One of my favourite Maya Angelou quotes is “When someone shows up as who they are, believe them the first time.” We are out of making excuses and apologising for the excesses of others at our own expense. And unexpectedly, the curtain closed on the Robert Mugabe administration. What a drama! In comes the Emerson Mnangagwa administration. That would be Mmm-Na-Nga-Gwa fearless ladies and gentlemen of the international press. “Administration” instead of “regime” because is regime is such a Smith era word. Semantics… I digress.
I’m always the first person to say never trust a Zimbabwean who uses the phrase “I digress” in a speech! Like why the fuck did you digress in the first place? Especially at an NGO sponsored shindig? But since this is a column, I’ll digress away from the regular Ask SJ space and say bye-bye to the world’s oldest ruler. Who knew that “Asante Sana” could be so divisive? It was one hell of a protracted era if you will excuse the ungodly pun.
Aptly, since we are speaking of the heavens and the hells, many astrologers believe that we have exited the Age of Pisces and are now in the Age of Aquarius. The Age of Pisces was nothing short of dramatic and crazy. It gave us Jesus Christ – the archetype human of the Pisces star sign – on one hand and it gave us the Spanish Inquisition on the other. It gave us Robert Mugabe pre-1980 on one hand and it gave us Robert Mugabe post-1980. Whether you are on the side of Jesus, the Inquisition or the many faces of RGM, Pisces is a star sign of in-betweens. It gave us a couple of world wars and at the same time a decent list of human rights!
Aquarius, on the other hand, is a sign of flow and current. Aquarius likes balance like water. If there is one thing I can guarantee you, is that Aquarius is “no nonsense” star sign. Aquarius will be characterized by human agency – the need to self-actualise. That’s because deep in the human psyche is a need to feel connected to all things and heightened spirituality.
Our consciousness keeps evolving. Staying “woke” is in. Our hope springs eternal.
Staying awake is not enough, however. Those who are at the top of the food chains of life had to work for it. Phathisa Nyathi once told me that “a society doesn’t just crumble politically; it also crumbles economically and socially.” Look at us now as a country. Wokeness is always tested whether one is awake or not and wokeness is tested best by elections in this world.
In our constituencies, wards, student councils, general councils, boards, school development associations etc… the test of wokeness is ever omnipresent. That is how we measure civil society. We are all chasing civil society. Beginning with personal relationships is where it all happens. By the time we get to professional relationships our wokeness is even more tested.
Prophecies are not my thing. We can’t be that lazy in life and expect to have our future delivered over the fucking air! Civil society needs work. It’s exhausting work. It’s something that politicians don’t say. Although they think they can, they cannot do it alone. The Age of Aquarius comes with an astrological requirement to be woke and active in the processes of civil society. Register to vote. So that you always have the option of having your wokeness tested. In any country, democracy is always at stake.
Sonny Jermain is an award winning public health, maternal, sexual and reproductive health rights facilitator and a traditional psychic. This column appears Thursdays on Enthuse. Send questions to asksj@enthusemag.com or WhatsApp +263 77 274 8454. Follow @SonnyJermain.
1 comment