On July 28 1999, I was 14 years old and just 18 days after my birthday when I heard the news that was to keep me disturbed for a long time and had me start to ask a lot of questions about ambition. Two boys, one of the same age as me and the other one a year older, had frozen to death on a Sabena Airlines Airbus A330 flying from Conakry in Guinea to Brussel in Belgium. Their mission, if they survived, was to find for themselves a better quality of life in Europe but they also knew that being stowaways under the right-hand wheel bay of the Brussels headed plane could be the last journey they ever took and so it was. Below is the English translation of the letter discovered in their bag, originally written in imperfect French and copied as is from Wikipedia;
Excellencies, Messrs. members and officials of Europe, We have the honorable pleasure and the great confidence in you to write this letter to speak to you about the objective of our journey and the suffering of us, the children and young people of Africa. But first of all, we present to you life's most delicious, charming and respected greetings. To this effect, be our support and our assistance. You are for us, in Africa, those to whom it is necessary to request relief. We implore you, for the love of your continent, for the feeling that you have towards your people and especially for the affinity and love that you have for your children whom you love for a lifetime. Furthermore, for the love and meekness of our creator God the omnipotent one who gave you all the good experiences, wealth and ability to well construct and well organize your continent to become the most beautiful one and most admirable among the others.Messrs. members and officials of Europe, we call out for your solidarity and your kindness for the relief of Africa. Do help us, we suffer enormously in Africa, we have problems and some shortcomings regarding the rights of the child.In terms of problems, we have war, disease, malnutrition, etc. As for the rights of the child in Africa, and especially in Guinea, we have too many schools but a great lack of education and training. Only in the private schools can one have a good education and good training, but it takes a great sum of money. Now, our parents are poor and it is necessary for them to feed us. Furthermore, we have no sports schools where we could practice soccer, basketball or tennis. This is the reason, we, African children and youth, ask you to create a big efficient organization for Africa to allow us to progress. Therefore, if you see that we have sacrificed ourselves and risked our lives, this is because we suffer too much in Africa and that we need you to fight against poverty and to put an end to the war in Africa. Nevertheless, we want to learn, and we ask you to help us in Africa learn to be like you.
Finally, we appeal to you to excuse us very, very much for daring to write this letter to you, the great personages to whom we owe much respect. And do not forget it is to you whom we must lament about the weakness of our abilities in Africa. Written by two Guinean children, Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara.
Source: Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara, Wikipedia
Hello Steemians, my name is Tafadzwa DuToit Nyamande and I'm from Zimbabwe, a country once regarded as the breadbasket of Africa also reputed to have one of the most basically educated population in Africa. As I grew up, the world from my perspective was divided into two, the one that I saw daily being lived by fellow black people and then the other on TV. Through TV, I observed how other people can live in more beautiful houses than ours, drive cars that I don't see around me, have meals with tables full of all kinds of foods and basically seeming to be from a dream world. My parents told me that if I read books and do well at school, I will escape to a land such as those I saw on TV, America and England topping the list. There are many such as me, and the late two boys I mentioned above, who believed that Western countries represented the epitome of success in this world and that without them, we could suffer beyond imagination. Today, I want nothing more than contributing towards positve change in my country and not to permanently reside anywhere else even though I can visit for periods to network and learn if need be.
With the time of cause, reality dawned on me that no such perfect world exists and that poverty and scarcity are everywhere in the world at different degrees. I began to appreciate how interconnected we are despite geographic location on earth and that all the great countries were built by men through sheer willpower, care for others, self-interest and most importantly knowledge. Consequently, I then gave myself the task of learning through whatever means I can get, what this knowledge is that makes some people live better than others and I could say a lot but the bottom line lies in willpower and the ability to use our own minds in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.
