Here’s a great piece by Chris Kwabato. He reflects on how “social” social media actually is, reminding us that we don’t get buried on the Internet.

When Facebook won’t bury you

We buried Mbuya Mashonga one warm May afternoon on the outskirts of Dangamvura in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Hundreds of people turned up both for the church service and the burial itself. It wasD’vat Chete interesting to see the scramble to get on the provided transport that was taking mourners to the cemetery. This was clearly a woman who was loved by the community in which she lived in.

As I cast my eyes across those present it seemed like the mothers and fathers of my youth were all there. Indeed earlier on, two of the women had chided me, “Kana wasvika kuno ukwazise vamwe. Tisu vana mai vako” (when you visit here make sure you greet us. We are your mothers.”) With a mother at every corner is it any wonder for over a century some folk always failed to understand when every couple of months a worker asked for time off to bury his grandmother. “How many times does your grandmother die, Maphepha?”

Now for the hundreds of thousands of our people in Diaspora their sense of community is largely built around social networks. Most of them are on Facebook, a few on Twitter and a handful others on LinkedIn. Everyone abroad and at home seems to have a mobile phone and so they keep in touch via sms. So, on the surface then it seems all is fine because most of us are connected.

But technology will never supplant the value of meeting people in person, shaking their hand, giving them a bear hug, looking them in the eye or just raising your glass and saying, “Cheers”. I should know because I am one of those that seem to spend their entire life online.

On the other side is my Sekuru who is always at every family-related event – awards, weddings, birthdays, funerals etc. He finds time to do that whereas some of us are caught up in the pretence of thinking we are so critical to the world that if we stop to greet people human civilisation as we know it would be under unprecedented threat. We think Facebook and some wiring of a couple of dollars will do the trick. But at some point in our lives (normally rather too late) we shall realise that the most important things in life are not what we had been chasing.

At the funeral I reconnected with real people – Lyndon, Percy, Job and others and also managed to have a real conversation accompanied by real handshakes.  That might sound absurd to you but it was important to me as I live in a place where I don’t know the names of my neighbours. When I was growing up I was taught that you asked your neighbours for some salt not because you did not have but so that you could meet and get to know each other. But this is not the culture of some folk.

At the same time, it seems the Diaspora is generally more comfortable exchanging pleasantries on Facebook than stepping out and building real communities. In saying this I should add that there are some good examples of how Zimbabweans are using Facebook to organise themselves meaningfully.

One Facebook group that fascinates me (I suppose it is because it speaks to the world I grew up in) is called Dangamvura Chete. Let me describe the group and it’s kind of conversations to illustrate a few points.

The Dangamvura Chete group describes their township of origin in the Manicaland Province as follows: Munezhu via Natvest (Dangamvura). A location we grew up in with all sorts of fun, full of rich entertaining incidences you can mention them to bring back the golden old days…We stay too far from town and it encouraged us to be wiser and organized. God bless the Pool ”Dangamvura” and its people all over the world…Socially it’s quite a good place with pubs in nearly all sections of the city a culture quite popular with all city councils ”a cow ready to milk”. What lacks are sports fields, we need an Olympic-size stadium, pool and any other facility you might think of fellow club members.

Who qualifies to be a member? Interestingly, the group is closed, meaning it is an invitation-only affair. Most of these members are now living outside both Dangamvura itself and Zimbabwe.

What kind of conversations do they have? The group thrives on nostalgia. More importantly it brings people together and therefore fosters collective memory.

Below is an example of a conversation started by one member:

Morzies Mustapha M: Was just thinking, we cud set up a Dangamvura Trust, which will look at some requirements of our Hood, Sporting Facilities, Health Club, HIV/AIDS Program, Children’s Home, Old People etc. If we are game we can get inputs from those on the ground (i.e those still staying in D’vat), then we put a committee in place, then give a bit back to the community that made most of us who we are today. Can we discuss this?

In response Eddie M wrote:  It is a gr8t idea & a very sensitive 1. How are we going to meet obviously dis is not gonna b discused on facebook & frm de luks of it we are all ova de wrld. We mst make it wrk mayb frm branches in different places.

Houston R wrote: Way to go bro I want in… How can we all meet and form this group guys.. Moze, this is a goood idea, let’s give back to our community.. It made us who we are today by the way…

Judith G wrote: Let’s try people good idea.

Having gone through the trauma of dislocation, there is a growing sense in the Diaspora of wanting to find a role in the rehabilitation of Zimbabwe. Now that for me is the kenge part – to step out of Facebook and build a country. Afterall kumusha is where we will bury you. Not on the Internet.

This is from the very cool blog Marklives. Let’s hope we get some creative, rather than vitriolic, political posters during Zimbabwe’s next election.

The Client: Stellenbosch Eerste
The Agency: Am I Collective for agency Limbik

The Brief: Stellenbosch Eerste, a non-political initiative, wanted to address voter apathy by highlighting local issues that affect Stellenbosch residents. In phase one residents were reminded to register to vote, phase two reminded them to cast their ballot.

Creative Solution: Am I Collective used 50′s style political poster art as inspiration to portray a beautiful town in stages of decay due to bad administration. The posters addressed the various local issues such as dirty rivers and over-extended dumping grounds. It ran in the local press and as street posters. Registration went up 10% on previous election years.

