Zimbabwe has buried colour, controversy and, for many, possibility itself.

Wicknell Chivayo, who died last Tuesday alongside his wife Lucy Muteke when their helicopter came down in Marondera, was not a conventional hero.

And that is precisely why his conferment as a Provincial Hero is so significant.

For a country that won its liberation in 1980, the definition of heroism must evolve. The gun has fallen silent.

The struggle is now in the economy for contracts, for capital, for space, for relevance in a global marketplace that does not wait for the timid.

It is fitting, therefore, that we begin to recognise heroes on this new front. Chivayo did his part, and it is right that he should be recognised.

The Streetwise Genius

Chivayo was, in the truest sense, a streetwise businessman. He did not possess the generic academic credentials of most business people.

What he had was instinct, raw, untaught, and razor-sharp.

From Intratrek, IMC, to the corridors of power, from Gwanda to Gaborone, his network testified to a man who understood one fundamental truth of Zimbabwean business: relationships are capital.

He cultivated them assiduously, from apostolic and pentecostal prophets to Presidents, from musicians to ministers.

People laughed at his flamboyance. The Rolls-Royces, the Louis Vuitton and the theatrical cash displays.

Yet, he gave, and in giving built an economy around himself. Hundreds survived around him artists paid, churches funded, school fees settled and young hustlers handed a lifeline.

It is no exaggeration to say that with his passing, many will now feel a genuine lack of opportunity. The tap has run dry.

A Funeral Must Be African

To his family, in this hour of grief, there is a gentle but important lesson: a man of Chivayo’s magnitude cannot have a gated funeral.

It is unAfrican to produce an invitation list for the dead, to stand at the gate and decide who may mourn and who may not.

People are not invited to a funeral. They come on their own volition.

They come because their conscience tells them to come, because their memory of the man compels them.

It was therefore deeply moving to see the diversity of those who came to the Chivayo home. Whatever bitterness life may have held, death cleanses it. Wafa wanaka.

The Shona have always known that grudges are for the living; they must not be carried into the afterlife.

Sekuru Nemuzukuru

I had my own tiffs with him, as many did.

However, with Wicknell, conflict never became enmity. It remained banter within the respectful, joking boundaries of Sekuru nemuzukuru.

He would tease me about my life with women: “Unotoda kutora mudzimai wangu manje une mari yacho here? And I would answer him ,”Ndine tractor chete Sekuru mari handina”

And we would both collapse in laughter.

What a guy he was.

That was Wicknell to me. He could fight you and embrace you in the same sentence.

Finally, much respect must go to President Emmerson Mnangagwa for going to the family home.

In a time when politics is often reduced to cold protocol, the gesture mattered.

He came not just as Head of State conferring Provincial Hero status, but as a fellow human being who had known the man.

He even testified that they were friends!

What you see with him is what you get. He is, at his core, a good man with a good heart.

Wicknell Chivayo lived loudly. He gave loudly. Perhaps now, in silence, we will finally hear what he was trying to tell us.

That in this new economic liberation war, we need our own kind of heroes.

May his soul and that of his beloved wife rest in eternal peace.

Wafa wanaka.