we can persevere and not lose out to problems. We are a strong nation, a strong people, this has been a major setback, but we can bounce back. We have the mental fortitude.
it is easy to focus on what we have lost, But we still have something, we haven’t lost everything, we still have our resources. We have become more aware of the things happening around us, and its only a matter of time before we turn that awareness into productivity.
Many great nations have gone through a period of economic stagnation like we are going through today and came out strong,who are we not follow their footsteps. The only way we can put this crucible economic period our nation is going through is to build on it, grow from the experiences we have encountered.
Future history books will be flooded with the stories of today, and while the kids will learn of the horrible time we went through, the bigger lesson should be in how we overcame it and grew stronger. hopefully, they will be enjoying the fruits of our labour then, making it easy for them to understand the history of this nation, and the path we took, the detour rather.
Because for now, we learn about all the troubles the nation went through, the colonization, the brutality we suffered under the colonial rule, the loss of fertile land and economic power and the fight we launched to regain all that we had lost due to colonization. But while we later defeated the whites in war and gain independence, we have nothing to show for such independence we fought hard for. Today’s economic crisis has made people question whether it was justified to fight for this country in the first place, surely no one would put his or her life in danger for a country to suffer like this.
We owe it to the grave Zimbabweans who lost their lives to the liberation of Zimbabwe, for they paid the ultimate price of life itself for us to be free and live . Only if we make the most of this period, will we be able to ensure they rest in peace. They suffered, and from their suffering, they fought for this country and won. We should channel the same spirit and do the same,fight for this country. Its ours after all, no one can make it better.
Comments
About Author
