MUTSA

Disclaimer:

-Throughout this piece I refer to god with a ‘small letter g’. This is not aimed to offend but mainly because I’m referring to a general concept of a deity and not a particular god. That being said “if thy Lord’s mighty foot fits the boot, forever may they be laced eternally”

-I also refer to god as ‘they’ throughout. It just makes more sense to  be honest.

After winning an award at the 2014 VMAs, Drake opened his acceptance speech by thanking god. In doing so, he acknowledged that his unprecedented success would not be possible without divine sanctioning. Hip Hop fans (see the 2013 Grammys) and Zimbabweans (see… Zimbabwe) are both acutely aware that hard work and talent often go unrewarded. Drake is blessed. Drizzy is chosen. Aubrey Graham is privileged. Not that his success was not hard earned. But that at the very least, it required divine favour. This highlights a heart-breaking question a grieving family member asked me: “Where’s god in Zimbabwe”?

7 stillbirths in a single maternity ward on a single night would suggest that they left Zimbabwe a long time ago. But a cursory look at the country suggests the opposite. God is everywhere in Zimbabwe. God is in Mufti Menk’s huge platform, and God is in the government’s feral response to criticism from Catholic Bishops. God is in Pastor Evan Mawarire leading the most significant citizens protest in recent times. And God is in the ZANU abused maxim that “the voice of the people is the will of god”. They’re in the trembling prayers in Pari’s waiting rooms and in the captions under posts of luxury cars. God is central to hopes of the oppressed people and justification of the violence against them. They provide the shield and the spear. 

Concluding that a typical citizen is one or the other would be reductive and dishonest. As would suggesting that all privilege was made equal. There are sources of privilege that are directly and intimately bound to the suffering of others. However, comfort in a militantly cruel capitalist, violently misogynistic and homophobic Zimbabwe is, in itself, privilege. For Drake to win, many must lose. It’s the awareness of this that inspires many to thank god for their successes. It stems from an acute awareness of the fact that despite all the hard work, skill and ability what allows comfort and success is an unearned celestial favour. Blessed. However, in showing appreciation for our success we affirm the privilege of being chosen. And affirm the violence (political, social and economical) inherent to that privilege; accepting and, to an extent, revelling in the fact that these blessings are ours alone. The social order that allows privilege becomes god-ordained and even mandated. 

This piece is not a theodicy exploring why evil persists in our country but an exploration of the privilege of the blessed and their relationship to the supernatural force(s) that uphold it.

I’m Big

Ironically, appreciating the necessity of god’s hand in our success can be viewed as a relatively pompous act. It suggests that a caring and attentive omnipotent power or system has ordained one’s blessings and positions. It’s as beautifully tender an idea as it is dangerous. On a social scale, in the ancient Hindu text the Veda, Purusha, a celestial being was sacrificed and from their body life the caste system was created. According to early versions the castes were assigned as: the Brahmin(mouth) who would speak directly to the gods, the Kshatriya (arms) who were warriors, Vaisyas (thighs) who were merchants and Sudras (feet) who served as labourers upon whom society would be built. Through this divine delegation the social order and privilege was cemented. To defy it was to defy the celestially ordained order of the world. This was only further reinforced by the idea of progressive reincarnation, Samsara. This suggested that following one’s role and duty (Dharma) in accordance to the social order would lead elevate an individual in the next life.

To explore this on a more personal level we can look to Drake (he’s inescapable). Years after winning his VMA he penned the line “I wanna thank god for working harder than Satan // He’s playing favourites, it feels amazing”. This represents a popular rationalisation of one’s blessings. The idea of being a chosen one. It’s a theme that seems ubiquitous across culture and time. From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Avatar (the good one). With the prevailing idea being that one is gifted unique and specific abilities and blessings to help or save others. To address this, I must invoke my own personal privilege and problematise charity. 

Zimbabweans are going to bed hungry. Zimbabwean women experience a dehumanising violence and disregard that I could never truly understand. The LGBTQ+ community in Zimbabwe face a near constant assault on their personhood. Zimbabweans die preventable deaths every day. I cannot stress enough, how important it is that those blessed with the ability to help, do. Because nobody else will, and therein lies the problem. The fact that those of us privileged enough to give to and organise these critical charitable organisations have the power to literally change somebody’s life is nothing short of dystopic. The fact that charitable bodies have to exist because of the systemic disenfranchisement of vulnerable groups and subsequently carry the burden of a failed government should enrage. As vital as it is to give to charity, to live in a society where I, with my vacuous understanding of social development am not only able, but morally required, to help those in need is madness. And to lend legitimacy to this dynamic by suggesting that the privilege, that’s often upheld by this same violent disenfranchisement, is a blessing with which one should use to ‘free’ or ‘help’ is indicative of a dangerous hubris. (that being said, please, please help out. Whatever reason you have. People can’t die while we debate)

