Thank you, ngiyabonga, ndinotenda!

I have been meaning to write this for the longest time but due to one reason or another - ZESA, work, laziness and so forth, I haven`t been able to and kept on postponing and postponing and postponing and postponing until I finally decided to face my demons head on and sat down with my computer to type this.

I so much want to give myself all the great for soldiering on for years until I attained my degree but when I look back, I realize that in this country and in my case in particular, it indeed takes a whole village to raise a child.

I have already wrote a bit about some of the challenges I faced during my college years and will most likely give a detailed account about them in future but I don`t want to talk about that today, today I just want to thank, where possible, by name, everyone who has made my academic journey, even though long, meandering and difficult, a fairly successful, thus far.

This piece is particularly important for me because I was offered an opportunity to do just that at a recent family function but couldn’t as emotions got the better of me.

I however like the emotional part of this journey for many reasons.

The thing is, by the time I finished my undergraduate studies, everything had all but changed. I had long joined the hustling streets and had gotten comfortable with things that are very far away from my field study so much that even today, a couple months after graduation, I am yet to hop back into my field of study (though I plan to in a couple of months). 

The long and short of it is that, thanks to people like Zacharariah Mashawetu, Namatai Kwekweza, Youngerson Matete, among many others, graduating from college didn’t have as much of an impact as I had originally thought that it would have when I started.

As a result, I tend to take the achievement very very lightly.

And, this is where the emotional side of me come in handy. It reminds me of why I started and I persisted all those long years and of course why I have to thank everyone who lent a hand along the way.

It will be understandable to many for me to focus on my college years or more logical to others for me to start from the start, back in kindergarten. For me though, the journey kicked off proper proper around 2011 when I was in sixth grade.

I obviously have to thank my grandparents who were my guardians at the time. Special thanks goes to especially my grandma (may her soul in peace). She was relentless and ever supportive throughout my stay with her. I remember some time around 2010 when she used to set an alarm for 2am just so that she could wake me up to study. She also never cared how much candles or lamp oil I burnt in a single night. Gogo, thank you so so much!

Then, there`s this friend whose close association not only brought me joy but also made a better person and a better student; thank you Panashe.

Here`s also to another friend who stayed with me in the after hours of school, motivated and challenged me to keep studying during the last of my days at Epworth High School. Thank you dear friend, Lynnscent. I hope you will keep thriving for the very best in everything.

I really have to thank my aunt who took me in and cared for me during my A’ levels and only God knows how things could have turned out to be if hadn’t been that generous. Thank you so so much Tete for caring for me.

Here`s also to another aunt whom I could always turn to when the going got tough. On my memorable 21st birthday, she gave me a laptop that I have just used to polish the final version of this thank you note, a laptop that was quite handy during all my time in college and even during the first few months of work before I bought mine. At one time, in my third when I almost dropped out again, she even borrowed me money and I sailed through. When I culdn`t secure internship, she also stepped in. Thank you Tete.

College could not have been possible if it were not to an uncle who went out of his way to make sure that I kick start my college education. Not only did this guy pay for my first semester fees, he also furnished me with a laptop that made my first semester a little bit bearable. Thank you, dad.

Here`s to another uncle who lent me a hand always, provided funds, bought me a work suit and provided countless other things when I needed them, thank you too, dad.

Here`s to an uncle who offered me employment when I needed it the most. Thank you too, dad

Here`s to a then stranger who became a mentor, Todd. Your deeds are plenty, small and big, material and immaterial. Thank you loads.

Here`s to a then stranger who stepped up to pay a whole semester tuition fees when I was about to drop out again. Thank you Ntando.

Here`s to my first year lecturer and mentor who encouraged to come back to school after dropping out. Thank you Mr. Madzo.

