First of all, this is a blog which l have wanted to write, since discovering that Mugabe had died a few days ago. Mugabe is the former president of Zimbabwe to those who may not know. Like everyone else l was very angry and l wanted to express my anger for the way he ran down the country. After all, this is all l vividly recalled about him.

However, I resisted writing the blog because life isn’t about doing what other people are doing. It’s about asking questions and taking a critical view of events. Every event that we encounter in our life is here to teach us something about life. So l asked myself, what lesson was l meant to learn from this man? I realized that, in order to answer this truthfully l needed to observe his life, from start to finish.l started researching him and this is what l uncovered!

I discovered that this man, was well educated and well read. At a time in Zimbabwe (known as Rhodesia then), when everyone was grumbling about being suppressed and oppressed by the colonialists and feeling helpless, he became the visionary who rose up from the crowds to deliver his people. He was driven by a purpose bigger than him and believed in serving his people. As a result of this, he founded the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front political party and stood up to the white suppressor and challenged them. He was very articulate and when he confronted the white settlers he had this to say “everybody must be awarded their full political rights, whether they were white or black, educated or uneducated, rich or poor”.

The British settlers found it easy to colonise Zimbabwe because they did not have a defence army. Hence, Mugabe became instrumental in assembling and organising the army which involved recruiting and mobilising soldiers to different countries such as Mozambique and China to procure specialised training. To cut the story short, Mugabe’s party won the war and he became a leader in Zimbabwe. Initially in the first few years the country thrived under his leadership.

Then everything changed in Zimbabwe. I personally would sum it up as a catastrophe! Mugabe and his government became very corrupt. The country was impoverished whilst himself and his party members became filthy rich. The economy collapsed, the health system collapsed, the education system collapsed. The country has no rule of law, there is no electricity or running water. People fetch water from designated boreholes in urban areas unsurprisingly people started dying of diseases like cholera.

Blue roof …Mugabe’s mansion

Food became scarce in the shops. Nothing works in Zimbabwe and l mean literally nothing in the sense of the word! They are no sewage systems. Children no longer go to school in Zimbabwe. Crime and unemployment are very high. Through all this, Mugabe and his ministers have accumulated insurmountable wealth. Which means the country is obviously generating wealth which they were swindling into their pockets whilst the country deteriorated. The political leaders in Zimbabwe have grand mansions all over the country in every corner of the world. Mugabe’s children wash their hands with champagne and are busy partying and jet setting across the world on private jets. Mugabe and his wife travel with a private jet to hospitals abroad. Mugabe’s wife has earned herself the nickname “Gucci Grace” because of her lavish spending habits. Through all this, the average Zimbabwean is dying from abject poverty!

How did it get like this? Check out my part two on Monday the 15th of September. l will discuss what l think went wrong in my opinion, based on what l know about leadership.

Recently l thought about what this means to me as an African and my impoverished background.

Thinking big or planning big for me means not sharing the little that l have with my nephew who can’t afford school fees.

It means keeping all my extra money to invest in myself in order to build an affordable school for the whole village.

Investing in myself might even bring a solution to a generational problem.It will stop the cycle, someone has to.

My computer has crashed annoyingly. This happened at a time when l felt that l had taken a long enough break and it was time to get back at being persistent!

I decided not to be frustrated and use this time to reflect on my general progress in life.

l listened to a lady called Gabrielle Bernstein and she explained how she was trying to enforce a plan on her life which she had no control over. The plan was failing and making her very frustrated. Until someone told her to ask for help by praying to God.

She was trying to fall pregnant and when she couldn’t she realised after praying that this obstacle diverted her attention to what was already thriving in her life.

This made me pause because like her l have plans that l’m struggling to bring to fruition. Plans that are encountering obstacle after obstacle. But l can surrender those and focus on what is already thriving in my life. Every body has something that is thriving in their life.

Apparently when we focus on what is already thriving we achieve peace and alignment. This is where life purpose which leads to success is realised.

When my son started high school l went to meet his teacher with the intention of finding out what l could do as a parent to improve his grade in history. She responded in a very unexpected way! She informed me that she hoped that l would encourage my son to listen to the news to help him gain a deep understanding of the current issues!

On seeing the surprised look on my face she explained that all current issues can be linked back to our history. She further alleged that all human beings behave the same and history enables us to predict future human behaviour!

