Raising Zimbabwean Children in the UK: Identity, Language, and Staying Connected to Roots

For Zimbabwean parents settled in the UK, one of the most quietly pressing concerns is not their own sense of belonging — it is their children's. Whether born in Zimbabwe and brought over young, or born in British hospitals to Zimbabwean parents, these children inhabit two worlds simultaneously, and navigating that space is rarely simple. Research conducted by Ruvimbo Machaka at Sheffield Hallam University, published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies in 2023, interviewed Zimbabwean parents across South Yorkshire and found that concern about their children's sense of belonging was a recurring and deeply felt theme. Parents described operating between two often contradictory cultures — the Zimbabwean values and expectations they carried from home, and the British norms their children absorbed at school, with friends, and through wider society. The home could be made into a kind of cultural cocoon, with Zimbabwean food, music, language, and traditions maintained deliberately — but the moment a child stepped outside, that world shifted entirely. **The Second Generation and the Identity Question** Children born or raised in the UK — often called second-generation Zimbabweans — face a particular version of the identity challenge. They did not leave Zimbabwe; in many cases they have never lived there. Their connection to the country exists through their parents' stories, occasional visits, extended family WhatsApp groups, and cultural practices maintained at home. This is a genuine and meaningful connection, but it differs profoundly from lived experience. Ruvarashe, a second-generation Zimbabwean raised in the UK, described navigating identity "through culture, music and community" rather than personal memory. She noted that while first-generation migrants carry lived memories of home, she and others like her must construct their Zimbabwean identity through what they are given access to. This is not a lesser identity — but it is a different one, and young people often feel the tension acutely. The sensation of being neither fully British nor fully Zimbabwean, of not quite belonging in either space, is a common experience described by second-generation diaspora communities across different backgrounds, and Zimbabwean young people in the UK are no exception. **Language Loss and What It Costs** One of the most tangible losses across generations is language. Shona and Ndebele are living languages — carriers of culture, relationships, proverbs, and ways of understanding the world that do not translate cleanly into English. When children grow up speaking English at school and with friends, and hear Shona or Ndebele primarily at home or on phone calls to relatives in Zimbabwe, the language tends to recede. Many second-generation Zimbabwean young people in the UK understand their parents' home language passively but cannot speak it fluently, and a significant number lose even passive comprehension as they move through adolescence. The consequences extend beyond communication. Language connects children to grandparents and relatives in Zimbabwe who may not speak English well. It shapes how a person is received during visits home — where aunts, uncles, and community members form impressions partly based on whether the British-raised child can greet correctly, respond appropriately, and engage in the rhythms of Shona or Ndebele conversation. Being unable to do so can produce shame on all sides, often unspoken. Parents who want to address this can explore bilingual children's books in Shona and English, which are increasingly available through online retailers. Supplementary language classes run through Zimbabwean community associations exist in some UK cities. Consistent use of the home language during family time — meals, prayers, phone calls with relatives — remains the most effective long-term approach, even when children initially resist it. **Practical Ways Families Stay Connected** Across the UK, Zimbabwean families use a range of strategies to maintain cultural connection for their children: - **Community events and festivals**: Zimfest, held annually in the UK, has become a significant gathering point specifically because it creates a space where Zimbabwean identity can be expressed openly and proudly. Second-generation attendees consistently describe the experience of being among their people as something they cannot replicate in everyday British life. For young people who attend predominantly white schools or live in areas with small Zimbabwean communities, this kind of gathering carries real psychological weight. - **Food and home traditions**: Sadza, muriwo, matemba, maputi — maintaining Zimbabwean food at home is one of the most consistent ways parents transmit culture. Cooking together, explaining the significance of dishes, and continuing traditions like Sunday family meals carry cultural meaning even when children do not consciously register it as such. - **Religion and church community**: Many Zimbabwean families in the UK attend Zimbabwean or African Pentecostal churches, which function as social and cultural hubs as much as places of worship. Children raised in these communities tend to have stronger peer networks of other Zimbabwean young people. - **Regular contact with Zimbabwe**: Video calls with grandparents, cousins, and extended family — maintained consistently rather than only at crisis points — help children build real relationships with relatives in Zimbabwe. Visits home, when finances allow, remain the most powerful anchor. - **Deliberate cultural education**: Some parents share Zimbabwean history, music, and storytelling explicitly. Artists like Oliver Mtukudzi and Thomas Mapfumo, cultural practices like kurova guva, the significance of lobola — these are things children can be taught rather than left to absorb by proximity. **The Longer View** Research consistently shows that second-generation children who maintain a strong connection to their heritage culture alongside their British identity tend to have better psychological wellbeing than those who feel forced to choose one over the other. The goal is not to produce children who are Zimbabwean at the expense of their British experience, but to give them both — and the confidence to hold both without apology. That work falls largely on parents, but community structures, cultural events, and the deliberate choices families make about language, food, and relationship all contribute. The children raised this way are not caught between two worlds. They are, at their best, fluent in both.