I believe in constantly evolving, growing, improving and innovation. One must learn to do things differently especially when you are in business. If it means doing your business starting from the inside out, outside in or whatever that’s ok as long as you keep and stick to good business ethics. I have one such Zimbabwean lady who is a perfect example of innovation. I would like to assume that this woman said to herself: Hang on, I need to be different from everyone selling the same product as me. My product needs to be bought so I can send my children to school. It needs to be seen by everyone. Everyone needs to know what I am selling. So let me make a polony stand.

If you go to this lady’s stall she has polony on display for all to see.

The findings published in the report “Preying on the ‘Weaker’ Sex: Political Violence against Women in Zimbabwe”, produced by IDASA (An African Democracy Institute), the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) – November 2010 make for some disturbing reading.

• More than half the women surveyed stated that they had been victims of violence, most commonly assault, threats, and torture. 14% of this group indicated that they had suffered some form of physical injury.

• 2% of the women surveyed had been personally raped whilst 3% reported that a family member had been raped. Also 8% reported that the perpetrators violated women as a way of getting back at their husbands.

• 45% of the women surveyed had witnessed violence against members of their families and a significant proportion of the women in the survey (56%) reported that they had witnessed violence in their communities. There were also allegations of murder of family members from 11% of the women.

• Of survey respondents who failed to seek medical attention after being on the receiving end of an act of violence, 9% reported that there were no medical facilities within the vicinity, 9% stated that the facilities were too far away and 31% stated that the available medical facilities were too expensive.

• Only 23% of those that reported experiencing political violence reported the matter to the police. Of those that did not report, the reason given by 67% was fear of reprisals whilst 31% did not because the police were involved in the violence.

• 74% of women victims reported that they had no knowledge of where to go for legal assistance and 13% said they could not afford the costs involved for litigation.

As 44% of respondent’s indicated, women are indeed affected differently by political violence. Some reported that this was because of being physically weaker while others attributed this to women’s inability to go into hiding due to their family responsibilities.  What is certain is that Zimbabwe’s women, like millions of others around the world, exist in a cruel reality where the words of Mahatma Gandhi ring true:

“To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If non-violence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?”

I had put vending of vegetables and sitting the whole day at a msika as something done by Zimbabwean women. Then I met a rare breed of men in their msika stalls selling. We convinced them to take a group photo and two other men joined in – I guess there is comfort in numbers! These men just made me realize that sometimes there is a balance to life. As an encouragement to men waiting to do madiri that might get you in prison maybe you should try starting you up a ka little vending stall.

The vendor wrapping sheet is distributed monthly by Kubatana in order to promote people who are in the fruit and vegetable vending business and also to promote a culture of reading and information sharing. With a high rate of unemployment especially in Harare some people have turned to fruit and vegetable vending as a means of self-sustenance. A few years ago vending was associated with mostly women because men preferred to work in industry but with the economic crunch that Zimbabwe has been experiencing, men are now also vending.

When I was distributing the vendor wrapper in Greencroft recently, I was made to realize that you have to be innovative and crafty if you want to survive in the vending business in Zimbabwe. Since vegetable vendors trade in small currency and coins, trading has not been easy due to shortage of coins for change. In order to avert this problem vendors in Greencroft have become innovative by introducing a new system to make trading easy. With stiff competition from OK and Spar supermarkets, vendors at a vegetable market in Greencroft have decided to claim a share of the customers through innovative means. Just like any shop in Zimbabwe, supermarkets in Greencroft issue credit notes as change to customers when they run out of coins. These credit notes are then used to buy any product from vegetable vendors trading at a market in Greencroft. When I talked to one of the vendors, she said they started accepting credit notes brought by customers because they have been having problems of coins to give as change and also it’s a way of encouraging customers to buy from them. She went on to explain how the system works, highlighting that when they have collected a certain number of credit notes the vendors then go to the supermarkets where the credit notes were issued from and buy groceries or redeem them and get cash. The vendors said this system only works if the credit notes are from OK or Spar supermarkets in Greencroft.

