As the world starts to open up its doors to you that is when you realise the importance of learning as many foreign languages as you can. My father spoke three languages and I used to think he was trying to show off, not realising that because of his quest for greener pastures he had to adapt to new environments fast, and being comfortable speaking many languages was essential to job hunting. After learning English in school my belief was I that I could conquer the world not realising that the world doesn’t work like that!

When I was in Firenze recently I went to a restaurant and ate something that I didn’t order. Amongst our group nobody knew how to speak Italian. On the menu there were some English translations but we decided not to order the obvious and went for something different and Italian. I was the first to place my order and the waiter who was serving us also had language challenges. All I could hear from her was “Signo, Poi and Prego”.

Every meal you take in Italy you have to complement it with wine. So whilst I was waiting for my meal I was sitting in front of two bottles, one of red wine and the other of olive oil. I was in Italy to learn not to get knocked in the middle of the day so two glasses were enough for the occasion. By the time the main meal came I thought there was going to be some more coming not realising that I was eating the main course! To me it looked like a starter or something. The order I had placed was in Italian so I got grilled meat in tomato paste. It tasted good but sounded strange to me to eat meat with tomato paste. That’s when I realised that the world works well for you if you master the local language – red meat in tomato sauce could have been avoided if I had managed to read the menu well in Italian! The next time we went to the same restaurant I could see waiters switching so that we got served by the English speaking waiters.

So here I was in the middle of this Italian town that English speaking people prefer to call Florence but actually it should be pronounced Firenze.  One thing I noticed from the day I set foot in this town was the church buildings. If you studied the Roman Empire in school you would know what I am talking about.

This a town where people just love art, art is everywhere. From buildings to the streets and even on the toilet paper I got in my room, art is just part of the day-to-day life in Firenze.

When I was walking around I saw this couple on honeymoon sitting in front of this artist having their picture drawn. They call it caricature.

Its summer in Italy right now so day light time stretches up to 11pm and this kinda affected me so much that I could find myself in the middle of the city after midnight, something I wouldn’t do in Zimbabwe. I would get back to my room around 2 am!

During my stay in Firenze I was living with about 8 friends from different parts of the world. The fear of getting lost was almost to none as the people there were helpful in giving directions and the motorists respect pedestrians so much unlike some places I know – Zimbabwe!

A question was asked during an election reporting workshop concerning how journalists and civic organisations can report or walk the fine line between bringing knowledge to the people and not attract the wrath of the authorities who have criminalised voter education.

It highlighted the problem many have with the conditions that prevail as the country prepares for elections whereby while political parties are encouraging supporters to vote on one hand, and on the other institutions expected to play a role in ensuring that the same voters make informed decisions being fettered by the threat of imprisonment.

Anyone seeking to make inroads into remote rural areas for example to “educate” voters does that at their own peril, and it has to be queried how then a people known to have no access to radio, TV and newspapers are supposed to participate in processes they have no clue about.

It could well be a replay of the referendum where voters merely followed instructions from their political parties and vote for issues they have no clue about.

And because this is a high stakes poll, we can expect all voters to be denied by the usual suspects all the information they need to make informed decisions.

This buttresses the charge that rural folks are “instructed” or “persuaded” with brute force who to vote for, and we have already read about Jabulani Sibanda “frightening” villagers in Lupane, which is just the beginning of worse things to come.

Common sense would tell you that the period in the run-up to elections provides insight into the credibility of any poll, and Sibanda’s reported actions in rural Matebeleland only serve to cast more doubt into the country’s – or Zanu PF’s seeing that he is a Zanu PF functionary – commitment to creating conditions “ideal for a free and fair election.”

And because these rural constituencies have rather unflatteringly been labeled as “unsophisticated” they are seen as very malleable in the hands of political hoodlums, and it is here where an informed voter can take charge of their political circumstances and indeed political future.

Thus we hear exhortations from some quarters that the rural folks must remain docile and allow themselves to be herded to rallies but make their choices known inside the voting booth!

