Cultural lockdowns a must for now Public Order Vehicles being used to disinfect Bulawayo's central business district.

Stephen Mpofu

The black majority in Zimbabwe, as in almost if not all of Africa, still live out there in their ancestral lands, the rural areas which racist former ruling foreign cultures regarded as peripheries in developmental terms.

It is a tragic irony that the black ruling elite encamped in urban areas, the erstwhile citadels of power for European colonisers of the African continent in some cases, if not many, also regard the rural areas as peripheries developmental wise in spite of the reality that rural folk give life to urban dwellers by providing food without which urbanites would not last long enough with shrunken and empty bellies.

Now, with what those in Christendom regard as the work of the Anti-Christ having engulfed virtually the entire globe and raging fiercely through our own country, it is a matter of urgency that fireguards are put in place YESTERDAY instead of people in power narrowing their eyes to catch palls of smoke in the sky as signals of the all-consuming veld fires approach because explosions of things in its way are already being heard.

We are talking here about the Covid-19 pandemic and suggesting that no effort should be spared by African governments in the fight against the coronavirus with, in the case of our own country, and no doubt those of other countries as well, cultural/traditional practices being subjects for immediate lockdowns until such a time as the devil, intent on stealing, killing and destroying humanity, has been silenced.

Rural areas in our country remain the preserves of cultural practices such as, for instance, shaking hands when greeting one another and with the calabash frothing with “seven days” circulating among people gathering at a beer drink or after threshing small grains on a cooperative basis in one or other villages with no social, self-distanciation (rpt self-distanciation) being practised whatsover.

Some people in the villages, emulating their educated urban elites, hug or even kiss each other as signs of welcoming visitors.

But what is probably even more catastrophic in light of the world Covid-19 pandemic is that some people out there in the rural areas, including their traditional leaders, are wont to appeal to their ancestral shades for protection from the coronavirus onslaught.

This pen believes that a strong case exists here for the strong men and women of God to mount crusades in the villages in order to win, nay wrest the non-Christians there from the breasts of their ancestral shades – which may be demonic and therefore an anathema to God – and bring the non-Christians closer to the Creator of our universe and He to them so that, strengthened by Jesus Christ they will do everything including overcoming the coronavirus.

It is a little heartening to note that in the case of Zimbabwe our own government is taking some measures to protect every citizen of this country from Covid-19.

However, because villagers are not subjected to constant bombardment with information by television and radio to the same extent that urban dwellers experience, much more needs to be done perhaps by sending the military and, the police to reinforce efforts by traditional leaders who include chiefs and headmen in the fight against the post modern viral onslaught which has taken the world by storm.

Much more than that, our national and other leaders might seriously wish to consider donating cuts from their fat salaries and allowances with which to set up isolation and treatment centres in the rural areas for those suspected or confirmed cases of the coronavirus and for any other needs the less privileged folk out there – on whom racist foreign rulers thumbed their long noses preferring instead the sweat of the poor blacks to sweeten the foreigners’ lives on this continent and elsewhere in Africa.

For instance, reports from some villages in Manicaland earlier this week suggested that people were still freely drinking beer at outlets as if nothing was the matter as far as their safety was concerned, with another report from the Southern Midlands saying the people brought beer from outlets to drink home but with no indication as to whether they drank it in larger groups or with social self-distanciation being observed or using different utensils to prevent the spread of the infection.

One would also expect that during the lockdown that MPs from the rural constituencies would be out there to be with the people who put them in power in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Above all, if our leaders are seen to be always with the people in happy and difficult times such as the one being experienced now, they will be more justified to seek fresh mandates from the people at election time to return to their cushy offices and continue with the struggle to take the country to a braver future economically and socially and with that foster lasting peace, unity and stability in the motherland.

A aluta continua.

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