Reports that Zimbabwean white farmers are finding new homes and land to till in Ghana and Nigeria are not surprising but outright sad.
Look, I am a black Zimbabwean and I know too well the arrogance and oppressive nature of some of the white farmers I grew up seeing and sometimes interacting with.
But if the truth be told, they were the driving force behind Zimbabwe's robust economy. All anybody needed to do was just teach them some virtues of respecting human rights. Chasing them out of the country was the worst mistake.
Now Zimbabwe, a country once known as the bread basket of Southern Africa, is now the begging bowl of the region, all because our leaders decided to play up their own stupid arrogance on the expense of 12 million people.
As a result, our people are starving when our farmers are now filling the stomachs of Ghanaians, Nigerians, Mozambicans, South Africans and so on. Stupid, stupid, stupid I say.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
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4 comments:
Innocent, I didn't like your blog at all. I was shocked that you would write that about your own people. You actually think white people were feeding us? This is what you think? And you agree that they were awful, but what the heck? When I was 7 years old, the only black child in an all white school, the bell rang for break, I went out with all my classmates. When we came back, someone had dropped Bridget Uppen Hill's glitter. She started screaming that someone had dropped her glitter. Then she walked straight to me, slapped me in the face, spat in my face, and "you stupid kaffir, it was you!"
Miss Mentor, our teacher, only looked at me, and walked away.
When I was a teenager, my friends and I went to the golf putty in Harare, to play golf. A white girl and her boyfriend wanted to play ahead of us. I said no. I said we were playing. She had to wait her turn. And she said, "you stupid kaffir, you are too slow!" And she spat at me. I had her evicted and arrested, because Robert Mugabe now had control.
When we used to go to the movies,as 12 year old black girls, we had to wait for the white people to be served first, and sometimes, we never got to buy our food. And this was during Independence.
My nanny was walking home one night, when I was five years old, and she got attacked by a group of Rhodesian boys, who lived in our neighbourhood, (we lived in a white neighbourhood.) they raped her and beat her unconscious, and when my father and her reported it, the police said, "you are just a black prostitute. You should be honoured that these white boys slept with you at all."
My sister's best friend, who also lived in our neighbourhood, with all these white people (it went with some government jobs) was raped at 13, got pregnant by a white man, and got killed for her troubles. Sometimes, I close my eyes and think of Esther.
Clearly, you, who never lived with white people, never ate in their homes, never kissed their sons, (which is what I did) don't know them at all. You don't know what they are capable of, what they can do. You don't know how evil they are because you were protected from it all. You are nothing to them. They will wipe you off the face of the earth without a single thought. You are filth in their eyes. You stand for filth. All they want is our land. They want to live on our continent, that is all.
A people who cannot feed themselves have no right to exist. Therefore, Zimbabweans should die. But I will let you know a piece of history, that you obviously don't know. It was the black people, our ancestors, who taught the original farmers how to farm in our environment. It was our people who taught them, our ancestors, but you don't know that, that is why you have written such drivel. Read you own country's history.
When a country goes through such a great change as ours, it is bound to suffer. Please read your host country's history, America's history, (which I aced in college) you will see that they suffered too. They suffered and they learned. And that is what we Zimbabweans are doing right not. We are learning.
The Ghanaians and the Nigerians are welcome to the Rhodesians, lock, stock and barrell. What sort of a citizen are you who would write such rubbish about your own people and country? Where is your pride? Where are your moral values as a person. Who are you? I am A Zezuru, I am Shona, I am Zimbabwean, and like the flame lily I am getting tatooed on arm, I will always be that. No matter what. You are a sell out, completely and totally. You have sold out your own country, like the Ndebeles did and Joshua Nkomo in his time for a bag of peanuts from white people, people you don't know.
Feel free to publish this if you like. A people who cannot feed themselves should die, they should become extinct, they should be forgotten. That will never happen to us. The Rhodesians can go. We will thrive all by ourselves. And if you don't feel the same, don't come home. Don't ever come home. Keep slaving for the white man. Live with those people and suck up to them as much as you like. One day, you will realize that there is not enough money or power that will make them love and accept you. It is a lesson you are going to learn. Be loyal to your own, because we are the only ones you will ever have.
Do you know why Morgan Tsvangirai will never win, because of people like me. He is clueless about white people, Robert Mugabe is not. People like me will never allow that man or anyone with a mindset such as yours to take power in our country. We will not sell ourselves to slavery. I will not have another white person spit in my son's face in my country and it can and will happen. White people don't change. To them, you smell, no matter how much they smile at you.
