All we really have is HOPE!

Tanzania is a nation blessed with numerous opportunities but sadly most Tanzanians will never be able to see them let alone get to exercise them.

Recently while in dialogue with well intending Tanzanians I noticed that we had an agenda at hand for which no one could really take ownership in isolation. Why has ‘hope’ become so insignificant an assertion that we invest in a national dialogue that darkens the visions of even the brightest minds?

I have spoken on the topic of hope in the past and never before in my life have I understood what it means to a society more than I do now.

Hope, according to me, is simply the manifestation of a belief one has in the idea of possibilities; the belief that ‘it’ is possible and being motivated by this belief enough to keep moving until that possibility becomes. Hope as a result allows us to not only see but also to act beyond our current reality, irrespective of what that reality may be. Hope, I argue, is a currency through which any progressive society cannot afford not to transact.

Every time I belabor on the concept of hope, especially in the area of national development, I am drawn to one conclusion - there is no prospect for truly cultivating hope in the absence of a well intending and functioning education system. An education system that by design informs the formation of what one can call our social fabric or social norm. An education system, as a result, cannot be just for imparting knowledge and skills; it is essentially the primary building block in truly building a Nation and reinforcing its values.

Today we are seemingly a society without values; without a conscience; depending on a governing and legal system that in itself is too corrupted to normalize us along any meaningful direction. Every institution has been bastardized by a spirit so opportunistic and short sighted that it does not even notice the foul stench of its own conduct and the even more vile consequences that will reek for many more years to come as a result.

I am faulted for my excessive reference of Mwalimu Nyerere, who some for their lack of imagination and personal resolve choose to blame even for our current situation but in this matter I see no better way to drive home my message than to draw on his wisdom. Mwalimu’s greatest mistake, if you listen to his detractors in earnest, was to be true to this Nation and to make nation building his primary agenda. His ‘idealistic’ ambition, though faulted for its lack of practicability and economic torque, succeeded, at least, in reminding the world that a society, like the human beings that form it, cannot live on bread alone. A society, overall, is a reflection of its values, reinforced by generally acceptable norms. And there is no value more pertinent to the sustenance of our human existence than that of respect for human dignity.

It is evident that we need to survive first in order to exist in any environment; but when a society is so vested in its desire to survive in the heat of the moment that even its primary obligation of preservation of its own existence is compromised by this desire to survive it becomes cause for great concern.

I often wonder how a society like ours, arguably lead by people who by far and large benefited to a disheartening fault from a spirit informed by the desire to build a nation beyond self and preservation of human dignity, can sink to such a depth of near immortal resolve and compromise its own humanity as a result?

Yet history has proven that even values and social conscience are dependent on what is perceived to be true and/or not true at the time in question. This may explain why some of the most upstanding and righteous nations of the day were once harbingers of the most abhor-able social vises such as slavery, racism, Nazism and apartheid to name a few. In relation to each other, could these people have been less human then, than we are today? One can argue yes and one can easily argue no. But clearly their actions were governed by a social norm propagated as a total truth through a structured and/ or unstructured system for which the sole purpose was to reinforce this norm.

So today when I look at the state of Education in Tanzania I am crippled to the core at what we may be doing, albeit, unintentionally to our future. When I observe the dialogue that ensues in earnest around the state of our Nation I am agonized to the pulp at what is being insinuated as our politically-clad elite move seamlessly from focus on people (who give them power) to focus on power as the primary way to stay in power.

Our machinery is in overdrive pumping negativity and feeding derogatory sentiments to a people already in pain. What do we achieve as a society when we tell the same young people that we deprived of a meaningful education (even at the most primary of levels) that they are redundant, unemployable and not suitable to fit into today’s ‘thriving’ economy in a way that makes them look like they are to blame only so that we can save face politically?

In Swahili there is an adage saying that “maneno yanaumba” (what you say becomes) and if this holds any truth, then what are we trying to get our young people to become by throwing on them all this rubbish? I am forever grateful for people like Dr. Reginal Mengi (Executive Chairman IPP) who for varying reasons have taken it upon themselves to play the part of a much needed social conscience in the face of such gross and inhumane acts. Deny a person anything: a job, money, and even a formal education but never deny a person hope!

My question then is what norm are we building as a Nation? And who is the rightful custodian of building this norm?