Kubatana.net ~ an online community of Zimbabwean activists

Archive for 2009

Consenting to a political fix

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Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 by Bev Clark

Well now.

It’s taken almost a year for us to get a result from the 2008 March election. Hmmm. Then Tsvangirai said he’d halt any negotiations regarding a Government of National Unity until all abducted and detained activists were returned or released. That didn’t last for long, he was soon back at the round table and the mini bar. And now that he has agreed to jump into bed with that old guy, he’s said that previous demands like the allocation of ministries will be sorted out over the next 6 months, or so. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?

John Makumbe writing for openDemocracy has this to say:

The bottom line is that Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF have no intention of handing over power to the MDC, except under severe political pressure from both within and outside Zimbabwe. The activists gathering at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on 26 January-3 February 2009 to highlight the “passive genocide” in their country are right; those who are prepared to consent to a political fix that will entrench its architects in power are wrong. Read more

Love in a time of cholera, corruption and other chaos

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Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 by Bev Clark

Valentine’s Day is approaching and Fungai Machirori reminds us that although we’re living in a time of cholera, corruption and other forms of chaos, we still have Love to console ourselves with. I’m always pleased when we, the citizens, come up with basic home made remedies that we can engage to keep ourselves sane amidst all the political clap trap. Che Guevara said, At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love.

Here’s some self help and love from Fungai. Don’t know about you, but I’m off in search of some Charon’s toffees.

We Zimbabweans live in curious times. We suffer much and sacrifice even more – dreams, memories and even hopes. If there is any group of people whom I expect out on the streets, painting the town red with passionate and compassionate love this February 14, it is us. For when all else has ravaged us – political intimidation, economic deflation, scourges of violence and disease and condemnation – all that has remained to console us is love. And whether you are a traditionalist who believes that V-Day is a commercial gimmick, or a fervent but cash-strapped romantic, I say to you, “Make the effort, this year!” Pluck a simple flower from an overgrown bush, be patriotic and buy a packet of Zimbabwe-manufactured toffee sweets, or make a simple card with a meaningful message. Whatever it may be, make sure you do something special for someone you love. Our recent history has taught us to value what we have now because we have learned in a cruel way that the future is often not for us to control.

Carry His Spirit to a New Zimbabwe

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Monday, February 2nd, 2009 by Bev Clark

As some Zimbabweans celebrate the signing of the GNU, where do we all stand on the need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the innumerable human rights abuses committed by the Mugabe regime? Zimbabwean poet Beaven Tapureta reminds us of the pain experienced on the road to freedom.

Carry His Spirit to a New Zimbabwe

I lie beside my brother
In the glaring mountains
Of my countryside
He looks at me
Eyes swollen
Buttocks fried
“Some men did it.
Said I belong to a party they don’t like,” he whispers

This sight alone plants my
Future in front of me

“Take me home,” he pleads
I try
But there is nowhere to touch
his flogged body
and hold it.
I try
With bare hands
To lift him
his pain is my pain
Zimbabwe, our pain.
God knows where it will end
They might drive it the direction they want
Our future seeks another route.

I softly lift my brother
in his bloodied shirt
red
Like the flag
of my country
now
tattered
muddied
defiled
I lift him home
My brother
With all my love
His spirit rises to a new Zimbabwe.

For more poetry by Zimbabwe writers please visit the Poetry International web site

Scepticism galore, and with good reason

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Monday, February 2nd, 2009 by Marko Phiri

That people do not trust Zanu PF is a historical fact backed by numerous events since the party’s formation back in the 1960s.  That fact was cemented after the MDC National Executive Council agreed January 30 to get into bed with the party roundly condemned for running down the economy and horrendous human rights violations.

Instead of this important announcement being met with wild ululation, word on the street remains one of subdued hope – or total absence thereof – with sentiments like: “What the heck? Who cares anymore?” It is when the people’s sense of resolve and hope is destroyed that one looks at the whole thing about politics – African at least – as inherently flawed.

Do elections offer hope for the masses anymore? What about non-electoral political settlements like the one Zimbabwe is witnessing? These liberation parties have for long claimed ownership and entitlement of the nations they liberated from white minority rule, and it does not make any sense for the general populations that these elites seem to only accept the opposition into government only as lesser political entities under their phony tutelage.

What tangible space then does the victorious political opposition occupy to be able to change and reserve decades-old policies that were engineered by the liberation movements?

I listened to a group of unemployed men rubbing their hands with unbounded glee that the decision by the MDC to at last join Zanu PF in government was a harbinger of a change of their fortunes.

But another in their midst – perhaps from that Afro-pessimism school to which I happen to belong – was quick to warn them against premature celebration.  More like premature ejaculation perhaps: it’s over before it even begins! After muted consideration, another was instantly converted to that school. There was little or nothing to celebrate, they agreed. But as some would have said in different circumstances, “let’s give peace a chance,” so perhaps let’s give this experiment a chance.