Martin Scorcese’s 1988 film, “The Last Temptation of Christ”, is a purely fictional non-canonical work that explores Jesus’s life and final moments. At the moment of His death on the cross, a tortured Jesus is tempted by Satan one last time. This temptation comes in the form of a vision where Jesus sees the life He would have led had He denied his destiny and lived a normal life. He marries, has children, and lives a long life working as a carpenter. He is then told to choose by Satan and chooses to die on the cross. One of the questions this film raises is what is the choice that best reinforces Jesus’s privilege? At face value it would seem obvious that not being tortured by those one is saving would be ideal. In fact, avoiding being detained and tortured for crimes one didn’t commit should be considered a blessing in Zimbabwe (#BlessHopewell). However, Jesus, endures His torture fully aware of the fact that He would ascend to heaven as the chosen one. In accepting His privilege and His role, He saves countless lives but also affirms a system where many will go to hell. This parallels the problematics of charity as they both require, and to some degree maintain, the suffering of at least a few. 

Furthermore, in Jesus’s vision, He is haunted by the guilt of not fulfilling his role and duty (Dharma). Guilt as a motivator inspires performative action, as evidenced by the public self-flagellation inspired by Jesus’s suffering in 13^th Century Europe and 16^th century Japan. The flagellator’s acute awareness of their unearned blessings (although relatively humble) inspired them to whip themselves as public penance. An egotistical act, that although spiritually significant, is entirely self-involved. 

It’s in these ways that being chosen by god creates a paradox. This belief can justify an unjust and cruel society or imbue one with just enough privilege and opportunity to help but not enough to create lasting change without critically addressing that privilege and the source of it to begin with.

I’m small

Another way of processing privilege is to completely reject the idea that any of one’s privilege is ordained by god. That there is either no god that exists or that they are completely indifferent to our existence. The nihilistic idea that ultimately there is no meaning to life and that the causes to which we dedicate ourselves (social justice, art, wealth) are ultimately paths paved by- and serving- people equally as insignificant as we are. Engaging in an uncaring, unaware universe facilitates a moral anti-realism, that rejects the idea of any objective morality. This promotes a dangerous indifference to the suffering of others, particularly if that suffering is foreign. Particularly by those who are privileged.

Zimbabwe is fertile territory for the creeping vine of nihilism and defeatism. Citizens brave enough to fight for social justice are quickly dispersed of, often nefariously, by a regime drilled in maintaining fear. Figureheads change but the terror remains the same. The temptation to sink into defeatism and bury one’s head in the sand is strong. The magic spark of Zimbabwe is so often stifled. What does a flame lily look like?

To address this, we should look to the legend of Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha, a Prince locked into his house for his whole life by his parents out of fear of a prophecy, lived a life of great comfort and excess. Curious about the world around him he would sneak out of the house. On one of his journeys he was witness to the old, the sick and the dying. Upon confronting the crushing cruelty of existence, he did not turn to nihilism. He renounced his privilege, sat under a tree, fasted and meditated for days until he reached nirvana and became the buddha. He then spent the rest of his life spreading his discoveries and trying to free people from their suffering. One could argue that him renouncing his privilege had little effect in reducing the suffering of those around him. However, for those with the privilege to do so, dedicating a life towards battling everyone’s collective suffering not in spite- but because- of the inherent indifference of the universe to that suffering may be the only vaguely rational response. In this view, we are all we’ve got.

To ask a Zimbabwean to lead us out of the horror the country has faced and to sacrifice themselves the way Jesus would is unfair. In fact, that sort of heroism and megalomania reinforces the savoir/saved dynamics that the current regime uses to justify their rule. It denies us the collective action we require to build the Zimbabwe we need. Nor can I, in good faith, ask the privileged few (without being hugely hypocritical) to forsake their livelihoods whether in self-flagellation or as response to the suffering around us. Zimbabwe neither has the time for performative action nor for someone to actually become the buddha. One, of many aspects of Samsara, I didn’t address is Moksha, which involves liberation from the cycle of reincarnation and subsequent ascension. This is what we should aim for. To break the cycle in Zimbabwe and free of us from the bondage of privilege and subsequently the bondage of suffering.

“I am not a man I can’t do this on my own”

-Drake, Star 67