The Zimbabwe I knew

by Tapiwa Molife

I now prefer the old and ignorant assumptions that Africa is one big jungle filled with leopard skin clad natives who live in mud huts. Four years ago, I took great pride in correcting western presumptions and expressing my optimism for the increasing modernisation of Zimbabwe. Over the course of the past few years, that same pride has been slowly replaced with feelings of shame and frustration. Now, instead of explaining how Zimbabwe is not as different from western nations as the Discovery Channel chooses to portray it as, I have to explain why white farmers are being kicked off land that they call home, and how the nation lets the president get away with such atrocities.

I am convinced that the human desire and need to believe in a greater entity other than oneself is the same that leads people to blindly place their lives in the hands of one individual.

As much as I would like to say that I don’t understand how this has come to be, I think I do. History has shown us that during times of crisis, the most erudite and appealing individual or regime can gain control over every facet of a nation. Although it seems unbelievable that the world has not yet learned from the numerous examples of countries crippled and left desolate by ruthless dictators, the same social and political conditions that allow this to occur are still prevalent. I am convinced that the same human desire and need to believe in a greater entity other than oneself, is the same desire that leads people to blindly place their lives in the hands of one individual. It seems as though almost every nation under tyrannical rule at some point in its history accepted dictatorship as a means of restoring prosperity, a greater sense of patriotism and obtaining the respect of the international community. Zimbabwe is no exception to the trend and serves to make me question whether or not the price of advancing a “backward” country into a modern state is worth the millions of lives lost.

As though a twenty-eight year rule is not enough to convince people that Mugabe’s time has come to resign, you would think that the ten hour cues to purchase gas, lack of running water, killing of the opposition, and the world’s highest inflation rate, would at least cause people to take a more comprehensive assessment of the present state of the nation. I cannot even imagine how much more the nation can suffer at the hands of Mugabe, but I am once again optimistic that even though it took the more economical choice of using ten dollar bills as toilet paper, to life the veil of disillusionment from my grandmother’s eyes, the older generations of Zimbabweans are coming to realize that the time for change has come.