Thread by @CurateByo

Since it’s #UnityDay today let me tell you guys about this one time in Junior Parliament. But this was in April, and we were attending the Children’s Independence Party in Harare. The theme was “Zimbabwe@35: Consolidating unity, peace and economic development.”

A THREAD👇🏽👇🏽

1. I was in Debate and Public Speaking so each province did a screening to select poets; public speakers, dancers etc to perform at the Children’s Party. I was selected to deliver a speech. Obviously ecstatic, sis was cramming that speech until she got to Harare.

2. Day b4 we had rehearsals. This was the final process that’ll help us know where in the program we would perform. I opened with this quote, “Pain is a woman watching her sons burn to death as others dance to the songs of Chimurenga.”George Mujajati book-The Sun Will Rose Again

3. My speech questioned the whole concept of unity, & the authenticity of solidarity in Zimbabwe since a lot of things carried a political connotation. I was young, excited about speaking truth to the vision of my country.

Long story short, I never got to speak at the event.

4. The reason I was given for my not getting an opportunity to speak was that the program was pretty tight, and they needed to cut out some performances. As a child/ student I was hurt obviously. I had wanted to use the English in my speech, but speaking truth. But...

5. While I accepted it then and moved on, I can tell you that it felt more than just an issue of a tight schedule. It had felt more like there’s certain truths we weren’t supposed to say. But maybe these were just the feelings of a broken school girl.

So my question is:

As we celebrate the #UnityDay do we feel that we can be as honest in our expression of how we feel about it as we want them to be? Or do we feel that we need to censor ourselves?

Unity Day almost is synonymous to JMNkomo. Are we advancing that Nkomoism as a nation?