Of This Flag

32 Comments

I am a patriot.

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I love my country so much it hurts

My heart beats a rhythm I  imagine sounds just like the national anthem,and if you cut me I would bleed the colours of the flag.

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Red, for the blood shed during the armed struggle for independence.

 

yellow for our mineral wealth

 

Green, for the vegetation

 

Black, for the majority.

 

 

The love for my country won’t keep me warm, not even If I wore the flag like a cape or draped it on my bed like a sheet on a cold winter’s night.

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But my country tells me “Who then needs anything else when you have sovereignty. we will never be a colony again.”

I love my country, this somewhat teapot shaped land but sometimes (and this is happening more) I am not proud to stand up and say yes this is my home. A country where the older generation reminisces on the good old days, days when we were under imperial colonial rule and say “yes we had no freedom then, but we never went to bed hungry; we had no freedom but we never had cash shortages never stood in line for hours to be told the bank has run out of money come back tomorrow.”

I love my country yet it scares me, every time I pass a group of riot police I feel an urge to disperse, as if I had intentions of doing an illegal one man demo. It scares me to question things because I am afraid of being labelled an activist. Activists are funded by foreign governments to cause chaos and regime change, activists tend to be spirited away in the dead of the night by “The intelligence” and never heard from again.

I have had to re-read this post many times to make sure it was politically correct because I love my life.

Pastor Evan Mawarire launched a profound #ThisFlag movement that sends a simple yet powerful message, let us rally behind the standard of our country. He urged us to have pics taken with a flag and post all over social media. They say social media cant really change the world but if you ask me the next revolution will be tweeted and retweeted, the next revolution will not be broadcasted on the radio, the next revolution will be hashtagged.

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Maybe the red is for the blood of all those who go “missing” for simply asking questions or having an opinion,

The yellow for all the wealth looted from the country,

The green for all we lost in droughts, floods and deforestation

And the black, for the darkness that is the future.

How can it not be dark, the future, when people who did not fight in the liberation war, who do not remember it, meet those who were “born free’ after the war, a fell gathering of a million men marching to the drums of one man.

#ThisFlag is my flag is #OurFlag

If could stand before the government and ask for one thing and one thing only:

I would ask for A FUTURE.

~B

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32 Comments

  2. Hey man, powerful and brave words. It’s always interesting the points of view of different generations and makes mr realise how much so many people here bitch about their rights and priviledges without ever having fought for them and yet realy… they have nothing to complain about.
    Peace! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. I can imagine, we’re so lucky we can say more or less what we like. I would hate anything to happen to you, you’re a good chap! 😃

        Liked by 1 person

  6. It’s beautiful when literature provides a passage for our souls. This is a great piece it’s earthy and rich. ✅😂😊

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. You know, Beaton. I really have been waiting for a script like this from you! This is the voice that we are all crying in, and even deeper and sad voices too… #ThisFlag

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Hey, I can totally relate. My country was once a colony, too. It used to stand for freedom. I’m not sure what it stands for now–except that no one can agree on what it should stand for, not really. Not enough for us to act together anymore. May both your country and mine decide that a future is an important thing to have.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
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