Mwana asinga cheme
I arrived in South Africa today and was bemused to find that my South African driver and a fellow passenger from Ghana are more passionate about ‘the Zimbabwe issue’ than I’ve heard any Zimbabwean in Zimbabwe be.
“Mugabe must go!” proclaimed the driver.
“Only Tsvangirai can save Zimbabwe now!” chimed in the Ghanaian.
I started to give my opinion, that Tsvangirai is not the great Bantu hope and in some ways Mugabe has a point. I was shushed. What could I possibly know?
The only one of these two to have visited Zimbabwe was the driver, in the early eighties ‘when things were still good’. They both knew better. After all, they were both better informed of the goings on in my country than I. They both agreed with each other, smoothly leaving me, the only person in the car who has lived, worked and survived gore riya renzara under the Mugabe regime well out of the conversation.
We proclaim to ourselves that the Diasporans need to come home to get in on the ground floor in re-building Zimbabwe, but perhaps we’ve gotten it wrong. Increasingly I’m finding that important conversations about Zimbabwe, are taking place outside of Zimbabwe. Where does that leave those of us who live and work in Zimbabwe?
I hmm-ed where appropriate, but for the most part, I was silent in that car this morning, as are Zimbabweans when our country and its future are being discussed. Investment conferences, vigils and even talks regarding the existence of sanctions which may or may not be causing additional suffering are discussed without the people they are supposed to be helping. There is zero consultation and the only opinions that seem to matter are those that are self serving at our expense. If Zimbabwe is to have a revolution it is that Zimbabweans should learn to speak for themselves. Mwana asingacheme anofira mumbereko.
Wednesday, February 16th 2011 at 11:36 am
So true, whenever we are in South Africa the same thing happens to us……everybody else (non-Zimbabwean) is an expert on the situation, although a lot of the infomation they receive is through some form of media form and not from the experience of being in the situation themselves. On one side even though they are somewhat on the outside looking in, they may be able to notice things that those of us on the inside cannot see/ are not able to see because of the daily struggles that come with being on the inside looking out and not vice versa, but without a doubt the voices of those living in Zimbabwe should sound louder than those of the spectators living outside the country.
Thursday, February 17th 2011 at 10:50 am
I was talking to another Zimbabwean in SA yesterday and he said Zimbabweans are just plain tired of discussing their situation. It’s been talked to death, and now we want to get on with the businesss of living or surviving as the case may be. Do you think this is why we won’t have a revolution in Zim, we don’t have the energy?
Tuesday, February 22nd 2011 at 2:17 pm
its not because zimbabweans fear revolution dad. Zimbabweans can do what ever they want even worser than the egyptians but remember tine mhondi dziya dzekwamutare and the so called war verterans who can kill whilst dad we want to see the day tommorrow and educate our children.we are now ruled by GOD and we are now tired by the so called mugabe and tsvangirai and we are praying that GOD;S TIME CAME AND MAYBE THESE BARGARDS WILL STOP DISTURBING US
Thursday, February 24th 2011 at 2:13 am
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