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President Mugabe, Bona Mugabe and the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe at Bona’s graduation ceremony in Singapore.- AFP

The Arena Hildegarde
AS Chancellor of state-owned universities, he has presided over dozens of convocations and has also capped thousands of graduates, from under graduates to those receiving doctoral degrees.  He has never missed any of these academic processions and neither has he asked someone to stand in for him. The momentous occasions while he performs this duty have been captured on camera and many homes and offices bear testimony to that.

He has also witnessed the joyous moments as parents celebrate the graduation of their children. But on November 16, it was his turn as a parent, and not just the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe to join other parents at the convocation ceremony of his 24-year-old first-born daughter Bona at MDIS-University of Wales in Singapore where she graduated with a Master of Science in Management (Specialising in Banking and Finance) degree.

This was the second time the First Family joined other parents to celebrate their daughter’s success. In November 2011, they attended Bona’s graduation ceremony at City University in Hong Kong where she received a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) degree in Accountancy.

Last Saturday’s convocation showed another side of President Mugabe – a proud father who wants his daughter to understand and appreciate different aspects of life, including a good education.

It was another level of how people can learn about father/daughter relationships through what they see and what they read. It was like a rights of passage step for Bona, for she has been taken to so many places and given major responsibilities.

At last week’s convocation, President Mugabe gave her away to the marketplace to be her own woman in as much as he will do the same next year in March, when she will be joined in holy matrimony to her husband Simba Chikore.

As a father, he chose a befitting place – Chishawasha Mission in Goromonzi to tell the nation on October 18 about Bona’s marriage and wedding ceremony next March.

He took her back to where it all started for she is named after her grandmother Mbuya Bona, and the President said he had a soft spot for Chishawasha since his mother hailed from there.

Most fathers call their daughters “amai” (mother) or vatete/ubabakhazi (aunt), but when he introduced her, he called her “sisi” (sister):

“Tina sisi vari pano ava vane zita rinonzi Bona . . . Gore rinouya akafunga zvekusiya mhuri kunovamba yakewo achiti chisarai, makandibatsira, ndakura, ndaakunozviitira. (We have a sister here whose name is Bona.

“She decided that next year she will leave the family to go and start her own family. She is saying that we did our part. I am a grown woman and I’m going to start my own family).

When a father believes in you that much, your strengths and weaknesses, there is that mark of trust and respect between father and daughter and people won’t miss it. That is why some women remain “dad’s girl”.

As a woman, it is easy to understand and appreciate the strong bond that you find between fathers and daughters. When we see Bona escorting the President in the absence of the First Lady, we know that he is a proud father who trusts her to carry out the responsibility.

It is also easy to see the bond between them because I am a daughter who had a wonderful relationship with my late father.

I have written about Bona Mugabe once – a preview piece before she cast her first vote on March 29, 2008. She was above the legal age of majority, 18 and according to Zimbabwe’s laws, as a registered voter she could vote.

Something stood out on March 28, 2008 when I briefly interviewed her at Gwanzura Stadium. The First Family including Bona all clad in party regalia accompanied the President to his last rally. We don’t see this kind of family support among a majority of our politicians from across the political divide.

Katie Schmarr best summarises father/daughter relationships in her 2013 Father’s Day message: “A true father is always there. He is there to spill tears of happiness when his eyes fall upon his infant daughter. He is there with arms to catch her when she takes her first steps or stumbles. He is there to teach her at the youngest age, even though she might not understand half of it.

“He is there to help her colour inside the lines, make her grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and tie her shoes. He is there to hug her and kiss her on her first days of school, and to walk her in if need be.

“He is there to teach her and tease her and laugh with her. He is always there to embarrass her, but that’s part of life. He is there to tell her to go ask her mother, when her mother told her to ask him.

“He is there to lecture her, prepare her for the monster called high school. He is there to put up with her teenage moods and her co-ed relationships. He is there to approve, disapprove, accept and forgive.

“He is there to give her a big bundle of flowers when she graduates, to smile when her name is called and feel proud. He is there to embrace her and kiss her before she goes to live and learn a thousand miles away.

“He is there to see her become a working woman, to walk her down the aisle (or not, if her independence and stubbornness prevail after all).

“He is there to watch her grow as the lines on his face grow. He is there to welcome her home, always, and let her hug him and smell the smell she remembers from childhood, the warm, protecting, comforting smell of dad.

“But most of all, he is always there to love her. And she is always there to love him back.” (Courtesy: sayingimage.com)