‘We have to take ownership of our hope, otherwise we will forever be in debt’
Poverty in a land of plenty – Hilton Mendelsohn
A few years ago a group of young Zimbabweans came together in London to see what they could do to help with the situation back home. During this time many of us began to ask once again a question that had dogged us for most of our lives: why does Africa, a continent that has so much, have so many poor people? I will come back to this question.
During our time in London we quickly realised a few things; that despite the diversity of our group and the paths that brought us to that point, we were, and are still, above all else, quintessentially Zimbos and intrinsically African. We also quickly realised every crisis is as multi-faceted we are, and that it’s resolution would have to appeal to each person’s unique perspective of the situation without diminishing any other. With this we realised that we did not fit in with the agendas of the organisations we had joined and so, without diminishing them, we resolved to set and work by our own Zimbabwean agenda. We believe that if everyone does this more ground will be covered and the naturally symbiotic projects would gravitate towards each other anyway.
So we picked our fight.
We were all privileged to have been part of a generation of Zimbabweans that lived in an era of tremendous hope: a time during which we believed that it was possible, with a good education, a little determination and some luck, that we could all have a good job, our families close by, and a healthy existence. Sadly this is not true for the generation of Zimbabweans growing up in Zim today. Not only do they have that fundamental hope but there are forces much greater than them that seek to exploit them. They are literally having their childhood snatched away from them.
This we decided was our fight: to find a way to help give this generation of Zimbabweans back some of that hope that so many of us had taken for granted.
We also realised that the cornerstone to the restoration of this hope is the idea of ownership. We believe that as Zimbabweans we have to take ownership of our hope so that it is not given to us by someone to whom we will forever be in debt. Within our community we have the capacity to do this, so we realised that part of our plan had to be to find a way to keep our community in the UK united and interested in Zimbabwe.
Based on these simple principles WEZIMBABWE and Zimfest in the UK were built.
WEZIMBABWE is the charity we set up to help support kids in Zim and also to provide a focal point for our community in the UK. And Zimfest is our way of overcoming the difficulties related to trying to bring our people together. We took “together for the people” as our rallying call. These words resonate with us: we believe that it is only through a deliberate and honest effort to bring our people together across, ethnic, gender and political boundaries, and to reminded everyone about the things that make us proud to be Zimbabwean that we can find our way out of this mess that we are in.
More than anything else we want WEZIMBABWE to represent unity and national pride.
So, to the question that precipitated this outburst of nationalism and flag waving.
As I am writing this we are being told that the world is in an economic crisis – hey we are Zimbabwean; what else is new? We are being told that this is a global crisis because a few guys in pin-stripe suits have overstretched themselves. These modern-day money-lenders now don’t have the muscle to collect on their bad debts, and because of this they can’t pay back the money they themselves borrowed. Naturally no one will lend them any more so they are have become bad debts to the banks to which they owe money and the cycle continues until the Government using taxpayers money has to step in and bail them out. It’s a veritable merry-go-round of margin makers who have profited without a tangible product.
Suddenly this is our crisis, and taxpayers around the world have effectively paid the higher prices caused in part by the taking of this margin by the bankers have now got to pay to rescue them. This crisis is driven by interest rates that have padded the pockets of the bankers who have no resources to leverage to sustain their industry panicking because they can’t borrow the money they need to buy our resources and sadly in a number of cases our souls.
For Africa this crisis means that we cannot now borrow the money we need to pay back the loans and the interest we owe, money that we should be getting through ownership and honest management of our resources.
The truth is we should not need loans to pay back our loans. We are a continent that has been blessed with an abundance of resources and we should be in a position to withstand this global crisis.
Our real crisis is a crisis of leadership.
In our lands of plenty we fight and squabble over who has the right to lead our people. A right that comes with the tremendous responsibility of managing our resources and making sure they are used to sustain the very least of our people. Instead we have had leadership that has mismanaged our resources for personal gain. We have leaders who have kept in poverty and kept the margin makers rich. Leaders who have sold our resources to the 10 percent men of Europe, America and China for a fast buck. This shroud of poverty will never be lifted as long as Africa has leaders who put their personal prosperity ahead of the well being of the least of the citizens they claim to represent.
In Africa our children grow up in poverty surrounded by the riches the “first” world needs to call us “third”.
Our brothers and sisters die young surrounded by the plants and minerals relied upon by the pharmaceutical companies to make millions on the medicines we buy back at prices our people can barely afford.
Our parents walk miles to find empty shops except for the high priced shelves of produce grown here, sent out, repackaged and sold back to us.
In Africa our grandparents suffer the indignity of seeing their dreams dies before them at the hands of leaders who in truth never shared those dreams of freedom relishing only the prospect of power.
We remain prisoners of poverty because so many of us refuse to ask the questions of our so-called leaders – why does Africa, a continent that has so much, have so many poor people? Why are you so rich while the people remain so poor?
Hilton Mendelsohn is a founder and Trustee of WEZIMBABWE
Website at: http://www.wezimbabwe.org/
October 15th, 2008 14:50
“We have to take ownership of our hope, otherwise we will forever be in debt”
What a great quote!
October 15th, 2008 18:41
Have you actually considered the idea of not having leaders? The leadership takes from the people, sells it for personal profit, and the country is impoverished. Well, what right did they have to take it in the first place? Would it not be better for the people to own what they will, do what they will, and defend themselves as they will?
You may point to Somalia as an example of that not working, but Somalia has been the constant target of nationbuilding by the “first world”, and even other African nations, since Barre toppled. And even with nearly constant civil war as a consequence of the nationbuilding, the situation on the ground there has improved over being ruled by a governor interested only in making himself, and some of his own tribe, wealthy at the expense of the entire people. Imagine if all of Africa were to stand and refuse to be ruled by these corrupt tyrants? Refuse to allow anyone to build tyrants up in their midst?
The lesson should be to stop waiting for a benevolent leader, they don’t exist. The only guardian of your interests is yourself, and anyone who is friend or hired assistant to that liberty.