 |
| Evan Mawarire. Credit: BBC |
The
nation state of Zimbabwe, Southern Africa is yet again in the grip of an
economic and social crisis. This is nothing new in Zimbabwe given
its travails of the last 10 years which has seen its creeping
authoritarianism given full vent under Dr Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party.
Poorly
thought through economic policies, cronyism and the recalcitrance of a
ruling elite has meant that a country deemed the bread basket of Southern
Africa has become a shadow of itself.
The high
literacy rate Zimbabwe is famously known for has not been able to be
employed to grow the economy and improve ties with the rest of the region and
indeed the world, as Mr. Mugabe has become more entrenched in his paranoia
about the West. Instead the young , educated and entrepreneurial have
been forced to seek greener pastures elsewhere, where their worth is either
under- appreciated or envied to the point of being a risk to their lives.
Suffice
it to say that the situation in Zimbabwe has given room for an entrenched
few and their interests, to perpetuate themselves in power to the detriment of
the self-actualization of the many.
Against
this backdrop, enter Evan Mawarire. The Zimbabwean Pastor has taken to social
media to exhort his fellow citizens of Zimbabwe to down tools and not leave
their homes because of the corruption and mismanagement of the economy which
has essentially stagnated Zimbabwean society, and prevented the likes of him
from self-actualizing and looking after their family's needs.
It can
perhaps be said that since Zimbabwe made news headlines in 2009 with the near
collapse of its economy and the resultant threat to its social fabric including
peaceful co-existence, this is a first for an ordinary citizen to speak out in
such a manner against the difficulties he and people like him face every day in
Zimbabwe.
He has
asked for "Non- violence, non- inciting and stay at home" of his
fellow citizens, to spur change. This should force the government of Zimbabwe to deal with the situation in the country, which amounts to a decimation of the economy, and a threat to peaceful
co-existence. He describes the action he proposes as "the best within the confines of the law".
The
mantra of his #Thisflag movement might well be the cry the citizens of Zimbabwe
have been waiting for, to snap the many out of the torpor, that allows
for the destructive excesses of the very few.
