“You must appreciate that you make history also. For history is a very human thing. We bring it into being by what we do and do not do. Thus, we must understand that everything we do is important and a contribution to that history. Every night we don’t read; every day we refuse to learn our own history contributes to a negative history. There is a quote by King Kheti found in The Husia, the sacred text of ancient Egypt which says, ‘Every day is a donation to eternity, and even one hour is a contribution to the future, ’” wrote one Dr John Henrik Clarke in “Pan Africanism and the Future of the African Family.”
I strive every day, in every way to be the change I want to see in the world, as Gandhi advised. The hwindi is oblivious to this. He is struck in his own rut, which he has been in for a long time now. I don’t know when exactly roles reversed, and we became the meek, servile sheep at his mercy. It wasn’t always like this. Yes there was that time, of crippling transport blues and debilitating winding queues (of course that seems like a description of the present) when they became kings because for a certain fee they could “allow” you- if you were unprincipled enough- to jump the queue.
But that period like all things came to pass. The false consciousness of the high and mighty of the queues came crashing down. Alas,now, another bane has come to take its place. There is an air of glee as they shout out the new fare, virtually every day, nowadays, and they look into our faces, challenging us to dare defy them- they will simply park their kombis after all, is the silent threat. But, hitherto, they have not had anything to worry about. We merely duck our heads, quietly get on board, count the notes and hand them over: “Tingazviata sei? Chinyika chacho chashata.” (What can we poor people do, it’s the country that has gone to the dogs.” That’s the common refrain.
So the day to day grind and toil seems to be staked against me. Should I join the rat race as almost everyone seems to be suggesting? Why strive to be good amidst bad people and bad things happening to good people? The future is not the present, a small still voice whispers. I start. Who was that? My, conscience I realise. I sigh and smile. At least I still have that. Some people seem to have stopped being on speaking terms with their consciences for a long time now.
I wait for news from Rainbow Towers. Alas storm clouds are still gathering there. There is no rainbow to signal the beginning of a new a era. But I have learnt not to expect too much, without losing hope. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, I have learnt to look at the stars, even as we lie in the gutter. I keep on keeping on and amidst all the gloom and doom, life is not without laughter. Life goes on and I will wait…without succumbing to despair.
“Democracy is not a mathematical deduction proved once and for all time. Democracy is just a faith fervently held, a commitment to be tested again and again in a fiery, furnace of history”- Jack Kemp. The Old Man thinks it’s a tricky disposition in Africa. He has his reasons, of course, but I have faith he and his adversaries will eventually see reason.
We have been waiting for a long time now. Waiting is something we have come to do well. In the 1970s, it was independence we were waiting for, and the Hard Man of the time was saying never in a 1000 years. Charles Mungoshi was moved to write an all time classic, Waiting for the Rain- the kind of rain which seemed in danger of not coming.
But the 1000 years of the other Hard Man came sooner than he expected. The rain came after all. Then it evaporated. The long dry season returned to haunt our lives. Today, we wait for different kinds of rain. We wait in long winding queues to withdraw cash that barely enough top buy a loaf of bread. Day in and day out. Acts of faith are called upon here, too. Sometimes, I have seen men and women waiting in front of ATMs that are down. “They will be loaded soon” is the belief, even if no prophet or messenger has come bearing news of such an imminent coming.
Sometimes the long wait is in vain. But and lo and behold, there are times, too, when the faith bears fruit. Other things will bear fruit, too. We will make a better history. For now, in this present moment, I will not succumb to despair. I will not allow anxieties to overwhelm me. Instead, I will them pass through, flush them out of my system like toxins they are. I will choose my battles well, learn to walk from those not worth fighting and always, strive to be a better person, no matter how bad the environment. Don’t worry, sister, this is our home, wrote Musaemura Zimunya, in a poem whose title I forget, but that sounds like good advice, in the present, for brothers and sisters alike.
I hear a call from Africa’s distant past, from Pharoah Sesostoris: “To do that which is of value forever. A people called forth by their work do not die, for their name is raised because of it.” Do you hear it, too? Remember, ‘Every day is a donation to eternity, and even one hour is a contribution to the future.’ Live it as well as you can possibly can, taking care of those things within your control, without being defeated by those that are not.