Anna, a domestic worker living and working in the suburb of Greendale, Harare angrily said to me “Zimbabwe is finished – FINISHED!” I thought wow, this violence over the past few days has really gotten to her. Finally she’s enough, as we say here. But when I talked further with her she believes that Zimbabwe is finished because it now costs her Z$5000 to get from Greendale to Mabvuku – one way. Again we see that some Zimbabweans are viewing the downfall of our dictatorship through an economic rather than an opposition toyi-toyi lens.

I felt similarly when I went to the supermarket (Bon Marche, “Have a Nice Day” – yeah right) on Sunday looking for some washing powder. I had to look at the price several times and even in the end I still wasn’t sure, but it looked like it cost Z$246 000. I thought I’d settle for a loaf of special bread instead which cost Z$2 800. When I got home and pasted some peanut butter on a slice I noticed that there were a few small black spots on it. Closer inspection showed them to be a kind of a seed although at arms length the bread looked fungified (non-word in case you were wondering). Aah, so that’s why its special!

Meanwhile with the increasing political tension I’m wondering whether the organisers of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) which is scheduled to kick off on, wait for it, 1st May (Labour Day) are pleased (potential liberation of our country) or gutted (who all is going to come visit violence ridden Zimbabwe, and who all will be in the mood to “party” as it were)? Will we have the same old argument from culture buffs and the like who say, “well, life goes on and its important that we keep our spirits up.” But HIFA is generally supported by those who already have their comforts and the ability to keep their spirits up (cappuccino outings, satellite tv, etc) whereas the majority have no option but to choose a loaf of bread over a theater ticket.

And of course the diplomatic community, some of whom came out in condemnation of the brutal attacks on civic and political activists recently, are often financial supporters of HIFA or avid show goers. So on the one hand some Zimbabweans are working to expose Zimbabwe for what it really is – a repressive dictatorship. And on the other hand we have Zimbabweans committed to upholding Zimbabwe’s image as a place to hold international events; where everything is hunky-dory. Supposedly.

What will it take for us to refuse to lip stick this regime?

This entry was posted on March 19th, 2007 at 11:57 am by Bev Clark and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.