I must say there is something to be admired about the Vendor invasion of the Central Business District. There is something about it that reminds me of the "Fast Track Land Reform Program". After all, Harare used to be a market place for all back in the day - back when Chief Harawa used to rule these lands (Historians help me here).

You see, we overthrew the oppressors from their thrones, tore down their flags and hoisted up ours. We were happy. We all safely huddled behind the placard labelled Independence, sang songs and drank booze for decades, the war was won.

Well, if our freedom was won, why do we still suffer oppression? You see, some of us, it is alleged, are born "free". If I don't feel free, then I'm supposed to being 'born free', that can only mean some battles were won but the war is not yet over.

You see, when we deposed the foreign oppressors from the throne we made one mistake.

I will nicely wrap this up at the end of this article.

We made the mistake of fighting against our oppressors, when instead, we should have been fighting against the oppressive system. It would appear like the oppressors simply changed shifts in running the oppressive system over the decades. Where we had pale skinned sacred cows, we now have dark skinned sacred cows which are not to be touched.

When we deposed the foreign oppressors from the throne we made one mistake. We did not destroy the throne.

We were too bogged down with the Independence hangover we did not even see ourselves rise to occupy these empty thrones. We took over First Street and the rest of CBD. We infiltrated the leafy green suburbs, grabbed commerce by the horns. We mastered the oppressor's language.

You see, we became the overloads, and we became the new tools of the oppressive system designed to benefit only those who operate the control rooms of this economic hegemony. You don't even need to know the meaning of the term "hegemony" to know that it's bad, it just sounds like some creature from the underworld.

Hegemony.

It kind of sounds like Kanda Bongo Man's "Hindemoniii". I digress.

Anyway.

The common man does not understand why he is not allowed to set up his money traps in the heart of CBD where the cash strapped citizens patrol. They also want a piece of that.

Their cry is:

Why is the CBD sacred? We are all black aren't we? Why is it that some blacks are now more special than others and are given special preference to operate in the most profitable part of the city?



Why are we being chased away from the rich alluvial soils of First Street? Why are we being pushed and packed into enclosed Vendor "Reserves" with rocky ground, where our hard work yields less? Why are we being chased out of the CBD?

That is why they are rising to claim what they innately feel is a right. Their uprising is the silenced voice of our ancestors who went against guns with knobkerries, yearning to be truly free.

In this system, the sweet nectar of freedom wrought by Independence is not cascading down to the common man, that is why he has stepped up to the plate where the nectar is, and you chase him away. As who? The new overlord? Black on black oppression.



The system is oppressive and we are fighting hard to restore it to it's full oppressiveness.

Our children dream of running the control rooms of the economy, so that they can benefit from this beast of a system. Our children try so hard to master the language that is used to run this system, a foreign language, and look upon those who do not know it so well, as inferior.

We toil; get loans and mortgages, at times do shady deals so we can move and live in the leafy green suburbs, far from cries of the common man.

It is funny how we hold such people in high regard as society. That's how bad it is.

Africans, let us appreciate, for a moment the fact that our colonisers were also colonised. In all the existence of their civilisation, they have never known freedom like we know it. All of Europe was colonised by Rome. Where Rome learnt her tricks. Nobody knows. Some say it's from the great harlot Babylon herself.

The strategy was the same; they had their rifles behind their Bibles, swords behind the scrolls. The Romans stole Christianity from the Judeans and corrupted it to their end. This might mean that Christianity as we know it, is not in it's purest form. But that's a story for another day. Again, I digress.

In all the existence of their civilisation, they have never known true freedom.

They cannot design our freedom for us.

Their systems cannot be copy pasted in our African society.

In a continent where whoever controls trade and food shortages can indirectly control where the voters place their X's. Democracy should be approached with caution.While we are happy to choose our own leaders, some unknown entity has already chosen our options for us, already dressed up one to appear like a saviour for their benefit.

Their solutions are not necessarily our solutions.

Africa must wake up.

The solution for Africa is Africa.

Let us design our own solutions, relevant to our needs. Our own system.

Let us destroy the systems of oppression. Let us destroy the thrones.

Let us design a nation where all people have an equal right to the nation's resources and potential.

We know freedom.

Let us simply be...

Better humans.