Breaking The Cycle of Victimism

Zimbabwe –Breaking The Cycle of Victimism and Taking Charge of Our Destiny

By Dumisani O. Nkomo

I am inspired by two stories in the bible which describe two sets of people in potentially hopeless situations and who by the very virtue of their contexts  were  to all intents and purposes helpless victims .In the first instance we read in the book of John chapter 5 : 5 of a man who had been an invalid for 38 years and on a daily basis waited at the pool of Bethesda for healing .This man was not in charge of his own future and destiny and anxiously waited for somebody somewhere to rescue him .Well that sort of reminds me of Zimbabwe and our predicament of 31 years were we do not appear to be in charge of our destiny and we await SADC ,the African Union ,the EUROPEAN Union and the United Nations to somehow recue us .The other story which is poignant to the premise of taking charge is found in 2 Kings 7 :4 in which four leper find themselves in a hopeless and helpless situation characterized by severe famine and lack .Instead of just sitting and waiting the four ask themselves “why sit here until we die ,let us go over to the other side and if they kill us we die ,if they spare us we live “ .In doing this the lepers took their future into their own hands and refused to be victims of their situation and we learn later that they actually managed to survive and come across much abundance .We as Zimbabweans today need to move  away from the vicious cycle of victimism ,crippling  powerlessness and hopelessness and take charge of the political and economic destiny of this great nation .

I order to for Zimbabwe to move forward as a nation there is an urgent need for us to break the cycle of victimism that has largely affected our ability as a nation to take shape our  destiny and   to claim back our future which has been systematically stolen from us in the past thirty years and some would argue for the past century since colonialism . Victimism has not just affected Zimbabwe alone but this phenomenon of victimism is common in the whole of Africa which though being the richest continent in terms of natural resources is the poorest in terms of actual wealth .I would like to argue that part of the problem is the fact that centuries after colonialism and on average fifty years after independence most African countries continue to lay blame on former colonial powers for their current predicament .This cycle of victimism is not limited to statesmen alone as opposition parties ,civil society an churches have joined in making the circle of victimism larger .In Zimbabwe we are unable to explain  anything without blaming ZANU P.F ,Tsvangirai ,ZAPU ,the west ,sanctions ,Welshman Ncube ,Shonas or Ndebeles or whites or anybody but ourselves for the predicament that we find ourselves in .There is a need for us to conjure a new narrative in which we define our own destiny and course of action .The African Union ,SADC or the African Union cannot solve our problems for  us but these are support mechanisms and systems that are meant to assist us as we navigate our own path .

A victim is unable to take charge of one’s life or destiny and as such is dependent on others to solve his or her problems .Have we become like that in Zimbabwe ?Evidence of  this vicious cycle of victimism lies in the fact that most of us including civil society and political parties have been forced to merely respond and react to what ZANU P.F without being able to generate  vision ,strategy and sustainable action .The results of this victimism are a sense of powerlessness ,hopelessness and fear .These factors conspire to paralyze any form of positive action and reduce us to passive passengers on the Zimbabwean journey .

One common lamentative narrative blames the west, colonialism, neo colonialism and neo liberalism for the underdeveloped state of Africa and Zimbabwe. Sanctions and an unfair international political and economic order are according to this narrative to blame for our collective predicament as Zimbabweans. On the other hand another narrative most commonly articulated by civil society and opposition parties predicates all our suffering on the political crisis in the nation, ZANU PF, war vets, the repressive laws such as POSA and AIPPA, adverse economic conditions. Many of us are now incapable of seeing beyond the crisis and whilst we are so clear about what we do not want we do not have a clearly articulated vision of what we want and how we want to get there. Political parties and civic groups have been formed purely as an emotional response to the state of affairs without clear cut ideologies, principles, policies and vision.