Here`s to a couple of college friends who made the successful end possible. Kat Mosety, Malvin Nyagadza, Chiedza Mapfumo, Munashe B. Sunhwa, Kelvin, Max, Merline the roommate, Part one bestie, Mr. Douglas Remhunga, Jimmy Machisi, one of the best roommates I ever had, Give, Hynne, project, study and assignments group mates Collen Gama, Amanda (MHSRIP), Evans Maseko, Josephine Ganganwa, Tapiwa Sithole, Oscar Munashe Kazembe, Kudzaiishe Mandizha, Pretty Mthunzi, President Barnette, and so many of you that I can`t name here.

I am a little bit ashamed though because despite cracking and cracking my big head for a couple of days now, I still can`t remember the name of the guy who let me squat in his room during that very difficult first semester in college. Friend, thank you!

Here`s to my bosses at Edgars whose offer of employment gave me a another shot at the knowledge cap. Mr Bwezani and Mr. Kadya, thank you.

Mr Dirikwe and Mr Paundi, for encouraging me to take the risk of quitting a job and going to school, thank you.

Here`s to my dissertation supervisor, Mrs Fungura, thank you.

Here`s to a stranger who became a close friend and then a stranger again during the last couple of years. Thank you, love.

The pandemic brought me a lot of sorrow and hardships but it also brought me a friend, a very close and very sweet friend who has been ever supportive of everything I do especially the academics. Thank you, sweetheart!

Dad, thank you for everything.

To my mom, who I doubt that she really understood what I was trying to do with my life during the last five or so years but still went to the ends of the earth to make sure that my dreams come true. Thank you, thank you, a million times mom.

Thank you to the various other people – family, friends, strangers, - that I haven’t mentioned here but still played key roles in this journey, I just want to say thank you.

Failing is not easy.

By Prince Gora

How do I begin? Well, perhaps I should start with a confession.

I wrote the first draft of this piece a few months ago and told myself that I wouldn`t publish it unless I had passed my then upcoming exam (the one I once wrote about in a blog piece titled “Hustling your way to graduation: The ups and downs”). I wanted to capture my emotions and feelings at that point in time but also didn`t want to publicize a potential failure.

See https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2022041110532683

In the lead up to this exam, I was extremely anxious almost every day and had to take a one week sabbatical just before the exam.

One evening, some six days before the exam, while on a call with my girlfriend (yeah, she exists), I confided in her that I was afraid of this exam more than I had ever been afraid of any other in my life and couldn’t understand why. I used to study and go on to pass up to 10 modules in two weeks or so but suddenly, I found six days to be a pretty short time for me to grasp everything despite the fact that this time I was exclusively studying for 1 module; just 1. That is the day I drafted this piece.

“Don`t worry hun, you will be alright. You are simply afraid because this was the first time that you failed like this.”

Her response got me thinking. It suddenly dawned on me that my academic success (though relatively modest) was based on simply getting things right the first time. Failing a subject in primary school is almost an impossible task and in high school I literally never went below the 50 percent mark and managed to get pass marks in all my 10 subjects at O’ level and 4 subjects at A’ Level (not all straight As though).

In college things quickly changed. After some coursework mark mishaps, I did fail a course at the end of my first year. It was heartbreaking but not catastrophic as I proceeded to the next level. I worked on the coursework and got it all done with in the second year albeit at the expense of two more courses.

Foolishly, I waited or should I say gambled to address these at the very death and I lived to regret it. I put in some hard work in what was supposed to be my final semester at university and nearly got away with it except for this one course which I had failed back in my second year.

For the first time in my academic life, I had worked hard for something and still walked away empty handed. When I opened the results portal, I was devastated and only kept going by listening exclusively to Winky D’s Njema, Gafa Futi and Gafa Life: Kicks tape albums.

I lived with my failure in the hope of getting things right on the third time. As the chance to redeem myself came close though, instead of hope, I was restless and in despair. The thought of failing on a third try was a tough pill to swallow. I cannot help but wonder what would have happened if I had failed. This would have destroyed me, in every way imaginable.

