Children deserve their rights of expression, association, education and care among others. However countries differ in how they balance a child’s rights and the parents’ and caregivers’ rights to discipline in the name of protecting and nurturing.

Parents and caregivers, including teachers, who constitute elders in society, have some degree of control over children. However for the control to be enforceable there is supposed to be a degree of conventional allegiance on the part of children. In Shona culture any elder has the right to control and discipline a child based on the saying: “Mwana ndewe munhu wese” – meaning a child belongs to everyone. At the same time children are obliged to respect and obey elders in society. This is meant to ensure that children are put under control irrespective of the presence or absence of their parents.

This form of communal responsibility over children has a basic assumption that “every elder is equally responsible and caring for all young children”. It is not surprising therefore that in some communities, if an elder disciplines a child, the parent is not quick to get angry unless there is evidence that the child has not done anything wrong or unless the punishment is excessively abusive. This trend has changed in modern societies, with parents claiming responsibility of their own children and claiming all rights. Governments are also gradually reducing even the parents’ rights. For instance, beating children by parents or caregivers is illegal in many countries.

This does not come without a reason; there is general understanding that the “Mwana ndewe munhu wese” adage does not hold water anymore. There are abusive elements in contemporary society, robbers, rapists and kidnappers among others. Obviously one cannot cede rights to discipline a child to everyone in such communities.  Some parents have also joined the abusive element by raping, killing and harassing their own children.

Does this however justify the stance that teachers and parents should not discipline children? Children are being increasingly protected against abuse, however children happen to abuse the rights, in a manner that apparently threatens their safety and future, yet parents, teachers and other caregivers are continuously having little or no powers to foster discipline.

We are looking forward to the government, youth organisations, and parents to properly define how far we should take the right to discipline, balancing children’s rights as well as fostering the authority of parents and caregivers in a bid to ensure the necessary allegiance in environments like schools and other communities.

It has become normal in Zimbabwe to find two organizations doing the same business, and sharing the name but then suffixed somehow with another word to mark a difference. For example, ‘MDC T’, ‘MDC M’, ‘ZINASU Magwini’, ‘ZINASU Chinyere’, ‘CAPS FC’, ‘CAPS United’, just to mention a few. Even Churches have not been spared: ‘Johhane Marange’, ‘Johanne Masowe yeChishanu’, ‘Johanne Masowe yeMadzibaba’ and ‘Johnane Masowe yeVadzidzi’. One wonders why these divisions are happening. Even in these seemly intact institutions, its normal to hear of ‘this faction’ and ‘that other faction’. Many times conflicts are unavoidable, but is separation always the best answer? In every set up since time immemorial, there has always been a provision for dispute settlement. Conflicts are not new in our lives, our failure to handle them should labeled as such: FAILURE.

And this does not only happen at institutional level, but even at social and family level, you find those that were strong bonds now being totally disjointed. Friends, who were friends, are no longer. Parents who shared everything including children are now enemies for life. It is high time that we stop this trend and resort to amicable dispute settling mechanisms, which do not culminate in divisions. We all know that there is power in unity and a unified body is more dignified that its sub-parts. Even the bible makes it clear that “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25). Even the Shona say that “Shumba mbiri hadzibvutirwi nyama,” which literally means that one cannot take away meat from two lions. Recognising this power of unity, and recalling past experiences were disunity has cost us, it should be a lesson to throw out division forever.

The question is, what kind of precedence are we are setting for our future generations, in terms of professionalism, leadership qualities, comradeship, brotherhood and unity of purpose? The bottom line here is to bring things together when we see them falling apart.

Zimbabwe is just emerging from its worst time ever and though people are not yet content, and are still in the air of uncertainty as to what the future holds for them, it is worth acknowledging that the previous year has been a great relief to many of us. In as much as we wish for the betterment of our country in every walk of life, it is sad to note that the qualities, attitudes, and tendencies that we developed during this negative time are still haunting us. Below are some examples:

- Every morning and evening as people come to and from work, transport operators who demand double the normal fair rob them of their dear dollars.

- Now that it is the season for selling tobacco, farmers are flocking into the city with their produce, and prices of goods in town have gone up.

- It is not even surprising to see people wasting production ours loitering in town, doing absolutely nothing. Yes it was possible to make money out of nothing during the past but now its different.

- If you lend money to someone you find it very difficult to get it back. Not because he/she does not have it, but only that one thinks one day it will be forgotten, just like that.

- If one needs to change from one currency to the other, the bank is the last resort. First people try the next-door, then the street.

- Towards month end it is common to see people spending to the last cent, because inflation scared them that far.

- Even national service providers are still charging speculative prices.

- Everyone has multiple bank accounts, but only a few use even one, fearing that if you deposit cash one day you might not be able to withdraw it. If you close the accounts: ” pamwe ku’burner’ kuchadzoka”.

- Every teacher’s home has a classroom.

- If you commit a crime you just share the proceeds with a policeman.

Reports of religious fighting in Nigeria are quiet saddening. There are many possible explanations for this violence, but one of the most controversial would be Muslim intolerance of Christians, as we have heard of several killings over religious beliefs. Some people may argue that most world suffering including wars are as a result of religious differences, yet Rich Deem on behalf of believers argues that religious wars are only 7% of all wars.