 Sadly at times our victim mentality is such that whenever we are given platforms locally, regionally and internationally we think our case will be heard if we portray ourselves as helpless victims incapable of influencing our own destiny. Whilst all these external factors have a huge bearing on our plight as Zimbabweans and Africans I believe the time has come for us to begin seeing ourselves as part of the solution to the immense challenges that we face. For as long as we delight in being victims we shall never be free and we shall never maximize our potential as a nation and continent. Africa shall never develop and Zimbabwe shall never progress as long as we celebrate being victims and glorify suffering and take pride in not being able to do anything about our social, political and economic conditions. No wonder we only recognize heroism when people are dead and honor human rights defenders when they are beaten or arrested and not for ongoing pro-active work of civic engagement and activism. I am in no way denigrating the courage of those who have been arrested, tortured and unjustly treated but am just challenging us to interrogate our perception of what a “hero” or human rights defender is.

Being a victim can be very disempowering because one feels they cannot do anything about the situation. Everything to the victim depends on the victimizer. The crisis in Zimbabwe has created a nation of victims who need to be healed and restored without which we will continue to wallow in self pity and harbor a strange desire for somebody, somewhere in SADC, AU or EU to miraculously save us. Victims always expect other people to do something about their situation and when nothing happens blame is heaped on “other people”. No wonder we as Zimbabweans expect SADC to somehow solve all our problems and “somebody in the international community to do something” about the Zimbabwean situation.

Renowned writer and speaker Steve Covey in his bestselling book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” argues that in order for one to be effective one has to concentrate on what he calls your circle of influence or those things that you can do something about. Covey contends that too many of us concentrate on our circle of concern [things that we worry about but can do nothing about]. By focusing our time and energy on what we can do our circle of influence is enlarged and we are able to influence many more things. When we concentrate on what we cannot do anything about we become mere victims as we become depressed by the enormity of the things we can do nothing about.

Civil society can borrow a leaf from this philosophy instead of focusing on unachievable goals which sap our energy. Surely we cannot be prisoners of our circumstances, we need a fundamental paradigm shift if we are to effectively transform our nation. The days of taking pride in being victims should come to an end as we take charge of our lives and the collective destinies of our communities. Far too many civic groups waste time, effort and resources reacting to actions of politicians instead of setting the agenda for politicians.

The cycle of victimism that has so engulfed us as Zimbabweans needs to be broken if we are to unlock our true value and potential. One of the tragedies of the victim mentality is that it not only blames the “perpetrator” for everything but abdicates responsibility laying everything at the feet of other people. In defeating the victim mode it is  important to understand how the victim has become the victim and in our Zimbabwean and African context it is imperative to unpack the socio –economic  superstructure and political apparatus that creates “victimhood” if there is such a word. The next step is then to introspect and understand the potential we have within ourselves of dealing with the predicaments that we face which entails marshalling our internal spiritual, intellectual and social energy. The Afrikaners emerged from brutal oppression of the British forces in the Boer –Anglo of the 1900’s to lead almost every aspect of South African life from business, sport, academics to politics. This is not to justify the evil system of Apartheid which was introduced by the Boer government of 1948 but as an object lesson to understand how people who were perceived and treated as a minority strategized themselves out of being victims to become masters of the nation.  In the 1940’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki were decimated by the Americans but within two decades Japan emerged as one of the leading economic powerhouses of the world. It is rare to hear the Japanese moaning and lamenting about what was done to them, instead they focused their energies on rebuilding their economy through a sound technological and scientific base. Half a century after colonialism we as Africans are still blaming colonialism for the state of Africa. Yes neo liberalism and neo colonialism are realities but what is important is to move from being perpetual victims to pro-active nations that take responsibility for our own actions and  resources and destiny .

The people of Egypt ,Tunisia ,Libya ,Bahrain ,Yemen ,Jordan have shown us that it is possible to free ourselves from the shackles of oppression through people power .They have demonstrated that indeed that ‘if change does not come from the top ,it will come from the bottom “.We may not necessarily go the route of these countries but at least they have demonstrated a resolve to chart their own destiny and rid themselves  of the tag of “perpetual victims “

Mayibuye iZimbabwe

Dumisani  is the chief executive officer of Habakkuk Trust and spokesperson of the Matabeleland Civil Society Consortium he writes here in his personal capacity .He can be contacted on email :dumisani .nkomo@gmail.com or Blog :www.dumisanionkomo.blogspot .com