Now, if the mind has such power to change people's lives for the better, why are many still suffering and why so many never realise this? Knowledge is the key that unlocks the mind to infinite possibilities and knowledge is handed over throughout generations and improved upon through willpower, care for others, material gain and self-interest. For the same reasons that knowledge is propounded, it is also deliberately withheld by those with the power to do so. The birth of the internet dispersed much knowledge to the world and yet the control element continues to be a threat thus blockchain technology to the rescue and this is what led me to Steemit.
I am here because I KNOW that there are people who possess an abundance of knowledge in different fields and willing to do something about it, to change the world for the better. I have a simple life purpose, to help as many people in my country as I can, with practical knowledge that they can apply with minimum resources to sustainably improve the quality of their lives. How though?
Enough research has been done on the historical value of the cannabis plant and it's reputed 25 000 plus uses, countable of whose practical applications are being implemented in several countries at varying degrees. The industry is fast growing and expectations are high as the legalisation domino effect takes effect. The table below breaks down the potential uses, it's worth noting that each of these uses is virtually available for humanity's benefit in all parts of the world since the cannabis plant can grow almost anywhere including arid regions.
This list excludes the flowers, leaves and stems from which a powerful chemical compound called CBD, either on its own or combined with THC works to bring homeostasis to the human body through the recently discovered endocannabinoid system. Today, there is irrefutable scientific evidence of the benefits of cannabis medically and it looks like we are only getting started. In this post, however, I want to focus on those uses which I see as of an urgent need for Zimbabwe's situation and other developing nations in Africa.
Zimbabwe attained independence from British colonial rule in 1980, reaching the height of economic prosperity in the early 90s then spiralling downwards in a wave of downturns owing to radical economic policies amongst many other causes as typical of African nations. Currently, this reputed peaceful country opened up for business by relaxing previous restrictive laws for foreign investment and introducing legislation that's in line with global trends such as the legalisation of cannabis for medical and research purposes in April 2018. Following the end of the Robert Mugabe regime whose notable successes albeit controversial, was the land reform program which redistributed land to previously marginalised communities, there are numerous opportunities to shape up the economy using cannabis and hemp as I will outline below. The country is naturally endowed with a great climate, legendary sunsets, minerals and happy but hungry people.
Textiles
Hemp is a the non-narcotic cannabis family plant that is used for industrial purposes and produces a fibre that has immense functionality in making textiles. It's estimated that about 25% of all pesticides in the world go to cotton growing and cotton demands multiple times the ammount of water required for industrial hemp to grow. Hemp textiles are more durable , healthier, comfy to wear and do not lose shape over time. The Zimbabwean cotton industry was developed by the British Cotton Growing Association in the 1920s to reduce Britian's dependence on American cotton under oversight by the Cotton Research Industry Board (CRIB). The 1950s was a consolidation phase for the cotton industry mainly spearheaded by 3 large companies including the British company, David Whitehead Textiles. The 1980s was a period of rapid expansion in the clothing and textile industry due to:
*A range of export and investment facilitation and promotion schemes
*Zimbabwe's central location in the Southern African region
*A well establish and relatively new infrustructure
*A low cost but relatively highly educated labourforce
In 1991, the World Bank/IMF structural adjustment programme and the vulnerabilty of this industry led it to succumb to a downfall which affected the welfare of many people. By 1999, a total of 100 clothing firms and 6 textile firms had permanantly shut down although the larger firms continued to recieve investment for the export market. Heyperinfaltion followed and the the cash crisis eventually brought the industry to is knees by around 2010.
Zimbabwe’s textile and clothing sub-sectors consist of three components: production and ginning of cotton, the transformation of lint into yarn and fabric, and the conversion of fabric and yarn into garments. Today, only a few 30-60% capacity companies are left who had well established markets in SADC, COMESA, European Union and the USA and or which get financing from South African exporters. My conlusion is that, the textile industry in Zimbabwe in now a shadow of its former self and unlike in developed countries, there is no incentive to protect this industry and producing textiles from hemp will certainly revamp the industry in new creative ways and help the welfare of thousands who are now jobless.
Today, tonnes of baled second hand clothes are imported into the country and flea markets have mushroomed virtualy everywhere, where people flock to buy anything from a second hand underwear or bra to worn out Hard Rock Cafe tshits for affordable amounts like $1 or $2. Much of the rural and traditionally agrarian community has moved to the urban areas to join the struggle to survival and contribute their share to the confusion. I believe that these people and many others should be out there actively involved in the growing of hemp for the new Zimbabwean Textile industry.
Second hand clothes bales in Zimbabwe
Building material
Hemp hurds mixed with lime binds to form hempcrete, a building material that sequastrates carbon, absolutely environmentaly friendly, lost cost (assuming easy availabilty of the hemp hurds) and can be built by anyone with little skill involved save for the structural beams. I cannot begin to make you understand how dire the housing issue is in Zimbabwe, particularly in the rural areas where the majority still lives in mud brick and thatch houses and there are schools with only an office for a building and the rest learn under a tree os some lousy shade that looks like it can collapse any moment. Many schools, including the urban schools, have to resort to 'hot-sitting', two classes sharing the same classroom, some attending schoolmin the morning and some in the afternoon. This is desipte the parents owning enough land to grow hemp and prepare their own low cost building material using hempcrete.
Forms of housing for the poor in Zimbabwe
Paper
Zimbabwe used to run one of Africa’s biggest paper manufacturing plant at Hunyani Pulp & Paper Company, which had a capacity to produce 150 tonnes of paper per day. All paper manufacturing companies in Zimbabwe have since closed and the country, including its neighbours, Zambia, Malawi & Tanzania import all their paper needs. The excuse it that our forests are too smallk to supply our paper needs. This is definitely not a sustainable solution and hemp can come directly to the rescue with many long-term benefits and not a single tree cut down.
Health
Cannabis' potency as a medicine and a food to maintain optimum health can not be underscored. From ancient times cannabis has been used in Zimbabwe for medicinal, recreation and cultural/ritualistic purposes. Today, Zimbabwe's health sector is in a deplorable state for the masses and everyday people are dying of what should not be killing. This is perhaps the most important and urgent matter to be addressed. The people should derive the maximum benefit they can to save themselves from increasing chronic illness that are proliferating including but not limited to cancer and HIV. Cancer deaths in Zimbabwe are increaing at an alarming rate and the people's options are limited. Little or no relief from the effects of chemotherapy, asuming one can even afford it in the first place. Cannabis' place in African developing economies' healthcare sector is really and truly yet to be discovered!
Just like the two boys I mentioned at the beigining, I realise and accept the superiority of the progress being made in the in the USA, Canada, Egypt and many other places that have managed to progress with research, fight prohibitive regulation and taken the lead in the reemergeance of cannabis and its numerous uses in it's numerous forms. I therefore implore you, the steemit community, to support me in my endevour to firstly educate the people about this gold mine that they have no idea they are seating on. I await Steemit confirmation for a a page dedicated to this cause.
I am here on Steemit, to seek collaboration, advice, guidance on creating the first cannabis educational institution in Zimbabwe which will serve to consult on the various uses of cannabis & hemp as well as provide an optimally stocked library for the benefit of the Zimbabwean academic community, the people (especially young people and farmers), and regulatory authorities. I plan to organise Steemit backed conferences, seminars and open days for schools featuring experts in the various cannabis/hemp related industries. Moreover, as the industry emerges here in Zimbabwe, we can only look outside the country for partnerships in establishing and developing the business potential here in Zimbabwe. I foresee Zimbabwe taking the lead in Souther Africa and once again reclaiming its position as the true breadbasket of Africa as far as the cannabis/hemp industry is concerned.
Just to prove I'm a real person I took this picture of me holding a page I on which I was joting notes planning this post.
I would like to give thanks to 