eBusiness Weekly
Clifford Shambare
Since it is easy to be bored by the monotony of a heavy diet designed to deal with our current situation of a difficult economy — a situation that is likely to continue for a long time in spite of how one may feel about it — I have decided in this article, to use a slightly different approach to the matter — an approach that I believe will be a bit easier to digest, this time around.
As with most cultures, the Shona culture has quite a few stories that teach us some lessons that are pertinent to the correction of certain wayward attitudes and behaviours that have led us into positions and/or conditions that some of us — those who can “see through the wool” as the adage goes — are now regretting. Some of these stories are quite old while others are new. But in the case of the latter, on looking closely at the matter, one finds that they are also derived from old ones.
Among the old ones, I have in mind the story of the rock rabbit that sent other rock rabbits to get a tail for itself and as a result, ended up without one because the others either ignored its request, or forgot about it in the milieu of trying to get one for themselves. Among the new ones, there is one called “Mutongi gava Maenzanise” (Fox the fair judge) in a song of the same title.
Then there is another, “Zvangu Zvauya” by Marko Sibanda, about avoiding the temptation of treating other people badly because they may retaliate in a subtle way, the next time around, when the tables are turned against one.
In this particular case, I am talking about a man who has done something that is now negatively affecting him and the rest of his people — something whose negative effect(s) cannot be ameliorated with any degree of ease — if at all.
Here is the story — a story that is somehow different from most of the said stories, in that it is quite recent, the events involved having started happening in 1997. At that time there were three men who were from three different ethnic communities. X was a Caucasian, Y an Asian, and Z an African. And it so happened that a messenger was sent by the Holy Spirit to Earth where these communities lived. The messenger had been instructed to go round picking on some individuals from each of these ethnic communities in order to give them blessings.
The Holy Spirit had set up conditions for the messenger to articulate to the targeted individuals to enable them to qualify to be finally granted the said blessings. The first condition was that the blessing asked for had to be for the benefit of the whole of mankind, starting with the community of the targeted one.
The second condition was that the target person’s neighbour would get twice what the former would have asked for. The third condition was that the Holy Spirit would finally decide on the scale of the blessing. The fourth condition was that whatever the targeted individual would ask for, would determine what his neighbour and his people would be given, that it would not be too far removed from what the former would have chosen.
The messenger started by visiting X, a Caucasian, who had been an airline pilot for twenty years — who now wished to own his own airline — who responded to him saying, “As you know my Lord , we Caucasians love material wealth, so I am asking for ten jet airliners — specifically 707s.
In response the messenger said, “Very well my son, I shall proceed to grant your request and your neighbour will get twenty airliners.
“Thank you my Lord”, said he.
Next, the messenger paid a visit to the Asian who said, “As you know my Lord, We Asians like rice a lot, and it is in fact, our staple food. So I am asking for rice seed and fertiliser to grow twenty hectares of the crop next season. I am quite certain that the following season I can grow twice this area”, whereupon the messenger agreed and proceed to give his neighbour enough inputs for forty hectares.
Then lastly, he paid a visit to Z who in fact, happened to be a political leader of one of the main parties in his country — who responded saying, “But my Lord, you have made things quite difficult for me”.
Rather surprised, the messenger asked him, “So what shall we do about the matter then”?
“Come back tomorrow if you don’t mind, my Lord. By then, I think I will have made my decision on the matter.”
“All right my son, I shall do as you request; what time then?”
“Ten o’clock”.
At that point, the messenger was quite annoyed by the man’s peremptory attitude. But since the Holy Spirit had instructed him to report back if he met any challenges on his way, he held his patience. On reporting back, his master, the Holy Spirit, gave him instructions on what to do next since he knew already, what Z was up to.
The following day the messenger arrived promptly at the agreed time.
“Mambo ndazofunga manje, madii mandibvisa zvenyu ziso rimwechete”, (Nkhosi yami, sengicabange kahle manje, ngicela lingikhiphe ilihlo elilodwa.) (My Lord, I have given your issue due consideration and I have decided that you take one eye off me), he blurted out.
Meanwhile, the messenger had been granted the power to see what Z was driving at. His neighbour had a very beautiful wife whom he desired, so he thought (to himself) that if he requested for the removal of one of his eyes, his neighbour would lose two eyes, and then he could have his wife without him knowing what was going on.
In response, the messenger said, “Son, I am very disappointed with you because you have broken two conditions in your request already. Firstly, I said what you ask for must be a positive addition, and not a subtraction to your store of wealth. Secondly, what you are asking for does not raise the prosperity of you and your people, but instead, it has the potential to cause a great deal of suffering — not only to you but also, to your neighbour, and finally, your people”.
“So now, as punishment for your disobedience, I am going to take two eyes off you. However, I shall not remove both of your neighbour’s eyes as you wished since he does not have four eyes, anyway”.
