Male students at the University of Zimbabwe are going to find themselves turfed out of res when the campus opens for classes later this month.

I couldn’t find a written news article on it, but according to Studio 7 VOA , the University of Zimbabwe information department has issued a statement saying that no male students will be housed on campus when the semester begins in two weeks time.

The government has announced fee increases of between 300% – 2000% for university students, and the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) has pledged an indefinite boycott should these increases not be reversed.

The UZ plan will evict some 1500 of the 4000 campus residents from their accommodation, and will open the housing up for women. The move is clearly meant to reduce the potential for student organising and mobilisation in the face of student protests. University students had suggested that they would come to campus when the new semester begins, but would refuse to go to classes.

One student who was interviewed on VOA said a number of UZ students will now not be able to attend lectures due to high transport costs. The students get government grants of less than $5,000, which isn’t enough to cover even one day’s transport to and from the university, much less lodging costs or regular commuting costs to the university.

UZ Student Representative Council Vice President Clifford Hlatshwayo called the plan “barbaric and diabolic,” and rightly described it as gender discrimination.

Imagine being in your final semester at university and not being able to finish because you’ve been kicked out your residence and you can’t afford to go back and forth to campus. Imagine being a first year student and not getting to even start your programme for similar reasons. I can understand the frustration and outrage at this move. It is just one more example of the state’s authoritarian and arbitrary decision-making style that sweeps aside any sense of what people really need and want.

So when I heard that Hlatshwayo also said that the action was turning the UZ into more of “a girls’ high school” than a university, I decided not to take offence. Sure, he could more accurately and less patronisingly have said that it was turning it into a women’s university. But he didn’t.

As much as I sympathise with his and other male students’ entirely understandable frustration, a small part of me does wistfully imagine that the women might surprise us, and this could be a big break for female solidarity, mobilising and resistance. If the UZ thinks 1500 angry men are a threat, imagine 4000 women organising their complaints – including, for example, the fact that the $5,000 grant doesn’t provide enough for sanitary ware either – and facing down the university administration with outrage and determination.

Clearly the UZ administration has never heard that expression: the female of a species is more deadly than the male.

I was smacked in the face on Friday when I read Amanda Atwood’s blog where she listed all the strikes taking place in Zimbabwe at this time. And I thought, maybe, just maybe something is shifting.

Here’s an excerpt from Njabulo S Ndebele’s book Fools & other stories to give us hope and strength

If the fish in a river
boiled by the midday sun
can wait for the coming of evening,
we too can wait
in this wind-frosted land,
the spring will come,
the spring will come.

If the reeds in winter
can dry up and seem dead
and then rise
in the spring,
we too will survive the fire that is coming
the fire that is coming,
we too will survive the fire that is coming.

This morning, someone pointed me to Gapminder, a fun easy to use webpage that tracks all kinds of different population and demographic data, like life expectancy and income per capita. So I selected Zimbabwe, and watched the data tell the story I already knew – the staggering decline in income per capita, and the crash in life expectancy, since 1992.

Countries like Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho, also devastated by HIV/AIDS have seen their life expectancies decline similarly, but their income per capita has been more firm.

So then, given everything I’ve been hearing about Guinea lately, I decided to have a look at their changes in income and life expectancy over the past years. The country has seen a slow and steady improvement in both life expectancy and income per capita. But Guineans still aren’t satisfied with the past 22 years of President Lansana Conte’s government.

In April 2006, Conte sacked the Guinea’s prime minister and took over that role in addition to remaining President. On 10 January 2007, trade unions in Guinea called for the third general strike in a year, demanding government reforms.

The strike lasted almost three weeks, and was combined with protests by demonstrators calling on Conte to resign. At least 60 people were killed in the demonstrations. These deaths are part of what led Conte and the unions to negotiate. Conte agreed to let go of some of his power and re-establish the position of Prime Minister, and the unions agreed this was enough for them to end the strike. The new Prime Minister has yet to be named, but clearly Guineans hope she or he will bring new life into the government.

With all the strikes growing in Zimbabwe now, maybe we have something similar in store. Reflecting on this with a colleague, she commented “Mugabe is at his weakest right now because of the economic crisis, but the opposition is failing to use this to their advantage.”

I hope she’s wrong. I don’t know if all this is enough to make Mugabe agree to let go of some of his power. But if Gapminder is anything to go by, we’re well past our turn. As they said on SW Radio Africa tonight, no matter what Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono does, ordinary people continue to struggle from day to day as prices rise and shortages persist. And even Gono recognizes that, if government does not increase wages, workers will have no choice but to join labour action.

With strikes, threats of strikes, go slows and discontent by nurses, doctors, teachers, Tel-One employees, farm workers, university lecturers, and even the Zimbabwe Military Academy, as well as the ZCTU threatening a general strike starting 23 February, maybe double oh seven really will have some surprises in store.

Listen to audio interview with Raymond Majongwe

On December 16 2005, outspoken Zimbabwean trade unionist and musician Raymond Majongwe, made his way back to Zimbabwe from Nigeria where he had been attending the 14th ICASA AIDS conference. Little did he know what the government had in store for him on arrival at Harare International Airport? When he landed the Zimbabwean authorities seized Majongwe’s passport accusing him of being a sellout and peddling lies about the country.

Majongwe, who has lost count of the number of times he has been arrested by the Zimbabwean authorities, said he couldn’t believe what happened to him. “I asked them: what is a sell out? How do I sell a commodity I do not control”?

To add insult to injury after getting his passport back from the Zimbabwean authorities, Majongwe was denied a visa to travel to the United Kingdom by the British Embassy in Harare.

