By Dr Charles Leyman Kachitsa
Where one finds themselves in a flooded river torrent and being threatened to be swept away, the first thing is to be calm. Most often the wise thing is to not go against the moving water but to flow with it with the expectation of finding some floating thing to hold on to. It is not an experience one would not want to be in. It arises from unexpected circumstances especially for those living down stream vast fast flowing rivers. In some settings people have no choice of where to live.
Patience is a virtue one need to have in whatever circumstance one find themselves including where the threat is greater as when faced with the situation above. A lot of people faced with such a situation would lose all their senses and that would make it harder even for a miracle to happen.
In such situations focus and paying attention to the surrounding for one trained to be highly conscious is the most important thing to hold on to. The situation described above is a metaphor for most life circumstances including in times where one is facing humiliation, persecution and or chastising from others, you can confuse the other party by going along with them on their plan as long as you are fully conscious of what you want in life. Above all, this is the time to look up and ask of the controller of all things for His will to take control.
The quotes for this week are a continued extraction from a book which read in full takes you back to the formation of some of the countries south of the Sahara Desert that being a possession of other nations negotiated for their independence. Whether such attained independence meant a liberated mind for people in the countries is debatable to the present. I am sure the few chosen quotations listed below from the book will enlighten you to one or two life lessons. Read and enjoy:
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF CENTRAL AFRICA – ZAMBIA, MALAWI, AND ZIMBABWE by A.J. Wills
“The cause of closer union in Central Africa has thus over half a century presented a picture of a duel between the hare and the tortoise —- the hare of white domination, subjected to enforced halts by the accident of war or trade recession, overtaken by the slow-moving but inexorable advance of African awareness and overseas opinion. It is to account of this procession of events that we now turn. —“
“Thus by the end of 1958 attitudes in Central Africa were hardening. The United Federal Party, determined on some form of Dominion status within three years, was established with secure majorities in three of the four governments…… majorities that were based on electorates intended to be predominantly European for a long time to come. It was able to present a firm front alike to the right-wing Dominion Party, strongest in Southern Rhodesia, to the liberal opposition, most effective in the north, to African nationalism prowling at the gates, and to the British Government, whose gaze was already being diverted by the prospect of a general election in 1959. African organizations, on the other hand, despairing at last of partnership, dreading the outcome of the 1961 conference on the status of the Federation, and hoping to imprint their views indelibly on the minds of those who would form the forth-coming new administration tp London, were growing increasingly militant, above all in Nyasaland.”
“White Rhodesians indeed could still learn to value Britain’s involvement during the coming period of transition to majority rule. Their long term position could be dangerous on a continent whose peoples had for years been compelled to contain their resentment against the South African regime. Time would show whether, prompted perhaps by unconscious memories of the heroic but disastrous Shangani patrol, the desperate spirit of no compromise would prevail; or whether the shocks and pressures of world reaction to U.D.I., combined with an innate respect for the rule of law, would bring a new realism out of which better understandings could emerge, and moderate leadership, both black and white, revive.”
“In Nyasaland, with the smaller European population, relations between Government and people had generally been good, and the outburst against Federation earlier in 1953 was followed by a return to normal conditions. The land question provided Nyasalanders with their abiding political anxiety, and the first months of the new order exploded the nationalist myth of large-scale European acquisition of African land. Fear lingered, however, Wellington Chirwa, the outspoken Nyasaland African in the Federal Parliament, continued to denounce Federation in terms which European politicians held up as evidence all too of African political immaturity. …….”
