There is a deep-seated meaning to what happened this week when Zimbabwe yet again managed to hold its own plebiscite without financial hand-holding from anyone. When the country was inexorably sliding to the elections after the signing of the new Constitution, doomsday critics were sceptical that the funding that was critically needed to hold the elections would be acquired.

But when many thought that Zimbabwe would reach for the begging bowl, the country simply dipped into its back pocket and shelled out the US$100 million that was needed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to facilitate the process.

Unsurprisingly, the voting process became seamless at a time when its critics pre-maturely expected it to be chaotic and shambolic.

This alone sends a strong message to Africa as a continent on the way that the African renaissance has to chart if we are to take our pride of place on the globe.

In essence, it speaks to the ideals and philosophy that one of the strongest contenders in this election, Zanu-PF, has been preaching thus far -- Zimbabwe is not poor.

It also speaks and to some extent solves the paradox of why some of the developing countries always whine about being poor when they possess huge mineral resources.

At the beginning of the year, the then Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is also secretary-general of the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC, scandalously claimed that Zimbabwe's bank balance had shrunk to US$200.

Well, if so, how then can anyone explain how Zimbabwe has managed to sponsor its own electoral process?

Critically, it must be noted that as a sovereign country -- regarded by many as the Persian Gulf of Africa in terms of resources -- Zimbabwe can to a greater extent manage to sponsor its own recovery and growth process.

This essentially forms the cornerstone of the Zanu-PF manifesto which states that the country has the potential to leverage more than US$7,3 billion from local resources and spend its way to development.

The key element in this year's election, particularly during the political beauty contest preceding the elections, was about unpacking who had the better plan to move this country forward.

While Zanu-PF was clear on its plan to mobilise local resources, MDC-T was vague on where it will get the resources at a time when the whole world is plagued by a biting financial crisis.

It seems that by railing against the indigenisation programme, the MDC-T was hoist by its own petard; it threw the pin and forgot the grenade in its hands, or palm so to speak.

Unfortunately for them, the indigenisation programme is not only a political philosophy and concept: it is alive; it lives.

Many communities in Mhondoro, Ngezi, Bulawayo, Hwange and all the four corners of Zimbabwe that are richly endowed by minerals can bear testimony to how they have materially benefited and continue to benefit from the process.

Gradually, Zimbabwe is schooling the world, especially the developing world, that it is only in controlling the means of production that countries can be able to shape their economic destiny.

It must not be forgotten that sanctions have been an albatross around Zimbabwe's neck for the past 14 years when America, through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zdera), and the European Union tightened their screws on Zimbabwe, with the hope that it will break.

As the wise always say, people and nations only emerge stronger from challenges; gold is purified in fire.

Proudly, Zimbabwe has become the vanguard of a golden African generation that is leading the African renaissance.

And, sadly, there are African countries that look to outsiders in cases where they need help.

Mali, which recently concluded its own polls, had to rely on its erstwhile coloniser France for budgetary support needed for the elections.

However, as Zimbabwe has learned through the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) that was shoved down the country's throat by the Bretton Woods financiers, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that external economic support comes with its own baggage in the form of conditionalities.

It is these conditions that are most often than not used to harness and control the supposedly beneficiary nations.

The message that is resonating out of Zimbabwe as this electoral process is drawing to a close is that we, as Africans, as Zimbabweans, are the masters of our own destiny.

We, as Africans and as Zimbabweans, are the people that we have been waiting for.

In Asia China, which is not exactly the darling of the West because of its political system that challenges the capitalist ideals of the West, has led the way.

Its success today is symbolic of how a people can ably pull themselves out of the rut and lead themselves to the Promised Land.

After there were efforts to shut China from the rest of the world, the Asian country simply re-organised and strategically positioned itself to leverage from its own local market and its potential as the world's populous nation.

Today the results are there for everyone to see.

At a time when the world's biggest economy, the United States of America, is burdened with a US$16 trillion debt, which is more than 100 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, China continues to grow.

With more than US$3 trillion in its kitty, its future is more than set.

The Zimbabwean example will definitely be a template for the rest of the continent.

The local revolution, championed by an able and visionary leadership in the cockpit, is also unique because after bringing political independence, it is now beginning to unclamp the neo-colonial grip that until now was shackling the economy.

Far from being a lesson of why smaller nations must challenge the big and so-called might nations in order to improve their own situations, Zimbabwe has simply become an example of how a people can successfully endure the challenges and hurdles thrown along its path to self determination.

As Charles Albert, one of the Italian monarch that tried to unify Italy in the 19 th Century said, Italia da far a da sei ( meaning Italy will go it alone), Zimbabwe has also gone it alone.