When reviewing my experiences in Zimbabwe, I initially feel frustrated about the lack of experiences I had, or the few places I could go, the opportunities I missed out on, and what that would mean, what that would communicate to people…how much more effective my work would be if I could get that story or have that experience. By the end, there was something that seemed very heartless about that notion, I noticed my self seeking for the most sensational story, for a unique one that would really stand out, its like I wanted to be in the thick of it so that I could really announce something, and bring a different voice. It began to really sicken me, and made me want to change what I was doing there, think of other ways I could help. I began to get tired of the stories, I stopped listening intently as I was continuously focusing on what I hadn’t done or needed to do, probably lessening the impact I could have on these people, not realizing the beautiful person I had in front of me, whose life was just as important as the next person, and whose livelihood on all fronts – psychologically, physically, socially and emotionally were being completely obliterated. It became hard after a while, to not get frustrated with people asking for simple items such as blankets, food and medicine. The need was just so great it overwhelmed me, it frustrated me too, that not more was being done about it amongst the MDC community in Harare, though many things were done in secret, and acts of kindness and sacrifice have arisen from
I could not on my own save these people, I could not on my own provide them with blankets, food and clothes, but I knew I had access to people and organizations who could, in the end I realized, that yes I may not have the tear jerking story that may really motivate people into action, and I may not have discovered something unique that could really end the struggle, but I had been at the heart of it. I had seen the faces of hopes dashed ten times over, forlorn and wanting; I had heard desperation in their voices and horror in their stories, I had seen the filth they were subjugated to live in, and the scars and wounds they bore, I had felt the high levels of fear that engulfed them and consumed every waking hour. It was pervasive, this dark cloud that seemed to hang over every Zimbabwean, which is even thicker amongst the displaced and victimized rural communities. I had discovered that this is the story that needs to be told. Whole communities have been destroyed, schools burnt down, teachers beaten, tortured, threatened and displaced, homes, livestock, crops completely ruined.
The sentiment is solemn, bent on survival, defaulting to general mistrust. It was not something that usually gripped the people, but something that was becoming highly necessary given the circumstances. Those who were active had to be especially careful – Zanu PF could decide at any moment to arrest or beat up any individual for virtually any reason and leave them for dead or hold them for 48 hours without a warrant or a charge. Zanu PF would often do this and then release individuals to intimidate the group or disturb progress by forcing a crisis and necessitating a lot of the group’s efforts to be focused on getting the individual out of prison, getting them to the hospital, locating the individual etc. This forces the opposition and most civil society to operate constantly on the defensive, as welfare agencies constantly responding to the next crisis, which is even difficult to do, instead of the proactive fight for democracy that they would like to pursue. Displacement and creating disorganization – chaos – seems to be the most effective tactic that Zanu PF was using as their “campaign strategy” . Think about it, there are now tens of thousands of individuals displaced from their rural communities, thousands injured and around 50 dead, many more missing. Voting in Zimbabwe is ward based, meaning one has to vote from their ward, their home town/area. Many of these individuals have relocated to major cities and urban centers for safety, some have disappeared, many are injured. Imagine the logistics of getting these tens of thousands of individuals to their prospective polling locations. The vehicles they do have have an MDC logo on it – I’m not sure why, because that seems to be the first thing you don’t want to do in my opinion, but they do, and even if there was enough transportation – lets say hiring buses or mini-buses, which would mean over 50l of petrol, and that’s only to locations around 150 miles away, which would only take them one way to Masvingo where some of these people were from, they really came from all over Mashonaland, Masvingo and the Midlands. Now, even if these logistics were figured out, there are key security issues to think about, will there be a roadblock barring all individuals from going into these rural areas? There are army/war vet roadblocks in most victimized locations, so even if they could get there, they may not be let in. The war vets could decide to simply disallow all entry into these areas on that day. Even if they are let in, many of those who are a part of the roadblocks were either a part of or are in collusion with people who pursued these attacks and threats in the first place, they therefore would know the faces of those they targeted previously, notice if they came back, and notify all those around of their existence there. Therefore, these individuals would be risking their lives if they return to vote. Now, the best way to do this to avoid attack would be to go in the early morning, vote and then return to Harare as soon as voting is ended. This would be harder if the individual took public transportation, as it is not reliable from rural areas, voting may take long for we all know lines are very long in Zimbabwe, or if you didn’t know, I am telling you, and there is no guarantee the individual could leave that day. Being overnight in the rural areas is the real problem. It may not look good to have a number of individuals beaten in broad daylight before going to polls, may not seem very free and fair, they seem like they’re savvy to this fact, which at this point, seems a little ironic, the world knows what is going on, but nonetheless, it would still look bad. However, few people are around to see what happens in the night, as most rural communities are fairly isolated, giving attacking individuals free reign to terrorize individuals as they saw fit. Therefore, being in the rural areas overnight is definitely the danger. Therefore, the option left here are buses, minibuses or individual cars, however any of these could be stopped at any time, targeted for “accidents” at any time, be set on fire, or any other calamities you may imagine. A large bus full of supporters being stopped/harmed in any way would be a huge blow to the party, and would bring more attention to themselves. Therefore, the best option I have come up with is to organize willing MDC supporters in Harare to provide rides to victimized individuals. Many of these individuals would be risking their lives and the security of their family by doing this, but it would be a tangible way they could assist. This is just one logistical nightmare the opposition faces, probably the biggest one, but just one, on top of all the regular stresses of election time and campaigning, one example of simply trying to cope, to manage the damage, instead of having any resources or energy to proactively change their current situation.
