WHEN I was growing up in the village, children from nearby villages would steal fruits from my grandparents' little orchard. They did this to other families as well. This used to occur in December, mostly during the ripening season of mango fruits.
In a lot of ways, this was annoying. We alternated patrolling the orchard and preventing the boys from pilfering fruits. We would be penalised if the boys succeeded in stealing the mangoes.
December was generally a busy period with farming activities and also family members from towns and cities who visited for the festive holidays. Manning mango trees deprived us of time to mingle with cousins. It was a once-in-a-year moment to catch up and bond.
One day, my uncle joined us for one of the orchard manning sessions. He enjoyed spending time with us. After picking some mangoes for ourselves, a small group of young boys appeared and we knew their intentions and we stood ready to attack.
But to our surprise, my uncle invited the boys for a chat. They obliged. After a long conversation, he asked them to harvest all the ripe mangoes in the orchard. In no time, there was a huge pile of mangoes before us. He asked the boys to screen the mangoes based on their state of ripeness. Once this process was done, he took the over-ripe mangoes and shared them among the boys.
The boys were so happy as they left the orchard. Some of them looked overloaded but they were excited that they got more than they often did and that it was not risky at all. For the first time, they took “legitimate” mangoes back home. They were not fruit thieves anymore.
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We carried ours back home. Again, we were also happy that we did not have to spend the whole day in the orchard. Because all ripe mangoes were harvested that day, it meant a week or more without manning the orchard. Back home everyone was happy to receive the mangoes. We had more bonding time with cousins.
My uncle was a hero, but we wanted to know the rationale for his decision. He stated that they were too many mangoes riping at the same hence we would not finish them. For that reason, there was need to dispose of them either by selling or giving them out to avoid throwing them away. He added that sharing the excess mangoes with the other boys made the family look nice and generous.
He added that the boys were aware of many things. They knew that the mangoes were too many for us. They found it cruel that we do not share. Second, they also knew that manning the orchard was not enough to stop them from stealing the mangoes. All they needed was patience and tactics. Third, the boys were stealing what they enjoyed eating while we were not enjoying manning the orchard at a time when we were supposed to enjoy the festive season.
We were making ourselves and everyone unhappy over an unnecessary situation. As a way forward, he suggested “legalising” and “regularising” the mango harvests. This meant telling the boys when to come and help with the harvest and ensuring the process was supervised. We instantly moved from being miserly mango security guards to orchard supervisors, while the boys moved from being thieves to fruit harvesters.
With that came peace and happiness for many families. There were no criminals or security guards anymore. We bonded and became friends. We reminisced about the days we chased each other over mangoes.
The lesson here is about identifying opportunities to address a problem in a way that makes everyone win. The announcement by the recently inaugurated President of Botswana, Duma Boko, about the plan to legalise undocumented Zimbabweans and grant them work and residence permits reminds me of my uncle’s story.
Boko is not the first one to do this. South Africa has always depended on cross-border labour. Boko is converting a problem into an opportunity. The Batswana authorities, mainly the police and immigration, who had running battles with illegal immigrants will have peace. Resources will be saved for other projects.
But there was a lingering question in the village story. Why were the parents of the boys from the neighbouring village not planting their own mango trees if their children so much-loved fruits. Perhaps their families were not organised enough to grow mango trees and were happy with “imported mangoes” despite how they were secured.