Tambu Kahari
You are entitled to your own opinions, but you can't insult your own people for a loaf of bread. Look at this, 25 years from now. Forecast. Today it is hard, but if Zimbabweans learn, which is what they are doing, because my cousin who was Vice President of McDonalds' here in the US, sold everything, went home, by choice (because he knows what white people are like), got a farm and is ranching very successfully. Everyday, he is learning and everyday he is getting better. He has many struggles, gas being one of them. He wakes up at 4:30 in the morning and goes to bed at 11pm every day. He wears majombosi every day of his life. His poor wife was complaining of exhaustion because she delivers the beef to the supermarkets and butcheries every day. She said she was so tired but what could they do? And this is the person you insulted. This is the Zimbabwean you trashed by saying he needs to be working on that farm for a white man. His son will learn and carry a very successful ranch many years from now. 25 years from now, my son may be a landowner in Zimbabwe. You didn't forecast. You are living in the here and now. We don't need white people in Africa, there are plenty of us "white people" in black skin walking around. And that is why they are going to Ghana and Nigeria. The land was there for anyone who wanted it. How else where we going to get our land back? How dare you insult our ancestors and what they went through when they were chased away from their homes? How dare you? For money? For money? For fame? For fame? I hope you take it with you to the next world. I hope you are proud. Only lazy people will say they need another people to help them eat. I say we don't need them. I am not lazy. I will go on my hands and knees and work to the bone to feed my people and myself. I am not lazy.
A people who cannot feed themselves should die. We have no option, but to go up, no matter how hard it gets. And let me tell you something that you don't know. At my college, the economists were saying, give it three more years and Zimbabwe will be back on its feet. And I said how come? And they said, this situation was always predicted to happen to Zimbabwe's economy because it was false. If you do your research, now that you are in the first world, you will come across that paperwork from the world bank yourself. They knew it was going to happen because Smith's economy only catered to white people, who were a 10th of the entire population. Even when they were giving Robert Mugabe money, they knew that the economy was small to begin with and wouldn't be able to survive with loans. But Robert wanted to do for his people, he didn't want to wait 25 years for change, for when the economy may or may not have been big enough to suppor 12 million. He gambled and he lost.But he cared enough to gamble. Had he waited 25 years, we would be insulting him today. Do your research, read about the loans, the IMF report on Zimbabwe from 1979 til now, the World Bank report on Zim. Read them all. They said, some really good decisions have been made now, and they will bear fruit in a couple of years. So, watch and learn.
Did you also know that Ian Smith taxed black people to supplement the living of white people? Yes, he taxed us to give white people a stipend to live on every month.
You are disappointing as a journalist, and you are talking from a point of the here and now. If we as Zimbabweans lose hope then what? Of course you want your children to be third class citizens of the republic of Canada, so you can say all the drivel you want, but my son is going to have a better life as a first class citizen of Zimbabwe. Mark my words. Racism is alive and here to stay. And clearly, since you never suffered it from the day you were born, because you were lucky not to have a lawyer for a father who earned too much and held down a government job which came with houses in all white neighbourhoods, you can prattle on.
Explain yourself. Redeem yourself. Who are you? What do you stand for? Are your ancestors proud of this bullshit? Don't sell your own people for money, and for a comfortable existence today. Joshua Nkomo tried it. Good thing we are a forgiving people, that fat man should never have found himself at Heroes Acre. Look at the Ndebele? They sold their own, now look where they are today? Don't be like that. Always defend your people, and if you can't, accept the failures, the blame, because every country needs critics to survive, but always have more than one point to a story. You and every other Zimbabwean who never lived with white people want them back. Good. You are in their country now. You went to them, they don't have to come to us.
Do you know how rich these Rhodies are? To this day, there many, many of them living the good life in Zimbabwe today. They are my friends, I talk to them every day. My best friend is white, and Zimbabwean, did you know that? They will never leave Zimbabwe because the life is too good. What do you say to that? To this day, they still have it better than us.
We have managed to reduce HIV infection, from 25% to 18% all by ourselves, without help from the world. America's HIV rate has tripled. 40 million people in this country have AIDS and they don't know what to do to stop the spread of it. But we did it. And these are the people you have so little faith in. These people you think need white people to tell them how to farm. What bullshit!! Whats the matter with you?
Explain yourself my friend. I want to hear your excuses for selling out your people. As you can see, I am a patriotic Zimbabwean. Til the last black Zimbabwean dies, I will stand by my people. Through thick and thin. I am Zezuru, I am Shona, and I am Zimbabwean, til I die. Explain yourself! Why would you say that about your own people? Why would you belittle my cousin's hard work in Zimbabwe right now and all the harships he is facing? Why? Explain yourself.
My father said many years ago, they had just come from meeting a government official, under the guidance of Joshua Nkomo. He said it was the 50th such conference, asking the Rhodesian government to give them equal rights, or at least some rights. He said as usual, the Rhodesians had treated them worse than dogs. So, they went back to their meeting place at some hall in Highfields and were discussing this unchanging situation. A young man stood up and he said, "boys, the white man is never going to give us any rights or share power with us. We are going to have to take it from him, all of it."
