The Sunday News
Feature Tinomuda Chakanyuka
ON Tuesday 16 June Zimbabwe joined the rest of the African Continent to commemorate the Day of the African Child. Government, international organisations, civil society organisations, and communities engaged in various activities across the country to mark the day. The Day of the African Child is foremost a tribute to the 1976 uprising by children in Soweto, during which scores of schoolchildren were massacred by Apartheid South Africa police.
The commemorations of the day also act as a reminder to all actors on the African continent committed to the rights of children to combine their efforts in overcoming the obstacles that hinder the full realisation of children’s rights.
Thus, the Day of the African Child provides for African leaders and other actors to renew their commitment towards improving the plight of children on the continent.
The State owes its citizens, children included, an array of rights and freedoms as espoused in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights of 1948, to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status . . .” reads part of Article 2 of the human rights declaration.
In as much as the State is obligated to indiscriminately guarantee rights to its citizens, citizens too have duties, roles and responsibilities that they owe the State.
Article 29 of the declaration reads: “Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible”.
Yet more often discussions around children’s rights turn a blind eye to their responsibilities and duties.
As the country and the rest of the continent set aside special days such as the Day of the African Child, underscoring the importance of children’s rights, close attention should also be given to how children can be brought alive to the duties and responsibilities that they owe the State.
Among such duties as obeying the law, paying taxes and defending one’s country that citizens in general owe the State, one of the most important and paramount obligations that citizens owe the State is patriotism. Children are not exempt from exercising this particular duty.
Patriotism can be defined as a cultural attachment to one’s homeland or devotion to one’s country. It is a set of concepts closely related to those of nationalism.
Loyalty to one’s homeland supersedes all the other duties that anyone may owe his or her nation, such that when the spirit of patriotism has been instilled in one, execution of the other duties such as obeying the law and paying taxes, among others comes naturally.
It may thus suffice to say that patriotism is the foundation of all the duties citizens owe the State and the first step to having a complete citizen of any nation would be inculcating a spirit of patriotism.
What is, however, saddening is that patriotism these days is as cosmetic as Christmas. A lot of people are caught up in a festive atmosphere replete with spectacles and glamour. Most people spend more time in glitzy parties, gift-giving, and the other paraphernalia associated with the sacrosanct holiday than they do developing their devotion to the true meaning of the day.
So it is with patriotism, especially on national days such as Heroes and Independence Days, which to many people mean nothing more than a break from the hustle and bustle of the exhausting work schedule. A break they often use to drink and be merry with family and loved ones, without nurturing their devotion for the true meaning of the days.
A constant yet embarrassing reminder of the extent the country’s population is found wanting when it comes to patriotism is when our sports national teams take part in international games against other countries and most of our sportsmen fail to sing the National Anthem, live on national television.
That can be seen to be signifying how inadequate our education curriculum is, as it fails to instil a sense of loyalty in its products who grapple to memorise and recite lyrics to their national prayer.
It is in schools where citizens, while they are still children and at early stages of intellectual development that such values as patriotism should be instilled.
The Christian Bible, in the book of Proverbs chapter 22 verse 6 reads: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”.
The verse in essence suggests that an adult is a sum of his childhood teachings. In the same wisdom, a patriotic adult would be a result of the values of patriotism imparted on him/her at a young age.
In as much as our Government and many in the continent may prioritise provision of children’s rights, efforts should also be made to ensure that children are, at an early age, nurtured to harbour the spirit of loyalty to their country.
Zimbabwean education, has been acclaimed as one of the best on the continent, yet it lacks critical components such as patriotism, a deficiency that is more evident in the calibre of graduates from the country’s tertiary institutions.
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Dr Lazarus Dokora while appearing before Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, Arts, Sports and Culture recently, revealed the intention by his ministry to introduce national pledges in schools, compelling pupils to salute the national flag among other things.
“The proposed curriculum review will include introduction of a national school pledge for the infant school module, junior and secondary school to instil values of pride to be Zimbabweans,” Dr Dokora said.
While Dr Dokora’s justification was that he endeavours to produce complete patriotic citizens, who hold their country and its values in high regard, he also invited a barrage of criticism from the country’s private media, with NewsDay leading the chorus of disapprovals. This is yet another sad observable development that shows that the country’s populace is still a far cry from being patriotic, when opinion leaders like journalists deliberately set an anti-patriotism agenda.
Even countries like America, whom we have always epitomised as doyens of civilisation, have national pledges which their children recite everyday in school as a way of instilling a sense of loyalty to the country among citizens.
“A curriculum that fuses the country’s liberation war history, patriotism, self-help skills, unity and development with academic prowess is the tonic for Zimbabwe’s anticipated development,” reads an excerpt from a column in a local weekly, The Patriot.
The newspaper could never have put it any better.
Educationist, Dr Samukele Hadebe, while concurring with Dr Dokora, asserted that there was no substitute for patriotism and underscored the importance of imparting such values to children.
“We should inculcate the sense and spirit of love for, first, one’s country, its people and self-consciousness. People may criticise the proposal by Dr Dokora and view it as dogma, but what other option do they have to building a patriotic nation.
“No one should debate that values should be passed onto children, but maybe debate should be around how that should be done. I feel schools could be one of the best ways of passing such values and the first step to building a patriotic nation.
“In essence we should create a nation of people that come from different backgrounds but sharing one vision. Standing for the national agenda,” he said.
While governments on the continent must heed calls to improve the plight of children, movement towards guaranteeing children’s rights should be concurrent with efforts to instil a sense of loyalty and patriotism within children.
That would be the first and fundamental step towards nurturing a spirit of nationhood.
Celebrated Jamaican reggae singer King Sounds, sang: “Give children rule, Give them love, teach them love not just material things”.
Rights come with duties and responsibilities.
