A Zimbabwean mother living in the Diaspora lost her son a few days ago. This was a particularly difficult time for her because her husband is still in Zimbabwe putting together the necessary documentation to allow him to join his family. This lady does not have a very strong support network where she resides which means, she has no-one of significance to turn to and has to wait for her husband to make the two to three day journey to be by her side.

One fact of life that all of us will one-day face is our death. For some, that day comes after a long and hopefully prosperous life. For others, it comes at an unexpected time such as the example above where parents are burying their child.

Many Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora say they would eventually want to return home at some point to live out the rest of their lives. This for some also holds true in death; some people explicitly state that in the event of their death, they want to be laid to rest at home in African soil.

Left with such wishes, family members and/or close friends of the deceased pull together to fulfil the wishes of the deceased. Making the wish a reality presents a number of challenges with the main ones being the logistics of repatriating the body and the associated costs. CNN Marketplace Africa recently aired a piece where Robyn Curnow covered what some Zimbabweans living in South Africa go through in the event of a death. It also covers the services a Zimbabwean entrepreneur is providing to try and ease the cost of burying a love one. Its gets you thinking about how prepared you are for such situations.

Colcom pork pies are one of those food items that have forever been a favourite with many Zimbabweans. They are a tasty snack item that can be taken hot or cold. If you listen close enough to people in the diaspora when they talk about the foods they miss from home, pork pies usually pop up as one of them.

It has been three or so years since I last visited Zimbabwe and the last time around it was so mind boggling having to deal with all the zeros in the currency, the state of the infrastructure and the lack of many basic everyday items.

This time around, things have been a little different and after only a few hours in, I was pleasantly surprised by some the changes in the country. First off there was the worry about our luggage as we flew via Johannesburg (which is notorious for luggage being stolen) but everything that we had made it to Harare. Next up was ZIMRA (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) how in the past have really given me a hard time but this time around we walked right past them without any words being exchanged. All that was exchanged as we walked through the ‘nothing to declare’ area and on to waiting family was a nod of acknowledgement.

The drive home was pretty much what I expected with potholes all over the place, robots (traffic lights for those of you who do not know that kind of African lingo) on their last legs, people selling airtime and other bits and pieces and just about every street corner, a mix or cars that should be condemned in and amongst really expensive ones (Mercedes still seems to be a favourite over here).

The day after arriving in Harare I went for a drive around the place and was surprised to see how full the supermarkets were. Just about anything and everything seems to be available provided you have the U.S. dollars to pay for your goods. Some things such as food, alcohol and cigarettes are a lot cheaper over here than they are in the part of the world I am currently living. Other commodities however are ridiculously priced.

For some, things seem to be a bit rosier but there are still plenty of other people out there who are in a desperate situation. There are people working in certain trades who are being compensated in food rather than cash (by their own preference). One thing that is evident though from just about everyone I have spoken to is that it is a lot better that it was last year. They all say it was very tough and they do not know how they got through it but they did. My hope is that things only get better!

Going back to the wedding, to me it seemed like the wedding was put on as a show of God knows what for the guests. It is all well and good to celebrate such a day to the fullest and being a Zimbabwean wedding you can expect it to be a jam packed and joyous event. But, when it goes to the point of talking about how we did this, did that, had this, had that it takes a bit of light off what the day was about. Marriage is the union of two souls and when a wedding goes over the top it can take a lot of essence off of that.

You don’t have to try hard or even look far to find people out there who go to great lengths to make it look as if they have made it when that may not necessarily be the case. For a lot of them, they are struggling to make ends meet and trying to keep up appearances is fuelling their journey towards more debt. On the outside they may look happy and as if they have got it all together but in actual fact there may be amongst other things emotional turmoil.

This is something that I failed to understand in the early 90’s when I would observe young Zimbabwean’s in the middle of summer sweating up and down 1st Street for hours on end and wearing heavy jeans and a leather jacket. Regardless of the temperature, the leather jacket would not come off because I guess it looked good. This is the same phenomenon I am still seeing today almost two decades later but I still fail to understand it.

That there is where “it’s tough being black” came from. Some of these people are likely to spend their last few dollars on something to enhance their social standing than something more beneficial such as food. But, who am I to judge? People can do and are entitled to do whatever they want to do but what is the point when nothing meaningful comes from it?

“It degrades human dignity. It’s unnatural, and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. If dogs and pigs do not do it, why must human beings? We have our own culture, and we must re-dedicate ourselves to our traditional values that make us human beings. … What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behavior and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as Lesbians and Gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police!” That being said, you can see that being openly gay in Zimbabwe does not work well in ones interests. Homosexuality is not illegal, it is sodomy that is.

