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Cuthbert Mavheko, [email protected]

ACCORDING to reports, Ms Dadirai Mubaiwa (55) from Mberi Village near Murewa, Mashonaland East province, is facing a crisis as her second child has become violent and aggressive towards her due to drug and substance abuse. Her story is quite common in our country; many parents are suffering abuse at the hands of their own children, who are addicted to drugs and illicit alcoholic drinks.

Blinding our eyes to the hard, cold facts of reality will not do our nation any good. The honest truth is that our moral barometer as a nation is rapidly falling, with many terrible things, antithetical to our cultural norms and values, happening daily.

Alcoholism, drug and substance abuse, promiscuity, youthful violence, crime and insolence have reached epidemic proportions in the country.

These terrible anti-social activities are ticking like a time bomb, threatening to destroy the very moral fabric of our nation.

Today, a significant number of youths in the country spend a significant amount of their time at vuzu parties and beer-gardens, drinking njengu and smoking marijuana and other illicit substances. In Harare, for instance, many youths are reportedly drinking an illicit alcoholic drink popularly known as tumbwa, which is believed to be brewed using decayed food items.

Under the influence of drugs and highly intoxicating alcoholic drinks, some youths become violent and viciously attack and rob people at night. The scourge of alcohol, drug and substance abuse has turned multitudes of youths in the country, including schoolchildren, into wild, misguided rebels.

According to a research conducted by the Unicef, in collaboration with the Government, the Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network (ZCLDN), Muthengo Development Studies (MDS) and Youth Advocates Zimbabwe (YAZ), about 60 percent of school dropouts in the country are a result of alcohol, drug and substance abuse.

The aforementioned research found that the most common drugs and illicit alcoholic substances used by students were marijuana, cough syrup, crystal meth, musombodhiya, pharmaceuticals, cocaine, crack and heroine. The study also revealed that 70 percent of gang violence in the country is among school children; 15 percent of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) cases involve adolescents and young people. According to the same research, 40 percent of suicide attempts in the country are linked to drug and substance abuse.

A few years back, medical practitioner Dr Misheck Ruwende said young people between the ages of 17 to 23 years were now regular psychotic patients at Bulawayo hospitals.

“It’s worrying the rate at which young ones are becoming psychotic patients because of drug abuse.

Drugs have become a big problem and a majority of teenagers are now being sent to mental institutions due to the effects of drug abuse. The issue is serious to the extent that 60 percent of patients admitted in health institutions are due to drug-induced psychosis,” said Dr Ruwende.

The trend is so frightening in what it portends and corrective measures should be effected now before the situation explodes to unmanageable levels.

The onus is now on us as a nation to cast our political, religious or ethnic differences aside; come together as one and try to find a lasting solution to the problem.

In our day, cigarettes, drugs, sex and alcohol were taboo — we never touched them. As teenagers, we also feared and respected our parents, teachers and elderly people. But look at today’s youths. Their total lack of respect for constituted authority — either that of parents, teachers or elderly people — is mind-boggling.

As one writer said, “today’s youths are indeed ‘wise’ in their conceits, but woefully ignorant of the adverse ramifications of their misguided pursuits.” What adds a chilling dimension to the whole scenario is that youths are now mixing illicit alcoholic drinks with drugs in unprecedented and staggering proportions.

Medical authorities say mixing illicit alcoholic drinks with hard drugs is harmful to one’s mind and body.

Dr Arnold Donga, a South Africa-based pharmacologist, warned that, “A drug like heroine, marijuana or cocaine and an alcoholic drink taken closely together may produce no obvious ill effects in one person and yet kill another with sudden ferocity. Death can occur rapidly from convulsions, lung failure, stroke or even drowning in one’s own internal secretions.”

As I was researching about the causes of alcohol, drug and substance abuse among youths, I paid an impromptu visit to Masilela Beer garden in Bulawayo’s Luveve suburb.

When I entered the beer garden, I was shocked into consternation to see some students smoking marijuana and drinking njengu, an illicit alcoholic beverage. When I left the beer garden, a short while later, I ran into a highly intoxicated female imbiber, aged about 15 years, who was smoking marijuana while urinating outside the beer garden in broad daylight.

As I walked past her, she sneered at me and said, “Ungangikhangeli wena mdala, lapha kusebhawa, siyenza esikhufunayo (don’t look at me, old man, this is a beer garden and we are free to do as we like).”
The question that is boiling in the hearts and minds of many people today is: What is causing youths in our country to abuse alcohol and drugs?

Some experts opine that decadent music, TV films and peer pressure are among the major causes of this.

It is undeniable that these are contributory factors. Most decadent TV films and the so-called popular music have one thing in common: They glamourise marital infidelity, alcoholism, promiscuity, illicit drug use and many other anti-social practices.

The foregoing notwithstanding, however, it is this scribe’s sober sense that the root cause of alcohol, drug and substance abuse among young people goes a lot deeper than any of the aforementioned vices.

One would not be totally off the mark to surmise that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is mainly to blame for clinging onto an education system that places undue emphasis on the technical aspects of education, while negating its moral side.

Education should not be limited or confined to book-learning, or the dissemination of technical information only, but should also include personality development. One cannot be said to be properly educated if he or she lacks principles of right character such as respect, integrity, honesty, patience, loyalty, courtesy and dependability.

