Comrade Fatso weighs in, so to speak, on that four letter word . . . fear

And now we have fear. A new, complex emotion to add to our ragged shopping basket that also holds anger, hope and anxiety. We fear that the regime may begin to end the beginnging of the end by trying to end our new beginning. We fear that the last kicks of the jongwe may last more than a few seconds. It may be weeks. Or months.

One shortage our rulers don’t seem to have is a shortage of humour. Their make-believe propaganda makes you smile and shudder at the same time. They have started a new propaganda offensive. White farmers are about to invade the country and steal back their farms. The MDC rigged the election by bribing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). It would be funny if it wasn’t so morbidly real. They have allegedly started arresting ZEC officials and invading farms.

So fear is in our stomachs. We’re in a state of limbo between where we were and where we want to go. Between an old Zimbabwe and a new Zimbabwe. The waitress comes to my table, serves my food and then delivers what she really wanted to put on the table. “What are they doing now? Do they want a re-run or a re-count? We have no president. We haven’t had one for over a week now. Now they’ve started invading farms again and the riot police are on the streets. We are being calm but we are scared.” Fear. Our familiar staple diet in this hungry land. Msavaya, a comrade of mine, was in the townships yesterday when a police man announced to a group of drinkers oustide a bottle store “We may not have a president but that doesn’t mean that public drinking is now legal!” The police know it just as the waitresses do. We are in limbo. And we are in fear because we know this beast. It has started kicking and lashing out.

Those of us in the democracy movement here need to campaign for the results to be released. If ZANU claims the need for a re-run then we must push for it to be within 3 weeks of the election. Together we must give birth to a nationwide campaign that keeps hope alive, from township to growth point. Those in the international community need to push for the results to be released. We must avoid a re-run because it could be bloody. But if ZANU wants a re-run then we must give them a re-run for their money. And their dirty wealth. We are so close to that sun on the horizon. I can almost see it through the dust. We need to walk together towards the sunset. We need to be crazy enough to keep hope alive.

Read more Comrade Fatso here

Anyone who thinks that we’re not already living in a State of Emergency needs their head read. The vast majority of Zimbabweans keep stating that their life could hardly be worse, that something Has To Change, or they’ll die. Clear, or what?

One of our greatest tensions has been the pretense that we’re living in a democracy in Zimbabwe. We are not. We live in a country where so-called democratic elections are held but the dictatorship of Mugabe decides who wins. This has been happening for the last several years.

The police force and army are Mugabe’s; the courts are Mugabe’s; the public media is controlled by Mugabe.

We are living in a State of Emergency.

And a state of fear controls Zimbabweans.

Yes we could have enforced curfews, we could have more military and police patrolling the streets. But already people don’t have the money to move around as freely as they once did, and in the wake of the election we’ve seen an increased police presence.

So I’m not too sure how much we should let the fear of a state of emergency interrupt our legitimate right to protest the completely unacceptable delay in the announcement of the presidential election results.

I’ve just sent out the following email to a variety of political and civic leaders, and I’m hoping for a response from them:

News reports say that the MDC’s court case has been postponed until tomorrow when they will deem whether it is urgent enough to be heard.

In the face of the following:

- local, regional and global acknowledgment that the delay in the announcement of the presidential election is unacceptable

- the courts in Zimbabwe have no real authority

- the delay is allowing Zanu PF to re-group

- the delay is causing fear and despondency among Zimbabweans

surely the recently elected opposition MPs and Senators should publicly petition or peacefully protest this situation.

What a bold public and active statement it would be. It would also give the opposition forces in Zimbabwe a chance to visibly and publicly unite – inspiring confidence in Zimbabweans of a coalition in the event of a run off.

If the authorities over react we will have another March 11th for our regional brothers and sisters to condemn outright.

There is certainly more to gain than lose by a move such as this.

Zimbabweans need to see our political leaders stand up in ways other than calling press conferences and filing court applications.

Comrade Fatso’s latest blog comments on how Zimbabweans let loose their rage and I’m reminded of Amanda’s blog where she discusses how we ferociously cling on to our bag if a tsotsi tries to steal it – questioning why we don’t do similarly when our vote is stolen. Here’s some more Comrade Fatso for you:

The anger waits alongside our waiting. Today on a calm winter day, quiet and hot, there was a car crash at a market near central Harare. The car had collided with several market women and various stalls. The driver was lynched by the customers and passers-by. Beaten because he is an easy target. As we watched from my car parked across the road the crowd swelled as Harare’s waiting people gathered and joined into the nyaya, the story. Zimbabweans often give out mob justice like food at a ZANU (PF) rally. We tend to vent our life-anger onto a thief who dared to steal a bar of chocolate and a loaf of bread. We tend to leave the creators of our misery in the luxury of freedom. The anger waits alongside our waiting.