My father said they asked this young man, "how?"
Young man said, "We are going to have to go to war with them."
Whereby, the little hall erupted with shock and fear. My father said we trembled in our seats because white people were so powerful, so strong, so clever and we were stupid, dumb and black. They said, "Robert, you are talking treason."
Robert Mugabe said, "We can do this. We can fight them even with knives, we can win because there are more of us than them. We should talk about this right now. Plan and come up with a date to fight these people."
My father said, they trembled, and said, "But we have nothing. How can we fight them?"
"With knives," said Robert. "There are more of us than them. We can fight them. Then we will get our land back, by force and then we will build our own country, without them."
My father said that night, he slept under the bed, because he expected to be picked up by the Rhodesian soldiers because of their conversation. Within a week, ZANU had split into two. Joshua and his friends said they couldnt' fight the white man, it would be suicide. Robert and his faction said it could be done, even with knives.
And so Robert was born, the man you now despise. The man who gave you the freedom to spout your drivel. And to do that, he sacrificed himself, his freedom, his chance at having a normal life. He was arrested, because Joshua and company sold him out. They also sold out my dad, who escaped. My mother was shot in the back and it took years for her to recover. Come independence, my dad got nothing except jobs with his qualifications. Yes, he helped set up Zimbabwean embassies around the world and travelled a lot, but he got nothing. During the war, my father would drive his little VW into the bush with medicines for the boys. More than once he was almost killed. When these white people you love so much, bombed and raped the girls of Kriste Mambo where Grace your first lady was among the victims, including my sister, my dad rescued as many as he could in his VW. He kept going and coming back with girls and going again. He almost got blown up by land mines. In our home, in Rusape, we used to have combatants staying with us, armed to the teeth before they deployed into inter Zimbabwe. Right there, in the middle of a white neighbourhood. It was the safest.
I said to my dad, who has also been affected by the goings on in Zimbabwe, he lost his pension. "How do you feel now? Look at this mess."
He said, "I feel proud, because Robert gave us a vision, Robert gave us strength to stand up for ourselves. Robert has never let us down, because he has done everything he promised, and he will not leave until the job is done. I feel proud to have known such a man and to have helped. All these problems will become part of our history, but we are a strong people and we will survive. If we can't feed ourselves, we have every right to die of starvation."
See, I am the daughter of a revolutionary, who got nothing but his freedom from all his sacrifices. But the one who sacrificed the most, as my father will tell you, was Robert.
Do you know, I call Sidney Sekeramayi, Uncle Sidney, because after the war, he came to our home to stay with us. All these men came to stay with us. Their wives got their first pots in Zimbabwe from my mother. But we got nothing from it. Yes, my father had a great job,(and he ran off with his money) but he deserved it.
When I read articles from people like you, it upsets me very much because my father was a witness and a doer in that war. The war is not over. We are still in it.Even my father will tell you that. Robert was a great forecaster. But he can't carry everyone. He can't father everyone. And in any war, there are casualties. Those we run away to Canada and stay there forever feeling good about themselves, which is where Joshua Nkomo ran by the way, when he was given a briefcase full of money to disrupt our war in 1974. There are lots of ZAPU people in Canada today. That is why Geoff Nyarota got hold of me. He wanted me to write about it, because my father won't talk about it. He said,"Tambu, you are a journalist and you are doing Zimbabwe a disservice. You should tell them what your father knows." I said no. He will die with his memories.
People like you don't know the sacrifices that were made. You don't know. You don't know what we gained from them. You don't. Robert gave you the right to insult and spout nonsense about him. Ian Smith didn't give a single black baboon that right. Enjoy your right, but show compassion and understanding to your people who sacrificed themselves for that right. And then forecast with your son in mind. Robert is not my favourite person. I like Mrs Mujuru because when I was 15, I went to stay with her for about three days in Borrowdale while she taught me Zezuru culture. She is a humble woman, with nothing but hope in her heart. And I want her to be President.
I am done now. You really upset me. I never thought you could think like that.
I love to eat sadza with my hands, I own everything, the good, the bad and the ugly about my culture and my people. I don't care where I am or who I become, I come from the land of flame lilies, abject poverty, AIDS, disease and destruction. I also come from a land of the most compassionate people, the most hardworking people, the most caring (to the point of annoying), and the most enduring people. These hard times will pass. I am because we are. The good, the bad and the ugly. I want peanut butter in my meat, I want my muboora and my oxtail. I think our food is the greatest, no matter how much Moet I drink. My favourite pastime is talking with my cousins in Seke outside my father's stoep, discussing all the men who have come into our lives. We look up at the stars because they are so close and we know we are home. Such beauty in such hardship. That is who I am and what I am. I come from the land of flame lilies. Bye, got to go shopping. You upset me so much I am going shopping. I will not read your blog again, until it stops sounding colonized. You could always go to Ghana.
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