“The main challenge we face in Zimbabwe is neocolonialism.”

Within the framework of "V International Congress of Researchers on Youth"The group that met in Varadero, Cuba, from September 23 to 27, organized by the Center for Youth Studies and the Union of Young Communists of Cuba, spoke with CLACSO.tv Taurai Kandishaya, Deputy National Secretary for the Zimbabwe Commissioner.

He reported that “the main challenges in Zimbabwe, as it is now, are a product of colonial liars. Colonization has left us where we are today in terms of development. We are known as a developing country with as many resources as we have because the colonial masters oppressed us, diverted our resources, looted everything, and took it all back to their countries. We were subjected to colonization for 100 years. So the main challenge we face now is the continued attempts by imperialism and neocolonialism to recolonize us, and this time they are doing so by dividing us. The main problem we face is political incorrectness, where we have young people who don't appreciate that they are Zimbabweans first and foremost, young people who have misplaced their external priorities because they listen more to the external voice than the internal one, and in response, the government is trying to empower young people.”

About the Congress of Researchers on Youth, Taurai Kandishaya He asserted that “the experience I’ve gained here is that we need more international youth conferences (…) We need you from this Latin American and Caribbean region; we need your experience. We also need you to see the realities on the ground because there’s a lot of negativity in the media. People might think African countries are jungles, when in fact they’re not. We have our own development agendas, our own ways of exercising democracy. What we resist is interference and external intervention (…) We subscribe to multilateralism because in multilateralism there are no bullies, no big brother attitude; we are all equal.”

Interviewed by Gustavo Lema