After failing, they tell you to get up and try again but hear it from me; it`s easier said than done. You know you have to believe in you but sometimes it just seems to be too high a price to pay.

The Mavericks FES Story - Class of 2019

Beginning with the application process itself, to the interviews and finally the modules, the film nights, the panel discussions, the tea break and lunch hour side talks, the debates and even the whatsapp conversations, the FES journey is a challenging, learning, fun and of cause a "maverick" experience!

Indeed, long before we knew each other's names or could agree on anything else, bound by what we were experiencing, we easily agreed on the name of the group.

The diverse group comprising of Miles Moyo (Kindly insert preferred description ), Choose Kasongo (), Prince Gora (), Namatai Kwekweza (), Tafadzwa Makara (), Kunashe Joseph Ndondo and Linda Masudze () was to be called the Mavericks!

Throughout the 3 blocks, all the modules were intriguing, eye opening, thought provocative and informative. As can be expected though, a few modules and moments literally took our breath away and we will mostly touch on these here.

During the first block there was the Priviledged walk, The Marikana documentary and the site visit to Acturus mine. From these activities we learnt to be humble and grateful, and came to the understanding that even though we have contributed significantly towards the position  where we find ourselves in right now, we can't ignore the other circumstances that existed in our past or still do today nor can we ignore the impact of privileges we have had or haven't had in our lives.
It taught us how to be radical and how to live to fight for another day.

The module on constitutionalism was also a special one together with its accompanying documentary, "The Democrats". It was interesting and mind blogging to find out how the constitution was written, what's hidden in it,how it compares to the yesteryear documents like the "ordinance in Council" and most importantly, it's strengths and weaknesses and how it is being manipulated or completely ignored inorder to peruse certain agendas.

Closely linked to constitutionalisn was the gallery walk. Walking down the memory lane and looking once more at the periods and events that changed the course of the country forever was special and touching. We realised how it was easy to disappear from history. We were particularly challenged by the lack of women at the most defining moments of our beloved motherland and as the Mavericks, we resolved to support and work together with the girl child so that they can make a greater contribution in building the country.
   
The interactions with politicians, panel discussions and debates were quite informative and educative. Looking at topics like the women's quota, the dialogue issue got us thinking deeply about equality and the future of Zimbabwe. 

Most inspirational of all was helping or working with fellow YLTP members to help the community and seeing classmates climb up the ladder of success. After just the first block,  the Sanitary Aid Zimbabwe founder, Theresa Farai Nyava (Sanitary Bae ) collaborated with Prince Gora to donate pads and teach high school girls about menstrual hygiene in his Epworth neighborhood. At the end of the second block, we donated money which was used to buy pads which were donated. All we can say is that there is joy in giving!

The FES exposure was maverick, we look forward to joining the alumni and to learning and going up the leadership ladder.

Maybe not all pictures are worthy a thousand words but this one is.

The powers that be may not be very happy that from a full day training workshop, my biggest take-home is not something that I learnt in the workshop but rather some memories from a little over a decade ago. 

 Really, I couldn`t help it. I mean, how would you react if from across the hall, 10 minutes into a training workshop, you heard the voice of a friend you haven`t met in years?

That`s the mammoth task I had to deal with yesterday morning and it made me feel like I was 10 years old all over again. I was just an average primary school pupil backin 2007 when perhaps the most significant event of my childhood occurred. 

The divorce of my parents was the first time that I decided to take the driving seat towards my destiny. But I couldn`t have done it all without this man here, Panashe Kandemwa. 

He was one of the best students in the class and my close association with him took me from the back end of the top ten to the front end of it in less than a year.

From 2007 to 2010 (the years that laid the foundation for whatever I am today), we were literally inseparable and did a lot together. We sat next to each other in class at Ringa Primary and Secondary schools, walked to and from school together, played “chikweshe” and football for the school soccer team together, herded cattle together, and did almost everything else together. 

