Self reliance is a an integral aspect of the Pan African agenda, which has at its core the attainment of dignity for the African. This must be both at individual, as well as corporately at a collective level as a people. It is the crucible upon whose strength the Pan African agenda is premised.
It is an inescapable reality that without being self reliant a people can not make any valid claim to having any sense of dignity.
It is in this light that the enduring spirit of African diginity keeps rising like a phoenix against all odds.
This quiet strength was witnessed moreso during the COVID crisis.
While a number of global funds were set up to help countries around the world to deal with the crisis, Zimbabwe was among less than a handful of countries in the world and only one of two on the African continent left to struggle alone against the pandemic. This due to imposition of sanctions by the United States of America and it's western allies. The sanctions had the effect of denying the country access to those funds while at the same time restricting the country's ability to access Personal Protective Equipment as well as access to vaccines.
But then this is where, the country changed the narrative and dared to be proactive, and come up with its own Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) Almost over night the entire country was mobilised in a national effort to participate in the fight against COVID 19. Educational institutions roped in under the education mode 5.0 to develop sophisticated equipment such as ventilators using locally available resources.The ministry of education flexed it's intellectual muscle by going into full scale production of sanitizers. A private sector initiative saw the develoemt of the walk through sanitation booth that automatically envelopes the individual inside in a fine mist effectively sanitizing them was developed. Prototypes of the booth were placed at strategically at entrances such as the Rotten row magistrates court complex in Harare.
Classrooms which had been vacated due to the local downs were turned into production facilities for various types of masks among other PPEs. The effort was not just limited to state institutions as womens clubs also joined in the effort helping to produce masks.
The centre piece of the national effort was the setting up in of an oxygen manufacturing plant, by scientists at Verify engineering, a company run wholly owned by the ministry of education. The success of the project which saw industrial gases also being produced meant that Zimbabwe's were sufficiently supplied with hospital oxygen.
On a visit to neighbouring Mozambique his excellency president Emerson Manangagwa was able to make a donation of a thousand tanks of medical oxygen to the government and people of Mozambique.
While the national response was a resounding success resulting in one world's lowest death rates from the pandemic, people were stuck at home unable to go to work, with reports of wide spread job losses in the advanced economies of the world, young graduates rolled up their sleeves and turned to Africa's most abundant resources, land. As their ancestors before them they turned to working the land and as God had promised the first man after banishing him from the garden of Eden, the land yielded it's bouncy. Though people were mostly restricted to their homes they were literally able to live of their land, producing the food they needed to sustain them.
Most went on to producing surplus which they sold to neighbours as well as supplying to retail outlets within their radius. In that way many discovered a new and very satisfying source of income. Examples that quickly come to mind include a young couple in Harare. Both husband and wife had recently graduated from the University of Zimbabwe in different faculties when the pandemic struck. Rather than cry about their misfortune they decided to put the spacious property around their house to good use. Relying on a minimum labour force consisting of only themselves using the minimum of basic implements such as hoes and garden forks. While lockdown coaches were popping up all over social media, with videos showing people the best ways to beat the blues of being stuck at home during the COVID inspired lockdown period, the young couple were putting the same time to productive use. They were not only able to sustain themselves but they also created a sustainable low start up income stream.Once again proving that with the right mindset and attitude it is possible to produce amazing results, even under the most trying circumstances. They proved that it is not always necessary to start with a huge investment in order to engage in entrepreneurship. A true measure of a sustainable enterprise is one that can be started with a minimum of investment. Such an enterprise is more likely to be an ideal candidate for funding from a bank or other financial institutions. Even scripture has something in line with that train of reasoning, in the parable of the faithful servant where a rich man travelled to a distant land after having entrusted a talent to each of his servants. Upon his return he discovered that two of the servants had invested the coins they were given and earned profit, while the third servant buried his talent to the chagrin of his master leading to the famous quote, "how can you be trusted with much of you can not be faithful with a little",, It is also in line with the adage that says, 'start small and finish strong'.
While the true spirit of entrepreneurship was first captured in over a thousand years ago in Bible scripture, it remains just as relevant in this day as it was back then. Entrepreneurship is there an inalienable cog of the self sufficiency that is advocated for under the pan African agenda. The master may have left but he left Africa with more than enough talents to engage to sustain ourselves with beginning with the land itself on which we live, before we even look for resourcestobdug up the mineral wealth below that same land.