I never understood Nelson Mandela until now...

I grew up watching Wiztech SABC channels like most of the people my age and I’d see Madiba being praised so much as a kid. I got it, 27 years was no joke in jail. Heck I haven’t existed for as long as this man did in jail. That’s something. More on him in a minute

But recently I was thinking about the concept of hope, an optimistic state of mind that tomorrow might be my day, if not, the next day.

I see posts on the internet that say “Zimbabweans/Africans are prayerful, why does God let this country/continent go bad as it is?” or something like that. And I was thinking that, nope. Zimbabweans aren’t prayerful just because of the number of churches. In fact, most don’t go to church because they love God.

I believe most Zimbabweans go to church (hence the mushrooming of pentecostal church shed everywhere) because that’s where hope is being promised. These pastors are promising that give that and your breakthrough is near. This year is your year and other kinds of lines just so that you get your hope up.

Zimbabwe, as I am maturing, is a tough place for many reasons. People just wanted the country to be somewhere where your effort is rewarded. Knowing that going to work for a month will cover my food, accommodation, transport, health etc… Just the basics. But even the basics are something gotten by luck (or corruption) here hence the lack of hope.

Back to Mandela.

Being in a place designed to suck every inch of hope that you might have for just a day might be enough to break me. A month, you will definitely have killed me. What about in a year?

And yet Nelson Mandela, in that very place made to kill one’s hope and faith, he endured for 27 years of his life. Typing this, it hits me again and again how incredibly impressive and awe-inducing this just is and I finally get to appreciate and understand why Nelson Mandela is celebrated as Nelson Mandela.

I can imagine drawing a parallel to Zimbabwe, that how society, culture, politics now are in our motherland, it sometimes feels like it’s designed to kill your hope. Especially for my pals who have graduated (in medical school so 2 more years for me, hooray😣). As a kid it’s easy to have hope because the situations aren’t in your face directly, but now as you have graduated, now you have to make something of yourself (cue Winky D’s 25 right here) and you see that many of your plans aren’t working/won’t work… It’s scary

But there is hope. Call it youthful exuberance.

I want to keep this writing and I know the internet will. Probably our father’s generation wasn’t the one to restore and give us back hope in Zimbabwe but I do hope and pray that it is my generation somehow that gives hope back to Zimbabwe. Time to really emulate Nelson Mandela and not let situations around you kill your hope.

Thank you for reading my writing. Tell me your thoughts.