The issue of gays and lesbians has for a long time been a highly contentious issue in not only Zimbabwe but around the world. It is an area that has put many a world leader to the test in how they respond to the issue of their rights. Mugabe’s disgust towards homosexuality is a sentiment that is shared by many a Zimbabwean as well.

Gays and lesbians have for a time long been subjected to all forms of discrimination which has lead to them living their lifestyle under the radar. This is not to say that all homosexuals are living under the radar, there are some who are very much out there in the open and made their sexual orientation known to all. With the inclusive government and the new Constitution expected in the near future, gays and lesbians are becoming more vocal and demanding that their rights are recognized and made a part of the new Constitution. A lot of them are fighting hard to see that they are protected under the constitution. Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) www.galz.co.zw is at the forefront of seeing to it that there is constitutional equality.

GALZ Mission Statement

The principle objective of GALZ is to build a democratic and accountable organisation and to strive for the attainment of full, equal rights and the removal of all forms of discrimination in all aspects of life for gay men, lesbians and bisexual people in Zimbabwe and to inform, educate, counsel and support people in matters relative to their health and well being.

Sexual rights are human rights.

Mugabe’s fight against homosexuality was dealt a blow in the mid to late 90s when the 1st president of Zimbabwe, Canaan Sodindo Banana was convicted of sodomy. He was jailed for a year and died a few years later but was not buried at Heroes Acre with full honours as you would expect for a former head of state. This goes to show what happens to people convicted of sodomy regardless of who you are and what you have done for the nation.

Could the extreme homophobia be a result of Mugabe’s attitudes towards them influencing people to detest homosexuals or is it based on something that they themselves truly believe to be wrong? Many Zimbabweans are Christian and there are passages in the Bible that condemn homosexuality. These include Genesis 19, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and Leviticus 20:13 -

“If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

This is something that may drive them towards making the decisions they have made about homosexuality.

This “Satanic”, “Western Import” (not my words but those of Mugabe and his supporters) of homosexuality will continue to be a thorn in the side of Zimbabwean politics for a long time coming. Human rights groups see it as another violation in Zimbabwe and other see it as a moral issue that just shouldn’t be allowed. It may be one of those issues where there will never be a resolve that leaves both parties happy.

What will become of the gays and lesbians on Zimbabwe?

Religion in Zimbabwe is a very contentious issue. Mainly because we are a religious people from the days of our forefathers and that makes us different from all other cultures. Contentious issue because we have been fought by forcise of evil and deceit to the extend of getting so confused that it is now normal to see a family no longer on talking terms among themselves because of issues of religion.

I will trace back from the early days of precolonial history of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean people mainly of the Shona race were under ancestral spirits, and the centre of governance were the spirit mediums. These were the people who installed chiefs and that by its positioning meant that the chief’s power was derived from their obedience to the order of the spirit mediums.We talk of Chaminuka, Mutota, Murenga, Nehanda, Gwangwadza, Gondondo and many more that we may mention etc. as the centres of power. These were the centre forces of the African religion.

Midzimu determined where to build your houses, which forests to go hunting and which not to hunt in. Midzimu communicated a code of conduct for each particular dunhu/administrative area. They chose the ‘sabath day’ (Chisi) among their people. They had the power to summon the rains and the rains would come. They would prophesy and prepare their people aginst draught, invasions etc. The spirit mediums advised on what to do and where to go in times of war etc. Also the process of choosing the chief/mambo, where three men from a chiefstainship clan would be selected by midzimu, brouht forward, given bute/snuff to hold tight into their closed palms and three times thrown deep into river pond and see which of them would come out with the snuff dry.

Therefore, this was the centre of authority where all chiefstainship authority was derived from. And thios is also where punishments came from. If one was found to be in acts of misconduct and a punishment was meted, all would see exactly that happen.The Zimbabwean people believed and worshiped that. This worked for the shona people and they maintained that always as their religion.

Chaminuka of Dumbwiza(Chitungwiza), told of the coming of the whites, which is well documented. He told of these people’s cunning and evil ways against the national people’s governance and religion. He advised against allowing them any space at all. And he also warned of their mighty power which would defeat the native chiefs and their chiefdom. This all happened. So the shona people remained steadfast. Nehanda commanded the first Chimurenga war. He directed how the fighters should behave and warned against touching any of the whiteman’s things. On the breaking of whjich rules was a defeat for the fighters and subsequently came a demise of the ancestral spirit worship. That was the fall of the Shona rulership and with it the beginning of the fall of the shona culture.

