Not in a 1,000 years

When the then Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Smith, uttered the words “not in a thousand years,” in 1976, the collective black population took umbrage. It was an offence that travelled across the world. A white man had told black people that they need a thousand years to have dominion over their affairs while exercising democratic norms!

As late as 1890 when Europeans arrived and marched into the hinterland of southern Africa, democracy was an unknown culture to the natives. In fact, the key driver of civilisation, the wheel, was not invented from southern all the way to central Africa. The societies here at that time ranged from Stone to Iron Age with moderate agricultural communities.

The arrival of Arabs and Europeans jump-started our civilisation by thousands of years. There is a huge difference between practising a culture and knowing it. Democracy is not just for leaders but also followers, opposition, civic community and all other citizens. It is a huge leap for a people accustomed to chiefs and absolute rulers.

When Smith said “not in a thousand years,” it should not have be seen as an insult but a challenge. It was too late for us to go back to our chiefs who would rule until they died and then left the button to their sons. It is too early for us to say we understand and can practise democratic norms in our country. It is even worse when we try adapt and change a culture we cannot exercise. Events have shown that we need a force of character to change ourselves.

There are many things we need to become a full democratic state. Most of those things centre on the citizen. His beliefs. Her ideas. His view of fellow men. Her entitlements in her community. Her responsibilities. His understanding of democracy and politics. A lot of work is needed there. (I use “his” and “her” referring to both men and women.)

On a broader scale of the country, I think that our democracy should be forged on three key pillars and all equally important.

We must build a basic self-sustaining economy that is able to feed, transport and entertain our people while providing gainful employment. We must “eat what we kill” to quote former Finance Minister Tendai Biti. It is impossible to shun technological advancements elsewhere in the world. We must therefore have a dynamic program to monitor and follow developments closely. We simply cannot afford to import food. It is literally turning forex into manure.

We need serious long term plans on all aspects of our economy. These plans must not be changed at the whim of any government. Certain aspects can be tweaked but the overall plan must be pursued relentlessly. Personally, I would demand every ministry to craft a 50 year plan and then subject it to the public for further input and amendment. With such plans in our arsenal, our national vision and effort must then be directed to such and focus kept thereon.

The last pillar is accountability. Everyone must be responsible and accountable to their tasks especially at national level. Leaders should never be worshipped but constantly monitored and critiqued with focus only on results. Citizens must be responsible for basic things in their everyday life, like waste management, upkeep of areas they live and work in, reporting infrastructural flaws, paying taxes, etc.

As for public institutions and government, they must be open especially regarding finances. Basic expenditure documents must be available for scrutiny by curious citizen and organisations. We must have a petition culture so that groups of concerned citizens know what they need to do for their concerns to be addressed by public officials and government.

I know the above is not exhaustive and more is needed in our country. In my view, these three attributes are important on a broad scale for us to begin a march towards full democratic norms for Zimbabwe. As we stand, our country is like kids playing that game called “keeping house.” At this rate, we will need more than a thousand years to rule ourselves effectively and progressively.

Fungai Chiposi, Mr.
The Citizen

Photo credit goes to Brett Hilton-Barber and Lee R. Berger. Copyright © 2010 Prime Origins.