During my first week in high school, the word photosynthesis sounded very foreign and too complex for me to grasp. It was a vocabulary that perplexed students from school to home and vice versa, and I was not an exception until later when I learnt to appreciate the entire process of photosynthesis. The Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. states that during photosynthesis, light energy is captured and used to convert water, carbon dioxide, and minerals into oxygen. From this process’ the unwritten theme is change, transformation and growth. The presence of these conditions enhances the growth of a plant. Should one of these fail, the ultimate result will be stunted growth.
In Psychology, discussing the subject of human development addresses these issues by understanding constancy and change of experiences from conception through adulthood. Hence, in defining progress we are faced with a habitual dilemma; this is because the very word does not refer to one particular perspective on social, emotional and physical betterment. Instead, as accorded by the distinguished scholar (Pearson, 1992) Progress is a hybrid term for a myriad of strategies adopted for socio-economic and environmental transformation.
Without hesitation, let us navigate to Zimbabwe, a country whose objectives in gaining independence was to start afresh and move ahead with one focal point, development. This implied nurturing our own land which was retained through ancestral perseverance, and most of all, enjoy the aftermath of independence. Economic development stood as the principal objective right after the liberation struggle. Thus, to boost the construction of infrastructure, road networks, education, health facilities, and create employment opportunities, to mention a few; consequently, to exhibit a holistic epitome of progress.
In his article ‘Development in Zimbabwe: Strategy and Tactics’, Michael Bratton pointed that soon after independence, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (known as ZANU PF) government of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe committed itself to redressing the severe social inequalities of the past, at least at the outset to reach its goals through a prudent rather than doctrinal approach.
It is an irony to realise imperialism as the only known development era per se. Those we thought of as our oppressors were the ones who were the liberators in the then Southern Rhodesia, whereas the acclaimed liberators degenerated progress and became the oppressors of their own. The development of the nation is recognised in the low-class citizens being able to acquire and access all basic necessities like food, health services and education. Unfortunately, today people are scrabbling like becks in search of these basic necessities.
In simple terms, there is an arrested development. The term ‘arrested development’ has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term was first used, circa 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to flourish in the same way in many disciplines including literature. However, in the parameters of this article, it entails the static and detained economic development of the country in question. It has been exactly forty years from 1980 to 2020 and this period echoes the Old Testament tale of the exodus of the Israelites, who journeyed for forty years to the Promised Land. Despite the unfriendly circumstances encountered on the way, they eventually triumphed. Could this be equated to the case of Zimbabwe, with its four decades under one tyrannical rule? It is despotic because the supposed development was confiscated and detained.
It can be argued, that there is a particular amount of growth that every being experiences. The problem is picked when growth ceases to be at the expense of a declining growth; this we term as retrogressive progress. We may not deny the fact that development is constantly at play in Zimbabwe, but we can deny the assertion that it is progressive. It is a development clouded by drawbacks; hence considered as retrogressive-progress. A development where we see the expansion of crises. Interestingly, in March 2020, BBC reported a youth from Kadoma who illustrated a sarcastic demonstration by planting banana trees and bathing in potholes as a protest for bad roads and appeal to the government for good road networks.
Zimbabwe, as a landlocked nation, is one of those that hold an inspiring history in Africa due to a highly reputable education system, a gracious tourism industry and a bounty mineral treasure. It is undeniable that African archives rate the country as one of those blessed with phenomenal wonders that can hinder a foreign sightseer from turning back home. However, it is mesmerising to postulate one of its tragic growing wonders – the economical regression. In such a republic, progressive progress can blossom if only the country undergoes the process of civil photosynthesis. Thus, the duties of legitimate leaders should assume necessary conditions for transformation while citizens play the role of a plant that is ready to be photosynthesized.
Read – The World Within – An Article by Mercy Juma, Kenya