This is Comrade Fatso’s Daily Blog During the Zimbabwe Election Period. See www.comradefatso.com

The Kubatana team went for what we call a “cold one” (beer) on Friday night to support Comrade Fatso’s Get Up, Stand Up concert . . . here again we share his views and hear his frustration as we wait, and wait.

The only run off we want is for Mugabe to run off. Is this an election or an erection because everything seems to be standing still? These are the words on Harare’s lips and in its text messages. Our joy is agony. So close but yet so far. We are tired. We can’t take this anymore. Everyone I talk to wants the old man to go. If he doesn’t they will. Some say they will take to the streets. Others will leave the country. Everyone has a plan in Zimbabwe. Most of us plan to be here. But many will leave if Bob doesn’t.

Elections have become hello and goodbye. They have become our speech. ‘Results’ and ‘delay’ take on a new meaning. ‘Zviri sei’ which normally means ‘How are things’ has come to mean ‘What is the latest in the elections’. But the response is always the same. ‘Zvaka dhakwa’. ‘Things are drunk’. Drunk with emptiness in our kachasu society. Drunk with more of the same if we don’t win freedom this time. If there is a run off many more than those in the first round will run to vote out Mugabe. If Mugabe stays in power through rigging and violence many Zimbabweans will just run off.

We held our Get Up! Stand Up! Concert at the Book Cafe. It was a concert for a free people. With music and poetry MAGAMBA!, our cultural activist network, hopes to inspire and incite people to believe in their dreams and to struggle for them at this history-making moment. The crowd danced and toyi toyi’d. We sung freedom. We created a window into the freedom we fight for. My band, Chabvondoka, played music that is food for us during these question-marked times. We will need much food in the next few days and weeks. Food for the soul and for the body as we walk this potholed street called freedom. This street-light dark street that we walk down one step at a time, seeing only a metre ahead of us. But we walk still.

This is Comrade Fatso’s Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period.
See www.comradefatso.vox.com

For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see
www.myspace.com/magamba

We are grateful to Zimbabwean poet John Eppel for sharing his poem Waiting with us. As politicians play their games of power, Zimbabwean artists pick up their pens.

I count the falling frangipani leaves.
Early April, the nights are growing cold;
the scent of wood smoke sours as neighbours burn
their household rubbish; every now and then
a discarded aerosol can explodes
triggering memories of another time,
another place, another war.

So quickly do they change from fluid green
to yellowish, to desiccated brown;
and yet, the drop, the clatter, ages takes;
takes ages: either way. In terminal
cymes some flowers remain, as white as wax,
mingling the bitter sweets of paradise
with odours of anxiety.

Like sharpening blades on steel the plovers cry
as homeless people wander near their nests
waiting for news, waiting for results. Who
will it be? These falling leaves remind me
that the day has come and gone for ballots
to be counted, results announced, and I’m
afraid that change will never come.

I’m reminded of a saying that goes something like . . . politics loves a vacuum; if you don’t fill it with hope, it will be filled with fear. And this is exactly what’s happening in Zimbabwe.

The MDC’s early election victory claim has fizzled out and we’re left with witnessing a strengthening Mugabe response to the recent election. The MDC failed to capitalise on their momentum, and now it appears that its they that are on the back foot, not Mugabe.

Mugabe controls public media in Zimbabwe – both television and radio, as well as the daily newspaper. This is what people watch, listen to and read. And whilst we’re all entirely cynical of the state’s propaganda, our spirits wane as we watch Zanu PF re-grouping and using this delay in the announcement of election results to their advantage.

Of course this delay does nothing to enhance the esteem of Zanu PF in the eyes of anyone watching, nor does it give anybody any faith in the veracity of the election process, but then again Mugabe has never been one to care what anyone thinks about him or his actions.

In the light of this I’m still wondering HOW the MDC intends on communicating their side of the story to Zimbabweans who don’t get to watch or listen to international news broadcasts.

I’m wondering what the MDC is going to actually do to insist on their election victory being acknowledged as legitimate by Mugabe.

Perhaps it’s happened very occasionally but in general, a dictator doesn’t relinquish power through a democratic election. Now more than ever the MDC has to link its electoral success with people power.

There can be many forms of this.

For starters lets see the MDC’s victorious Members of Parliament and Senators gather together in a peaceful protest demanding the immediate announcement of the presidential election results. Lets see this peaceful protest strengthened by the participation of members of the legal community to draw attention to the subversion of the electoral process by Zanu PF.

Lets see Morgan Tsvangirai lead this protest.