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Archive for the 'Reflections' Category

Why should I vote?

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Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

Zimbabwe is abuzz with talk of elections and the referendum. It seems the electorate will have a very busy year ahead of them. I must confess that I don’t count myself among the electorate; I’ve never registered to vote.

I imagine I’m not the only youth aged 18 to 35 who hasn’t registered to vote. Neither am I the only one who isn’t remotely inclined. Answer me this MKD, ZAPU, ZANU PF and MDC-whoever, why should I bother to vote?

Voting is supposed to be part of a democratic process where, after much consideration of the available candidates, a citizen may choose one whom he or she feels most addresses their issues. But after much consideration of the candidates available to me, frankly, I’d rather not participate. I do want change; I do want to be a part of something greater than myself. I have high hopes for Zimbabwe, but I find that these hopes are often choked by the reality of my day-to-day existence.

Everyday I am confronted by a kind of lawlessness. >From the Kombi drivers, who know no rules, to businessmen who shamelessly ransom basic necessities citing mythological taxes. And what are my City Councillor and Member of Parliament, who promised me a return to the Sunshine City in the Bread Basket of Africa doing about this? Nothing. When I read about ministers who unashamedly steal in broad daylight, and get away with it, it begins to make sense, none of these people care about me, or this country.

Once when I was younger, and caught up in an idealistic fervour I did believe that I could make a difference. That my vote was my right, and that my government was accountable to me and anyone else who answered to mwanawevhu. I am wiser now. Promises are made, and when the dust has settled, and the slogan charged rallies have ended they are forgotten.

I’m sure the people who cast their ballots in 2005 were full of hope that an election would bring water to their houses, doctors to their clinics, cheaper food into the shops and teachers back to their children’s schools. It didn’t. In 2008 they were beaten for taking the trouble, and their situation became worse. Why then would I want to participate in a process that legitimises the illegitimate, gives power to those without conscience and seems to only bring pain and suffering?

I am young, but I am no longer idealistic. I watched with envy Obama’s election campaign, as scores of young peopled chanted ‘yes we can’ marching in the streets on TV. They felt a sense of ownership of their country that I did once. I know better now. This is Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, and should he ever win, it will become Morgan’s Zimbabwe, but it will never be mine.

Dead, not buried

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Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 by Bev Clark

An excerpt from a report by the Harare Residents Trust:

Burial fees

The residents argued that if the government of Zimbabwe made land available for free under the land reform program then why should a dead corpse be made to buy land from the City of Harare?

Lumumba means Freedom

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Monday, January 24th, 2011 by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. He was only 35 when he died, but in his comparatively short life, he managed not simply to help what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo gain independence from Belgium, but he inspired an idea.

Lumumba’s political career was not very long. He was Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo for almost three months before he was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis, and then murdered. The exact details surrounding his death are not clear, but the Belgian government and the CIA were implicated. In 2002 the Belgian government formally apologised to the Congolese people for Lumumba’s murder.

Lumumba is an African icon because he stood steadfast in his belief that the African people had a right to determine their destiny without interference. At Congo’s Independence, the Belgian monarch made it clear in his remarks that he expected Belgium to play a leading role in the Congo’s future, and Lumumba stood defiant in the face of Imperialism:

‘No Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it is by struggle that we have won [our independence], a struggle waged each and every day, a passionate idealistic struggle, a struggle in which no effort, privation, suffering, or drop of our blood was spared. We will count not only on our enormous strength and immense riches but on the assistance of numerous foreign countries whose collaboration we will accept if it is offered freely and with no attempt to impose on us an alien culture of no matter what nature’.

Lumumba understood then that while Congo, as did other African countries subsequent to that, had achieved political independence, it was yet to gain economic freedom. It was because he was a threat to colonial interests that sought to maintain their economic relationship with postcolonial African countries that Lumumba was enough of a threat to be assassinated. More than anything Lumumba struggled against “an institutionalised relationship between Africans and Europeans,” in all it’s forms, which facilitated the exploitation of Africans and their resources. As he did then Lumumba represents the idea of unencumbered self-determination, the idea that Africans can truly be free.

In an article titled Lumumba’s ideals and the symbolism of his life, Lyn Ossome writes:

Today due to greed powered by its own African neighbours, who under the watchful eye of the United Nations continue to fuel ethnic conflicts and amass far too many civilian casualties, the country lies in political, economic and social tatters. The paranoid miscalculations of the U.S. and its allies during the Cold War cost Africa many inspiring leaders and perpetuated conflict in a number of countries that have paid long and hard, among them Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique, and the DRC. In Sudan, a long civilian war robbed Southern Sudan of its economic soul for more than two decades, and the semi-autonomous region that stands poised to secede from its northern counterpart today is one that is desperately clinging to the hope of Pan-African solidarity and visionary, steadfast leadership. At the contentious heart of its secession lies its enormous mineral wealth, caught within the same cross-hairs of imperialist interests and intervening African interests against which Lumumba struggled until his death.

A polite way of turning away students

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Monday, January 24th, 2011 by Lenard Kamwendo

After a long Christmas and New Year break most schools in Zimbabwe opened on the 11th of January 2011. A hike in school fees was reported in most schools especially private and some government schools. It is that time of the year when you hear stories of school children being turned away for non payment of fees.

When I was in school my former school head used to say this on the first day of classes: “If you did not pay your school fees go back home and tell your parents that we need that money now!!”

It sounded harsh to the ears of the parents, especially mine. But since it’s now an offense to turn away children for not paying school fees most school and college heads have come up with some enhanced community relations skills in order to keep their image clean. This has helped the school heads in terms of public relations. They have toned down the language so that when you hear it you won’t fume like how my parents used to do.

They now tell students to go back home and collect receipts as proof of payment.  It sounds diplomatic and very kind but after you’ve let it sink into your head for a while it’s still the same as hearing that your child has been turned away for not paying fees. When I heard my little cousin telling me that she was told to go back and collect receipts that’s when I realized that it’s now simply a matter of manipulating words to get the message across.

Just imagine if you had not paid school fees for your child where on earth are you going to get the receipts from?

Hope and Despair

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Friday, January 21st, 2011 by Amanda Atwood

Raphael Chikukwa from Zimbo Jam shares some information about a forthcoming exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe:

Hope and Despair, a new exhibition at the National Gallery in Harare, features work from nine emerging artists and gives unique visual commentaries to and interpretations of Zimbabwean contemporary life, challenging you to rethink “the obvious.”

The nine artists are Calvin Chimutuwa, Muthabisi Pili, Tafadzwa Gwetai, Portia Zvavahera, Mercy Moyo, Richard Mudariki, Warren Mapondera, Zacharia Mukwira and Virginia Chihota.

The exhibition opens on January 27.

Find out more here

Remembering Dambudzo Marechera – Submit your piece

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Friday, January 21st, 2011 by Amanda Atwood

To celebrate Dambudzo Marechera’s posthumous 59th birthday this year, Zimbabwean writer, editor, and anthologist, Ivor Hartmann (administrator of the official Dambudzo Marechera fan page on Facebook – endorsed by The Dambudzo Marechera Trust – with over 5,000 fans and the only consistently updated web page solely focused on Marechera), will be compiling an anthology entitled and themed Remembering Marechera. It will consist of essays, reviews, short stories, poems, etc. that follow the title/theme.

Find out more from Zimbojam