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(TALKZIMBABWE) What is it about the Group of Elders and Zimbabwe?

What is it about the Group of Elders and Zimbabwe?
Matthew Chatikobo – Opinion
Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:55:00 +0000

DEAR EDITOR – SINCE time immemorial, our African societies have been moved and modelled by “Elders” who passed stories of our societies and how they were organised, through oral traditions. I remember sitting around a fire with siblings, relatives and friends listening to my grandfather telling us stories about where we came from.

That tradition is now long gone and no new system has particularly replaced that system. With globalisation that tradition has almost suffered a natural death.

Our elders have been replaced by new “social spaces” that many times have nothing to do with where we are coming from, or where we are going.

The improvements in technology have almost completely killed the fireside discussions which were otherwise very informative and important in teaching us about our history and our traditions. Those who control technology (an mass media) now also control our notions of what is important and what is not.

The export of American culture is one such example. Many people view their own societies and their values alongside the values of the US and the West. These societies control what we eat, what we wear, what we hear and what we see. Our notions of “reality” are formed by those who control these spaces.

Some ongoing conflicts in the world today are result of the misplacement of certain values made possible by the adoption of Western culture.

Notions of democracy in other parts of the world are influenced by Western ideals and not necessarily the ideals of those societies.

This is one the crises that we have today – where Western societies think their values are more important than the values of other societies.

One wonders when an American elder like Jimmy Carter became an African elder and what binds Ms Graca Machel, Kofi Annan and the former US president? How can they try and impose and initiative that was founded by Richard Branson (and led by Nelson Mandela) on Zimbabwe? Surely Mr Mandela is the elder that should be coming to Zimbabwe.

The altruism of the intervention of these elders in Zimbabwe is not easily believable, con sidering that they have shown little interest in other hotpsots in the world; e.g. Darfur or pre- and post-election Kenya. Is there something about Richard Branson's and big business's interest in the Southern African region and the "concerns" of these elders? Food for thought!

Zimbabweans surely cannot be so naive to think people of these elders' stature could up and go to Zimbabwe without the right protocol for such a high-level meeting! Is it also a coincidence that MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, Ian Khama and the Elders are all in South Africa, where Branson has huge business concerns, at the same time?

Matthew Chatikobo

Writing from Johannesburg, SA

posted by MrK @ 10:52 AM