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Go and don’t come back to Zimbabwe

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I’ve just received a reply to an email I sent to a friend informing them that I had been offered a fellowship to study at the prestigious Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC).

All he said was good luck in your studies and don’t come back until there is CHANGE. He added “find something else to do there to kill time”.

I just laughed off his suggestion and I wondered how do you kill time in Amsterdam after you have over stayed?

In June last year, I spent a week in Amsterdam where I was taking part in a seminar called Expression Under Repression organised by Hivos. Before my return home, I took a stroll in the city famous for it’s “red light district“. I met a guy from Sierra Leone, at first I thought he wanted to con me, but then I realised he was just trying to be friendly.

He told me about his wife and three kids and how he was struggling to get his asylum papers in order. He said his main challenge was the Dutch language as he was supposed to be fluent if he was to pass the integration test. This guy had been there for over four years.

My ‘guide’ then asked me if I was planning to return to Zimbabwe. I told him yes, I’m going back. He was dejected probably wondering how stupid I was not to stay. It got me thinking about why it is often tough for young Africans to get a VISA to travel to Europe. They just go and stay low, as the saying goes.

Life may be tough in Zimbabwe but I don’t think “staying low” in Amsterdam will do me justice. I have told myself that if I am going to leave Zimbabwe, I will get my papers in order and be free as I move around in whatever country I decide to settle in.

Through my travels, especially in South Africa, I have seen people in self imposed exile suffer. They struggle to make ends meet, doing menial jobs and when pay day comes, their employers call the police and they have no choice but to run.

Such is the reality as I pack my bags in a few days time. I just wonder how you pack for self imposed exile? What do you take, what do you leave?

7 comments to “Go and don’t come back to Zimbabwe”

  1. Comment by Natasha Msonza:

    Touching piece this. Good questions too.

    They say there is no place like home. Really, for how long will we keep running? Running from just one man and his cronies against whom the rest of us are plenty. For how long will our people chose to subject themselves to second- class citizenry in foreign land, when they can live in peace here if they CHOOSE to? If we all leave, who will stay here? You pack your clothes and notebooks Taurai, and when you are done, you come back and join us in our struggle for real independence. I980′s sounds trite..

  2. Comment by Global Voices Online » Zimbabwe: Don’t come back to Zimbabwe:

    [...] From Kubatana blog: “I’ve just received a reply to an email I sent to a friend informing them that I had been offered a fellowship to study at the prestigious Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC). All he said was good luck in your studies and don’t come back until there is CHANGE. He added ‘find something else to do there to kill time’.” Share This [...]

  3. Comment by Pamwechete:

    Good point, no use to go to the diaspora with out adequate papers. And home is always best

  4. Comment by Zhaine:

    ay that’s rite. im on some fake papers thing here and i regret everyday of it. scared to meet police asmuch as the papers look legit , cant go home though its just a border away coz im afraid i wont make it past the border on my way bak. do it legit. i think govts need to inform pple on how to do these things properly.

  5. Comment by …My heart’s in Accra » links for 2007-05-01:

    [...] Kubatana.net speaks out from Zimbabwe ? Blog Archive ? Go and don’t come back to Zimbabwe My friend Taurai’s meditation on the suggestion that he find a way to get out of Zimbabwe, possibly by overstaying a visa. “I just wonder how you pack for self imposed exile? What do you take, what do you leave?” (tags: zimbabwe africa freespeech blogs) [...]

  6. Comment by Global Voices Online » Zimbabwe: more arrests, regional neglect, and Western duplicity:

    [...] Taurai Maduna at Kubatana relates the pressure that Zimbabwean young professionals face to leave the country: I’ve just received a reply to an email I sent to a friend informing them that I had been offered a fellowship to study at the prestigious Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC). [...]

  7. Comment by MediaChannel.org:

    [...] Taurai Maduna at Kubatana relates the pressure that Zimbabwean young professionals face to leave the country: I’ve just received a reply to an email I sent to a friend informing them that I had been offered a fellowship to study at the prestigious Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC). [...]