Is there anything called the "knife culture" of Matabeleland?


When it comes to colonialism in Southern  Africa, no name is common than that of  Cecil John Rhodes. His ambition was to colonies Africa from Cape to Cairo. To this day there is street corner in Bulawayo that points to Cape town and to Cairo. Matebeleland was at the very center of his plan. Upto this very day his grave lies in Matopo hills. Matopo hills is just a  few hours away from Matabeleland capital Bulawayo!

Despite the severe defeat that  Ndebeles suffered around 1896,  "the man of the long spears"  are warriors by nature. This would see  the Ndebele kingdom collapse, and old Bulawayo was later  abandoned. To this day nobody knows what happened to King Lobhegula.  Some says he crossed Zambezi and migrated to Zambia. There is a lot of myth, and stories on his whereabouts. (This is not a history account)

The use of home made tools and weapons like knives, clubs, axes and spears is still common in most Southern African villages. For most people these are the most basic tools every household often posses. Africans are natural known for hunting gathering and farming. We all know that the previous centuries were dominated with wars. Many cultures and tribes defended and expanded this way. This was the time prior to the missionary age in the early eighteen hundred century. Missionary expansion period and colonialism happened almost at the same time. This dealt a terrible blow to the messengers of the gospel to this very day. This is because most people of African descent still see the white men as a thief who stole their land, and natural resources using a gun and the Bible

Knives has always come in handy for butchering both game and cattle  meat. It is an encouraged culture that every boy must have a knife, and a club when ever going  hunting. This is because in case you find a people need who help cutting meat after butchering a cow beast. These two convenient tools makes the young man feel complete. At home is one expected to have at least one spear  for security. Its  kind of  like a guns to westerners. Americans will go down fighting if you want to strip them of their guns  rights. They understand the need  for self protection.

Coming to the point, it seems that in every age, the Ndebele people like any other nation have a dire need  protect themselves. There is nothing worse than a nation defeated and disarmed. Well, the  Ndebele people have existed as a defeated nation for a long time. In the early eighties, we saw the Gukurahundi sweep across the whole region of Matabeleland and Midlands killing thousands of people. A lot of people still  live in fear, they know that the government is still capable of repeating the same thing it once did.

 The need to for  individual and family security is desperate. Every where one goes, he or she  has to be careful of pickpockets and thugs especially in the cities. I remember growing up in the eighties, my own father  used tell me of countless stories on how he survived dangerous encounters with thugs at night because of his three star pocket knife.  Residences can be easily broken into and people can be brutally murdered. The only problem is that we are living in a grey area period security wise. Time and again the government has embarked on operation "disarm the people". Weapons abuse is obviously rampant. Those who have  knives are using them to settle score and grudges. Almost all Zimbabwean police agents are on the road looking for money. Its been said that where ever there is a Policeman there is money.

The rest of the people are left unprotected. One has to protect themselves since police protection is not always available. Bad guys are usually armed to teeth. Is the so called "knife culture of Matabeleland"  exaggerated!

Staying relavant and focused

At the top of all things that I do be it at home, at work or even at church, the most important question I ask myself is. "Am I relevant?  I  have lived  long  enough  to know that in many spheres of life, there are some things that we do but are not very relevant. I use the word relevant to mean "meaningful, direct and effective at a desired goal" This is not the Webster's dictionary meaning of the word, or at least any other English dictionary for that matter.

Having said that, I must first and foremost apologize for being away from a my desk for a long time. I was away for a over a month and a half. the last time I was away that long was a little over two years ago when my youngest son Ayanda was born. He is now a big boy now, I cannot believe how fast time flies. As  you already know by now that all my activities are centered on family. I remember an incident that happened one time when my first born Themba, was a little baby. It so happened that I was used to going around with him wherever I went. The lonely 325 BMW that I had bough for myself as a present suddenly became a family car. I became an expert in turning my head and talking to my son who would be buckled tight on his baby car sit while I was driving. It so happened that one day I had to go to another side of town, and my wife did not want me to go with the young guy. He must have been around three month or so. Every where I went they used to call me a man with a baby. Ubaba olomtwana! Its not common for a man from the "mother land" to be so close with a little one.

There were guys who literally reminded me that they had kids too. It must have bothered them seeing me with a baby everywhere I went. I took him to church, men's meetings, soccer matches, funeral gatherings and in other social activities. Well to cut along story short, after I had driven by myself for about three miles, I turned my head back and as usual trying to talk to the little guy. He was not there! For moment I was alarmed, then I remembered that I left him home with his mom. To this day I have never felt so lonely on a thirty minutes ride like that day. Life with kids is different. My red BMW two door sport car which was always clean sparkling polished can now be found with a bunch of French fries on the floor, and two grease baby car sits. What a difference fours years can make. My car and clothes do not take priority anymore. Having kids is having life long friends, it surpasses hardships one encounters when raising them.

Through out all this one more thing has survived the test of time. This blog site. It acts as  an exhaust pipe on a car that emits carbon gases out of the system into the environment. I also pray that as I blog, I must be meaningful and directly effective at my goals. I have seen people make surprise parties and give surprise gifts, but the question that usual comes to my mind is that. Sometimes its easy doing exactly the thing that one like or needs most. One might wonder why I have the picture of that duck on the top there. This poor  duck lived friendly in our yard and had eggs, the only problem was that she would cross the road to and from to visit eggs. Her entire friends and family were on the side of a very busy street. She did this for about two days, but our family was concerned about her because we knew it would not end well. We live on a busy street. In Indiana and most other areas in United States motorists are supposed to stop when animals are crossing the road. Most of them practize this rule by day but at night they do not care. So one  morning we found the poor duck lying flat on the road.  Our hearts sunk , because  we knew that she was gone. She left her unborn kids in egg shell. Its been said that the best things in life are not things at all. Moral of the story is life is too short to be irrelevant folks!