Becoming The Muse

If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to this, *gesturing expansively* my humble digital abode. Whether you are new or regular, I would invite you to feel at home and direct you to my new About page, so you can better find your way around all of words that lay the foundation of this space.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that not many people appreciate the art of a breath cooled cup of coffee. You hold a cup of steaming hot coffee and feel some of the heat seep into your hands then gently blow a kiss into your mug and a cloud of warm air rises up and envelopes your face with an aromatic embrace…

Its not weird at all, that on a chilly day, you cup your hands together and into them you blow a warming breath then you rub your hands together to get them to warm up, and then wrap your hands around a breath cooled cup as the warmth soaks into your hands, then you bring up the cup to your lips and you sip but very carefully….

The same breath that can warms your hands cools your coffee an instinctual display of our duality.

Have you ever tried drinking tea or coffee in an enamel or metal cup, it seems to stay scalding long after its been poured and the metal cup will burn your lips and when you swallow the hot beverage, you will feel it burn your tongue and throat as burns its way down to your gut. You may even decide to add water to cool it down because the countless breaths you will blow into seem to not make a difference.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you how breathing is important, we have a local expression “Chikuru Kufema” (whats important is breathing) which translates to as long as we still breathing… a platitude we throw at the thousand and one challenges we have to endure.

I cant breathe

Those chilling words resonate with us for the fundamental right to be, to breathe, to be, to be free.

If you watch the media then, you know how these words have been part of the rallying call demanding justice from oppression and police brutality.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you there was a diplomatic incident when the National State Adviser mentioned Zimbabwe amongst the list of foreign adversaries to the United States fomenting unrest on social media and the US ambassador was summoned by government officials to explain the statements O’Brien.

African governments have taken to condemning the brutality and oppression too but I cant help think of the story of someone who wants to take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a large plank in their own eyes.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that it feels a lot like there’s someone or something pressing at our neck choking the life out of us, we cant breathe.

Bread has gone up (again) so has everything else. Prices in the shops are will leave you gasping, some say its not very expensive as the prices have not gone in terms of the United States Dollar but those arent easy to come by and our local currency everyday tries to reach a new low, as inflation runs away.

Shops are also operating on a multitier system where they will rate prices of goods according to the black market value of USD but in the event you ask to pay in USD some will convert the price using the “official rate” which is 1:25 to the USD which means something which is supposed to be USD$1  when you want to pay in actual USD will be double or more.

A new breed of entrepreneurs is taking over the streets after the government banned informal street vendors from selling their wares the gap in the market is being operating from the boots of their cars who take advantage of the limited trading hours to sell all sorts of produce.

But if these are people with cars who are now trading like this one wonders what is happening to the people who used to survive by selling at their roadside markets, those with limited means being muscled out by those who can, we cant breathe.

If you were having coffee with I would tell you that lockdown restrictions seem to have gone up a notch due to the steep rise in covid cases, even though no official statement has been made, in the past week there have been days when security forces have actively turned people away from the city or went around the CBD telling people to return to their homes.

Some people say the government is using lockdown as a way of preventing the people from revolting. Some night in the past week a video circulated on social media which was said to be of people in a Harare suburb protesting, turns out it could have been a funeral procession or something else with people chanting revolutionary songs but some of the responses by people show the nation that is desperate for someone to start something.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that a popular opposition party group got evicted from its HQ building which is under the control of the party it split from, the thing which stands out about this eviction is that military and police personnel were involved in this ownership wrangle which resulted in some opposition party members being detained. When one can call upon the police and army as henchmen in an eviction when they should be busy defending the state and government in its endeavors to fix the economy, its not a surprise when people start to wonder.

Meanwhile a review of suspension of electoral activities by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission affirms that electoral activities that require gathering remain suspended in response to the COVID pandemic and Lockdown measures.

There’s a song by the late Oliver Mtukudzi called Handiro Dambudziko (That’s not the problem) where he sings about how we struggle to fix the wrong things.

Kushingirira kurapa mhopo pamusana…mhopo iripamusana iwe uneziso rinembonje

(Struggling to cure the wart on my back.. when you have a swollen eye)

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the Winter Blogging Challenge by Afrobloggers is running along smoothly and we currently have over 80 bloggers participating from over seven countries… and yes once can still join in even its just by supporting the movement and checking out the hashtag #WinterABC

Whats been happening in your neck of the woods, can you breathe?

~B