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Dr Masimba Mavaza

Highly-educated achievers from academics to football, music and medicine, among others draw on parental ambition and resilience fuelled by lack of opportunity at home.

Many people of Zimbabwean descent have proved very successful, across various sectors and contexts, particularly those in the UK, South Africa and Australia.

In South Africa, there are an  estimated 1 million Zimbaweans, the  United States has an estimated 30 000 to–50 000, the United Kingdom some 128 000 and Ireland 5 348.

Zimbabwe Achievers Awards (ZAA) is a ceremony that seeks to recognise Zimbabweans based in the Diaspora for outstanding and notable achievements.

Among the awards recipients include Hollywood actress Danai Gurira of “The Walking Dead” TV Series, and Black Panther; Chipo Chung as well as Luthuli Dhlamini of South Africa’s TV series “Generations”.

We cannot forget Blessed Kapesa who was born on 17 March 1978. He is an accomplished entrepreneur, theatre practitioner brand strategist, philanthropist and socialite. He is the founder of First Class Health Care, Zimbabweans in the Diaspora Organisation, Diaspora Credit Union, Diaspora Homes, and Gospel Nation. In 2011 he co-started the First Class Health Care with wife Thelma Murakasha, a specialist health care agency that provides homecare and nursing services.

The company has managed to improve health care for private patients and hospitals within a small period of time since commencement.

He is also the principal founder of Zimbabweans In the Diaspora Organisation (Zido), an organisation that seeks to engage Zimbabweans in cultural, social and economic livelihood improvement projects.

Kapesa also heads the Zimbabweans In Diaspora Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited (ZIDASCCO), now called the Diaspora Credit Union, an organization that encourages savings from members and gives access to loans for members to carry out projects or meet personal needs in Diaspora.

These are just a few names in a long list of Zimbabweans in Diaspora who have achieved success on an international scale in a wide range.

Despite the success people forget that Diasporans also cry.

Another writer wrote that it was in Diaspora that I learnt that men also cry. It is in the Diaspora that men get paid less than their wives. It is still in Diaspora that women refuse to share their salaries with their husbands.

We have learnt that women and men should put their salaries before each other so that the money gets blessed. Even if he was a rich man, sow seed in his life.  Sometimes, women don’t know that their husbands need something from them.

Men in Diaspora can be financially broke and pretend to have everything.

Most men are married but they live lonely lives in Diaspora. Sometimes they yearn to be asked out by their wives or partners. Men are not always busy as women think. Women in diaspora do not understand that their husbands have pains, feelings and needs too.  Alas in Diaspora they are judged by things their women want They completely forget that sometimes,  their husbands do not have things the wives they want.

It is a stubborn fact that men also have emotional needs and problems. Men still cry for love and respect. The cry more for their conjugal rights.

Men’s hearts are battered, broken and trashed.  When men became fathers they carry a would never to be treated.

A true father goes through many unspeakable experiences to continue to be a father. He is kicked and insulted by the powers that be at work, yet he goes home with a smile on his face.

When he goes out daily in search of bread for his household, he sustains many mental injuries he does not discuss with his family.

His wife and children may not be able to stand the pains he goes through if he shares it with them.

The insults from his boss, the embarrassment from his customers, the harassment from his superiors, etc. Yet he can’t quit.

Most times, when he gets home, he is welcomed with nags and unending requests. He gets blames for not being able to meet up, or for not being able to be like his fellow men.

He is rarely appreciated for his struggles and push just to keep the family together. He is robbed by those who tried to protect him. Some men had secretly dipped their hands in so many things they can’t discuss with their families.

Some have  borrowed so much that they live in inexpressible guilt every day.

A real father can take anything just to keep food on the table for his household.

An adage says ‘’chicken sweats but the feathers do not let people see the sweat’’. Many men are sweating but no one is seeing their sweat because they have a car, a house, a job, etc.

When it comes to celebrating him, it is done casually.

He may not have breasts to breastfeed, yet everyone sucks from his unseen breasts.

He may not carry pregnancy for nine months, but he’s always pregnant with family needs.

He may not know how labour pain feels, but his pains are not physical.

Tears may not be in his eyes but he bleeds from inside when he has no means to put food on the table for his household.

His shout, hostility and moods are not premeditated, they are fallout of what he goes through. So please understand him.

It is hard to be a man and be out in the diaspora.

More than half of Zimbabwean immigrants (54 percent) were most likely to occupy management positions, compared with 32 percent of the total foreign-born population and 39 percent of the UK born population.

Similarly, Zimbabwean success is reflected in the UK, where many in a highly-educated diaspora work in financial services, IT, and the legal and medical professions. What drives Zimbabweans and the diaspora, and can future generations continue their success?

The economic future of Zimbabwe and the success of its people abroad are closely tied, as is the lack of opportunity that drives many to leave home in the first place.

A strong desire to succeed in life, enabled by education, is also a common theme in Zimbabwean homes.

Resilience is another big part of the Nigerian identity. A “special case of lack of infrastructure I’m Zimbabwe engenders in us is a real creativity, so where others might see chaos, Zimbabweans see opportunity.

Women are [also] realising they have to take charge. They cannot wait to be given permission any more

“It’s in our blood. One thing I love about Zimbabweans is we have this inherent ability to make things happen where it may seem impossible to others. We are extremely resourceful as a nation,”

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