DO NOT BE LIMITED BY YOUR BACKGROUND.
Two days ago I bumped into a ZBC TV talk show hosted by the effervescent Dr Fungai Mtisi where she was interviewing a self-assured, self-confident but sincere and down-to-earth young man called Blessing Mandipira, who has become a motivational speaker of renown from his inauspicious humble beginnings as a "garden boy".
Mandipira related how after he failed his "O" Level exam, he was thrown out of the house by his grandmother, who had raised him after both his parents died when he was still a toddler. The night he was thrown out, he slept at a friend's place, and the next morning he found a job as a gardener, but, because he did not feel sorry for himself or wallow in self-pity, saw that as a stepping stone on the journey to be the well-spoken and successful person he is today.
Yes, Mandipira failed his "O" Levels, but he more than makes up or compensates for that in that he is, for all intents and purposes, the equivalent of a PhD holder or professor in the "School of Life", that informal and practical education one receives by learning from one's experiences, both good and bad, as opposed to bookish education, which at the end of the day, can become miseducation of mere credentialism with nothing to show for it in the value chain. Credentialism, as a social phenomenon, refers to over-reliance upon formal credentials conferred by educational institutions, professional organisations, and other associations as a principal means to determine the qualifications of individuals to perform a range of particular occupational tasks or to make authoritative statements as "experts" in specific subject areas.
Writes Murray Smith: "The pursuit of credentials through bureaucratised, institutional channels constitutes a kind of 'rite of passage' to socially privileged positions or occupational groups to control the supply of practitioners, to regulate their activities, and to maintain a monopoly of legitimacy in the provision of particular services . . . One example has been the legal barriers that have been put into place in many jurisdictions to prevent midwives from providing birthing services to expectant mothers, thereby ensuring that such services will remain the exclusive preserve of medical doctors."
Indeed, credentialism adds to costs while reducing efficiencies. Lawyers are particularly notorious for that through the Law Society, which is a law unto itself born out of credentialism. That's why they refer to themselves as "my learned friend" even though there are many learned people who are not lawyers. That is why legal fees are inordinately and astronomically high. That's why you never see a poor lawyer. Somebody observed that one of the reasons why the resource-scarce Japanese economy is much more efficiently run than that of the US is because there are more lawyers just in Washington, DC, the capital of the US, than in all of Japan. Said a sagacious observer: "It is the trade of lawyers to question everything, yield nothing, and to talk by the hour." Well, that explains why Washington, DC, is also the credentialism capital of the world.
Credentialism also worsened the loss of lives during the doctors' strike in Zimbabwe because nurses and junior doctors just watched patients they could have saved die as their hands were tied by legal restrictions requiring them to work under the supervision of senior doctors. This is because many tasks "remain the exclusive preserve of medical doctors", as observed by Smith, all that due to the self-serving and self-perpetuating creature called credentialism. Some politicians and their misguided followers who wanted to politically leverage on the doctors' strike even went to the extent of condemning the Mbare traditional midwife for assisting expectant mothers to deliver. They said she was not medically qualified to do so, completely ignoring the fact that there was no one else to assist as doctors and nurses had gone on strike. When politics hides behind credentialism, it gets even more toxic.
There is also lots of credentialism in the too many and rather useless NGOs and CSOs in Zimbabwe which duplicate each other's work. The same individuals remain at the helm almost for life. SAPES, Zimbabwe Peace Project, among others, are virtually one-man bands. To break into the CSO sector, you have to be well-connected because only a few individuals call the shots in that closed sector which has all the elements of credentialism.
Smith concludes by observing that "credentialism is fundamentally a set of principles and an ideology associated with the reproduction of structures of social inequality and the intergenerational perpetuation of class and status distinctions".
I view the Mbare traditional midwife in the same light as I see young Mandipira in that they are a viable alternative to overrated credentialism.
If we discard the credentialism mentality, we will recognise the true value and selfless contribution of individuals like Mandipira and the Mbare traditional midwife. Zimbabwe is rich in human capital with such young and old people. These can raise Zimbabwe - not lawyers and other "experts" with over-inflated egos self-consumed with credentialism.
Thanks, Mandipira and you too Mbare traditional midwife, for opening my eyes and reinforcing my faith in the ability and capability of the ordinary person no matter the humble beginnings or social status.