Whatever is the case, we now have to come to our senses as civilized humans and contemplate what we slaughter each other for. Religious massacres are uncalled for. Religion is merely a belief that manifests from association. If one is born among Christian he/she is more likely to become a Christian than a Muslim. He/she can only change when his/her belief in Christianity is not strong enough to warrant resistance to external pressure. The same can be said about someone born among the Muslims. Therefore the struggle should be that of trying to lure people from another belief to join one’s religion. It should be the battle of gospel spreading. That way it is more of a reason to share tables over and ultimately unite than to fight.

A closer look at the two mostly conflicting religions, Christianity and Islam, reveal that the difference in these religious is not that great. It is largely on who Jesus is. Christianity believes that he is part of the Holy Trinity, Muslims believes there nothing like the Holy Trinity and believe that Jesus was only one of the great prophets and not part of the God, hence their following of the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.  One can only understand this difference if he/she listens to and thinks over arguments from the other camp.  No one knows the absolute religious truth. In our quest to reach God, we should therefore seek the true religion by associating and sharing facts.

Mary Wallker in 2004 observed that people fight to prove who is right or wrong in their beliefs however there’s no real way to prove who is right or wrong without referring to religious texts or church doctrine. It is ridiculous that some governments and groups feel so strongly about their religion that they are moved to wage “religious” war on those who do not believe in the path that they follow. Surely if one believes that a person is created in the image of God, what justification does he/she have to believe that he/she has done better by killing that image of God simply because the image does not think the same as he/she does.

It is high time the human race realises that people differ in race, colour, geographical locations and backgrounds, and that justifies why they should also differ in their religions. Coexistence is a principle that even God likes. If it is true that He will have to separate people, having some destined for heaven and some for hell, based on His own criteria, He never gave us the mandate to separate ourselves here on earth. If we feel we should, then let us lead our lives in our religious sects and never give ourselves the right over other people’s lives.

Zimbabwe is in a process of formulating a new constitution. The process is already reportedly marred by disgruntlements emanating from different lines of divisions ranging from political to gender. It is sad and highly unexpected of an educated populace as Zimbabwe’s. The tensions reflect massive misconceptions not only of the process leading to the constitution but also of what the constitution is and its short term and long term objectives.

If people really knew what they were doing, we would not be having outcries over political rallies and the consequent political violence, which we hear of, or over who constitutes the select committee to spearhead the constitution making process. It is not the role of any political party to inform its people of the constitution but of an independent neutral body, or of other informed citizens.

The constitution is a document much more important than any political party, it should live beyond ZANU PF, beyond MDC and beyond Ndonga or any political party yet to be formed. It is the national bible to determine the conduct of the government and other stakeholders including people. What it implies is that it is the key to control the birth, survival and death of political parties. It should therefore come from the people in general, irrespective of their political party allegiances. Everyone should wear the coat of a citizen and take off any identification with a party in the process.

The select committee to spear heard the constitution making process is not there to influence the outcomes of the process. What we want collected are the views of the people as raw as they are and not views doctored along short term political interests. The same can be said of gender issues. We want people’s views and not those of whoever is part of the committee. People should be educated and to take heed of such elements that are bent on influencing the process to make the constitution their pocket parcel or baby.

People should stop viewing the constitution through political party lenses and rather jointly come up with a constitution that benefits everyone. What is important here is political and social neutrality.

Lately the debate about women’s rights has been taken to greater heights than ever before. It is historically evident that women have been oppressed mainly on the basis of their physical weakness, which was mistakenly assumed to overlap also to mental capacity. As a result they have been treated as mere observers in a male dominated world. Or as mere commodities; for example, a young girl could be exchanged for food or cattle. People with wealth ended up having many wives, some as young as their grand daughters.

Giving birth to a boy child has been regarded as enlarging the family, whereas giving birth to a girl child is seen as enriching the family through cattle, food or any form of wealth that would come out of lobola. Even the terminology speaks for itself, “Mukomana anoroora, musikana” meaning that the act is not reciprocal. Rather the boy child is the object whereas the girl is the subject. Just like the relationship between a boy and the ball in the sentence, “The boy kicks the ball.”

Today’s world drives us to a new dispensation – that of equality. A free world for all. How can this be valid where marriage demands payment from one side of the pair? In my view payment of lobola removes that balance which we strive to achieve in a relationship.  Despite the amount of noise made about human rights, women are literally reduced to mere commodities and given a monetary value. One pays that much for an educated woman, the other pays that much more for a moneyed women and so on. Yes it is our culture, but is it not the same culture, that we should blame for its ills of disregarding women? If it is merely a cultural token, why does it differ depending on the social status of who is getting married? In as much as we are moving out of the era of unbalanced oppression towards women, our approach lacks practicality as we still hang on to cultural practices that can promulgate inequality right from the first day that people are married.

And from the women’s side, many are convinced that payment has to be made to their family before they are married. I once asked a lady if she would agree to exchange vows without any payment made. In response she asked me why I wanted to be ‘given” a wife for free. To me she reduced herself to a mere commodity rather than an equal partner.

My argument here is simple. Lobola payments minimise the gender equality we want to achieve when people enter their marriage without a balance. When the wife is ill treated, she is slow to take any action because someone paid for her. Even her parents will look at the matter considering that they received something from the Mukwasha. With lobola in place, and pressure to be equal, I foresee a time when men will not be committed to a relationship. Rather they go the “hit and run” way where they impregnate and go free again with no responsibility and no risk.