We even had our first attempts (and limited success) at girls together. 

The only exception was perhaps on the closing days of the second and third school terms. We both wanted to be numero uno but one of us had to settle for second at the end of each term. 

I had forgotten all these beautiful memories from a time that I wasn`t sure that I would pass my ordinary levels and didn`t dream of attending university one day. 

It`s a pity that we never had any pictures of us taken together back then but I am happy we have one now. 

Here is to Panashe, one of the best friends I have ever had.

Blended learning is the future.

Blended learning, a combination of classroom training and e-learning may bridge the gap between the present and the future of education

Prince Gora

When the national lockdown came into effect at the end of March 2020, we all thought that it was a matter of weeks before we returned to campus again. But, it didn't turn out that way as COVID-19 cases and deaths spiked and the lockdown kept on being extended. It soon became apparent that institutions had to adjust and adapt to the new normal so, everyone hastily moved online. The shift to emergency remote teaching and learning has been a crash course for many universities and colleges, and many have achieved things previously thought impossible. 

Though it allowed for progress, online learning soon proved to have many shortcomings of its own. In our case, not only did we find ourselves lacking the necessary technology, infrastructure and electronic gadgets, we also faced challenges with basics like network accessibility and electricity. Mobile data and Wi-Fi proved to be too expensive while practical disciplines like engineering and medicine saw little to no progress at all.

With the advent of the vaccine, it is therefore not surprising to hear people insinuating that we should go back to how things were before the COVID-19 pandemic came. The argument is understandable but, I believe that going back to the status quo is folly. 

While digital learning has shown that it cannot completely replace face to face teaching, it’s difficult to find an area of higher education where digital teaching and learning has no role to play at all. What we need to do now is to take advantage of the best of both worlds and embrace what is called blended learning - a style of education in which students learn via electronic and online media as well as traditional face-to-face teaching. When blended learning is done well, digital and in-person delivery can enhance each other.  

A blended learning model is undoubtedly a great way to augment the learner’s experience, but its advantages go beyond that. Academic research suggests that blended learning gives learners a more comprehensive understanding of course content as it offers the learner convenience and flexibility; it broadens the learner experience by supporting anytime, anywhere learning, and reshapes the role of the instructor. Essentially, through blended learning, online and instructor-led training is complementary and creates an integrated learning environment. Blended learning also reduces face-to-face training costs, such as travel, accommodation, and printed teaching materials. 

Another reason for not reducing schooling to interaction with a computer (even if it were possible) is that doing so limits the opportunity to learn important human skills and attributes like kindness, humility, sharing, support, etc. We humans are social and develop by interaction with each other in the material, corporeal world. Real-world interaction is enjoyable and pleasurable, as well as being developmental. Human children learn to be intelligent, empathic, and considerate through interaction with adults and peers. Thus, interaction within the family and beyond is essential for humanity as we know it.

While allowing learning to continue, blended learning will enable institutions to gradually move away from traditional face to face teaching to more sophisticated online methods. This gradual adaptation will also allow the government and institutions to ensure that all students can fully access the benefits of digital teaching and learning. 

The most significant barrier to online learning has been digital poverty. For every student to be ready and able to learn digitally, they should be provided with an appropriate device; good connectivity; reliable back-up when things go wrong; relevant software; a trained teacher; and space in which to work in. While the government, institutions, NGOs and well-wishers try to make that a reality, we need to embrace blended learning.

First published on March 31st, 2021 in The SAFRAP Newsletter Volume 2: Issue 2 of March 2021 titled Education Reloaded.

WWMD - What Would Mako Do?

 Written by Descent Collins Bajila and edited by Prince Gora.

Just a few hours after Makomborero Haruzivishe was arrested on February 18th, Thandekile Moyo asked a pertinent question. She tagged a few friends on Twitter and posted, “Dearest comrades, I only have one question for you, for us. WWMD? Were it you in prison right now, WHAT WOULD MAKO DO?

