Unity: Key tenet of national values

By Toyindepi M. Musiyiwa (24/12/07)

IS IT not ironic that while we celebrate 20 years of national unity, disunity reigns in the key sectors of our nation? For almost a decade now the simmering tensions between Government on one hand and the opposition, labour and business on the other have fragmented the functioning of a nation as a unit exacerbating the economic and political problems in the country. In this article I intend to proffer the view that national unity, as it is aptly called, is not sectional (in terms of colour, tribe, ethnicity, gender, class, organisation, etc), but is national in tone.

As we encounter an intransigent economic situation, it is high time that Zimbabweans thought more in terms of national values than sectional interests, if normalcy is to be restored in our nation. Indeed while exactly two decades ago, Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu, the political parties which liberated this country from colonialism through an armed struggle, rightly decided to bury their differences and unite for the sake of the nation, in practice they largely dealt with the political and tribal aspects of national unity.

However, being the most sensitive and easily volatile department of a nation in many societies the world over, the political sphere needs to be always handled with shrewdness and acumen. At independence the drama of ethno-political consciousness was an overt threat to the newly born nation. Consequently, President Mugabe and the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo should be greatly commended for their political foresight in resolving one of the obstacles that could have permanently jeopardised the destiny of Zimbabwe in its infancy.

National unity is holistic as the nation itself. It transcends all sections of the nations in both their horizontal and vertical manifestations. It pervades all the political, religious, cultural, economic and social aspects of a nation. I will limit my discussion on unity to the political and economic departments of Zimbabwe since the other spheres seem not to pose serious problems to the nation at the moment. In any nation, political performance and economic performance have a dialectical relationship. Normally if a nation is politically stable, its economy develops. Similarly, if there is an economic crisis, the politics of the nation becomes turbulent.

The reason behind this is that politics organises the nation, and thus manages the economy by creating an enabling environment for the economy to prosper. The economy has its own dialectics; for economic production to take place the various industrial sectors have to satisfy labour, for without its satisfaction there is no dedication to work and consequently no meaningful production. It implies therefore that in order to achieve national harmony, tranquility and development, all the nation’s departments should unite and work in sync.

They are all vital in the effective operations of a nation’s political economy. But what makes the sectors of a nation work in sync?

The awareness by every individual member about the common characteristics (common ancestry as Africans, our clearly defined territory and importantly our common historical experiences — especially of nearly a century of racially-rooted colonial oppression and our revolutionary resolve to challenge it and create an independent state) should generate the will to unite and work together for the sake of the nation. So when individual members, classes, ethnic groups, organisations, institutions, etc, work in antagonism, it implies that the mutual awareness and indeed the affirmation of these ties would have been abandoned and national unity crumbles.

As a social organisation a nation is one of the most difficult organisations to run. This is so by virtue of the fact that in most cases it comprises people from diverse backgrounds; cultural, ethnic, religious, class, political, racial and other affiliations and identities as is the case with Zimbabwe and indeed the majority of nations the world over.

But then, in spite of all these different identities in contradistinction to each other, members of a nation still need to live together and collaborate in pursuance of the meaning of their existence. They need security to protect themselves from threats to their existence. They yearn to live peacefully and enjoy life. To achieve these, the members of a nation have no choice but to forego some of their individual and sectional interests and prioritise national interests.

They have to commit themselves to national values first, and their personal and sectional values second, if the project called a nation is to work and guarantee their incessant quest for their nation’s advancement. It is from a nation’s values that its constitution is designed to provide a framework within which that nation, in all its various sectors and departments, would work. Thus the activities of every sector are always under the spotlight of national values.

Alternatively, every organisation in a nation justifies its existence and operations against national values. If that justification fails or is seen to be inimical to national values that organisation can only engender discord within a nation. In other words every sector, organisation or an individual member in a nation has a responsibility to work for the good of a nation and not otherwise. In this case a nation is analogous to a family or clan; its members (parents and children or clansmen and clanswomen) are expected to perform their tasks for the sanity, harmony and prosperity of the family.

