Becoming The Muse

Coffee with March in November

If you were having coffee with me I would welcome you to my tangle of words… They say time flies when you are having fun, so I guess we been having cause I cant believe its been 7 years since people took to the street and went on march to the state house calling for the late former president’s resignation.

People look back and call that our dzungu day because well, in hindsight, it sanitised a set of events whose repercussions are still with us today. Some say that’s why it no longer rains, some say life was better before that moment… but then we have selective amnesia when it comes to the past, you will find us arguing that life was better during the colonial era, conveniently turning a blind eye to the atrocities of the time…

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that despite the folly of our decisions, it was still a historic march, you had to be there, the euphoria was palpable and contagious. Had you been present, I promise you it would have been easy to be swayed into the order of the day, whether you agreed with it not, just by seeing the unbridled joy. It was a sort of once in a lifetime experience…

If you are having coffee with me, I would tell you that over the weekend I watched a theatre production called The Taking… My next post will be a review of the play which is a reconstruction of our history centred on reclaiming the national narrative.

Watching it, I could not help but feel how its true what they say about  history repeating itself, its like, its like we have been going round and round in circles, never learning from the past, doomed to repeat it, in an inevitable circle.

We had land, it was taken from us, we took it back, but we didn’t quite get it back, so we took it back again, they say its ours now but it doesn’t feel that way. Land barons are said to have large tracts of land that they parcel and sell off leveraging their proximity to those in power. Then once in a while, when they lose their political goodwill, it becomes a tragic tale of destruction.

If you are having coffee with me, I would tell you that ever since the government sanctioned Operation Murambatsvina which was a cleanup operation to destroy illegal structures which saw many families left homeless, its become easier for local authorities to simply resort to demolitions to take care of irregularities in land occupation. Just recently 30 houses were demolished in Ridgeview, Belvedere… Harare City Council said its because the sale of the stands had not been authorised.

Considering how long it takes to build a house, one cant help wonder why they did not stop the construction in its early stages – its not as if they could not see it being done — and after it had been done, could they not come up with a more amicable solution like for example, I don’t know, offering the owners of the illegal properties a chance at regularising their properties..

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that saving up to build or buy a house is not easy feat especially when you leave in a country that is contending for the title of being The Kingdom Of Funny Money where the citizens preferred bank is the National Mattress Savings Bank.

If you have experienced as money currency iterations as we have, you would not blame anyone for wanting to keep their money closer than their enemies. A recent case of a man who was owed $5 000 in 2015 had the amount revalued to 2 ZIG which highlights how money that is not in hand can have its value eroded.

Meanwhile, as for our electricity situation.. our power utility company Zimbabwe Electricty Supply Authority ZESA might as well as stand for Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Available…

Its another November and some people make jokes about doing what we did back then, another march in November….

Whats been going on in your neck of the woods?

~B