Well life has taught us many hard to swallow lumbs of lessons.
Which to take or leave them is the recipient’s choice but, it will always be excellent for us to make good and wiser decisions rather sceptic and ill-informed decisions.
But before going deep down it would be proper to deal with a certain problem which has found its way into every spider web.
This problem is of wording and has a lot to do with the issue of Tribal conflict or the exact word that is “Tribalism”.
What made me write this instalment was the way people have come to be used to pronounce the word Tribalism especially on many cases where it does not fit.
This problem has come mainly between the Shona and the Ndebele tribes in every move each person from the respective tribe takes over the other tribe.
I remember way back this when Econet Wireless Zimbabwe made a simple error in their wording of an IsiNdebele word on their Good Morning messages they were slapped by the tag of Tribalism.
Secondly, when Zimbabwe football national team secured their 2017 Afcon berth their celebration suffered a mythical stillbirth as they were also accused of being comprised with only Shona players hence tribalism again.
Thirdly, this week I could not understand when one of a fellow WhatsApp group member posted a joke about a Ndebele fellar who was reciting Charles Charamba’s song ‘Buruka Mweya Unoyera’ in IsiNdebele again he was labelled of being a tribalist.
Furthermore, then comes Mthwakazi Liberation Front a secessionist group which has been fueling all sorts of discontent accusing the government and all the people who have any linkage in their blood terrain with the Shona of being tribalistic in nature and have gone further in their pursuit for a re-installation of a Mthwakazi king and want by all means Zimbabwe to be divided.
This has gone on to affect the way people have come to think, especially if recent events are anything to base on.
That is the issue to do with the appointment of two additional Vice Presidents by the leader of the ‘big tent’ Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
President Tsvangirai opted to choose Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri whether in good faith or through nepotism nobody knows except him and God, but what has been said is the move was based on the recommendations made by the party’s National Executive to the leader upon his arrival from a medical checkup he had undergone in South Africa.
What is surprising though is no longer the decision which President Tsvangirai made but the comments which have come from many a section of disgruntled people who have come out guns blazing labelling the man (Mr Tsvangirai) a tribalist by nature.
Because of this the writer sort for a helping hand from deep down in the conscious mind and found that people have gone far in terms of misunderstanding tribalism.
Is it still tribalism when Thokozani Khupe is still a first in command Vice President of MDC-T even though Chamisa and Mudzuri are Zezuru?
Where does tribalism fit or come from then?
Are these people who have been making these comments trying to say it is only the people of the Ndebele lineage who should only get first priority in everything for it not to be tribalism?
Let us say a Shona and a Ndebele go to an interview for an available job and one of them secures the points needed should we call it tribalism.
Can institutions just enroll people who are surplus to requirements just for the sake of trying to solve the puzzle of tribalism?
Yes, the writer accepts the existence of tribalism together with marginalization within the society of Zimbabwe but would continue to be disappointed with the frequent use of the former over the latter to refer to anything that is between those who belong to the Ndebele tribe and their Shona counterparts.
I hope this writer will not be labelled a tribalist also.
OFF I GO!!!!!
Wilson Chipangura wrote this in his personal capacity. He can be contacted via @heavmany
Heavmany 