Generational Tokens — Tafadzwa’s Baggage to Oxford

We asked our scholars to go back to the moment they packed their luggage in preparation for their journey to Oxford. But instead of clothes and books, we asked them to think about the stories, people, memories, hopes, and all immaterial things that they would put inside. Find other stories in this series here.

I come from a family that holds education dearly. Both my grandmothers were teachers in colonial Rhodesia who dedicated much of their lives to cultivating the young minds of their time. My mother and her sister, also teachers at some point, worked hard to sharpen their student’s minds and challenged them to grow into “people” that would eventually make a difference in their communities. For my mother and aunt, a good education was the only heritage worth bequeathing to their children; it was one of the main drivers that energized them to work hard to avail opportunities to my brother and me so that we would be empowered to positively impact our communities.

When I was packing to come to Oxford, I stumbled on an old picture of when I was an 8-year-old student wearing a khaki uniform and brown primary school hat. That picture reminded me that I am a product of generations of people who have esteemed good education; who worked hard to provide opportunities to their children, and who ultimately hoped that their children would one day be empowered to be transformational “people” in their communities. This is the baggage that I bring to Oxford – a continuing hope that I will use my education to make a difference in my home country/community.