The Women’s Programme of the Research and Advocacy Unit recently produced a report on politically motivated Rape in Zimbabwe. In the report Zimbabwe is described as undergoing a ‘complex emergency’ that is a social catastrophe marked by the destruction of the affected populations political, economic, socio-cultural and healthcare infrastructure. It notes with concern the increasing use of rape in war and complex emergencies. Despite several United Nations resolutions being passed since 2000, only a small number of perpetrators of sexual violence against women have been convicted and jailed by international criminal tribunals for committing or commanding widespread sexual violence as a war crime.

The report notes that:

The phenomenon of violations against women is not a new thing in Zimbabwean politics; it has been reported in the majority of human rights reports produced both locally and internationally since 2000 when the political landscape changed with the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) posing a serious threat to the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF)s power-base in the June 2000 parliamentary elections. Before 2000 there were reports of rape particularly during the Liberation War and the Matabeleland massacres of the 1980s.

This report draws on several other reports by organisations such as the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum, The Zimbabwe Peace Project, and Amani Trust, and points out the difficulty of inferring the national prevalence of politically motivated rape.

RAU conducted its most recent research study in 2010 in collaboration with Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights, using 27 sworn legal affidavits and medical examinations of women who were raped because of their political activity or the political activity of their husbands. Rapes were reported as occurring in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2008. While the highest prevalence of 89% was in 2008, the report states that there is no suggestion that rape was actually more common in 2008 than in any other year. The report states that the sexual assaults reported were extremely distressing, with horrific accounts of gang rape.

The RAU/ ZDHR study included the following recommendations:

A multi-sectoral investigation into politically motivated rape, led by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, together with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs, should be undertaken on a large scale countrywide;

In light of the fact that elections are likely to be held in 2011, the government of Zimbabwe should ensure that women are protected from politically motivated rape, before, during, and after the election period.

Why would one assume that others are gossiping about him/her just because they happen to be speaking amongst themselves in a language he/she doesn’t understand?  I often get that when a group of us are speaking SiNdebele around non-speakers.  Forget that we simply derive pleasure from conversing in our own tongue.  The reason SiNdebele is spoken is to gossip about other people because we really have nothing better to talk about.  It’s very irritating!

I suppose there is something in all of us that makes us regard with suspicion people who are different from ourselves.  And the differentiator needn’t be on major grounds, like being of another tribe, race or religion.  These days even a girl who doesn’t wear weaves in her hair is an oddity to be questioned, “What is wrong with her?”

The problem is when one isn’t open to accepting people’s differences distrust often results.  We then keep away from the object of suspicion and unwittingly become fertile ground for perpetuating prejudices.  So because I have limited interaction with Ndebeles, albinos and women with cropped hair, I then see these groups as being violent, practising witch craft and being lesbian.  Sadly, no matter how far-fetched or ridiculous the notion, lack of knowledge makes it all true.

It gets worse.  Stereotyping leads to intolerance which in turn breeds fear and hate.  And we wonder why society is plagued by discrimination, oppression and hate-crimes. Most people feel insulted and angered when they are exposed to politicians attempts to manipulate them. “What do they take us for?!” we hiss at rhetoric and blatant falsifications of the truth.

Well, let it be known that given the right circumstances – our own existing ignorance and suspicion of anyone different – politicians can and do successfully get the populace to think and act exactly how they want.  All it takes is for us to have the right conditions within ourselves; distrust, fear, hatred and prejudice.  For as long as we are unwilling to embrace peoples’ differences then the history of mankind will continue to be coloured red with genocides because we cannot accept that people look, dress, talk, worship and live differently.

In our fertile soils, each one of us can passively stand by or actively participate in forced evictions, Xenophobic attacks, ethnic cleansing, world wars etc, etc … the possibilities are endless.

From a Kubatana member:

Is Dictatorial Behaviour A Form Of Mental Illness? If So can We Capture Such Individuals And Hand Them Over To Psychiatrists. 4 How Can U Entrust A Whole Country To A Madman?

What does it mean to be Zimbabwean? If propaganda and political rhetoric from Our Dear Leader and his cohorts are to be believed it means winning a medal at some sporting event while, say, swimming or playing cricket for Zimbabwe. For those of us who are under achievers, or lazy, it means being black. I cannot help but feel that Zimbabwe is further away from resolving its racial issues than it was at Independence. Being born-free, and a member of the generation that attended private school without there being a quota system that mandated my presence, being Zimbabwean meant simply a love for my country and the things that make it unique. That is not to say that we weren’t aware of the cultural difference between races – we were.  But back then, it was ok to discuss them, to explore our individual identities within the context of our group identity as Zimbabweans, now it’s considered racist.

I think Zimbabwe is far from being post racial. I think there are those of us who in our heads, there are friends who I hang out with, who are definitely post racial in their outlook, but I think we’ve still got a lot of issues to deal with. There’s no doubt about it…racial issues and class issues. I’m not sure, but I think the last ten years have in some ways dragged us backwards, and in others have dragged us forwards. Dragging us backwards, there does seem to be more racial tension here now than there was when I was growing up. It’s definitely because of all the hate propaganda, the political propaganda that gets spewed in the state media. In how it’s dragged us forward, I think it’s made those who believe in Zimbabwe have to fight for it, be they black white or coloured, and that’s hopefully brought people closer together. At the same time Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, black, white: all these middle class kids who’ve gone abroad, connecting with their Zimbabweans identity. They grew up here and wanted to go away as quickly as possible, and then they go over there and try to find their identity and realize what connections they’ve got back here. There are interesting things that come out. You’ve got white kids in London who’ve got an mbira punk band and things like this that you end up appreciating what you have when you’re far away [from home].
- Comrade Fatso.

