Freedom of choice
"Can a person exercise freedom of choice in any way?" is one of the great questions. "An individual is responsible (or free) if and only if she is amenable in both thought and action to rational persuasion and moral correction" (Wiredu 130). Thus freedom and responsibility goes hand in glove. For there to be freedom of choice there have to be alternatives. On experiences a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the action freely chosen, and is thus able to say: I did that, or I decided that (Reichmann 157). In this essay, using the above definition and conditions of freedom of choice, I strive to analyze and show the extent to which people rooted in the Shona culture can exercise their freedom of choice. To a greater extent, I will take a determinist idea on the Shona people, the idea that whatever the Shona people do is not out of their free will, but is determined and limited. To a lesser extent I will digress and show some few areas where a Shona person is free though limited in his freedom of choice. My position in this paper is that Shona people do not define "freedom" as mentioned above, thus using the above definition, their freedom of choice is limited, using their own translation of freedom, which is rusununguko,
A Shona Proverb "munhu munhu navanhu" (a person is a person because of others), shows that an individual has no individual freedom of choice. There are two choices of religion, namely, Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR). A person rooted in the Shona culture, considers the culturally universal values, guaranteed by the authority of a superhuman being, first before individual considerations. Ancestors, while they are believed to bring consolation to people, are also believed to bring harm to those who try to ignore them, focusing on other religions. Different people practice different religions within the same community. This sometimes is caused by fear of the ancestors. Interfering with the benefits of the chief will lead to expulsion from the area. That is why regulations are set in the Shona; they are not there for the extinction of freedom of choice, but on the free flow of order and stability in the community. Though one has the choice to propose the girl/s one likes, marriage is not a one man's decision. In considering marrying a girl, a boy consults his family members and some elders in the community. This shows that freedom of choice in marriage is basically limited to a person rooted in the Shona culture. So long a black person is in power, they feel free, and that they can exercise collective freedom of choice not individual freedom of choice, which is unheard and never talked of. On the political running of the Shona culture, normally done by the chief, people are limited in their exercise of freedom of choice in any burning issue prowling within the community. Thus, there is no absolute individual freedom among the Shona people since individual freedom is limited by the community, for the community. Such issues include the land issues; its distribution and redistribution.
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Chimurenga War,
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Acceptance Essays