A famous Tony Namate cartoon back in the 1990s actually has a peasant woman mischievously winking as she puts her “X” on a candidate contesting against Zanu PF, and while such commentary did indeed help magnify the extent of what has become a post-independence millstone around our necks, Zanu PF has still been able to claim the vote, raising questions whether if at all rural folk “vote freely.”

But it’s a debate that will take forever as some have already opined that Zanu PF has never allowed defeat to stand in the way to claim victory!

It thus has become a well-worn cliché that access to information is the bedrock of all electoral processes and democracy, yet we find ourselves doing the same things over, and over but still expecting to get different results.

It is essentially because of this that some of the most vocal people you meet in the street criticizing the status quo go to the pub instead when other citizens join long queues under the blazing African sun to cast their vote!

Another issue to look out for again this year would be the spread of newspapers, which areas they reach as they seek to report about the pre-election climate.

Yet one thing that has precedence is the “outlawing” of certain titles from certain areas where reading a particular paper has in the not-so-distant past been a punishable offence with vigilantes using cudgels on fellow villagers for merely reading a newspaper of their choice.

To an outsider it sounds crazy, but this is what we can expect in the coming months, that is if it is not happening already.

Day 1, Saturday 11 May
Checked in at 9:30 and had to wait for two hours for the bus to come. We left after midnight and the highlight of the trip was when one of the guys in our group had a clash with the co-host. He was angry because of the delay and a bit drunk and they exchanged words. With him being a student activist and a former SRC president at MSU we were treated to words, which later became a hit on our trip. He would say: ‘foolish fool’, ‘deodorized bullshit’ and a whole lot of other words that are now synonymous with him!

Day 2, Sunday 12 May
We arrived just before noon and had a formal meeting to facilitate introductions. Met Louis and Brian, the trainers. It was a free day so we went out shopping. Six volunteers were asked to stay at a different location from the rest of the team because the lodge was full. I volunteered with the lady sitting next to me because no one was any showing interest in doing so. We were some lucky bastards as we got to stay in a hotel – not that fancy but far much better than the lodge! In the evening we were told a call came through from the lodge saying the training was starting at 7am instead of 9am!

Day 3, Monday 13 May
First day of the training, woke up early for 7am but little did we know it was a prank! Failed to find the culprit. We were given really great phones for our work towards the end of the day after we had grasped a lot of what Mobile Community Zimbabwe (MCZ) was. So MCZ is a community of citizen journalists who report on the stories not covered widely or at all in the mainstream media.

Day 4, Tuesday 14 May
The lessons and group exercises just made me miss my school days.  Did our first video assignment around the lodge. Interesting stories came up and we had a great laugh. We had a big discussion on media law and ethics. Most of the participants were wondering whether we were supposed to get accreditation like journalists. The local trainers explained to us that if we get accreditation then we lose the whole idea of citizen journalism. Also they reminded us they do not expect to get from us the hard-core news stories we read in the press everyday.

Day 5, Wednesday 15 May
Had a class assignment to work in groups of two. We went to ZAMCOM the largest school of journalism in Zambia. Made video stories there too. Did more outdoor playing around with the garden set up at the college and interacting with the students! After class, we all went out for drinks.

Day 6, Thursday 16 May
We were divided into three groups and we visited three different community radio stations. I joined the group that went to Radio Christian Voice; a Christian based community radio station.

Day 7, Friday 17 May
We went to the market where Zimbabweans sell various goods. Used Storymaker to do interviews. It was a lot like a market place in Zimbabwe because everyone around that area could speak Shona or Ndebele, though most were born in Zambia. Went for a mini bus tour around Lusaka on our way back to the lodge. We were given the afternoon off so we took a long walk to a local market place. In the evening we watched the videos we had made in the morning. Said our goodbyes.

Day 8, Saturday 18 May
On this day Intercape really insulted us! We got up early preparing for the journey, checking in time was 9:30am. When we got there we were told the bus was going to leave at 1pm. We left after 2pm but fortunately we managed to get by the border before they closed. Arrived in Harare just before midnight.

30 April 2013

Harare International Airport

I was given a jolt at the check-in around 1500hrs when some dude said “nah mate we cannot let you through you gotta have a visa.” A flurry of emails between the WPFD organisers, and I’m back by the Internet cafe and the guy comes to me and says, “We have found a way to get around the visa thing. Since you are travelling through Germany you won’t be leaving the airport so, abracadabra, you can travel!”I be like, “Dude, that’s what I was telling you all the time!”