Thus national values synchronise the responsibilities of all sectors so that the nation benefits as a unit. In order to achieve national synchronisation the nation calls for national unity from all sectors, classes, races and individuals. Therefore national unity is a key tenet of national values. Every organisation, class, ethnic group or any other group of people is reminded that it is not its (sectional) interests that are paramount but national interests.

However, this is not to say that the nation suppresses sectional interests. It grants an individual, organisation or any group of people space for their interests as long as they do not compete with or contradict national interests. Thus by signing the Unity Accord on December 22 1987, the leaders of Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu realised this critical issue; their interests as political parties, though important, were subservient to national interests. They had to unite in order to serve national interests for the good of the entire nation.

Has the nation not enjoyed development, peace and stability for the past two decades?

Unfortunately, what is currently transpiring in our country implies as if we have lost memory of the fact that we are living in a nation which calls upon each one of us to behave in a manner that ensures national harmony. It appears our behaviour is symptomatic of amnesia of the knowledge of national values. For the benefit of the reader and for myself to make my point clear, let me define what I consider as Zimbabwe’s national values, starting with values in general.

Values are culturally and historically determined common beliefs and ideas that are considered worthwhile and thus celebrated within a particular society. Created and tested over a long period of time, values form the philosophy and hence the worldview of a society that regulates human activity in the different spheres of the life of the society.

Since they are inherited from the past they are considered appropriate by the living members of the society who therefore employ them as the torchlight of their experiences of life. However, they constantly review them if and as when necessary to make sure that society as a whole benefits from pursuing such values.

Despite ethnic, class, cultural, religious and other identities, there ought to be always value consensus among the individual members and the various sectors of a nation. By value consensus I refer to the fact that (because we live in a unit or social organisation called nation), there should be general agreement by all citizens of Zimbabwe with regard to what is desirable and worthwhile.

What then are national values? National values are derived from the concepts of ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism.’ They form the foundation of principles governing ‘nationalism’ as an ideological movement and the nation and its operations as a unit.

Thus national values are cherished ideals that the founding fathers and mothers (as is the case with Zimbabwe) of a nation considered desirable in their pursuance to achieve the nation’s goals. They provide citizens with the guidelines and precepts for behaviour that is homologous with the nation’s character, behaviour that enriches and complements the desires, interests and expectations of a nation as a whole. What are Zimbabwe’s national values?

In summary Zimbabwe’s values as a nation are derived from the very history that gave rise to it. Like all Developing World nations which suffered colonial oppression, Zimbabwe’s values emanate (though not entirely) from its people’s rejection of colonialism as an oppressive racist ideology deliberately calculated to perpetually deny them freedom, in their own ancestral land for that matter.

The rejection of colonialism by the Zimbabweans began during its initial encroachment in the 1890s when they violently protested the arrival of white settlers, forced labour, hut tax and other inhuman treatment and rose in a revolt designed to drive the settlers out the land.

This courageous resistance now popularly referred to as the First Chimurenga/First Umvukela from which heroines like Nehanda and heroes like Kaguvi, Mkwati, Mapondera and many others emerged, offers the initial and direct inspiration to Zimbabwe’s national values. Nehanda’s legendary words at the scaffold that "My bones will rise again," have become a terse but pithy summary of Zimbabwean people’s desire for sovereignty and complete freedom. In terms of the impact of its oppression colonialism was brutally omnipresent. It oppressed the social, cultural and physical environments of African life and more subtly and grievously, the African psyche.

The initial quest to be free from any form of external force of manipulation and in tandem the desire for self-determination, sovereignty and inalienable right to decide the course of their own destiny is at the very core of Zimbabwean people’s national values. However, the attainment of such a goal is not enough in terms of a nation’s values; the physical sphere of the nation has to be liberated as well.

While other African colonial states were not developed into settler communities, Zimbabwe and the rest of Southern Africa were earmarked for white settlement. The colonial government had to seize and forcibly evict Africans from their land to pave way for white settlers. Thus in Zimbabwe the wish to restore land to its rightful owners was the most sensitive desire of the nationalist struggle for which thousands of sons and daughters of the land were ready to sacrifice their blood.

