Questioning tribalism must be the norm not exception

From birth, our children should be wrapped in love not wrath, taught to value themselves and other humans, encouraged to question, empowered to deal with and respect differences in opinion. Right from the home environment, local community, schools and colleges/ universities, the anti-tribalism message must be loud and clear, it must be intentionally fostered in their minds so from an early age human value is never tied to tribe, race and religion. Informed choice and merit and not the coincidence of one’s social identity must determine what roles individuals qualify for in the country.

At birth, babies are not burdened by tribal identities although adult institutions quickly start categorising and judging them along tribal and racial lines. But what babies demand from their responsible adults is warmth, love, and nourishment. As children grow older, societal ideas of the value of tribal identity begin to infiltrate and shape their worldview, experiences, and how they perceive and interact with others. Society must therefore take its responsibility of raising young people seriously.

Changing the narrative and outcomes of our world requires fundamental societal transformation that will oversee changes in how children are raised to ensure increased and sustained youth participation in the decision-making bodies in the local and national politics.

Young people must be taught how to think, not what to think. We must raise our children in a sea of love, purpose, and cultural acceptance where shackles are removed from their minds for them to freely interpret and navigate their world; where they treat others as they would love to be treated and where they are equal contributors in the world outside their immediate social space.

Matabeleland society has failed to protect itself from the predatory behaviour of the political elite who, in the interest of power, wilfully turn difference into reasons for tensions and war between tribes. Demonising difference and inciting division is a simple but powerful political tool that promotes hate and builds wedges between communities. No one should descend into a situation akin to tribal and/ or ideological prison; we do not intend to create cult followers but independent, informed judges of their life choices.

This is how young people should view life. They must view it as a journey through which they encounter many people and many situations, all different and all offering a lesson of a kind. Their success in this trip depends not on stopping to try and fix or judge the differences they see in those they meet along as right or wrong, good or bad, but by taking the privilege to experience difference while continuing their own journey leaving those they meet on the way as they are. A compassionate acceptance is what our children should learn.

It must be appreciated that national unity cannot be imposed on society but can only be achieved when society takes responsibility to build institutions that value a collective identity without devaluing or compromising the value of even the smallest demographic group to exist in that society. Being patriotic, is only as important as it considers everybody’s right to be themselves, it is not about not having beliefs, it is about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you, people who share values you disagree with.

Fighting tribalism, it must be emphasised, is not the preserve of political institutions but a broader societal duty. We have witnessed what happens when the space to unite tribes and fighting division is politicised and left to politics, politicians exploit challenges, create fake solutions to fake problems; they politicise interventions and those interventions whose outcomes are politically favourable, though not the right outcomes, are given priority over social cohesion.

We want to raise children who are strong enough to respect other’s right to disagree and equally accepting of who they are to listen to every opinion without losing themselves in the maze of information, confident not to be threatened by difference but thrive because of it. In short, our children and communities must be comfortable in the face of difference to learn from each other.

Perhaps it is time we changed the narrative from calling for tolerance of difference to calling on young people to stop tolerating difference and start to recognise, respect, accept, and celebrate it.

A progressive Matabeleland socio-political space will rely on in-depth and objective analyses of the foundations of current challenges and collaborative, nonpartisan work with local leadership to find solutions. Matabeleland requires self-acceptance; locals must see themselves through their own lens – let no one tell us who they think we are but tell them who we are. We need to raise children so that they will accept themselves without seeking external validation, and that attitude is expected to permeate our diverse communities and nation. When communities have faith in their own pathways, their only competitor is their previous record, they do not need to prove that someone else’s pathway is wrong.