Traditionalist seeks to impart knowledge on Zim’s norms and values
TRADITIONAL medical practitioner Gwinyai Rutsito yearns to make an impact through teachings on Zimbabwe’s culture, norms and values in Chinyakare Hub Nights.
This Sunday, he will be hosting a teaching dubbed Tsika Nemagariro edu at 15 Alexander Road in Highlands in the capital.
The teachings are courtesy of Nherera Hub, an organisation founded by Norah Chipaumire to support artists including musicians, poets, traditional dancers among others to uplift and market less privileged promising artists, provides a platform for young people to gain knowledge about the country’s norms and values.
Rutsito said nherera was a collective word used by the organisation referring to lack of knowledge, financial challenges and less support faced by people with different talents in their respective communities.
Rutsito is a traditional medical practitioner under the Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association and licensed by the Traditional Medical Council of Zimbabwe.
He noted that the Chinyakare Hub Nights took inspiration from modern day ways of living where respect among people is lacking, family bonds have broken down among other things.
“Child marriages and loss of traditional culture and practices by young people, broken family bonds between children and their parents prompted the birth of Chinyakare Hub Nights where young people meet for discussions on our values and norms as Zimbabweans with an objective to trace the root cause of these problems and finding solutions to them,” he said.
Rutsito said young people no longer have respect for elders. He, however, refused to blame young people saying the problem could emanate from the fact that some do not know their bloodlines or totems.
He also noted that disrespect was not only limited to young people as respect among old people was lacking as well.
"We had encounters of people of the same totem or cousins marrying each other because they did not have an opportunity to know each other or meet as family," Rutsito said.
He added that when a sense of belonging and identity is lost among people, there will be disagreements, hatred without a cause and loss of blood. He yearns for oneness among people, love and understanding that surpass all evil and embracing norms and values.
"When we encourage people to go back to their roots and practices, we do not mean to tell people that they should go back to the century of wearing animal skins (nhembe) but we want to remind people to bring back community spirit and humanity,” he noted.
Rutsito said people have become scared of responsibilities to the extent of dumping pregnant women or committing suicide because they do not value love and life anymore.
“It is our responsibility as the elderly to trace why it was not happening in the past and find solutions to eradicate these problems by encouraging people to use their talents to survive and build a better nation improving the image of our country." he said.
He noted that people lackedknowledge to the extent of classifying those practising tradition as evil.