Admiring faith, hope and integrity
There is a view is so eloquently expressed by the narrator in the book Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah, born in Zanzibar, Tanzania (but now living in England) :
I knew then (not that I didn’t really have to be learned and relearned, and even then we forget them so easily and talk ourselves into something ameliorating and hopeful) that the food- stores were going to remain empty, and that schools would be without books, and the air would be filled with cruel, duplicitous promises, that justice would be just another word brayed from the mouths of the donkeys who rule us, and of course the toilets were going to remain blocked for a long time. Read more
Student life
The sun sets so beautifully into the horizon. The ordinary person marvels at the wonder of the glory of God, yet to the student who is at a university that is about to close its doors, who slept on an empty stomach yesterday, the setting of the sun does not signify anything. All he askes is a simple innocent question, ‘Is God mverled at my pain?’
This year I am certainly praising God for making me able to pay US$2500 for my college tuition which with current situation that our country is in is a fortune. As I praise God I know there is someone who is cursing the blessing of the burning syndrome that made his poor parents afford to send him to one of Zimbabwe’s most expensive universities. Why shouldn’t he, when his school fees drained everything from their coofers that all they could manage to give their son for school was a little forex which today seems to be also affected by the sporadic runaway inflation that has brougth our country down? Read more
Sustainability lost
The last few months have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Watching Obama win the US Presidential elections brought through such a powerful wave of emotions. Wonder and relief mixed with positive hope for change. There is shift happening in the world, and this feels part of this shift. But this is about America. I am Zimbabwean. Why has this affected me so much?
I feel the answer has to lie in his amazing journey. The man has won against such huge adversity. His message of change and hope for the future won out against the state machines. There was not an entirely fair or level playing field. Like many other countries, the government in power had the resources and the ability to put barriers in the way of the opposing party. Oh it was far less devastating and pervasive as it is in some countries, but it still existed. Read more
Now is not forever
“The concept and fact of ‘now’ or immediacy often oppresses people. Every ruling class in history has made people respond to the immediacy as if it were forever…We are trapped by immediacy. The ruling class cultivates such an idea. But ‘now’ is the shortest period of time. While [you are reading this] now is going out of existence. What we have here is three basic concepts: reality, actuality, and potentiality. And people confuse the three. Actuality is what is; potentiality is what can be and reality is what the thing ought to be in its fullness. People often confuse reality with actuality. They say face ‘reality’, but what they really mean is submit to actuality, i.e. to what is now. In a word accept things as they are. But we are not supposed to do that. Human nature is human possibility and thus what we must do is cultivate the human potential in us and dare turn actuality into reality. Again, actuality is what is, but reality is what ought to be to be when a thing or person realises his or her fullness…” Dr Maulana Karenga.
And therein lies the rub. A boil might grow, but it will eventually fester and burst. And heal. But in its “now” it causes such untold pain that its bearer thinks will never end. So too, this state of limbo, days of uncertain hope in which you are not sure whether the light you see at the end of the tunnel is really the opening you crave, or a train coming to squash you into a stain. Read more
Triumph against all odds is possible
“When I look at Mary McLeod Bethune, a Black Woman, who built a college at a time when even white men weren’t building colleges, I am inspired and reinforced. She actually came to buy a piece of land for the college with $1. 50 in her pocket and nothing but a dream, and an indomitable spirit and said upon that land she would raise an image and structure for Black people and contribute to the forward flow of human history.
“ When we see models like that, people who are outnumbered, surrounded, who have no idea of when this will end, but nevertheless taking a stand and standing for the future; when we see those things in history then we understand and are compelled to dare emulate and honour them” Read more
Thank you
I think this blog is going to mean so much more in the lives of all those who will subscribe to it.
The situation on Zimbabwe ceased to be natural a long time ago and it only needs God’s intervention to change it. So much is happening and looking at it in the physical realm will lead us to nowhere.