While the technical aspect of education is essential as a means to earning a living, its value diminishes if it is not sustained by a sound moral base. It is the humble submission of this scribe that in order to contain the flood of moral decadence that has turned many youths in the country into rowdy, misguided rebels, we need a new system of education that places more emphasis on moral tutelage.

With hindsight, it can be seen that in times past, three social institutions — the home, the church and schools — shared the duty of transmitting moral education to children. However, what is disconcerting is that this triumvirate has broken down in modern times and today we are witnessing an alarming decline in the moral and ethical standards of many youths in the country.

Today, an increasing number of parents have abandoned their responsibility of instilling moral and ethical values in their children, leaving everything in the hands of school teachers.

It is of paramount importance to state that the family unit was designed and created by the Creator God to be a learning, character-building institution for children.

Parents are children’s first educators and they have an obligation to teach their children the appropriate code of conduct that will help to transform them into morally upright individuals.

“Charity begins at home” says an ancient English adage. As a parent, one of your most important responsibilities is to create a relationship of trust between you and your child. It must be strong enough to endure all the problems that he or she will face in future. Your child must learn to trust and respect your decisions.

When your child enters school, he or she will embark on one of the most potentially dangerous phases of life. He or she will become exposed to the values and pressures of strangers — teachers, other children and the society at large.

As a toddler, a child is almost totally dependent on its parents for information, knowledge and wisdom.

But with the passage of time, the child can become more influenced by other people and less by parents.

One pertinent observation that I have personally made over the years is that many teenagers take on the personality and thinking of other people who are often morally adrift.

“By teaching children early how to properly conduct themselves, parents can help them avoid a life full of heartaches and problems. It is never too early to begin giving your children clear standards of behaviour. From their earliest years, you are influencing the character of your children — actively or passively — for good or evil. If you don’t actively teach them how to live life the right way, you are actually abandoning them to the mercy of fate,” said Father Alexio Mukaro, a priest-cum-child and marriage counsellor in the Roman Catholic Church.

He further noted that parents should create an emotional, intellectual and spiritual atmosphere in their homes that ties together all members of the family.

“As the toddler grows and develops, parents must make sure bonds of love and understanding based on the Word of God are being built in their families. Children should be taught to trust their parents for love, for help and for sound advice. In doing that, parents must themselves first set a proper example. A parent is not in a good position to teach his or her teenage son or daughter about the evils of drunkenness, for example, if that parent is an alcoholic,” said Father Mukaro.

Parents play a crucial role in developing right and wholesome character in their children. In light of this, they should not leave their children on their own and should start early to put them (children) in the right track. Side-stepping responsibilities in rearing children can lead to ultimate disaster.

There are definite penalties for ignoring child rearing principles. If practised, right principles of child rearing will produce happy, vibrant and responsible children. Our values, good or bad, are passed on to our children. The Inspired Scriptures say, “You shall teach them (godly values) to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 11 verse 19).

Indeed, it presents a painful paradox to note that the most important thing we need in rearing children is the most overlooked in this modern world. We need divine guidance in order to rear children who are responsible, respectful and successful.

Jesus Christ said, “I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.” (John 15 verse 5). We receive divine guidance from God through prayer and studying His written word — the Holy Bible — and using it as our guideline in every aspect of our lives, including child rearing. Children are precious to God (Mark 10 verse 14) and as parents, we have a moral and spiritual obligation to rear them God’s way.

If we help our children to understand the world in light of what God says about any subject, they will be much better prepared to deal with society’s pressures when they reach the teenage years. The Holy Bible, which is the Creator’s Instruction Manual to mankind, admonishes parents to bring up children “in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6 verse 4). However, what is happening in these modern times is that many parents don’t give heed to biblical instructions and admonitions in rearing children because they don’t believe in the existence of God.

He (God) seems so unreal to them – so far off as to seem non-existent. Today, many families are plagued by atheism, agnosticism, selfishness, self- centredness and other vices that spoil the selfless bond, which should unite a man and a woman in a stable, God-fearing family. Many husbands and wives no longer view marriage as a sacred, God ordained institution and behave as if they were drawn into the matrimonial union by some historical accident.

There’s a broad consensus of opinion among sober, discerning and analytical marriage counsellors that marriage has been stripped of its sanctity and sacredness by some philosophers and psychiatrists, who pay homage to the false god of evolution. They propagate the universally acclaimed Darwinian fable, which postulates that humans are merely the highest development of the animal kingdom, and that mankind started marriage as a mere custom.

This fable has blinded many young men and women who enter into marriage today to this biblical truth — that marriage is ordained of God — and that parents have a sacred responsibility to maintain and sustain the spiritual health of their families by obeying God’s commandments, and living according to His divine guidelines as enshrined in His laws — the Ten Commandments. Through the Holy Bible, God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us explicit instructions on how to love and care for our children.
The Ten Commandments are a perfect law. They outline, in broad detail, how we can develop a close relationship with God so that we may have His guidance, help and blessings.

They also give us clear guidelines on what we should do to instil sound moral and ethical values in our children. Children need proper guidance and support from their parents if they are to mature into successful adults. Some psychologists confide that the personality and temperament of a child is firmly established in the family in the first few years of life and lays the foundation for a child’s future. This insightful observation is buttressed by Proverbs 22 verse 6, which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

l Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance writer and theologian. He can be contacted on 0773963448/0775522095 or via mail [email protected].