“And also remember that my other condition was that the gift your people would subsequently receive would not be too far removed from what you yourself, would have asked for. To that end, I have been instructed by my master to make you, your neighbour, and your people, work for the people of X and Y as punishment for your disobedience to my instructions”.
After this incident, Z’s country was, and still is, known as “Tibisei maziso”, and its people, the “Tibisei maizisans”. And as is the case with most such situations where Higher Order decisions have been made about anyone — those decisions stay. Consequently, the citizens of “Tibisei maziso” are going to continue suffering from the curse. Not only that — the Holy Spirit has decided to make the citizens of “Tibisei maziso”, servants of X and Y, and their neighbours have also been made to suffer the same fate!
Fast forward to the current period: When “Ndibisei ziso” was informed of the Holy Spirit’s verdict, he did not believe it, nor did he believe that he had in fact, done something that could court a curse. So he continued in a state of denial of the fact. When the whole incident happened, only a few people knew about it; these were members of his family and close party colleagues.
Over time, he found a way of convincing his followers that the story they were hearing was not true — that it had been invented by members of the other party in order to make him unpopular with them, his followers.
This situation continued for a period of over twenty years when those members of “Tibisei maziso” who could see what was happening, launched a campaign to appeal to X’s country to expunge the curse.
Now at this stage you may be wondering how a curse that was sanctioned from the spiritual world ended up being administered on Earth. Here I must admit that I also do not know the basis and process of how and why this happened.
But what I know for sure is that the leaders of X claim in the current period, that they have been granted this power of cursing other nations from Heaven. I know this fact because in doing so, they quote Chapter48 v:13-19 of the King James of the Judio-Christian Bible in a series of articles that appeared in the January–February 2013 issue of one of their religious magazines, “The Good News”. This article by Noel Hornor, is titled, “ Is America identified in Bible Prophesy?”
At this juncture, allow me to quote Hornor, who says; “The United States is the greatest single nation that has ever existed in the history of the world ( . . . ).” Referring to Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of that country, he goes on to assert that, “By his tenacity and courage, he led the nation, preserving the Union so that it could fulfil its ‘divinely appointed destiny’ . . .”
“Still today, it is vital that we recognise that America has a prophetic role in the world that was foretold thousands of years ago in the Bible”.
Be that as it may, today that belief — a belief that the Americans have maintained over a period of over one hundred and fifty years — is being questioned by some in their political leadership who are now expressing a fear that this role could be coming to an end. For example, in an article in the Economist issue of June 2019, one of those leaders says, “For the first time in one hundred and fifty years, a non-Caucasian force is challenging America for the world leadership position.”
In addition to these two articles, there is ample evidence of what I am alluding to, all over the place if one cares to look. Some of the places to look for this evidence are the said Economist, as well as Time, and Financial Times magazines — all of which are American publications.
So back to “Tibisei maziso”: One of the strategies being used by the “Tibisei mazisans” is to pray that this curse, now in the form of economic sanctions — be lifted by those who imposed them. However, this is proving to be an almost impossible feat for them. But why so, you may now be asking?
You see, this has now become a complicated case in a number of ways. To my mind, the most critical of these ways, is the said “divine power” that X’s country believes it was granted by the Heavenly powers — to “police the world”.
In the latter’s scheme of things, Africa (Tibisei ziso included) is one continent that America can punish without any compunction. In terms of such treatment, the emerging economy group is next in line.
The interesting thing here though, is the selective treatment that the West accords to the latter group of countries, some of which it treats quite coarsely while it treats others with kid gloves. In the first category are Cuba, Turkey, North Korea, and among others — Russia — a country which fought the Cold War with the USA. And Russia is a country whose development position is ambiguous in the current period. In the latter group are such countries as South Korea, Singapore and North Vietnam, among others. Here I have selected these countries because of the controversy that surrounds them as far as their political relationships with the USA are concerned.
Interestingly in this respect, the USA seems not to have prepared herself for the challenges that China — a country which is now their biggest rival on the economic front — is presenting her with. And rather surprisingly, the heavens seem to have hidden this eventuality from their divined country!
With respect to “Tibisei maziso”, the said disdainful attitude was recently exhibited by the representative of that country who — together with his EU counterpart, scoffed at the recent efforts by those citizens of that country who have seen the light — at campaigning through song and jingle, for the lifting of those sanctions. Ironically, some of the journalists of “Tibisei maziso” — those whose employers are beholden to X’s country — could not hold back their glee at the embarrassment suffered by the former!
At this juncture, let us look closely at the forces at play here. If and when we do this, we find that to date, Tibisei ziso is not the only country to have been placed under such sanctions by X’s country. In fact, it is actually the newest of these countries on that scene.
And Tibisei ziso used to be known by another name, Rhodesdale. Ironically at that time, she had also been under sanctions but it had successfully bust them through strategies that Tibisei maziso cannot apply today because she lacks certain attributes the latter had. These are powerful friends and subtle connections to international capital (systems).