Zanu PF is viewed as a “senior partner” by many here who watched ZAPU pitifully give itself one hard kick in the butt into political oblivion when Mugabe tricked that good man Joshua Nkomo into believing they were equal partners.”Yes we are brothers, but I am the big brother!”

That is the history many sceptics are reminded of today, and as long as there is no confidence in this formation of the GNU among not only the ordinary people but most importantly among the political players themselves as both parties are reported to have inveterate hardliners opposed to the union, then this is yet another historic triumph for ZANU PF.

And the people’s understanding of local politics does not offer any sunny side of contemporary Zimbabwe. For starters, does this mean for example the release of political prisoners? As far as recent developments and media reports go, Zanu PF has not yet committed itself in that regard. Are we likely to see Zanu PF dropping its tired rhetoric of calling the MDC-T puppets of the West etc? It would be incorrigible naivety to image Zanu PF having that instant conversion in a bid to move the country forward and up the Sisphyean path of economic recovery and the rebuilding of essential services. That conversion would sure be a miracle worth sneaking into the pages of the Bible.

What the people need is Mugabe to go peacefully not the mere signing on the dotted line of the GNU, that is what you hear everyday.

Many have tried – and many have failed – to change Zanu PF from within but only to question their own wisdom after dining with the Devil only to fail to dehorn it.

Zimbabweans agree the country must move forward, what they do not agree on is whether supping with the Devil is the right path. Better the Devil you do not know after all! While popular sentiment across the country and indeed the world is that what Zimbabwe needs is a total makeover with the absence of Zanu PF, it is instructive that the MDC is seen as having done this against its better judgement.

It can only be because there is something Zimbabweans already know about Zanu PF for this mass deception thing is being viewed as precisely that – mass deception. If only the MDC was being passed the poisoned chalice in the sense of Zanu PF leaving government. But what they have done is actually sit down to partake of the contents and return it to people who have taken gulps of a mysterious serum to render themselves immune to the contents therein.

Zanu PF is beyond caring, and the US government has already said it is sceptical about the whole thing, so imagine the Zimbabwean people themselves who for years have been forced to live with untold misery at the hands of Zanu PF. Their scepticism knows no bounds and with good reason.

Zimbabwe Money, worthless to some

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Monday, February 2nd, 2009 by Bev Clark

Someone called Gina posted this interesting comment on the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum list serv recently:

I read today about a primary school teacher working across the border to raise South African Rand because she can’t use worthless Zimbabwe money. I wonder if she knew that the 100 Billion Zimbabwe dollar note is selling for $45 dollars Australian on e-bay. That’s $30 US  or 1,121,949,240 Z$. Zimbabwe Dollar notes from $1 to $1,000,000 sell for about $35 US. I find it incredible that coin and note collectors are paying so much for Zimbabwe money on e-bay when those that live there say it is cheaper to burn than newspaper.

Surprised woman walking

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Monday, February 2nd, 2009 by Bev Clark

I have a subscription to a magazine called Yes! In the last issue there was an article about the 10 things that science says will make you happy. Top of the list was “savor everyday moments” and I’ve been doing a lot of that recently.

Walking to work the other day I came across a little tortoise in my driveway. This was my second sighting so I decided to pick him up and put him even further back in the yard to try and make sure that he didn’t end up flattened on the road. But the next morning there he was, out and about again. So I made an emergency call to friends who I think of as tortoise experts. The tortoise changed hands and he’s been released in the bush.

I’ve started to see small groups of goats being moved from A to B in the eastern suburbs of Harare. Luckily I haven’t been running my dog on any of these occasions. He becomes uncontrollable at the sight of an egret, what then when he eyeballs some goats? Because he’s a bit of a handful, a friend brought me back a “no pull harness” from Washington DC. All well and good if your walking your poodle on Pennsylvania Avenue but not for the variety of encounters, goat and otherwise, that you might have on the streets of Harare.

In Highlands there’s this house built like a boat. At one point my walking companion suggested that it was a houseboat and would soon be towed off to Kariba. We realised this wasn’t the case when we saw a double lock up garage in its bow. Farai the Almighty is alive and well and living on Glenara Avenue.

One of my walking routes to work takes me along Princess Avenue and the other morning I saw the chef of China Town restaurant doing Tai Chi and very high knee kicks in his driveway.

And the other evening, on my way home, I saw Dr Paul going into the DVD store in Newlands Shopping Centre. I was taken aback in that childish way when we used to get excited when we saw one of our teachers having dinner out and thinking, Oh My God, Miss Williams actually eats, she’s normal! I found myself thinking the same about my dentist and wondering what movie he’d hire after a hard day’s drilling.