Whilst we are all busy preaching pan-Africanism and African Unity, some feel like it my not be the best case. The outrage that burned on social media and the news during the Xenophobia attacks was testimony that people only wanted peace and love. However Xenophobia might be the least of our problems in Zimbabwe as there is a rot growing and it is starting to show now. Tribalism is that rot. We are certainly not down playing Xenophobia, but can we please deal with an issue that is a lot closer to home.
With the current status quo, Twitter is now always filled with triggers. Some just plain dumb and some, well, offside. One Twimbo decided to drop the-mother-of-all triggers last night which was a revelation to us all. This was a three tweet thread which was filled with tribalism comments. We may pretend that most of the things on Twitter do not trigger us but the line that was crossed here is too bold not to notice. In a tasteless fashion, the Twitter user did not attempt to retract her comments or even delete the tweets. This shows the real state of the nation. sometimes we make ‘small’ jokes about each other’s accents and pronunciations, and we also pretend that its all fun and games. Well now that you know, it is not!
The post-colonial Zimbabwe civil unrest is no laughing matter and it should be treated as such. Its very insensitive to trivialize a matter of this magnitude and go on to insult an entire region of the nation. We always claim that ‘it’s not that deep’ on social media but there should be a line that should be drawn somewhere. As the saying goes, ‘Its not just Twitter’!
Your WCW just compared Lobengula to Gukurahundi? She’s 4 and obviously Shona.
— #TweetInNdebele (@DearAngelbert) June 15, 2017
What scares me is we have this kind of mentality in our (enlightened?) generation. ⤵ https://t.co/8kTVFm4ZiI
— Continental African (@YoungMudhara) June 16, 2017
Some were outraged and some seemed to even make the situation worse. the replies to the triggering tweet should that tribalism is still alive. In a nation rich with different cultures none should be superior. The bottom line is that each of us are all human beings and should be proud to be identified with a certain group of people. It should not be a source of taunting and insults.
Its ok for a ndebele to call shonas stupid names but when one shona says something yatowa hondo 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😊
— Major💫💥 (@blessingweezy) June 16, 2017
This is not the first time that tribalist comments have flew around on social media, especially Twitter. It’s sad that in a nation where everyone is trying to barely get through the day, some don’t think we all deserve the same identity. In a generation of people who like to call themselves ‘woke’, why is tribalism still an issue we need to deal with? Where are we going wrong?
