The Chronicle
SHONA Russell and Maggie Care (2002) in their paper, “Re-membering: responding to commonly asked questions”, explain that re-membering practices are based on the post-structuralist understanding that our identities are forged through our relationships with other people.
Our lives have membership and this membership influences our experience of ourselves.
How others see us, how we experience ourselves with others, how we participate with others, all influence who we are becoming as people.
(South Africa’s) Archbishop Desmond Tutu (late) has described this succinctly, “people become people through other people” (Morrison 2002, p. 5).
To signify (a) special type of recollection, the term ‘‘Re-membering’’ may be used, calling attention to the re-aggregation of members, the figures who belong to one’s life story. (Myerhoff 1982, p.111.)
The membership of the social club of life in our country has indeed undergone some form of re-membering or re-aggregation in recent years with President Mnangagwa leading from the front to make sure that every community from all parts of the country is part and parcel of the economic and social development trajectory being pursued by the Second Republic.
True to the “no one will be left behind” mantra, the Government has been funding infrastructural and social projects countrywide to make people’s lives better.
Roads, clinics, schools, boreholes, dams, irrigation schemes, farming projects and industries, among others, have been initiated and implemented by the Second Republic.
Even towns and cities have received much attention and funding from Central Government, at a time when local authorities in urban areas, which are mostly run by MDC-A councillors, are failing to fulfil their mandate.
The “no one will be left behind” mantra has helped remind everyone that each Zimbabwean has a role to play to make this country prosper and achieve its aspirations.
The mantra has also helped “re-member” the nation, and remind everyone that the President and his Government really care for the welfare of the masses.
There is no community that is less important to another.
That is what the Second Republic has taught the nation in recent years.
As we begin the new year, we urge the nation to take heed of the wise counsel from the President to safeguard gains made last year.
In his New Year speech on Friday, the President said collective action by everyone and their resolve had seen Zimbabwe scoring great milestones on the socio-economic front, including projected economic growth of 7,4 percent, which is one of the highest on the continent.
“Going forward, we must remain optimistic and full of hope.
As Zimbabweans, we are a nation gifted with the warrior spirit, always fighting for the good, let us therefore, remain united as we safeguard the gains we made in 2021 through working together.
This will enable us to set a solid foundation for future generations.
2022 must be a year in which we focus on efficiencies through moving away from recovery to growth,” he said.
The President is also on record as saying: “I implore you all to declare that NEVER AGAIN should the circumstances that have put Zimbabwe in an unfavourable position be allowed to recur or overshadow its prospects.
We must work together, you, me, all of us who make up this nation.
“Ours is a great country, endowed with rich resources and abounding in many opportunities for everyone who considers it home . . . Above all, we must always remember and realise that we hold and run this country in trust.
It belongs to future generations, whose possibilities must never be foreclose or mortgaged as a result of decisions of expediency we might selfishly make today out of fear of difficult choice and decision that have to be made.
The values of unity and peace cherished by all Zimbabweans are the enduring foundations for the desired goal of development, itself the third pillar of the trinity of Unity, Peace and Development espoused by my Party, Zanu-PF.”
Happy New Year.
