I just want to encourage diaspora parents out there who are having problems with their kids and are thinking of sending them back home to Zimbabwe...
It was 2003, when I was in primary school. I was in grade 5 then . A kid who had cornrows started the year at our school . He started in grade 6. The headmaster was the first black headmaster at our school since colonial days. It was a former group A school. Let's call this guy Dave. Dave couldn't even speak Shona, and the headmaster instructed him to get a haircut. He did begrudgingly. He joined our rugby team, and he was pretty aggressive.
With time, he started to open up with everyone. The story was that he was sent back to Zim because his older brother joined a gang, and he was on the same path.Both his parents were in the UK, and they had emigrated in the 80s. The next year we went on a school trip to Victoria Falls and that is when I got to know him. He was a cool guy. His Shona got better, and he was fluent now. He was telling me about London and where he lived . After finishing his grade 7 ,he went to one of the best private schools in Zimbabwe. So his older sister had moved back with him and was renting somewhere in Harare, and he would go to H for exist weekends.
Fast forward to 08,he got expelled from the school, and the parents were disappointed and distraught. He was doing well, and now he was selling pills to white kids, lol. He had to fix up his life. Dave knew he had made one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He knew he had to change for good. A few weeks later, he enrolled in a good college in Harare as a day scholar, and he passed his O levels. And 2 years later, he passed his As too.
Dave's parents were thrilled with his progress. They bought him a ticket and he flew home to London. A year later, he went to university to study agriculture and later started his business in the same field. Last year , he came back to Zimbabwe, and he wanted to see me . I have kept in touch with him ever since. He even featured on a BBC programme on black farmers in the UK. I'm proud of him.
To make my long story short,yes, you can send your kids back to Zimbabwe, especially if you have a good support structure like your parents,siblings, and other relatives. It will be a culture shock at first, but it might work out. I know some of our Zimbos are having a hard time with rowdy kids who need guidance .When I leave Zimbabwe again and settle abroad,my dream is for my kids to spend a year or too and for them to learn Ndau ,Shona etc . Their culture and who they are . It's probably primary, like from grade 4 to grade 6 . They can live with my mother and they can come home for holidays. I can take them to see my relatives, my kanyi(kumusha) and a lot of places. Have a good Saturday maZimba