Read the full interview with Comrade Fatso here.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has a tendency to use funeral speeches to attack some target or other, typically The West. There is even a name for this. Type in a Google search for “Mugabe funeral rant” and you’ll be amazed with what you find – for example, the Sabina Mugabe rant (“‘To hell’ with Europe and America) and the Joseph Msika rant ([The West] are not the people to deal with).

Yesterday, he gave the Menard Muzariri rant. According to AFP:

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Thursday condemned gay “filth” in Europe, as he lambasted Western powers for maintaining their asset freeze and travel ban on him and his inner circle. “We don’t worry ourselves about the goings-on in Europe,” he told thousands at the burial of deputy intelligence chief Menard Muzariri, who died Monday. “About the unnatural things happening there, where they turn man-to-man and woman-to-woman. We say, well, it’s their country. If they want to call their country British Gaydom, it’s up to them. That’s not our culture. We condemn that filth.”

I haven’t heard about the upcoming referendum to change the name of the United Kingdom to British Gaydom, but clearly when you’re in the diplomatic circles you have more inside information on these sorts of things.

Read the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) statement about the Muzariri rant:

Statement on President Robert Mugabe’s threats at the burial of Menard Muzariri

Statements by President Robert Mugabe castigating gays and lesbians at the burial of Menard Muzariri at the National Heroes Acre on Thursday 14 April are nothing new and only serve to reinforce our call for constitutional protection of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Intersex people that has been met with state sponsored homophobia of alarming levels.

It is time for the Zimbabwean government to reflect seriously on its thinking around human rights including those of its lesbian and gay citizens and Government should be implementing measures which proactively encourage a culture of meaningful human rights protection in this country.

Statements by the President are a contradiction of article VII of the Global Political agreement in which the President pledges to promote equality, national healing, cohesion and unity. The President should strive to “create an environment of tolerance and respect among Zimbabweans and that all citizens are treated with dignity and decency.”

Activists in Zimbabwe are not puppets of foreign forces, as government would have everyone believe: we want a responsible government that is responsive to the needs of all Zimbabweans and we are fighting for our own good and for our own benefit as citizens of Zimbabwe.

The President needs to provide leadership in overcoming Zimbabwe’s challenges in areas such as violence, unemployment, education and health rather than fostering antipathy and intolerance.

The University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Theatre Arts and the Faculty of Arts, in partnership and collaboration with Student Solidarity Trust (SST) and the Disability Resource Centre (DRC) this week hosted the Disability Arts Festival. Under the theme: Navigating and Re-negotiating Marginality: Cultural and Artistic Dimensions. Academic presentations, poems and plays were presented during the week. Of essential mention is the presentation by Mr Masimba Kuchera from SST.

Mr Kuchera is visually impaired and his presentation investigated ways that impaired people can navigate the marginalities they encounter in their daily lives. The action plan is not one which requires one to be educated or academically advantaged but rather it draws itself from the natural attributes of any human being whether disabled or not. He presented a 5-point plan way of navigating and re-negotiating marginality from both cultural and artistic perspectives. A plan is vital in a negotiation process, as it serves as a yardstick. Negotiators are therefore desired to:

1. Refuse to be a hostage of the situation
Our society tends to model the way in which disabled people grow. For example some are denied their right to access education. It has become “normal” to see a disabled person not go to school. Thus there is need for disabled people to decline to be held into that ‘model’ and choose a different path.

2. Know their weaknesses and understand their strengths
It is important that disabled persons know their weaknesses and understand their strengths. In so doing, they are able to accept their disability and concentrate more on what they can do best.

3. Be patient
Patience is a virtue. This applies to anyone in general. When one is negotiating there is need for them to understand how the system works so you can be able to manipulate it for it to work to your advantage. And this can only be done when one is patient and takes time to learn.

4.  Be confident and assertive
From a cultural perspective, elders are the ones who sit at negotiating tables ‘matare’ and make the final decisions or have the final say over a matter.  In a scenario like this, the ideas and opinions of young people tend to be ignored. Likening it to disability issues, there are some people who negotiate for the disabled and at times they are the able bodied ones. It therefore takes confidence from disabled persons to not look down upon themselves and know that ‘disability does not mean inability’, for them to negotiate for themselves. After gaining the courage to have said something, one should be assertive and stick to what they said until it has been achieved. However, this confidence should not grow into arrogance, as a thin line exists between the two.

5. Ignore artificial ceilings
Break new ground, do the impossible! Pearson Nherera was the first Advocate who was visually impaired. Herry Gwala, became the first MP in Uganda who had disability.  Paul Matavire and Stevie Wonder entered the music industry. Disabled people need to identify the artificial ceilings (which are usually set by the society) and choose to ignore them.

Disabled persons should work closely with partners. First, the State is obliged to work with them. Members of Parliament and policy makers and advocates should be able to put systems in place to assist this group of people. Second, the media should accommodate them, rather than to choose to ignore them. Through the media, arts and cultural activists raising awareness of the situation of disabled people will be given a platform to fill the gap of their non-existence.

For a long time have we seen blind beggars sitting at street corners. Everyday we see them begging at controlled intersections. Jairos Jiri, had a dream, and created a home for disabled persons. But over the years, we wonder and ponder what our government and the non-profit making sector have done to assist disabled people. But the fact that their numbers are increasing in the streets shows that more work has to be done.