The question provoked a lot of people who pestered her for answers and the way forward until she was compelled to post again, “Friends have been messaging me since yesterday. What needs to be done? What can we do? Good people, we all know what needs to be done. We all know what Makomborero has done for us. We all know that the hashtag won`t work. This is the hour of reckoning!”

I have tried to meditate on the question and I feel very challenged. For nearly 8 months, Mako has known that his day with the police is coming. He knew that it was not a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when’ they would pounce on him. At one time I met him with Youngerson Matete and Takudzwa Ngadziore and sensed that he was conscious of the fact that he could be arrested any minute from then but still he would not shy away from the duty of perfecting the revolutionary mentoring of his successors in the student movement. 

He knew that he could be arrested if he attended comrades' court appearances but still proceeded to do that on countless occasions. He knew that he could be arrested if he appeared at funerals and bereavements of comrades, but still he travelled to mourn and give solidarity to the Dinar family in Gutu, the Dzamara family in Mutoko, the Siziba family in Bulawayo and that is to mention but a few of is selfless such sacrifices.

The imminence of his arrest never stopped him from giving solidarity to comrades in need. It didn`t stop him from travelling to Masvingo with others to build the Youth Assembly. It didn`t stop him from attending the national council in Bulawayo or from attending countless other party functions. The struggle is his life.

Friends and comrades alike have at one time or another urged Mako to lay low, to tone down his activism. He has given the same reply always, “How do I lay low when Muchehiwa is battling for his life and Taku is in jail? You can`t ask that of me!” When people told Mako to go underground, maybe even flee to South Africa or beyond, he called Thandekile and said, “Mamo, people don`t understand. When Itai disappeared, his mum asked me kuti aripi mumwe wako? She asked me the same when Patson was abducted. Now they are both gone. I owe it to them to keep fighting!”

Comrades, I appeal to all of you, all of us to think of what Mako would do if we were arrested. Would he be in Harare and skip your court appearance? Would he just design a hashtag about your freedom and make you famous? Would he just change his social media profile picture to yours and then continue with his life? Or would he start an analysis of why you did the things that led to your arrest? 

What would Mako do?

Surviving as an outsider.

 Part 1

By Prince Gora

Like it or not, at some point you have felt like an outsider. There are a couple of times that you feel awkward and embarrassed because you just don't seem to fit where you are. Yet, most of the time, that place – the one that has made you feel out of place – is exactly the place you should be at. You want to be there and you know that you must be there. How do you deal with it? How do you as survive as an outsider?

For most of my relatively short existence on Mother Earth, I’ve had to live as an outsider. My intelligence, or lack of, ambitions and aspirations have ensured that many a time, willingly or unwillingly, I have found myself in a place or a position where I am an outsider – a place where I want to be but I still feel out of place. By my own judgements (biased of course), I believe that I have largely been able to consistently overcome the outsider tag. However, I have seen many friends and colleagues fall on the wayside, which is why I would like to share part of my outsider experience and how I have coped.

From what I can remember, I didn’t have a stable childhood. It seems that there was almost always some kind of tension in my parents` marriage since perhaps the time I started elementary school. Whether because of that or due to the fact that I was constantly moving from one place to another (changing schools in the process) or something else, my early years at school were not great, but they weren`t bad either – I was just an average student in literally everything.

A taste of stability would only come when I was eleven, around 2007. I had been moved to my grandparents’ rural home at the beginning of the year when in August, my parents` not so great union came to an unceremonious end. I had dreaded the coming of such a day for a long time and when it came, I cried tears of hopelessness and despair. I had heard too many stories of the life of orphans (which at the time I considered myself equivalent to) and the cruelty of stepmothers and stepfathers. Luckily for me though, that fate would elude me until I was much older; at eleven, I had the privilege of living with my loving grandparents.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have cried then because that day my soul gained something - a relentless fighting spirit and self-belief. Not only did I cry that day, I also asked myself questions that were not of my age - questions about life. Who will I become? I had no clear dream nor plan then but I figured out that whatever it is I would become; I would have to do it myself and, with help from a few guardian angels, that is exactly what I have done.

