Les Schtroumpfs

This week didn't get off to a particularly good start. I had a big argument with my sister on Skype and it seems that on a lower dose of lithium PMT hit with a vengeance this month. Have been feeling a little low the last couple of days and functioning at basal level. I think the euphoria of the last two weeks politically has also worn off and we are left thinking now what? In amongst this we received devastating news that a good family friend who lives down the road has cancer everywhere.

On the upside though this time next week I will be heading down to Cape Town for the wedding of two special friends and I will also see friends and family. Just have to get through another week of teaching between now and then. Had to try think what smurfs were today with my ten year old in French as he had got blue marker all over his hand and was trying to say he was one. It was bucketing with rain when I arrived and I dashed into what I thought was his flat in Newlands which turned out to be one of my mum's student's from the International School - oops. The apartments look identical. Have discovered my French student loves drawing so am trying to include that where I can and get him to décrit moi son dessin.

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Christmas just came early

I was in Arundel Village when suddenly all the commuter omnibuses going past started hooting and people cheered. The two ladies working in Solution Centre came out and hugged so I asked them what had happened and they told me Mugabe had just resigned. The supermarket was abuzz and people smiled and laughed. It was like a huge cloud had lifted and you could feel the joy, it was palpable. A security guard came over to me and said this was a good day for Zimbabwe and that the people have been suffering for too long. The shopping centre turned into a carnival and people continued to pass along Quorn Avenue hooting. On the drive home there was some crazy driving but pedestrians stood on the roadsides waving flags and whistling. Friends were going to go celebrate at Queen of Hearts but it's a bit dicey driving across town with people mad on the euphoria and I have a French lesson to prepare for tomorrow. There is a teeny part of me though that hopes we aren't celebrating too soon. It looks like Mphoko will take over as president. He is known as the MP who spent over a year living in Rainbow Towers hotel at the country's expense. For tonight though I toast the end of the rule of the dictator I have known all my life.

Despite the unity of Saturday's experience I had a rather unpleasant incident today. I was early for my form three so parked just down from a local government school. I was busy reading a message on my phone when I suddenly became aware of a group of little boys running up to my window. They couldn't have been more than nine or ten years in age. They took it in turns calling me a murungu (white person or British person in Shona) and then running away. It took me aback that children so young could express these sentiments and that there were still these kind of prejudices around. When I drove round the corner to where I teach the same group were walking along the road there. I waved and one waved back but the boy who seemed to be the instigator just hurled more abuse and it really felt venomous. Earlier today I had met with my best friend for lunch at Aroma. We talked about what was happening politically and also reflected on Gukurahundi and how we really need truth and reconciliation for all that has happened, even dating back to before Independence. We happened to ask the waiter if he had heard any news of what was happening in the country while we were eating and he said no but that the person who had been sitting at the table next to ours happened to be the head of the war veterans - eeek! We both started thinking back to exactly what we had just said.

So yes, we breath a sigh of relief, but pray for the days ahead and wisdom for the person who takes over. Hopefully we have been truly liberated.

This song came to mind tonight. It was performed at HIFA this year by Angie Nussey. Little did we know then as we sang along that freedom was possibly on its way.

Awaiting the next instalment

Episodes of House of Stones

In between trying to write up reports on wetlands yesterday, like most Zimbabweans I was closely following the dramatic goings on of ZANU PF and then awaiting the very anticlimactic speech delivered by Mugabe. We don't have tv so I was mainly looking online and then for the first time in a very long time listening to ZBC - yes I think they had the biggest audience they've had in years. It is all rather exhausting and you are kept on tenterhooks. From today it seems an impeachment is to go ahead but in Zimbabwean time, who knows how long that will take. I don't think I'll hold my breath for too long.

Today being Monday it was back to teaching and personal training at lunchtime. My home schoolers asked if I had been at the march on Saturday. My Chinese four year old was horrified when I read him a book about bugs and it said there could be close on 100 different types in his house. His response was, "Never!" He did concede that there are worms in his garden which he and his dad feed to his fish in the pond. He said he thinks they gave one of the fish too many worms as it died. I asked if that had made him sad and he replied no, not really. There is a certain comfort in doing one's daily routine and telling oneself life continues despite all the political malarkey. One just hopes we can continue to live here and change comes.

In the middle of all this we're having to look at getting a new car as we are sinking money into our current one and it's a bottomless pit in repairs. Went to a car dealership today and it seems with the current uncertainty prices are at an all time low. Just need to research a bit and bite the bullet - slightly nervous investing when one doesn't know what will happen next but we need a car.

Limboland and Kambuzuma

After the elation of yesterday, today we sit and wait again. Apparently Bob has been sacked by ZANU PF but is still president. A well written post by Alex Magaisa outlined yesterday the legal and political intricacies of legally removing Mugabe from power. It looks like Mnangagwa is the successor but whether he will form a government of national unity remains to be seen and if we will still have elections next year. So yes, yesterday was a day of celebration for the end of Mugabe's rule, but we need to pray about what and who comes next.

I went out to two wetland sites yesterday afternoon and this morning. Development has already started on both but I have been asked to write a report. Driving through Kambuzuma this morning we passed Heroes Acre and the Chinese Mall. Both symbolic of things in their own way. On the way back from Kambuzuma we stopped to go look at a small dam known as Blue Lake. The path leading to it took us through masses of garbage and litter. We went through a half constructed building where squatters were living but also sifting through the rubbish and making an attempt to group things into different piles. I have the image of an old man sitting by a fire surrounded by computer parts and microwave oven shells embedded in my mind. In a way he and the others are recycling our excess of waste but it was still a sorry sight to me.

