Madalas, prepare ye room for the youth!

Youth do not have a seat on the political bus...Politicians just take them anywhere they want

LISBON TAWANDA CHIGWENJERE

There is a voice in Zimbabwe crying, prepare ye room for the youth. The youth want to lead. The youth want to occupy the corridors of power.

The youth want to cause changes in Zimbabwe, but the old madalas are occupying the rooms. When I was born, they were in the room. When I went to kindergarten, they were in the room. When I went to primary school, they were in the room. When I went to high school, they were in the room. When I went to university, they were in the room.

Now I want to get into the room, and they are still in the room! When will they leave the rooms they occupied since 1980? There is a voice in Zimbabwe crying, prepare ye room for the youth!

Yesterday, I visited the Parliament of Zimbabwe. I saw the lawmakers seated on their benches, debating on a motion. I looked around for young people, but I couldn’t find them. There was no young person in the room. I could only see the hoary head and the face of the old man.

Our National Assembly consists of 252 members, yet the youth constitute less than a quarter of that number! This means that all the laws that have been enacted in Zimbabwe are anti-youth. How can a group that constitutes more than 60% of the Zimbabwean population constitute less than 25% of the House of Assembly?

Our parliamentarians should not represent constituencies only, but social groups also. That’s why there is a quota for women representation in our parliament, but where is the quota for youth representation? Where are the seats for young people? I could not find them, and then I cried, “Prepare ye room for the youth!”

Yesterday, I also visited the Zanu PF headquarters, the MDC headquarters, as well as the offices of smaller political parties in Zimbabwe. I toured their premises, looking around for young people, but I couldn’t find them. There was no room for them in political parties.

If ever there was any young person in the room, they were just helpless people. They were not given the opportunity to run as candidates in elections. And if they were given that opportunity, the elderly majority did not vote for them. They were despised. They were kept as ordinary card-holding members. Their situation looked familiar to me. They were like touts holding on to the outside rear of a moving bus, and the elders were the passengers, directing the bus wherever they wanted it to go.

The youth just hung helplessly outside the bus. They did not have a say on their destination. As I looked into the bus, I could see only a few young people. These ones had been baptized by the elders into a muddy ideological river. They had become conservatives, just like their patriarchs. They had the bodies of the youth, but their souls were those of the ancients. They had voices, but the words they spoke were not theirs. And then I cried, “Prepare ye room for the youth!”

Yesterday, I also visited the villages and wards in our country. I looked into the Village Development Committee, and into the Ward Development Committee, but I could not see any young person therein. The older guys, especially the headman in the villages, did not want to include young people in their committees. They regarded them as rowdy and undisciplined. They viewed them as drunkards and troublemakers.

But then, I remembered a Shona proverb which goes like, “Ane benzi ndiye ane rake, kudzana unopururudza” which is translated to say “When a lunatic child dances, the mother applauds”. This means no matter how foolish your child may seem; he remains your child. What the parent should do is to train up that child in the way that he should go, rather than marginalize him.

So when I saw this marginalization of young people in Zimbabwe, I felt sorry for our country. The reason why I felt sorry for our country is because the greatest resource that any country has is its youth, and failure to invest in this resource is failure to invest in the country’s future.

There is a voice in Zimbabwe crying, prepare ye room for the youth. The youth want to lead. The youth want to occupy the corridors of power. The youth want to cause changes in Zimbabwe, but the old madalas are occupying the rooms.


Lisbon Tawanda Chigwenjere is a student of Politics and Public Management at the Midlands State University, in Zimbabwe. He is a former intern at the Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT)