Why do parents of today shun their culture? As Zimbabwean parents, many of us are guilty of not teaching our children to be proud to be able to speak their own language? We always push our children to speak English more than Shona/Ndebele. We do not expose our children to our culture when they are home or over the holidays. So many of my friends have said Zimbabweans overseas seem to lose their identity as if they are ashamed to be Zimbabwean. They forget they can speak Shona/NdebeleWe do not realise what we are doing to our children.
We are raising children that do not celebrate their uniqueness, their language, their traditions, old folk stories, tribal dressing, cultural food. Worldwide we see children fluent in their local languages, proud to participate in their traditions and celebrate special events in the year, yet we are here stopping our children from speaking the language and understanding their culture
A child with no culture has no identity; they do not know where they come from and thus do not know who to be or what defines them. They end up trying to find themselves in other cultures
A child with no identity has low self esteem. They do not believe in themselves because they do not know who they are and thus they think they cannot achieve anything
You raise a child who feels inferior to other races, other nations, other cultures..Is that what you want?
We have to realise as parents that we are the cause of our child's loss of culture. Be proud of who you are and your child will be proud too..
Till next Monday
#beingaparent
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