This is probably the most effective, though I hate to use a positive word in such a negative circumstance, way that ZANU PF has taken the legs from underneath civil society and the opposition party, putting out their fire, smashing their creativity and thwarting their ingenuity, constantly keeping them in crisis mode. However, though it is exhausting all of civil society’s and the opposition’s means, it is simultaneously doing the campaigning for them that they may not have had the time or resources to pursue. In an interview with Eddie Cross, a newly elected MP in Bulawayo, he states that this level of violence has become counterproductive for Zanu PF at this point, indirectly campaigning for the opposition, causing many more defiant individuals willing to go to any lengths to make sure they vote on June 27th. However, I do not want to know to what lengths Zanu PF will go to ensure they cannot, which is what I and many others are worried about. There is one month to the run off, with violence and intimidation increasing now at a very rapid rate, who knows how many needless lives will be lost, children orphaned, livelihoods ruined, communities destroyed, families separated, healthy bodies impaired, carefully built structures destroyed. This is serious, and I think about this daily, that waiting even another day means another life lost, time becomes a luxury we cannot afford at this point, many of the systems set up to stop such a complicated situation take time, and time is what Zanu PF is buying to enable increased acts of violence and intimidation. All forces, including civil society and the MDC need to think about the level of human wreckage they are inadvertently allowing by allowing for the run-off to be at so late a date, and by taking less drastic action than necessary for this dire of a situation; by those taking less drastic action than necessary I mean governing bodies chosen to intervene such as the SADC, UN and AU. Civil society is doing its part, the MDC is doing their best, though it is much less than their constituency needs at this point. Criticisms are often directed to the three governing bodies – the AU, SADC and UN, especially SADC; nobody seems to expect true intervention by the SADC, their hands are in too many pockets, they have too much to cover up and too much promised, a sad truth about many surrounding Southern African leaders, money becomes the ethic that justifies mass losses of lives and livelihoods, the sad fact is that 50 dead, tens of thousands displaced, thousands injured is a drop in the bucket compared to what some of these leaders have signed off on, it doesn’t fit on their radar, and actually, what they have done is surprising, there are definitely some very sympathetic SADC leaders, simply not enough. So SADC’s willingness to really effect change in this situation is little to none, we can work hard to change that, but these are deep seeded agreements, habits and contracts, trying to change their action would be like trying to change Mugabe himself. How ever, the bargaining power in this case would be their tarnished image, though they may be aligned with Mugabe they know better than to appear to the rest of the world that they are. I need to research the AU’s involvement, it seems to have taken a stand back approach, though civil society has been beckoning their involvement, and seem to see it as very pivotal. Everyone I have talked to see the UN as the governing body to affect the most change in this situation; mostly because it is assumed they would be the most impartial, having less invested in the region either way, how ever that can be debated as countries such as China have just as much invested in Zimbabwe a neighboring South Africa, who together used their forces to stop the UN from taking any real action on this issue. Therefore on all international governing body fronts there is a lag in action in a situation that needs immediate and timely attention. Seems it is not causing enough deaths or civil unrest to gain the international attention necessary to really bring about a change in this situation, very sickening that we live in a world where a situation needs to get worse to get the help it deserves to get better. With so many crises in the world, and only so many bodies set up to fix the crisis, it really does create this unintentional competition for the worst situation; and then you’ll find most of the work of the activist ends up being trying to convince the world or the governing body how bad it really is; which is where you get this unintentionally sensationalist search for the most grabbing story that I noted experiencing while in Zimbabwe. Therefore the effort of trying to bring about human rights in an unjust situation ends up dehumanizing or delegitimizing the very people you are aiming to help, by using their horrific experience as a bargaining tool against other crises; which was not at all the original intention. It’s a very fine ethical line which I feel I had to and continue to have to tread in pursuing justice in this situation. It is a fight that needs to be fought; a line that has to be tread, observations that need to be taken into account when pursuing this kind of work.