In order for us as Africans to understand ourselves, we need to study our history. Studying our history will empower us and direct our steps in the future. Most importantly we will discover that Africans are all one?

When the colonisers descended on Africa they started by deviding us,they then split our land into small parts, imposed borders on us and told us that we were no longer the same. We became different countries with different nationalities! Prior to that we were one big happy family (ok this last sentence is an exaggeration but you get the gist?).

For the countries that got devided and still maintained peace they took it up a notch and instigated tribal wars. This is all in our history.

Referring back to the horrors of South Africa…..the current Xenophobic attacks going on in South Africa right now on immigrants are the 2nd round of attacks. They did this before!

When l got sent footage of the horrors happening in South Africa, I threw down my phone in shock. l could not bear to watch the rest of it. I deleted the whole clip without passing it on. It was so graphic l struggled to get it out of my mind!

A man was on fire, obviously an immigrant. He was stumbling about in pain and suffering as he tried to run he was pushed back to the ground by the people surrounding him who stood watching him. They taunted and spat at him, when the fire appeared to die down they threw card board on top of him to reignite the fire.

This has happened in the past in other African countries. Remember Rwanda?
What about the black on black crime in London.

Understanding history isn’t about laying the blame. Unfortunately blaming people who by the way deserve to be blamed does us no good. It simply relieves us of responsibility. It makes us become victims who can’t help themselves. We need to claim back our power let’s educate ourselves let’s understand that we all one people in Africa. If you derive joy from killing one who looks like you then you hate yourself. Look in the mirror and ask yourself where those thoughts came from ? Could you replace them with the truth ?

Nobody can do this for us empowerment means understanding who we are for the purposes of becoming someone better.

Only when we love and understand ourselves will we be able to solve our problems.

What is happening in South Africa is evil and it should never have continued.
However when Nigerians respond by looting South African businesses it demonstrates how deep rooted our issues are in Africa. Two wrongs will never make a right.

Let’s address the issues that we have brushed under the carpet for too long. Let’s talk about it, let’s do something about it. Let’s tell our children our history, they need to know that all who are in Africa and those who came from Africa are brothers and sisters. Our minds were conditioned to hate each other but we can recondition our minds in the same way they did it.

 Well that’s how l feel right now. The positive side of anger is that if handled correctly it drives us to act. My anger has led me to write this blog which is about an incident that occurred in Zimbabwe yesterday.  Although Zimbabwe was once known as one of the most literate of most countries in Africa, our weakness as a people has been that we remained silent for so long whilst masses and masses of injustices took place and now the politicians in power have reached a point of no return. Personally, l can no longer stay silent about it and l refuse to be silenced.

Yesterday a Zimbabwean comedian called Samantha Kureya, (Gonyeti) was abducted from her home in the evening by masked gunmen. They turned up in 6 vehicles at her house, located in one of the suburban areas in Harare. They apparently stormed into their home, pointing their guns at everyone including children?  The masked gunmen then proceeded to subject the whole family to unimaginable maltreatment which included beating everyone with weapons.

After a while, they took away Gonyeti to an undisclosed location where they continued inflicting abuse on her by forcing her to undress and they ruthlessly whipped her naked body using all kinds of weapons! They also obtained sewage water and forced her to drink it whilst threatening to kill her mother if she ever told anyone about the abduction!

They then dumbed her naked and vulnerable late in the night in an unfamiliar suburb. As it was late and dark, she had to go through 6 houses before anybody could help. Unsurprisingly people were distrustful of being approached by an unclad stranger in a poorly lit environment asking for clothes and help.

Eventually, someone was kind enough to throw some clothes to our Gonyeti through the window and that’s how she was then able to go to the nearest police station to seek help. The police then reunited Gonyeti with her family. Her family took her to the hospital where she had scans performed which showed no fractures, but everyone remains concerned about her health because she was force fed sewage water.

 In my opinion this lady is a brave comedian who has been producing accurate and critical skits about the police and leaders of Zimbabwe on how they conduct themselves. She is a hero breaking down barriers because historically comedians have found it difficult to make jokes about the authority fearing jail or worse. She dared to do this in a country where political activists have been captured and disappeared for good.

