Give 200 orphans in Zimbabwe access to education

Hello,

We recently received the following story from our project staff in Bulawayo. This moving tale demonstrates the cultural difficulties which children often face in their attempts to access education, and why it is vital that we continue to fund this project so that every child has the chance to enrol in school and build a brighter future for themselves.

Thank you once again for your continued support.

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FAILED BY CULTURE - A report by Mr P Mpofu

Elinate and her younger brother Prince will never go to school for the rest of their lives if their uncle Elisha Khumalo does not change his mind regarding to the way he views them. They will only spend their lives looking as other children go to school and wishing they were born from a different setting .Elinate was born on the 23^rd of March 2000, while her younger brother was born five years later on the 7^th of December, their mother is Sakhile Khumalo. Up to date these two kids have never had a taste as to what it is like to be in school because they do not have birth certificates and school heads are refusing to enrol them as per the law of Zimbabwe which states that one should have a birth certificate so that she /he can be enrolled in a particular school.  

These kids mentioned above will live to witness their future dreams being shattered because without birth certificates they cannot be able to even do dirty jobs or to even register their children when they go up, yet their uncle is still firm on his decision of denying them the right to be registered. The story of Elinate and Prince is shared by many Zimbabwean children who are denied the right to birth registration because of socio cultural factors as is the case with Elinate and Prince. Elinate and Prince were born out of wedlock which is somehow a taboo in the African context. To make matters worse their parents were cohabiting which resulted in non payment of lobola which is a great of cultural symbol that which has to be respected and cherished by everyone.

A man has to pay lobola in order for him to be viewed as a son in law which was not the case with Taurai (Prince and Elinate‘s father),who did not bother to go for lobola negotiations and hence he never paid lobola(bride price) to the Khumalo clan. This negatively affected his children and also   became a bone of contention between Taurai and the Khumalo family resulting in serious enmity between the two parties. Culturally Lobola is believed to appease spirits and make them happy such that they bless a marriage and create everlasting good relations between the dead and living members of the families involved in Lobola negotiations. Elinate and Prince were then regarded as outcasts and illegitimate children and to make matters worse their mother and father separated after six years which resulted in Sakhile returning to her parents place because she had nowhere else to stay due to lack of finances, which created more tensions between her and her brothers because culture looks down upon a woman who leaves her marriage and goes back to her parents place. Sakhile did not at first register her children because she wanted them to use their father’s surname as per tradition  where by the society identifies one by his surname or totem which instils self fear to women who would have been left by their husbands to register their children out of fear of being looked down by the society.

More over culturally one has to use his or her paternal surname and failure to do that may result in ancestors being angered thereby bringing bad luck and even mental illness as per cultural belief to the individual not using his /her original surname. This cultural belief refrained Sakhile from registering her children using her surname before going back to her parents place out of fear of the unknown as she did not want her children to be subjected to the above misfortunes. Thus Prince and Elinate remained unregistered even though their mother would have been able to register them alone as a single parent. By the time Sakhile got rid of the fear of the unknown when her children were being exempted from school, she then decided to register her children using her surname of which her elder brother threatened to chase her and her children if ever they attempt to use the Khumalo surname which is associated with royalty and honour because it traces back to King Mzilikazi, the founder of the Ndebele kingdom. To Sakhile’s brother, the children are not part of the family because their father did not pay bride price and worse still is from a different tribe. There is nothing that other family members can say or do because he (the brother) is the first born and his father is late and as per custom he is now regarded as the head of the family and whatever he says should be respected because he is the family spokesperson.

This socio cultural issue has hindered Elinate and Prince from attaining their rights to identity and education. These children spend the entire day selling vegetables by the street corners and if nothing is done, they will spend their entire lives selling vegetables so that they can get money to help their mother in their upkeep. This story is one of the many stories in Zimbabwe which prove how culture as a way of life and other societal issues hinder birth registration. If only these children were registered perhaps their future could be different as they would be at school. This shows how Lobola, family beliefs, history and the society at large negatively affect birth registration because it explains why a large number of children in the country are not at school and do not have birth certificates. This is even made worse by the fact that most people, and the society in general, view birth registration as an alien thing which has nothing to do with their way of life because of the lack of knowledge regarding to the importance of birth certificates. The best way forward to change these conceptions is to engage the community in interactive dialogue and reach out to different segments of the population through door to door visitations so as to change the people’s current view on birth registration.