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Emmanuel Kafe

Herald Correspondent

WORRYING cases of immorality and drug abuse affecting university students have led some students to embrace the cultural renaissance initiatives which the First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has undertaken nationwide.

University of Zimbabwe students on Saturday invited the First Lady to bring the Gota/Nhanga/Ixiba programme to the tertiary education sphere which has “valuable teachings” to address societal challenges. After receiving numerous calls and visits from the students for her to spare only a few hours with them, to their surprise Amai Mnangagwa heeded their call and spent the day not as the First Lady, but as an adviser and aunty.

She advised tertiary students that reaching university was a milestone, but that they also needed another set of lectures which are missing in the curriculum of their lives.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa greets delegates at the University of Zimbabwe

“It is fundamental to get a qualification in order to better oneself, but that alone cannot get you that far. Manners make men.”

Zimbabwe has a plethora of traditions evident in the various languages.

The students most of them female  inspired by the Nhanga/Gota/Ixhiba initiative were seen cooking and preparing traditional cuisines at the event where the first lady went around inspecting the different kinds of foods.

Among many cuisines that were prepared by female students were manhanga, munyevhe, howa and mashazhare while their male counterparts did goat skinning and they drew wisdom from the elderly who were part of the event.

The female students took the First Lady on the process of how they had prepared maguru, howa, sadza remhunga among other traditional meals to the satisfaction of the patron of the programme before she took them for life lessons on Ubuntu.

“Our indigenous foods are densely packed with nutritious value and most of them have medicinal properties, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage this tertiary institution to undertake further research in the medicinal characteristics of our indigenous vegetables, fruits and herbs,” she said.

University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Mapfumo teaches boys cultural values and tradition on Saturday

In the men’s forum youths also pointed fingers on parents as causing moral dilemmas. All the students took time to ask questions of all kinds without fear.

The motherly figure and cheerfulness that was exhibited by the First Lady made them open up on everything that might affect them in general.

The First Lady told the students that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to have the elderly come and give wisdom and advise the young ones on life.

“I want to thank you all for inviting me to this event, indeed there has been a lack of cultural and moral values in our children today as most are now influenced by the outside cultures, we need to bring our Ubuntu back.

“We are Zimbabweans and that will not change, we should be proud of our cultural heritage because if we take lessons from our past we will progress with a rooted self-consciousness and awareness which helps to keep us grounded in who we are,” she explained.

She said true encroachment is not only in knowing where we are going as a people, but it was also in knowing where we are coming from.

“Nowadays, due to technological advancement, the globe has been unified, this unification, however, has diluted our cultural values which embodies the philosophical thread that define us as a people.”

Elderly women who accompanied the her to the event said they were happy to have time with the girl child, having time to impart the knowledge they have to young ones was such a good thing.

The First Lady emphasised on the need for young girls to dress well, not to indulge before marriages as it would lead to unintended consequences and also drove the idea of respecting the elderly as a way of keeping Ubuntu intact.

First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa looks at the traditional dishes prepared by University of Zimbabwe students on Saturday. — Pictures: John Manzongo

“You should guard your lives jealously to avoid being used by men who don’t intend to marry you, your bodies are expensive and should not be used anyhow,” she said, adding on the need for young girls to properly dispose of their sanitary wear.

In inviting Amai Mnangagwa to bring her initiative, students and the institution authorities described the initiative as critical in shaping their academic life and future since most parents no longer have time with their children.

“This programme unveiled by the First Lady is good and we embrace it with both hands. We hope and pray that we will take the wise counsel from this Nhanga/Gota/Ixiba programme and use it for their benefit and the nation at large,” a postgraduate media student, Martha Ruzivo said.

Another student Tendai Mangani chipped in and said that the programme was really helpful.

“This programme brings back our traditional way of life, which makes us a real people through our Ubuntu, good morals, he added, brought blessings and good life.”

The First Lady encouraged youths to be proud of our cultural heritage, urging other institutions of higher learning to emulate the steps that have been taken by the University of Zimbabwe Students in persevering Ubuntu.

She also said as parents they were in anguish as girls now abuse alcohol, drugs and going for older men offering trinkets and who call themselves blessers — exploiting the girl child.

An elderly man teaches University of Zimbabwe students to skin and prepare a goat on Saturday

“Our youths are now self-destructing and I could not as a mother sit back and watch.

“Our youths have strayed away and are now doppelgangers of the global metropolis, feeding on the Western culture and adopting it as their own.”

She said she was pleased that the students demonstrated the willingness to learn from the elderly in society by inviting her along with her team to bring the programme to the university.