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Central African Republic president Catherine Samba-Panza (left) greets Cameroon president Paul Biya. Some 80 nations are gathered in Brussels today for an EU-Africa summit. —AFP

The Arena Hildegarde
ZIMBABWE celebrates its Golden Jubilee in 2030. By then, Independence Day, April 18 will have fallen on the same day as Good Friday, one of the Easter’s most Holy days on only three occasions.  This is according to information I got on the website <http://www.maa.mhn.de/StarDate/publ_holidays.html>, which lists Easter dates taken from the University of Bamberg, Department for Liturgy Sciences’ web server.
2014 is one such year. Since the attainment of Independence, I wanted to know how many times we have celebrated this very important day on our national calendar on Good Friday.

It was painstaking, but worth the while. This has happened once; in 2003 and 2014 will be the second such happen-stance. If the dates on the website are anything to go by, the next such coincidence will be in 2025 when Zimbabwe will be 44, six years before it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Three is a significant number for people of the Judaea-Christian faiths. Margaret Minnicks, a Christian education examiner says of the number three: “Three in the Bible is divine fullness or completion as in the Godhead of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit”.

She adds, “Three is the minimum number necessary to establish a pattern. Something can happen once by chance; twice by coincidence; but three consecutive times usually indicate a pattern. Three (also) speaks totality, sufficiency and the complete work of God”.

If this argument is to be followed it means that the 2014 Independence celebrations are coinciding with Good Friday, and the totality will be achieved in 2025. I asked a number of people what they thought about Independence being celebrated on a sombre day like Good Friday.

Despite the fact that they expressed themselves differently, they agreed that this was a “double blessing” for Zimbabwe, and also a time to reflect about what the two events mean.

Mrs Anastasia Jimu of Warren Park unpacked the “double blessing” when she said, “We celebrate Easter and by so doing we thank God for giving us His only son Jesus Christ to pay the supreme sacrifice of releasing us from Satanic bondage. Jesus redeemed us when He was crucified, was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead in glory, putting paid the devil’s control over us”.

She added, “We also see that the men and women of this country who took up arms to fight the racist colonial regime did so in a sacrificial way.
“The liberation struggle which brought us Independence was about saying that this was worth the while and they made those huge sacrifices where so many lost life and limb; sacrifices where parents did not willingly offer their children — boys and girls alike — to fight for the liberation of this country. They accepted those choices even though the legal age of majority law was not in place.”

A fortnight before we celebrate both our Independence and Easter I grapple with these issues — connecting the spiritual elements which seem inalienable, for it’s as if Zimbabwe’s quest for independence is a desire to attain the fullness of what Jesus did on the cross and then His resurrection.

The issue is even more poignant as the EU-Africa Summit debate rages on. I ask myself what independence means, and particularly the sacrificial element.

When we fought so hard for self-determination and sovereignty, why should we abandon our objectives before the full plan unfolds? For, the 2014 Summit gives that impression that Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole should negate their principles of independence in order to be shackled again to the same people that had them under bondage.

If indeed we are independent, why should it take the EU-Africa Summit to breathe life into our economic turnaround master plan: ZIM-ASSET? When will we have the confidence to be masters of our own destiny?

Why this noise about whether or not Zimbabwe should have been in Brussels if independence was about self-determination? Why should Zimbabwe abandon its principles when it knows that self-actualisation is its ultimate goal, and on its terms too?

It would be like a Christian believer who thinks that his/her prayers are not heard by the Lord, but only the pastor can pray for him or her.
Indeed the pastor has that role but he also has spiritual needs to cater for. The gospel of grace means that we go directly to the Lord. So too, the issue of independence! We did not attain independence so that we remain under bondage.

Maybe Claire Rosemberg’s piece on AFP (yesterday) will make us see that all that the African Union did was to change venue, but the issues remain the same: “Mammoth EU-Africa summit tackles Central African Republic”.

Instead of meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, they chose Brussels. Under the subheading, “An attractive bride”, she says, “Trade has been another cause of tension as the two (Africa and the EU) continue to struggle to agree trade deals — economic partnership agreements (EPA) — giving Africa better access to EU markets while lifting tariffs in Africa, seen as a vital source of income to governments and a protection to its fledgling industry.

“Meanwhile, China has increased its penetration of Africa, overtaking Europe as the main partner in 2009, while India, Brazil, Turkey and South Korea are all looking for opportunities as stability and growth improve.

“In just a few years, Africa has become an attractive bride that can choose among several candidates,” said analyst Geert Laporte of the European Centre for Development Policy Management. But Europe “right now does not have a lot of sex appeal.”

Juxtapose these remarks with Zimbabwe’s stand, and see who stands to gain between an “attractive bride” and a suitor devoid of “sex appeal”.
Courtship in Zimbabwe means that the suitor has to look for the bride and not the other way round. Europe and the rest of the world still need our resources big time. We should be brides who are not only confident, but who know how to corner the best suitor.

Why give the suitor that leverage when he should be on African soil seeing what Africa needs and does not need? Since there are so many of them, Africa will be better positioned to flaunt herself on her ramp — the length and breadth of her vast and mineral rich lands.