If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my corner of the internet and offer you anything you want as long its instant coffee with no milk, no bread or biscuits, just sweet potatoes.
We can pretend that the sweet potatoes are by choice because they are super healthy and not because the price tag of bread has made it a scarce guest at the breakfast table. Prices of things in the local currency have been crazy this month, the Mobile Internet Data Bouquets were “revised” prices twice in June… is that a 300% hike?
Given the happenings in this teapot shaped country its easy to see how people view The Zimbabwean Dream as leaving Zimbabwe. I was at the airport recently saying farewell to a sister who had achieved the dream, setting off for that brighter future. It’s a bittersweet farewell because you never know if you will see each other again, its an understood bottom line that someone might only come back to bury or be buried and sometimes never at all….
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that I thought about the old saying that went something like; “Airport departure halls have seen more tears and goodbyes than funerals.” The airport was packed with other people also saying their goodbyes and it left me wondering, at this rate of depatures how many are going to be left behind?
When I shared the tweet about people leaving, Isaiah mentioned a similar condition in Nigeria known as the Japa Syndrome. ‘Japa’, a colloquial term in Yoruba which means “to run, flee or escape”. Its basically people leaving their country for greener pastures…
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that no one is a secretive as someone who is planning to migrate abroad. One could say perhaps they don’t want to jinx it and also it can get a tad awkward, when you say you are leaving then end up not leaving plus the VISA application process is brutal it will chew you and spit you out… or so I have been told, having never applied for one.., yet.
Then of course there’s the haters who might actively hamper your travel plans… on the internet I saw someone who posted their plane ticket and someone else cancelled their flight. People might not outright say it, but there’s a fear that you might get bewitched for flaunting that you are about to make it.
I can tell you that I wasn’t the only person that discovered my sister was actually leaving when she called to ask us to see her off to the airport… Its an unwritten rule, make your moves in silence. If I ever migrate, there’s people who will only realise it when they read a blog update about me having coffee at Starbucks, cause there’s no Starbucks in Zimbabwe.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell that I am low key tired of being said goodbye to and never the one leaving. My passport expired, so I am not going anywhere anytime soon, unless I pull some very risky moves.
Its sad that some people can get to a point they are pushed to risk it all, doing whatever it takes to migrate. There was news about a the Greece Boat disaster resulting in about 300 fatalities when an overcrowded fishing trawler sank.
That news cycle got drowned out by the Titan submersible which went missing on a diving expedition to the Titanic and is now known to have impoded. The jokes and memes about that situation are an indicator of how alienating people by being ultra-rich will result in them not being particularly sensitive to your plight. (but I may have chuckled at some of the jokes am I terrible person?)
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that overnight the world shifted from being an expert in submersibles to being armchair specialists on the situation in Russia with the Wagner troops. Did you know that just earlier a delegation 7 African heads of state met with Putin? They went to Russia on a self-styled “peace mission”and also visited Ukraine to try and end the 16 month war.
While the visit had no visible results and hopefully did not inflate the situation, it was quite bold of them to take a firm stance. African countries have a deep rooted and complicated relations with Russia and Ukraine. The conflict has reverbations that affect us, for example South Africa imports wheat and cooking oil from Russia and Ukraine and Zimbabwe imports heavily from South Africa. Could be why there’s no bread at the table, who knows?
On the flip side of the coin, there’s the narrative of how the heads of state would set to fix issues in foreign countries while turning a blind eye to the chaos happening within our continent.. if they could rally together to hold other statesmen accountable to their actions, charity is supposed to begin at home.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that the electricity situation has improved significantly, we went almost a fortnight without a power blackout.. I have been holding my breath not wanting to jinx it…. but the power cuts are creeping back although not as bad as before… for now.
Whats been going on in your neck of the woods
~B
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