So last week I visited a friend in the Capital and saw something which made my heart tick. Apparently this guy who is an artisan is teaching his kids the craft.I’m talking of kids as young as 11 years who can tell the difference amongst nails and various tools. Above all, they know how to use them. And to think I have been homeschooling my kids all along and none of them knows any of my practical hustles.
Imi, by the time I was in Grade 3 I could crotchet full sets of amadoilisi and knit a complete jersey using needles. I would see my mum doing it and I would copy it.She would encourage me and pay me when she sold my stuff. Ko saka ini ndiri kurasika papi? These are lifelong skills that bring food and shelter. Khampe if I pass on who will run the business I run?What about you? Are we doing justice to these kids by giving them everything on a silver platter? Lockdown yese vanhu vari pamacartoon and games?
Let me go deeper!My paternal grandfather worked for a certain Greek operating a grinding mill. My dad and his siblings were sent to good boarding schools and during the holidays they would go around drinking beer. Meanwhile,muGreek taught his son Zografos business. When he passed on, Zografos gave my grandfather the grinding mill and went to open a wholesale, supermarket and tyre company, employing my dad as the accountant. On the other hand, my grandfather eventually sold his grinding mill, livestock and land because none of his kids wanted to be a miller or a farmer. Zografos died and his elder son Zografos junior inherited the business. And my dad was still employed there😫😫😫
What am I saying? If you are serious about building an empire, then groom your heirs early. There is no white farmer or miner whose kids didn’t know the A-Z of running the place. Why do these Zim whites speak fluent vernacular? They learnt it while working with the natives in the fields or shafts. You can’t cheat them‼️
The reason why we say our colonizers never taught us how to run the country? They won’t tell us. We should have observed them and copied them. Anyway, it’s all up to us to let our kids queue for jobs in the companies they should have been running.
Sakani khahle
Destiny-ZBIN Byo
