Authoritarianism undermines the family

Opinion — By on June 13, 2009 12:12 am

By Mutsa Murenje

in Nairobi, Kenya

A closer look at and critical analysis of the family shows beyond argument that the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society entitled to protection by society and the State. For we all know, don’t we, that the family is the custodian of morals and traditional values recognised by the community. What gives me heartache, however, is the fact that authoritarian regimes undermine the beautiful institution of the family and this shall be the subject under discussion in this, my humble contribution. A lot shall surely be shown in the paragraphs that follow.

Fighting Mugabe’s authoritarianism in Zimbabwe during the past decade or so has been a project of surpassing difficulty for many families. The road to the Biblical land of Canaan has not been very easy. I remember reading the late Professor Masipula Sithole’s essay, ‘Tasks of a democratic opposition’ in which he wrote that: “….authoritarianism is a pathology against which humanity has a tendency to always rebel.” In trying to rebel against Mugabe’s dictatorship, the following are but some of the true stories that have taken place in Zimbabwe.

I know of well-learned and beautiful young women who, upon completion of their studies and because of the economic collapse of the country, left their noble professions to join the despised and unpopular profession of prostitution to eke out a living. They are foraging for greener pastures because the State is ‘bankrupt’ or is it corrupt, and has nothing to offer them although they also happen to be the very people with the very potential to turn around the rotten economy of Zimbabwe. And I wonder if at all these people will found their own families. If they were to do that, will they be good parents Mr. President?

And yet I also know of unemployed young men who have become pundit criminals because the rotten regime of Robert Mugabe could not provide them with employment. These young people have lost their inherent dignity and they need it restored soonest. For I know, as you also know, that investing in this generation of present as well as future national, regional and international leaders has huge payoffs especially when taking into cognizance the critical fact that these, unlike the older generation, have a lifetime of potential productivity ahead of them.

The question is: Will our leadership restore their dignity, when and how? Let’s not forget that these have fallen behind due to especially difficult circumstances brought about by the tyrannical despot, Robert Mugabe, and his unpopular regime. Restoring their dignity therefore is fundamentally important in that it helps them to rebuild their future which has a long-term beneficial effect on society as a whole.

Need I say more? Why not? I know of caring and loving husbands who, because of dictatorship in Zimbabwe, have been wrongly blamed for ‘abandoning’ their wives and children and driving them into poverty when they left Zimbabwe for ‘greener pastures’ in South Africa and other neighbouring nations. Some of them entered into marriages of convenience, (am sure some of my colleagues from University will remember them as juntado unions as we learnt in our Social Anthropology course!), when they got the rude shock that not all pastures are green. This has had a devastating impact on their marriages back home.

Some have eventually returned empty-handed and are ill and they expect their suffering wives to take care of them. What do these wives have to take care of their husbands when they are also in extremely difficult circumstances? They have virtually nothing! What about husbands and wives who have not returned? What happened to their families because of your dictatorship Mr. President?

And yet friends and faithful followers of the dictator are already asking: Is he blaming the right person? Shouldn’t he be talking about the “illegal sanctions” imposed on us by Britain and her allies? My response to them is: I know Robert Mugabe as the president of Zimbabwe who has led it since independence in 1980, and as the chief architect of the 1980s slaughter of 20,000 Matebele people. Not only that, Mugabe’s administration is corrupt, incompetent and its primary concern is political repression and cronyism that has ultimately led to the economic collapse of the country.

What then is the way forward? There is an imperative need to restore the dignity of the beautiful institution of the family. Let’s recognise the family as a school of deeper humanity; within which each member learns best what it means to be a human person. There, each member of the human family, from conception to natural death, experiences the gift of unconditional and enduring love. Thus each human person is carefully taught by the family to be responsible, to commit, to share, and to love.

My training on the philosophical foundations of the dignity of the human person at the World Youth Alliance-Africa, where I am currently undergoing the regional internship programme has brought to the fore that it is only within the beautiful institution of the family that children first come to understand their own intrinsic and inviolable human dignity (ubuntu/utu wa mtu). Through their complementary roles, mother and father, equal in dignity, show their children that the freedom of the human person is most fully and rightly lived in the gift of self (service to others).

True love freely received and given within the family is an image of the transcendent love that makes possible the fulfillment and completion of every human being. Restoring the dignity of the family therefore should be our top priority in this new political dispensation. This is so largely because the family sustains society as it gives life to the next generation. It also has the privilege of forming free and responsible citizens, thus securing democracy. As the fundamental unit of society, the family ensures the sustainability of civilization and culture. It takes on essential tasks in the care of all and especially the weakest and most vulnerable.

In finale, “…and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die” (Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela). How I wish these words would become second nature to us especially in view of our vigorous fight against dictatorship in Zimbabwe. I put it to you dear readers and I rest my case until next time. Be blessed.

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