Since that day, I started to stand out and be counted. I became an accomplished athlete, became more involved in club activities but most importantly, my academic performance steadily took off.

It was at school that I first tasted the feeling of being an outsider. Hitherto, I had been very content with being an average student who just listened in class, grasped the little that I could and moved on with life – never revising notes, never reading further and almost always doing homework at the last minute or at the insistence of a parent. I was content with being on the tail end of the top 10 of the class. But the moment I started asking myself questions about life, I figured out that school would come in handy at some point so suddenly I wasn’t content with being number 9 or 10 anymore, I wanted to be among the best in class. 

But to leapfrog to the other end of the top 10, I had to make some sacrifices. Not only did I have to work harder, I also had to change my circle of friends (maybe that wasn’t necessary but I thought it was and I made the change). On paper, this is pretty easy and straightforward but in reality it wasn’t. To begin with, the guys who belonged to the top 5 of the class didn`t want to be friends with me. I simply wasn’t very valuable to them – I was now working as hard as them, yes, but I scarcely knew anything they didn`t and grasped concepts and solved problems at a far slower pace than they did. But still I wasn`t disheartened, I kept my eyes on the ball because I knew that in a place where even the teacher hardly had a copy of the textbook of every subject, I had to stick around the guys with the knowledge. I didn`t know the phrase then but I somehow understood that only ‘iron sharpens iron.’

My grade seven results (of the chaotic 2008 academic year) didn`t come back great. I only managed a lowly 18 units but I felt pretty good about myself. Not only was this the third highest in class (first had 15, second 17), but I had managed it all by myself because we had had no teacher for the majority of that year. In my class at least, I had been a success because in three school terms, I had moved from ninth to sixth and then to third and by the time these results came out, I was in my second term of secondary school at the end of which, I would – for the first time – emerge at the top of my class.

As with all past achievements, this doesn`t mean much now, it`s no longer so thrilling. But it instilled something in me, it taught me that I could make it even as an outsider as long as I kept the focus and the self-belief. 

When I transferred to Epworth High School for my Ordinary Levels, I was put in the third class even though my results from the previous year were good. Apparently they didn’t consider the rural school I was coming from capable of measuring my true potential. Within a few weeks however, I had to change classes. My school work, which was not yet suffering from student activism and other adult distractions it now suffers from, was too good to ignore. Coincidentally, the school was also just starting a trial run of sciences subjects with its top students and after 3 months, the results hadn`t been great.

I suspect that it was precisely because of these reasons that my then history teacher and class teacher of the sciences class, Mrs. Chipoyi, approached me with an offer to transfer to her class just after break one Thursday. She had consulted with her colleagues, particularly the guys who taught Physics, Chemistry and Biology and had agreed that, if I was up to the challenge, I could make the leap. Beaming in confidence and self-belief and treating every subject with the same weight (unfortunately or fortunately, I have carried the same spirit to university), I embraced the challenge.

I will never forget the disbelief I saw on the faces of my new classmates when I joined their class at 3pm - after my athletics practice - that afternoon. One of the girls actually openly asked the teacher if I was seriously hoping to catch up with all they had learnt in three months. Almost all of these guys had been far better students than me in primary school (I had attended classes with several in the many primary schools I went to) and didn`t want to take me in their circle. 

Well, I didn`t quit my athletics but kept running the 1500m race until I bowed out at provincial level that year and the next. Yet, I went on to become the best student of the school the following year and even had the privilege of heading the prefects body.  I would become one of the two students to pass Physics and Chemistry from that class and the only one to pursue sciences beyond ordinary level.

Once again, I had survived the outsider tag and I would go on to do the same over and over again beginning with my advanced levels.

Part 2 coming soon.