Unique features symbolic of the Matabeleland identity must be highlighted and amplified instead of being obscured under the Zimbabwe nationalist banner. Do not let anyone define your limits or give anyone the impression they were everything to you and without them, you are nothing. Respect and compromise are important human attributes, but they must be accomplished without compromising one’s principles. Do not let anyone tell you who they think you are, tell them who you are, and leave no doubt it is important to you, so they do not ever take it lightly.
Socio-cultural diversity is central to Matabeleland’s identity; we must invest in the understanding and providing clear definitions of our society and its features so that policies start to develop the territory and stop creating tensions. How we define Matabeleland society is important; the best view is that it is not a melting pot, but a salad bowl where different population groups live together, are allowed to maintain their identity, and difference is appreciated.
It is true that the current mainstream political regime in Zimbabwe is anti-Matabeleland interests, but it is also true that the greatest trap is self-repudiation. Instead of investing in our identity, we have succumbed to objectionable systemic tribalism; we have allowed an ethnic Shona tribalist regime to tell us who we are and then tried hard to win their acceptance.
Attempts to live our lives in response to the systemic tribalism features’ prescription based on its definition of who we are was always going to be a failing formula. Matabeleland is not a monolith; we are not water droplets which lose their identity the second they join the ocean.
Every population group has its identity to preserve; every community has its dreams to fulfil; we must not live our lives through other communities but stand up for who we truly are. The only way to find ourselves is looking back at ourselves, not at others; there are things in us that are irreplaceable, and identity is one such item.
When it comes to identity, there is no neutrality, yet we have perfected the art of keeping a blank face of neutrality; as alluded to in the last paragraph, we have taken the easiest option of self-rejection and living our lives through the ethnic Shona presumption of who we are instead of being ourselves and facing up to the challenges that come with that, and finding solutions.
In typical self-repudiation syndrome behaviour, we have misused silence and done everything that avoids upsetting the ethnic Shona regime and makes us invaluable to it; in so doing, we have allowed our wholesome identity to be desecrated. We have accepted stereotypical labels from a largely supremacist, vindictive, tribalist ethnic Shona regime as opposed to openly showing up our identity and living up to the standards it sets.
Odd as it sounds, we have become invaluable accessories of our own demise; we have come to believe and kowtow the mainstream politics and media voices that call us worthless, uneducated, unsophisticated, unskilled, tribalists, and unlovable, and no surprise then that self-rejection, ethnic Shona certified ‘success’, gaining favour and acceptance and achieving ethnic Shona approval are easily perceived as attractive solutions.
Material wealth, conditional success and subjective belonging are nothing but vices of oppression that squeeze out your sense of being and leave you an empty shell of yourself and lacking legitimacy. Reclaiming our identity is not tribalism but a human right.
Our greatest hope is not to disgrace ourselves, our children, their children and their children’s children by rejecting our identity in return for tokenistic safety, security, and success.
We will not live to please other communities at great cost to our being. We must dig deep and get down the trenches to fight for our identity so our children will stand up. Other communities will never respect us until we show them it is important, for their own sake, that they do.
In standing up for your identity, your actions must be intentional. Those suffering short-term memory may need reminders of who you are; remind them, no matter how often that would be, do it; do not tire, and in the process, do not shy away from closing the door to the arrogant, manipulative supremacist who tries to bleach your identity just to make his/ her life easy.
Let us be our own judges, take full control and be unapologetic in saying who we are. What will make Matabeleland better is neither self-repudiation nor identifying with mainstream politics but owning our identity. We must tell the world who we are and not wait for the world to tell us who it thinks we are. Regardless of the setting, we must be loud and clear about our identity, make it our strength so that it never becomes our weakness.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 