Grace Mutandwa

Give me an armoured car and open the borders

My daughter says every home should have been built with a bunker.Someone I used to consider a friend thinks the brutal deaths taking
place in the country are "absolutely normal" because according to him we got our independence through the barrel of the gun so in his view
any change has to be sealed by blood.

My daughter is not mad. My former friend might actually be on the verge of madness. At 18 my daughter does not feel safe in her home anymore. We have
seen evidence of petrol bombed houses. At times I think the whole country has gone mad. Inflation must now be above two or three million. We carry around billions of worthless paper called money and it does not buy much. You need more than a trillion Zimbabwean dollars to buy just one Greenback.

And on top of that we now have a one-man presidential run-off. We do make history in everything we do. Zimbabwe is a country of such beauty but right now it is brutal in equal measure. On the 27th of June we are all supposed to go and vote for our sovereignty. We have no choice in what we want or whom we want. We are voting for our own survival.

I used to watch the goings on in Burma on television but now what the people of Burma have been going through is on our doorstep. The whole world is condemning the violence and brutality going on as President Robert Mugabe campaigns in the one man election. Our government of course is not bothered that we have become a pariah. They do not care that no-one in the international community will recognise the results of this run-off.

Even Africa is baulking at the level of brutality going on in Zimbabwe, right under the noses of African observors.My daughter is right. Every home should be built with a bunker. But this would work only if the country was at war with another country or some rebel group but it is not. In such a situation we would all be reasonably expecting to be bombed. What we need are open borders and armoured vehicles to escape the current war against the people.

Zimbabwe has become a country where you can be snatched on your way to work and your body will be found some days later at times. A person walking to the neighbourhood shops to buy bread can be diverted to a ruling party political rally or to put up campaign posters. This is a country that used to be largely described as Christian. Even some of the leaders profess to being God-fearing, but over the past few Sundays we have had people asked to
leave church and join rallies nearby. Opposition leaders are in hiding. More people are staying home in the evenings because it is not safe to venture out. Even during the day you leave home only because you have to go to work.

State radio, television and newspapers are full of hate speech. It takes a very brave person to listen to the radio, watch television or read the papers. The blatant propaganda is hard for any sensible person to stomach let alone believe. Bombarding people with advertisements that are hard to believe and electronic programmes that assume that people are halfwits can only ensure that people continue to look for alternative news and information sources.

Anyone who believes that everyone wearing regalia of a single party is a supporter has to have their head examined. Cars are plastered with posters of a single party - the ruling party. Zimbabweans are a clever people. They catch on fast and they know how to survive in tricky situations. Singing and chanting at a rally that you have been forced to attend at times is a small price to pay for your safety.

This might be the time to ask for divine intervention because all the world can do is look on and wring their hands.

Posted at 14:25 27 June 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[1]