When the whiteman came, they made sure they destroyed that religion first. This again is most dicumented. The whiteman quickly searched and understood where the shona kingdom power derived from. They then went on the hunt for all the prominent spirit mediums and slaughtered them. In a conclusive brutal stop to a shona resistance. They knew that the shona had a religion. They knew that you could not defeat the shona if you let loose their religion and religious practises. And their hunt for the kill went on into the second Chimurenga era, and many spirit mediums too were murdered. They were murdered for the very simple reason of practising an own religion which their only source of solace and source of power.

The spirit mediums blessed the second Chimurenga. Many religious songs were sung to go with that. The war went on and even a simple Mujibha and Chimbwido would tell you it was a sacred war. It was a religious war. And the religion won. If it were not for the religion and if it were not for the worship, the whiteman would have won. But our Zimbabwean religion won the war!

The Great Betrayal! We did not have religious leaders. We did not get religious leaders into the rank and file of ruleship. We got too too excited to recognise and maintain our religion. The liberation war leaders came back on Independence, grabbed power, grabbed influence away, grabbed women, money and all resources of their choice, and they stuck away with their families. They stuck away, far far away from the religion, from the religious leadership and religious influence, and they shunned all that. Also they stuck away and shunned even the religious advice that won them the war and the power and the priviledged.

Education. That too we grabbed. Not that there is anything wrong with being educated but what type of education. The very educational curriculum that destroys us, that destroyed us that which shuns us as a people is what we grabbed and celebrated and glorified. Thsi brought a devout clinging to the bible. The Christian bible which teaches us that there is a Jesus who curses our religion and a Jesus who says serve the whiteman, remain poor so that you will be rewarded in heaven And so we grabbed the Christian religion and that one many follow, especially the current generation, the young and tomorrow generation.

Leadership. That too we grabbed and in that we brought the same same people who were shunned by our religion. And those we celebrated and glorified and in the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation we trusted and promoted at the expense of our own. At the expense of our own religion. Our own religion that brought us independence.

Culture. Theirs too we grabbed. And our own we ignored and discarded. All this happened with the blessings of our very powerful and most learned leaders. The very leaders who are still in power today, and have brought our religious Zimbabwe down to its waist.

The War Values. These we abandoned. But these remain the key to a change to our fortune. The war values as dictated by our religion. Through our religious leaders. And so we remain a lost people, a people who shunned an own religion in favour of a foregn religion. The very foregners who became our tormenter, the very foregners who are our tormenters and very foregners who are jeering our ‘new democratic’ leaders. Zimbabwe, a religious people a confused culture,all because of a shunning of a true African religion.

By: Masimba Murambiwa
A religious person in the diaspora with a keen interest on the matters of African History and African Rennaissance

Small House is a term used to describe the girlfriend or girlfriends of a married man. It is a secret sexual relationship where the girlfriend acts as a second wife and in the process receives a number of benefits such as living expenses, a monthly allowance, shopping sprees, dinner dates (and the list goes on) as would be done within a monogamous relationship. Due to the nature of the relationship, condoms are rarely used and some of them go on to produce children. In most cases the children do not take up their fathers name due to secret nature of the relationship between their parents.

HIV/AIDS is still rife in Zimbabwe and is a big issue that people within these relationships have to contend with. Some men may have more than one small house and the small houses themselves may have more than one person with whom they are having a relationship with. This leads to a web of unprotected sex which could mean the death of them all if one of them becomes infected with HIV. This practice has been dubbed by some as the key drive of HIV/AIDS and it is not hard to see why.

With the current economic situation in Zimbabwe it has become harder for the average Zimbabwean to look after his family let alone maintain his small house. When the maintenance money stops being paid out the relationship ends and people just move on quite easily as there usually isn’t any emotional connection. The small house sees the relationship as a transaction in which she is exchanging sex for money which is a viable source of income given the high rate of unemployment in the nation. There are women who actively seek men with whom to have this kind of relationship with.

The downturn in the economy can be seen as a blessing in disguise if in fact the small house syndrome is a key driver of HIV/AIDS. On the other side of the coin, the downturn has lead to an increase in prostitution which plays a role in the spread of the virus.

Even though having a small house has been seen as something of a norm, a sad thing about the whole situation is the destruction it causes in peoples lives. There are the faithful wives who find out about their husband’s infidelity or even worse, contract HIV and then there are the children born from the relationships who may feel ‘lost’ or never get the chance of being part of a ‘real’ loving family unit. Whatever the case may be, my hopes are that the practise continues on its downward spiral because of the morality and health issues it brings to the table. Is such a feat possible with the way it is ingrained into society?