There is a certain class of people that has always existed among Africa’s urban populations ever since independence came to these shores and that sought to stand apart from the rest of the impoverished populations typical of urban Africa. Historians and critics point out that their attitudes, mannerisms and all that pretentious jazz was inherited from settler colonialists who set visible economic benchmarks of “the life” around material wealth. While it will be agreed that the settler and even the present day white man took economic empowerment and its attendant trappings as an entitlement never mind how it was acquired based on notions of racial superiority, the present post-independence Blackman has taken the possession of wealth and material trappings as something that has to be flaunted – also never mind how this was acquired – to ridiculous heights. You only have to look at politicians to see how wealth among starving masses ought to be celebrated.
With the fall and fall of Zimbabwe’s economy, there emerged a class of people who blazed the trail as the nouveau riche making sure everyone was left in no doubt about what economic rungs they occupied in an otherwise economically wretched society with no wealth to speak of. For example, for these people, owning a car especially became a symbol of undisputed middle class trappings which defined their economic worth and they came to typify their ideal financially sound Alpha African male. Now, because that worth was being measured against the backdrop of other Zimbabweans singing the blues as they were caught up in an economic vortex that rendered yesteryear middle class’s paupers, it left no doubt then that they were better off despite their obvious intellectual paucity, as the envious mocked them. And they in turn equally and brutally mocked those claiming superior intellectual clout that their education had turned them into paupers. “We are buying teachers beer,” they would brag – bearing in mind of course that teachers once upon a time formed what were seen as Zimbabwe’s educated minds that could afford to buy houses, cars, beer and of the finest women – but not necessarily in that order. You can see them everywhere you look – deep pockets, shallow minds, others say rather bluntly.
Whether the flowing cash was thanks to remissions from friends and family in the Diaspora, it was – and actually still is – woe betide him who had no claim to a relative domiciled abroad as an economic refugee. But then came the global economic recession and the remissions thinned or slowed down, and the envious rubbed their hands in glee as the reality of being just an impoverished neighbourhood chump set in. However, as the country trudges along on its rather long road to its economic Damascus, there remain folks who still use rather dubious benchmarks as their economic barometers. Capitalism has always emphasised a work ethic that demands that you only get as much as you put in despite the inherent imbalances that have denied well-bodied and intellectually astute individuals to realise their full potential within that system. Yet you see a guy who still thinks in this day and age for example driving a car – any car – is a symbol of economic attainment, especially among peers who still “walk on the ground like lions” as they are fond of reminding the drooling class.
I saw a guy driving a literally rotten car behaving behind the wheel as if he was behind the “popemobile” feeling as haughty as the typical African who has recently picked some cash when others are wallowing in dire poverty. The neighbourhood guys are supposed to envy such “attainments” and you tend to wonder: is that what African aspirations have been reduced to by the economic hardships that have stalked us for so long? Get into a little cash, buy a car and no one is left in doubt, and this in a country where doctors, teachers, lawyers cannot afford cars and houses of their own!
The other day I saw another guy blasting real loud music from his car radio as he screeched to a halt outside a drinking spot. It was supposed to be some grand entrance – as if people care – as all eyes were turned on him who was polluting the air with such uninvited ruckus. The guy killed the engine but left the music blaring as he went in to buy the green beer imported from South Africa – another plebeian sign of financial clout – but when he came back and turned on the ignition so that no doubt he could screech and kick dust into the eyes of the drooling class, the vehicle refused to budge. What does the guy do? He is soon opening the bonnet “to fix” the problem. And it took him long enough for all to point and laugh! When the drooling class has a laugh, be sure it lasts longest – literally. Why think driving a dead car to the pub will mark you out as better off financially, the cynics ask.
Zimbabweans have over the years been forced by their unfortunate economic circumstances to flaunt wealth they do have as there no any culture of saving or investment. But they have their reasons after many lost their lifetime savings to insane inflation. Not many look into the future anymore and say, okay, I am going to invest in the stock market, in this or that enterprise but the cash in my pocket must be seen bulging in the here and now or else no one will know anyway that I have the cash. Others have been heard saying that they do not keep money in the bank because they are afraid the RBZ will wake up one day and just take it – yes, the masses believe their money is not safe after the RBZ was accused of sponsoring Zanu PF. So they now go on and buy rotten cars that become exhibits that they do not need relatives abroad to afford to drive. It is the same guy for whom buying a house, investing in real estate, building a nest egg fro the kids is a proposition that has no place in his order of things but seems to think sleeping in a car is fashionable!
These behaviours must be pondered over by every thinking man who must interrogate the circumstances that engendered the death of working class rungs.
How did the dollar die? What kind of people has its death spawned? A bunch of people with no aspirations beyond owning a car? That’s exactly why Zimbabweans who settle abroad become parodies when they are awestruck by possessions the natives have embraced as part of their daily routine not a sign of deep pockets.
Here the masses have been tempted to live on borrowed time imagining that the country’s economic woes have presented them with opportunities to have it made despite their painfully palpable intellectual want such that all things being fair, they contribute to the betterment of their country and fellow man. But then in a country where everyone seems to be dreaming of one day waking up a millionaire but without losing a sweat for it, it is expected that measurement of economic worth becomes that which does not obtain in countries like South Africa for example where driving a car is expected of every working man and not interpreted as a sign of anything – just a sign of having a decent job that’s all.
