By Simbarashe Namusi
Every nation has something that binds its people.
South Africa rallies around Mandela’s legacy. Brazil has football. America has its flag.
What about us?
Is it the Trabablas interchange, that gleaming flyover photographed as proof we can still build?
Or Victoria Falls, a global wonder more often marketed to tourists than celebrated by its own citizens?
Could it be music — Winky D’s defiance, Jah Prayzah’s crossover reach — or are we left clutching slogans that fade as quickly as they are coined?
The truth is, Zimbabwe has no clear rallying point. Every potential symbol gets swallowed by politics.
An artist is labelled.
A landmark becomes propaganda. Even sport, which once gave us moments of shared pride, now buckles under mismanagement and neglect.
So we default to survival. Endurance itself has become our national bond — the unspoken knowledge that we keep going despite it all. But is that enough to inspire?
What we desperately need is a unifier untouched by politics: perhaps our arts, our youth culture, or even a collective vision of rebuilding the economy. Something bigger than slogans, stronger than propaganda, and broad enough to belong to everyone.
Until then, our rallying points will remain scattered — a hit song here, a viral meme there, a fleeting sports victory.
The real miracle will be the day Zimbabwe gathers around one symbol, one dream, that no one can capture or divide.