I wanted her to know that l am standing together with her and the politicians need to understand that it’s impossible to silence people especially when they know they are in the wrong. I suggest that the politicians in Zimbabwe spend their energy and resources at correcting the problems of the country rather than punishing people for speaking up against them.

After spending my last day at the park yesterday, l started reflecting and concluded that the memories you gave us have been great!As my kids are getting older and we have visited you a couple of times l think you’ll have to admit that it’s sensible for us to go our separate ways! Disney, for an expensive holiday it got a bit too much!As l said the memories that we created with you are great but whenever we came to see you we always experienced a great sense of dread!When we arrived, it was reassuring to see the men protecting you, in full army regalia with their guns pointing and ready to shoot!

However, this emphasized the danger for us especially when we noticed how crowded the place was!We endured all the queuing starting with the que to get through security. Queuing to be let into the park. Queuing to get onto the different rides, queuing to view different attractions, queuing for autographs with the pretend “Mickey”.Queuing to use the toilet, queuing to buy lunch and then queuing for somewhere to sit and eat our lunch.Queuing to drink water at the fountain. Joining the que to buy icecream and then finding out that it’s all ran out when we got to the front of the que?In between the very long walks we did yet more queuing until we found a que leading out of the park much to our relief. Our legs didn’t feel like they were still there.So we crawled back to the hotel and slumped onto our beds too tired to be interested in any thing else.

In the book of Joel God said that he will restore all the years that have been stolen in your life.
I see that you’re determined to break out of the mould and leave your mark on this world! I believe God has given you seeds of greatness. I want you to know that people don’t determine your destiny but God does. Sometimes the people closest to you may not support you, let it go and run your race. Did you know God has put dreams in all of us but the responsibility of stirring them up is up to us.

You’re doing this and you inspire me. You should stay focused never let delay destruct your dreams.
Your dreams are right on time because God works in seasons. God can make a way where there is no way. God can create success sooner than expected because he’s a supernatural being.
You’re coming into overflow and you’re going to set a new standard in your family and life. The forces that are for you are bigger than the forces against you.
When negative things that don’t destruct your dreams are happening it means you’re on the right path way to your dream stay in faith.
Remember what God whispered to you in the night, the secret petitions of your heart? The stuff that you haven’t told anyone about? God is saying, l’ve spoken it l’m true to my word and it’s on the way!
My dear l need you to understand that when God puts a dream in your heart, they will be tough times and when those tough times come, God wants you to remember that he himself put those dreams in your heart and you’re to hold onto the promises of God. The dream will be fulfilled.
The right people, the right breaks are headed your way. Be prepared by stirring what God has given you.
Everything that has happened in your life so far is a set up for God to get you where you ought to be!

One day when my daughter returned from school as per usual, we had our tea, rested and started getting ready for her singing session, until l noticed that my daughter wasn’t budging! When l asked her why, she informed me that she no longer wanted to carry on with her singing lesson’s because the singing teacher had a breath which smelt of poo and vinegar!

l was nonplussed by this. What was shocking was how she was able to come up with a new excuse every time she changed her mind about a commitment previously agreed on. My daughter is 7 and whilst l was not angry with her, l’ll have to admit l was getting a little frustrated. She loves to sing, that’s all she ever does.  l only suggested involving a singing teacher when she told me how desperately she wanted to sing professionally like the popstars!

Prior to this, she had also informed me about how she wanted to be skilful at dancing. After attending the dancing school, you guessed it she came up with a silly excuse.

Just like my daughter l have also come up with ingenious ways of encouraging her to commit to what she likes. I do this because knowing how to prepare my children for a future that doesn’t yet exist  is  by far the most challenging responsibility of a parent. Where possibly all careers might become automated. Leading my children to a place where being successful might only be realised by those who are creative, curious and innovative.  A future where people may only be hired for not only what they know but for what they can do with what they know.

 Successful individuals consider being creative as the most important leadership skill. For this reason,  l resolved to unearth my kid’s talents and  develop them now because the future starts now.  No matter how ridiculous the excuses get. The idea is to give them space to be creative and express their true selves through doing what they enjoy.

Your children are not your children, they are the son’s and daughters of life longing itself. They come through you, but not from you and although they are with you they do not belong to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. They have their own thoughts, you may house their bodies, but not their souls for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow (Khalil Gibran).