Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in Zimbabwe. Today our nation is celebrating freedom from the colonialists and our victory in the long war for freedom. I had wanted to go hear the President make his address at the stadium (I thought it would be interesting), but I was advised by several people that this would be very dangerous for me. I am white, and therefore I am a colonialist. This is not my day. Today I am the enemy. (P.S. Not everyone believes this, but it's just what's preached in the state media!)

Identity politics fascinate me. Something that I am curious about is which facet of our identity trumps other at the end of the day. What’s the bottom line to who we are? Our race? Religion? Gender? Totem/family? Nationality? Language? Humanity? Miroslav Volf says that “In situations of conflict, a group identity can become a terminal identity, subsuming under it and integrating a whole range of other identities.” Of course we know that we all have various components of who we are, and that leaders manipulate our sense of identity for their own purposes (especially in situations of conflict). In situations of conflict, one aspect of our identities seems to become far more important than others. All of a sudden, our nationality, or the colour of our skin, or our ethnicity becomes more important than anything else about us. (Trust me, when you’re in a minority group and your country is somewhat unstable, you start to think about these things!)

I believe that at the end of the day, we are all human beings, and that that common humanity binds us together with our many differences. Maybe it’s due to my religion (and belief that all human beings are children of God) or due to my idealism (that does get wounded as the years go on, but which I still maintain). I do understand the harm in blindly saying “we’re all part of the human race; differences don’t matter” because that kind of statement tends to ignore inequalities and injustices that have happened in the past and continue to happen now. But, I do believe that we are all part of the multi-cultural, multi-coloured, multi-faithed, multi-personalitied human race. That doesn’t mean that we should all somehow become the same or assimilated. It means we have to have love and respect for one another even though we continue to be different.

P.S. “Exclusion & Embrace” by Miroslav Volf is one of the best, most intelligent and interesting books I’ve ever read. Totally recommend it.