Of Coffee With Unveilings

If you were having coffee with me, I would be ever so happy to have you visit my socially distanced space on the internet, grab a cuppa and put your feet up. I am having pot of herbal ginger and lemon tea, had a bit of cold but I am almost all good now and not entertaining any morbid thoughts from when I wrote Coffee With Bones thank you very much…

They say eyes are the windows to the soul, does this mean that our eyelids are like curtains or drapes and opening them is unveiling ourselves to the world….

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that almost a year after the Zimbabwean government begun the construction of the Mbuya Nehanda Statue it was finally unveiled on Africa Day…

The whole process was not without drama not forgetting how COVID kinda of put a spanner in things and how the bronze statue had to be recast because the president had not liked the youthful and perky rendition of Mbuya Nehanda the artist had chosen, instead of something more similar to how we remember the late heroine from history books.

At the unveiling of the Mbuya Nehanda Statue the president said that “The unveiling of the statue of Mbuya Nehanda Nyakasikana is the manifestation of the bold commitment to reconstruct our country’s rich past and history” and hoped that the statue would also boost tourism…

Mbuya Nehanda is liberation war heroine named after the spirit medium who channeled her spirit Charwe Nyakasikana and was executed by the colonialists in 1898. For some back story read my article Coffee With Mbuya Nehanda. At her death she refused to convert to Christianity and died unrepentant with her last words being her bones would rise again.

Its said her body or her skull may have been on display in a museum in the UK and the president is committed in a fact-finding team to get to the bottom of this and work on a repatriation exercise to bring back the bones of our ancestors.

Some people have expressed how while it is important to honour our history we must be wary of misappropriating and reconstructing a self-serving version of the past. While this was supposed to be a national event, it was nuanced as a ruling party event and only guests dressed in the party colours were welcome… Someone remarked how they are now making it seem like Mbuya Nehanda formed or supported the ruling party yet it didn’t exist in the 1890s…

If you were having coffee with me I would ask you to join me in wondering if the state cant decide if we are Christian State, a Traditional State or walk some confused hybrid between the two at great disservice to either… Regardless of our spiritual or religious viewpoints, from a case of priorities, the budget for the statue is reported at about R2,184575 (about USD150 000) which could have better served the nation like let’s say rehabilitating a hospital ward named after Mbuya Nehanda…

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that on the same day another unveiling also occurred at Bhalagwe Concentration Camp in memory of people who were buried in mass graves during a massacre in the mid 1980s which the government would rather sweep away under a rug and pretend it never happened. Maybe I missed the memo, but I have never quite heard the government’s official position, I know they once set up a commission of enquiry and things went a bit south, besides I am yet to see a commission of inquiry yield results maybe we need a commission of inquiry into commissions of inquiries..

Roads leading to the unveiling had police presence and they were very strict to ensure that they complied with the COVID regulations and kept to strictly 50 people… A tale of two unveilings. One has 24-hour armed security and the other was reported to have been vandalised a day after it was unveiled.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that on the same day the president also unveiled a gift to traditional chiefs in the form of brand new double cab trucks…

MeanwhileSouth Africa through the African Renaissance & International Cooperation Fund (ARF) was also donating a shipment of relief supplies to Zimbabwe in humanitarian support to those affected by Cyclone Idai 2019, which the president graciously received.

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I am not trying to say anything I am just unveiling the things my eyes have seen like how we are 151 days into the year and the government is already at Statutory Instrument 127 of 2021 I will have to look into if its standard practice for governments to issue out so many decrees. I am always apprehensive when a new Statutory Instrument is unveiled because they seem to take away more than they give like some ironic law of unintended consequences…

Some points to note on S.I 127 of 2021:

The purpose of the S.I is to ensure that those obtaining foreign exchange from the auction system do not use parallel market rates. 1

— Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (@ReserveBankZIM) May 29, 2021

If you were having coffee with me I would be happy to unveil to you a blogging challenge that will be coming up starting June.. The Afrobloggers WinterABC Storytelling Festival with each week carrying a theme, so I will posting more, way more this June.

What’s been happening in your neck of the woods anything you have unveiled ^_^

~B

PS we had our monthly bloggers meet up past weekend and it was lit I dream of a time when we can actually have these in person, universe make it happen^_^

Thank you to everyone who attended and special thanks to our guests:
• @AsandaNtini
• @DZmuwanguzi @AwesomeMindSpks
• Coach Pam
• @MorsetBillie

and shout out to those who stayed till the last note ^_^@Africaniwa @kangoepollet @Benjamin_Watch @Sylviaideh @elisetirza pic.twitter.com/aBYxRZISno

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) May 29, 2021