The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
WHO am I? Who are you? Who are we? The question of identity in Zimbabwe and particularly in Bulawayo is a serious one. We are currently a generation of people moving about, like zombie in some ancient movie, minding our own business, completely unaware of who we are and what we are about.
Maybe not completely unaware — we could just be completely lost. We most probably believe we are who we are not. Blame it on the education we have all been fed, the literature we have eaten, and the songs we have been made to sing. The television sets in our houses are really not about us, but about changing us into other people.
So what does a Zimbabwean look like? And who is Zimbabwean? Is there a particular colour or look to this identity? And how does one identify with it or project it to the outside world? What is the identity of your family? Or your community? What is the identity of Bulawayo? And how many of us can stand up and proudly announce their true identity? There is so much confusion and sadly globalisation seem to be eroding the few individual identities left — all the weak identities will disappear soon if we are not careful.
How do our local youths identify with the city and what it is about? Do they even identify with the city at all? To make matters worse there is no serious discourse in the media and other public platforms about local identities. At times one has the feeling our local media actually is perpetuating the sense of loss by continuously bombarding our youths with foreign identities and stories.
Everything that is influencing our children and youths’ identities is coming from outside — mostly America and Europe. Music. Films. Media. Literature. Different cultures. We are nothing but consumers of all things foreign.
One painful issue is the confusion around national heroes. We never seem to agree nationally on that. Who and what exactly is a national hero? Who are our local heroes? Take away political heroes and our people struggle to mention one or two, unless of course if these are foreign. Only during the recent passing of Oliver Mtukudzi did we almost agree as a nation that a true hero is one whose works and whose effort touches so many people’s lives in the different corners of the country. Oliver did this with his music, beliefs, and values.
The task ahead is to find ourselves and we can only find ourselves by finding our true identity. We truly need to know who we are, what we are about and where are we from? Ben Okri, one of our favourite African writers, says a demolished nation tells demoralised stories to itself. A lost nation, like ours, tells confused stories to itself. Perhaps in the quest for knowing we will clear this confusion.
Let’s find stories about us. About our nation and cities. About who we really are. Stories that embody our values and beliefs. Stories that speak of us in good light, and make the young generation proud, not only of their country but also about themselves and where they come from. Once we find these stories let’s put them in our music, films, books, crafts, dance and everything else. This is the only way we can reclaim ourselves, the only way we can reclaim our identity.