It became a centripetal force that united Zimbabweans in the nationalist struggle in spite of their diverse ethnic, regional, class and cultural backgrounds. Had the land reform programme not been implemented it would have been difficult to talk about Zimbabwe as a complete nation; those who perished liberating it who have died in vain. Debates would be raging now whether it was necessary to fight for nationhood in the first place.

National values, as the case with Zimbabwe, are equally important during the fighting for and the aftermaths of the birth of a nation. The nation has to assert itself among other nations of the world by being able to coherently organise itself, deliver what it promised and continue to promise its ever-expectant members and more importantly defend the national independence and its gains.

This is where most Developing World nations have found themselves numb, jittery, and at crossroads and the unity they forged during the struggle to win independence put to the test.

As highlighted earlier, for a nation to achieve its goals and satisfy its citizens, its various sectors have to commit themselves to extremely high levels of unity, unity to which they are emotionally attached because it is being drawn from or in other words is actually part and parcel of the national will.

Thus whenever a nation is in crisis, due to internally or externally or both-induced factors, it becomes imperative to go back to the drawing board and read aloud what our values do say. Yes, by consensus we may alter them here and there to suit prevailing conditions and pressing issues at hand but their central message that we should be a united sovereign state, determining our own affairs and working together for the good of the nation are too sacred to be revised and shall (for any nation) remain infallible as long as the concept of nation remains sensible in matters of social organisation. The mutual awareness and affirmation of these values should generate the will that unites us in every sector for our national endeavours to succeed.

As we commemorate 20 years of national unity but in the context of economic and political challenges, there is need to reflect deeper and broader on our unity and ask ourselves whether we are genuinely united. For the past eight or so years the behaviour of some Zimbabweans shows that national values have been thrown into the dustbin. This is not the first time we had political squabbles between the ruling party and the opposition, but the way today’s opposition played its political game and the consequent economic crisis, is a clear dramatisation of the lack of national unity and commitment to national values.

In theory opposition politics is quite necessary for the healthy operations of a nation because it destroys the myth that only one political party has the capacity to govern a country. As stated earlier a nation is the most complex and difficult social organisation to run. Thus when a party emerges and convinces the electorate that it can run the country and therefore achieve its goals better than the party in power, such a party is naturally welcome. Zimbabwe is fortunate that from its birth in 1980 its Constitution has underscored the importance of political pluralism.

However, it is abuse of a nation to exploit the democratic spirit to undermine national values and politically mislead and divide the nation. Political pluralism in the context of national values merely means differences in political approach to governance and not in national values. As emphasised before, democracy enhances and enriches the means by which a country governs itself, offering its citizens the opportunity to select from a list of parties the one they think is suited and capable of delivering the services, achieve the goals and maintain the interests of their nation. Therefore, the criterion by which the people measure the political genuineness of any party that emerges in their nation is to evaluate the party’s temperament and commitment vis-à-vis national values and interests.

Earlier on I referred to the fact that running and maintaining a newly born nation has been quite challenging particularly in post-colonial Africa and indeed among most Developing World countries. This appears so because in these formerly brutally-colonised countries, national expectations are emotionally and extremely high. They greatly shape the national psyche, coming as they do from the original promises that fuelled the nationalist anti-colonial struggles.

Unfortunately and in most cases, because independence was only partially granted in the form of flag independence devoid of economic freedom, today most African nations are still struggling without or with little success to transform the socio-economic life of their citizens for the better.

Many African countries have been hoodwinked by their former colonial masters and today by global capitalism to leave the resources of their nations at the mercy of multinational companies and other capitalist institutions.

It happened in this country at independence and in the 1990s through the IMF-sponsored Economic Structural Adjustment Programme.

It is this firm grip on the resources of former colonies that the erstwhile colonial masters do not want to lose. Again unfortunately on our part western powers know that there are many of their sympathisers among us so eager to auction their national values at the western imperialist market.

After their pockets have been stuffed with dollars, euros and pounds, they are persuaded to form political parties which preach another gospel, intended to confuse, dilute, divert and thus trivialise our national values and pursuits. The gospel is a subtle one at the beginning, its falsehood decipherable only to a few while the rest are swayed and mesmerised by its high-sounding verses.