In the song “Of Passports & Visas” on Majongwe’s new music album called I Speak What I Like, the activist musician said he was trying to make sense of the Zimbabwe and British governments. They are opposed to one another but together they, “connive and agree” in denying him an opportunity to travel.

The title of Majongwe’s new album is clear enough to scare some Zimbabwean musicians who have censored themselves from being the voice of the voiceless. Some say that musicians in Zimbabwe do not generally sing what they like because they want to make sure that they stay on the “right side” of the regime. However, he praised musicians like Leonard Zhakata who, despite the current political challenges, have not minced their words and continued to record songs that reflect the views of the people. Some of Zhakata’s songs have allegedly been banned on state radio.

One would expect that the release of Majongwe’s eighth album would see him entering the local music charts but for Majongwe, this is still a dream. His previous albums have not seen the light of day on the national airwaves.

“I will continue doing what I think is right and I will continue singing what I like at what ever cost, or price that has to be paid”, Majongwe said on being asked what had been the inspiration in recording his new album. He added, “I was trying to send a message that I am not going to apologize for what I believe in. I am not going to be apologetic about my thoughts, about my opinions and experience.”

In his song It’s Not Easy Majongwe warns that the road to freedom won’t be a walk in the park. The song Sekuseduze comments on the fact that it is always darkest before dawn. Majongwe said, “People must be reminded that no regime can have its hand on a boiling pot forever”.

The Truth is a song that warns people who “promote violence, brutality and barbarism” that they will be accountable someday and everyone will know the truth.

Majongwe describes Thomas Mapfumo as being his greatest influence. He also gets inspiration from the self proclaimed South African ‘people’s poet’ Mzwakhe Mbuli and the late legendary Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti. In a show of admiration for Fela, Majongwe recorded a song called Fela on his debut album titled Which Way Africa.

Speaking about the challenges he faces Majongwe said many promoters have not been keen to work with him for fear of government reprisals. He added that music shops and flea markets are reluctant to sell his music because they fear that state agents will come and confiscate everything.

But the jovial Majongwe is optimistic that Zimbabwe will one day be free. Having recently returned from a visit to the United States, he described the trip as an “eye-opener. “I was shocked that people can go to the president’s house and shout what they want,” he said laughing.

We sent out a Kubatana email newsletter recently and in it I asked our subscribers to give some feedback on the following

We’re reading a lot these days about the “harmonization” of the 2008 or 2010 elections. However, the MDC has experienced what they’ve called “stolen” elections for the last 6 years. It seems that the MDC along with elements of civil society feel that formal elections are still the only way to go and that they hope that the electoral and constitutional conditions will be favourable by 2008 to enable free and fair elections. The mind boggles at this lack of creativity and innovation. Isn’t this like flogging a dead ballot? Do you have some bold ideas? Feel like sharing your daring? What are your thoughts about voting and elections?

We got a lot of feedback and I share a little bit of it with you here

Perhaps I am mistaken, but aren’t parliamentary elections held every five years and presidential elections are held every six years? If so, isn’t this so-called harmonising a once-off event as I have not seen any reference to reducing the presidential terms to five years to bring it into line. (Ken)

It is utterly immaterial when the elections are held, as the regime will rig them, come what may. Indeed they can probably run elections without rigging as the MDC factions will spend most of their energy fighting each other and doing the regime’s work for them. If anyone is naive enough to think that change can come through the bent ballot box, they are living in a fog of self-delusion. I can understand trying something once, twice or even three times, but if you do so again and again and learn nothing, then you are an idiot, pure and simple. Those who wish to waste their energy on opposing this ‘harmonisation’ are reactionary counter-revolutionaries who will divert and distract and divide us – just as King Robert intends. Even if through some miraculous cock-up, zanu-pf fails to rig the elections and fails to unleash an overt coup against whoever wins, without meaningful structural and procedural change, we will merely exchange one set of thieves for another who will waste no time in looting the remnants of the economy while making all sorts of excuses to justify keeping POSA, AIPPA etc while they consolidate power. I for one cannot tell the difference between the fat cat chefs in zanu and those in the mdc except that the mdc ones are perhaps slightly leaner. (Mandebvu)

2008 was not only marked as a year for getting the voices of the people heard through elections, we all even expected a new product on the Zanu PF shelf. We expected Mugabe to simply abdicate the throne and give a wholesome chance to another candidate. At least this could have given the people fresh hopes of a better Zimbabwe since it was this one person who had made this country become a failed state. Can we really blame it all on the opposition and call it a moribund? To that I can only say the power of any revolution lies in the people and not in the leadership of the revolution. That was then going to be revealed in the year 2008. (Clayton)

In keeping with the last opinion, perhaps the poem In Silence We Sing by Zimbabwean poet Albert Nyathi is appropriate

Even the silent ants
Trampled upon by giant elephants
Do sing a silent song
They shall surely know
How to shoot
The great foot
Weighing heavily on them

It’s good to hear that the issue of sexual diversity has been tackled head on at the World Social Forum that’s been taking place in Nairobi, Kenya. Check out this interesting blog written by Adam Maanit, a Co-Editor at the New Internationalist.

Amidst all the huffing and puffing about what constitutes gay rights, Kasha Jacqueline, a Ugandan human rights activist summed it up succinctly

When Ugandans hear that we are advocating for gay rights they imagine we want more or extra rights, but NO; we want what belongs to us which was robbed from us; EQUAL RIGHTS which we are entitled to just like any other Ugandan.