Villagers need to think

Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Farm where we relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Nothing but peace thrives here, unlike life in your concrete jungle. Life can never be better at the farm than watching lawyer Alexious Kamangira spitting fire against everyone in a no-holds-barred manner that would make any rubble-rouser shake in their boots.

Our lips are sealed at the farm because there is an on-going defamation case between Kamangila and judge Kenan Manda which will be brought back to court on March 5. For us at the farm, we miss Kamangila’s works when he worked for the release of inmates who were on death row. He worked tirelessly for their release and getting reunited with their families, amicably.

We also remember the case of one Mussa John, a minor who spent so many years in an adult jail. These are no ordinary cases. You see, we remember years back when some Italians paid us a visit in the villages surrounding the farm.

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They were surprised that we were not using much of the water from the big river to irrigate the fields and grow tomatoes. They brought a very good variety from Italy and asked us to grow tomatoes by the banks of the great river. The tomatoes did so well but as we were nearing harvesting, the hippos came and feasted on the tomatoes.

You see, Dear Diary, that is the problem with aid. Where the West thinks they have the solution to every one of our problems is all wrong. In the village, there is one particular church that changes signposts every year.

You see, every year, new missionaries come with new messages of hope, and some charity. The signposts bear the name of the new faith. But when attendance dwindles, the missionaries go away and a new mission comes up.

It is high time we rethought aid. There is one particular village which has so many international organisations proclaiming the works they are doing in the village. Yet, the people remain as poor as the church mouse.

For decades, our village, like many others in the country, has been cast in the role of aid recipient, its development story narrated through donor pledges, humanitarian appeals, and conditional loans. The first problem with this aid is dependency. However well‑intentioned, aid as seen from Western eyes, often creates a cycle where our people lean on external funds instead of mobilizing domestic resources.

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