Most vendors have been complaining about the shortage of coins and some have resorted to selling their products in bulk and round off the amounts to fifty cents or one dollar, popularly known as “dollar for two” or “dollar for ten”.

Liz, a participant on Kubatana’s recent workshop on creative organising had this to say:

My mind today was put to a tactful journey as I was give the opportunity to visualise the tactics of information activism. An ordinary day surely does not pass without one’s mind being put to task, but mine today was used differently! Listening to how various organisations the world over have and are making use of technology to turn information into action (Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe being included), had me inspired as I was writing the tactics down. Nothing was so new or out of this world, but what in some aspect made it new  was the way the organisations used them to get their objectives accomplished.

Tactic number 7 really challenged me. ‘Use Complex Data’, by Access Info helps to advance the right to know by publishing budgetary information on their website for the public to access. I asked myself why such an informative website does not exist in my country?? Come to think of it, parastatals are required to issue their expenditure accounts freely to the public….but reality check! This is not happening in Zimbabwe. The protocol and bureaucracy which one has to go through to access this kind of information will make you so tired before you even complete the process…guess its a means of never trying to expose corruption.

The rapid changes in technology surely brings about a greater and dynamic opportunity for information sharing thereby contributing to the success of CSOs’s advocacy. But just as we embrace these technologies some countries are presented with new methods of suppression, censorship and breaches of privacy. For example in Tunisia, You Tube was banned. In Zimbabwe the registration of cellphone lines is being hotly debated.

My experience therefore makes my eyes stare and look closely at a direction I used to just glance at, rekindle some dreams I had shelved under my pillow, open my mouth to say a word or two on issues I’ve been keeping quiet about.

In an effort to help Zimbabwean activists become more inspired and creative in their work Kubatana.net organised a morning of screenings and discussions of 10 Tactics for Turning Information into Action and Favela Rising.

We published an invitation to apply to attend the workshop in our email newsletter and asked respondents to write a short letter of motivation detailing what they hoped to get out of the session.

We picked a small group of activists (ten people) from the letters we received, as we felt this would give everyone involved an opportunity to participate.

The morning began with a screening of 10 Tactics. We encouraged the activists to take notes during the film for discussion at the end. Many of the activists related that they were using some of the tactics already, as in the case of the Research and Advocacy Unit which produced a documentary, Hear Us/Tinzweiwo, telling the stories of women who experienced violence and rape during the 2008 elections

Major issues that were raised in using the 10 Tactics included verifying information, self-censorship in reporting information and how to mobilise people.

Many of the 10 Tactics require information from communities to organisations, and there was concern about how the information being used could be verified, and how this could be done in a timely manner. The group concluded that if there was coherence regarding a certain piece of information then it would most likely be true.

With regard to self-censorship, the group discussed how this had taken root within Zimbabwe and was affecting civil society, with some organisations refusing to publish what they considered sensitive or inflammatory information.

The first tactic, which is to mobilise people around a certain issue, was felt by the group to be at the heart of the difficulties civil organisations in Zimbabwe are facing. Several solutions such as involving community members in programming and supporting community based initiatives were suggested.

The second film we screened was Favela Rising. Following on from the earlier discussion we decided to focus the group conversation around a quotation from Anderson Sa: “I am a warrior of the people.”

This was effective in getting the group to consider their, and their organisations role in effecting change in the communities in which they work. The group considered how the strategies utilised by Afro Reggae could be used in the Zimbabwean context. There was also some debate regarding the efficacy of social movements versus non-governmental organisations. The group noted that NGOs in Zimbabwe have become highly professionalised, leaving little room for real activism.

Our goal in hosting this screening to was inspire the activists to approach their work in different and perhaps more effective ways. During the workshop we stressed the importance of giving solutions rather than listing the problems, which are already well documented.

At the end of the morning we asked the activists to fill a feedback form. In answer to the question Briefly describe how you will use what you have learned to improve the activities of your organisation the following are some of the responses:

• To stand as an activist wherever I go.

• I will help other activists on how best they can turn information into activism.

• The people in my community are suspicious of elections. I want their viewpoint to be heard.

• Facilitate members of my organisation to be able to carry out locally based and formulated programmes.