Eventually when it becomes reality that after all it was a counterfeit revolutionary gospel, they are disillusioned, exhausted and hopeless. Such is the unpredictable terrain of our revolution right from its origins in the 1950s, varipo vanoyambutsa dindingwe. Yes, they are right among us who stealthily go by night to remove the devil from the cross we thought we had nailed for good during the day.

This is the genesis of the current political polarisation and economic problems in Zimbabwe which has given rise to higgledy-piggledy behaviour in the various departments of the nation. The disunity between these sectors compels us to no other alternative but to invoke national values and demand patriotism from people in these sectors.

The divisions and squabbling between Government on one hand and the opposition, civic society, business and labour on the other are clearly not within the interests of Zimbabwe as a nation.

The latter’s solidarity in pursuance of an externally-conceived regime change programme is a clear demonstration of a conscious disregard of national values. Its political agenda in many ways cuts across the grain of the nation’s history of the struggle for nationhood and a negation of the gains independence has provided so far. In short its behaviour challenges national values.

Isn’t the regular arbitrary increase in prices of all commodities and failure to produce even after accessing loans from Government through the Bacossi facility demonstrates business’ refusal to unite with Government in addressing the current economic problems? The financial sector is also behaving as if there is no nation within which it operates.

The RBZ Governor’s revelation that some bank employees are working in cahoots with cash barons and baronesses to fuel the parallel market and consequently depriving innocent citizens from freely accessing their hard-earned cash only reflects the level to which wayward behaviour has reached in this sector. While it is a key sector in the smooth function of the economy, it has unfortunately become a stubborn hindrance to the efforts to turn around the economy.

While indeed the opposition solidarity can justifiably be condemned for being a conduit of western imperialist forces, doesn’t it boggle the mind to hear that some top Government officials are actively involved in unethical behaviour which results in the country losing hundreds of millions of US dollars annually? The nation is currently anxious to see the success of the land reform which has this year been blessed with good rains. Ours is an agriculturally driven economy and the reforms in agriculture are thus pivotal in reviving the whole economy.

But when some people purport to be championing the agrarian revolution when in reality they are diverting agricultural inputs (fuel, fertiliser, seed, chemicals, etc) to the parallel market, it is again shocking to say the least.

It raises fundamental questions about such people’s commitment to the nation’s current agricultural reforms in the first place, let alone national values. Are they not worse than the opposition when they externalise precious metals sold on the very western markets whose countries are championing regime change and have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe? It is hypocritical and reactionary behaviour par excellence.

They are undermining President Mugabe’s anti-imperialist campaign in defence of Zimbabwe’s sovereignty he has relentlessly and successfully waged both at home and at various fora abroad? Their tendencies are clearly destroying the nation’s historical revolutionary unity. For how long shall they be left to sabotage the economy with impunity? When is their judgment day? Parallel marketeering has strongly gripped the hearts of many in this nation. But to demonstrate that we are a nation committed to its values, urgent measures must be taken to deal with this nefarious behaviour otherwise the current attempts to rectify the economy will come to naught.

The war against inflation cannot be won when business hoards and sells commodities on the black market. Neither can it be won when certain individuals hoard cash for profiteering purposes through black market transactions.

There is no commitment to national unity in that kind of behaviour. The quicker we realise that such actions only serve to destroy the institutions and systems of our own nation, the better. The faster we become conscious of the fact that such actions jeorpadise the future of Zimbabwe and the patriotism of its posterity, the better.

The behaviour shown by the sectors of our nation, some institutions, groups of people and individuals, show that there is no unity in the attempt to counteract the economic challenges bedevilling our beautiful nation.

Hence while we celebrate 20 years of the signing of the historic Unity Accord, it should not be seen only in political and tribal terms, but from a holistic perspective where it permeates every sphere and facet of our life as defined by our national values. We have no option but to unite in all sectors and sub-sectors by foregrounding and re-committing ourselves to national values and interests for the sake of the very nation we won through great human sacrifice, a nation whose failure to function only serves to plunge us into more catastrophes and embarrassment.

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