I am sitting at the Harare International departure lounge watching some TV and I’m like what the fuck, shouldn’t we be watching DSTV! But then I soon realize it would be deemed treasonous showing such content at a “strategic national treasure!” Somewhere in the distance I can hear “last night a dj saved my life” blasting from the radio and I be like wow, that gotta be some coincidence. I move to another end where I order a pint of lager and I sit in front of a screen showing BBC news.

Arrived in Zambia shortly after 1900hrs but departure was delayed due to some technical fault in the checking system, the pilot explained. Finally left at 2040 PM for Dubai. Bloody long, 5,793km to be exact … check out the entire diary here

Padare Discussion: Beyond organized hypocrisy – practical ways of working with men and boys to achieve gender justice in Africa

When: Wednesday 22 May 2013 from 530 – 7pm
Where: Book Café, 139 S.Machel Avenue / 6th Street, Harare

Speakers
Tapiwa Manyati, Sonke Gender Justice South Africa
Fredrick Nyagah, MENKEN, Kenya
Catherine Githae, MENKEN, Kenya
Hubert Lubambo Mashiriki, COMEN
Josephat Mutale, Zambia led prevention initiative

Moderator – Virginia Muwanigwa
Discussant – Professor Ezra Chitando

The Wednesday 22 May discussion is presented in partnership with Harare arts and development organisation Pamberi Trust. Pamberi Trust and Padare have enjoyed a long relationship working together in nation building over the years, and maintaining a high profile for ‘the gender agenda’.

The discussion is free, and all people are welcome.

An important book that takes a critical look at the state of democracy in Zimbabwe was published early this year and is an invaluable tool in assessing our political landscape as the country eyes elections later this year. Compromise or Compromised? An Assessment of Democracy in Transitional Zimbabwe published by the now defunct Institute for Democracy in Africa (Idasa) “is intended to set the benchmark for democracy to be measured against in the future” and “the hope is that citizens…can use the Democracy Index to assess and debate the state of their democracy” (p.1).

Kudakwashe Chitsike, who co-edits the book with Amy Eaglestone, writes that the “purpose of this book is to analyse the state of democracy in Zimbabwe since the signing of the Global Political Agreement” (p.2). It uses Idasa’s Democracy Index and scores each question addressed by contributors between 1-10:

1-4 / inadequate or falling short of the democratic ideal
5 / stable but insufficient
6 / stable and inadequate
7 / improving
8-10 / excellent and also close to the democratic ideal

It can only be hoped that as we approach elections, attitudes by political elites toward the electoral processes do change as scores in the Elections and Democracy Index did not inspire any confidence in these processes. For example the question “do all citizens believe that their vote is secret” scored 2 out of a possible 10! Then, “to what extent do citizens believe that the electoral system reflects the will of the people” also scored 2 out of a possible 10!

Chitsike explains that “this Index is different from previous democracy indices … as it looks at democracy in the perspective of gender… In Zimbabwe, participation in democratic processes for women is an uphill battle as the domination of women practiced at family level is carried into the public arena.” (p5).

This therefore is a welcome book especially now when the new Constitution seeks to mainstream gender and bring more female visibility to the country’s body politic. It is also a welcome addition to the body of knowledge of the country’s false steps to inclusive politics and democratic processes as it will be used a reference point for checks and balances in keeping vigilance on any false promises the political elites make to the citizens.

The book is divided into five sections, namely Participation and Democracy which scores a low 3.4 average, Elections and Democracy (2.9), Accountability and Democracy (2.2), Political Freedom and Democracy (2.9) and Human Dignity and Democracy (3).

The two editors and six contributors are drawn from diverse backgrounds that include human rights, law, development and their rich field experience offers refreshing insights into contemporary Zimbabwe’s political landscape. It will be a useful tool for anyone who seeks to steer the country from the opprobrium it has attracted in the past 15 or so years and make informed decisions that indeed seek to create a better Zimbabwe. It’s not too late.