Well I had best continue trying to write these reports.

Do you hear the people sing?

I say do you hear the people sing, but it is not the songs of angry men, it is the song of celebration. I went to Fourth Street with Birdlife people for the supposed march to State House this morning. We got there a little late and it seemed people were circling back already but there was an atmosphere of jubilation and camaraderie. On the way my friend got a phone call from her brother in Joburg as she had signed off on Facebook with the line, "I may be some time" - which I thought was very funny but her brother was slightly alarmed by. When we got to Fourth Street the road was full of people dressed in Zim flags and in high spirits. It was multiracial and I saw many people I knew. Various groups such as the womens' league of the war vets came parading past and people cheered them on.

There was a bit of confusion as to what exactly was going to happen. There was not much planned for after getting to State House and it seemed we were waiting for people to join us from Highfields. At one point a whole lot of soldiers suddenly appeared and were forcing everyone to sit on the ground. I found this a little tense and unsettling - we were reliant on the army going along with everything. An armoured vehicle eventually appeared and everyone leapt to their feet and cheered. It seemed to then trundle down along Fourth Street. There was then talk that the march was going to move to Rotten Row - whether to the ZANU PF headquarters or the municipal buildings I am not sure. We decided to head home. I have to teach this afternoon and have then got to do some work for the wetland group.

The army was directing traffic out and we ended up having to drive past State House where the soldiers were out guarding the perimeter - what they're guarding I don't know as Mugabe isn't there. It was amusing to note City of Harare out fixing potholes today of all days on Josiah Chinamano and driving past Old Hararians Sports Club there were people out playing cricket, the paradoxes of Zim.

Thunderstorm

Darkening skies of cumulous clouds,
ominous as the storm draws near,
reflect my inner thoughts and fears
of what tomorrow brings us.
Should I march and take a stand
or just sit and read online,
afraid of repercussions
and brute force?

It could be history in the making,
the people speaking,  a new day breaking.
Dare we hope, perchance to dream?
Has freedom come to us at last?
In the eery light the msasas take
the greens and browns of army fatigues.
This new state of affairs and murky waters
we do tread in, unawares of what is there.
But people on the vleis plant maize
in the hope of what the next harvest brings.

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Visual Literacy

Charlie Cole 1989, World Press Photo A demonstrator confronts a line of People's Liberation Army tanks on Chang'an Avenue, Beijing, during protests for democratic reform on Tiananmen Square.

Day 3 in Zim and on the surface life is "normal", although driving to Borrowdale near the taken over ZBC headquarters I passed a truck full of soldiers armed to the hilt. The state owned newspaper The Herald, for once was accurate with its headline "Business as Usual" as for the most part we carry on with our lives but it does niggle at the back of your mind. My sister is now nervous about coming home in December.

I went to an excellent talk on visual literacy as part of the World Press Photo Exhibition 2017 which is being exhibited in the Book Fair area of Harare Gardens. The winning photographs from around the world are on display until next week. As the two Dutch presenters said, it is an interesting week to be talking about press freedom and the use of photography to tell stories in Zimbabwe. Also the question of where we get our news from and which sources we trust. We looked at Jonathan Bachman's powerful image of Ieesha Evans in the US defying the police moments before being arrested and how visual journalists capture moments to tell stories. I found out about the World Press Photo's online publication, Witness and like this quote from their page:
"These days, when the world, the press and photography itself are undergoing seismic changes, one thing remains constant: People deserve to see their world and express themselves freely.

Freedom of speech is more important than ever, and quality visual journalism is essential for the accurate and independent reporting that makes that freedom possible."

Jonathan Bachman 2016, World Press Photo Ieisha Evans (27) stands her ground at a rally against police violence against black men, outside the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana, USA, on 9 July. Evans had travelled to Baton Rouge to protest the death of Alton Sterling, who was shot at close range while being held to the ground by two white police officers on 5 July. The fatal shooting of Sterling came at a time of heightened tension in the US over the deaths of black men at the hands of the police. Data collected by The Counted, an initiative set up by The Guardian to record such fatalities, found that in 2016, black males aged 15-34 were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by law enforcement officers. Evans was arrested at the protest, but released later that evening.

The person presenting talked about how photography is how we perceive the world and how photographs are assessed on their journalistic and aesthetic value. She showed us a map of press freedom. Zimbabwe has censorship but it is not as bad as China, where it was suggested there is an intranet rather than an internet. On another scale Zimbabwe was ranked 126th in the world for press freedom out of 305.

In line with the theme of visual literacy there was also discussion on the evolution of photography and how phones and things are changing how we capture images. It was reiterated that you are what you photograph and not what camera you use. An interesting project #everydayafrica on Twitter was mentioned. There was a call for children to be taught visual literacy and to be able to tell what is real and what is not. An example was given of the fake photograph of Trump's inauguration. Society needs to construct meaning from everything and look, see, describe, analyse and interpret what they are presented with.

I unfortunately missed the rest of the workshop with a Dutch professional photographer as I had a job interview and I am teaching this afternoon but I am glad I went to the first part. Go along to the exhibition if you have time. I have my Chinese student, coffee with a friend and then a contemporary art exhibition this afternoon. We will try get home before dark. There is supposedly going to be a march to State House tomorrow. I am not quite sure what it is representing but apparently the war veterans are backing it.