Creative Team: Am I Collective

See the posters here

We’re looking for a new domestic worker.  The last one left because she was getting married (logical?).  Forget the difficulties of actually training and living with a virtual stranger.  The search for a domestic is probably more tortuous.

As a starting point, it made sense to ask the out-going employee to recommend a replacement.  For us, that had always been a tried and tested method.  However, it proved to be trying and testing of us.  First, she said that she needed us to give her the details of the incumbent’s conditions of employment.  We obliged.  Then she wanted us to justify why her conditions were different from the new ones we were offering.  We gave her an explanation but soon found ourselves being interrogated on each and every point.  It wasn’t long before we were given front-row and centre seats to her protracted pity-parties.  In the end, she decided that she was no longer able to assist us … because of her husband, of course.

A little frazzled, we turned to family and friends for their help.  Unfortunately our quest churned out more horror stories than referrals.  We heard it all – about moodiness, going a.w.o.l., pilfering; of molesting maids and witching workers.  It all had us reconsidering whether we really needed domestic help.  Three days of doing laundry soon set that straight!

We broadened the search and sought assistance from neighbours.  No luck again, especially since somehow they got the impression that we were trying to poach their own domestic workers with the ‘showy’ working conditions we were offering.

The focus shifted to our neighbours in our rural area.  This time we wanted less references and more potential employees.  That became a learning experience.  Apparently, many in Matabeleland would prefer to seek work in South Africa than in Harare, which is viewed as a foreign nation.

We’re now toying with the idea of using a recruitment agency.  Having scanned the papers, we’ve come across ads that say, “For 18 – 45 years old maids, gardeners and cookers, please phone Shadi on 123456″.  Understandably, we’re a little hesitant to make that call and so the laundry basket piles higher and higher!

When you lose someone you love through an accident in which they are not at fault, the only consolation one can get is justice prevailing and the law catching up with the offender. In as much at it wont bring back the life of your lost one, you at least are guaranteed that such offenders will not walk free and continue to do the same offence and hurt other families too. Justice in Zimbabwe has been torn down over the years. The who’s who of the country seem to walk free from every court case.

The death of Shingie Chimuriwo left a gap in the world of women activism and a bigger one in her family. Shingie died on the 16 March after being involved in car accident with a drunken driver, who instead of stopping at an intersection, flew over it and hit her car on the driver’s side. The case was taken to court, and because this drunken driver is some high profile person in Harare, was merely fined USD400 and set free.

Driving under the influence of alcohol is an offence in Zimbabwe. And if one is found drunk and at the drivers wheel, the law should take its course, resulting in arrest. Worse still, if that drunken driver decides to drive and cause an accident that leads to loss of life or lives, the law should act and they should be charged with culpable homicide. Having such traffic offenders paying fines and getting released will only create a criminal infested country. Of which as Zimbabweans, this is not a scenario we would want.

If the Police are able to enforce laws such as the Criminal and Codification Act and arrest people then why shouldn’t the other laws be implemented in the same way? Imagine if one is to be charged for driving and talking on the cell phone, then we would expect a worse charge for those who cause accidents that lead to loss of life?

Read stories of the occurrence of Shingie’s death written by her husband, Fungai the founder of Zimbojam, Part one and Part two.

A report by the National AIDS Council (NAC) has revealed that more Zimbabwean women are accessing HIV and AIDS literature and anti-retroviral treatment compared to men. In the 2010 report the figures show that a total of 1,612,388 people were tested in the past 12 months of which 539,162 were men and 1,073,226 were female. The existing gap of is very wide and saddening.

It is now mandatory for every pregnant woman to undergo HIV tests to help prevent the passing of the virus to the baby (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission).  This reveals that when women go for these HIV tests their husbands do not go with them. Most men tend to rely heavily on the HIV status of their wives for them to hastily judge their own. If the wife is negative, they assume they are negative also. If the wife is positive, instead of assuming that they carry the same status too, like they would have done in the previous scenario, these men tend to leave their spouses and blame them bringing the virus into their homes.

In the same report it was also indicated that there was a decline in the HIV prevalence rate in Zimbabwe from 18.5% to 14.2%. This is something that is most welcome as it goes a long way in showing the fruitfulness of the efforts being made by the government and non-governmental organisations to curb the spread of the virus in the country.

However, even more can be done if more men take the initiative in going for HIV tests for them to know their status and prevent its spread to their partners.

I’ve just read Michael Laban’s blog on bribery and corruption, both of which are fueled by the abuse of power. I’m reminded of an incident that I witnessed at the Harare International Airport on Saturday. While we were loading luggage into my car an airport employee was busy clamping the wheel of the vehicle next to mine. When I expressed surprise at a vehicle being clamped in the actual car park rather than in the designated clamping zones, he said he was doing so on account of the vehicle having parked badly (the misbehaved car straddled two parking bays). Whilst I’m totally for drivers behaving respectfully, like actually parking properly in the parking bays, no where on the airport premises are there any signs saying that vehicles will be clamped for parking badly. This is exactly what Michael Laban illustrates in his blog; the airport employee decided to abuse his position, whether for an appropriate reason or not.