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Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: A failed revolution
Zimbabwe witnessed a fierce psychological battle at the beginning of March. Inspired by their new role models in the Arab world, political activists and civic society organisations tried to mobilise people for mass protests to demand a...
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: the misery of not conceiving
Traditional healers, apostolic ‘prophets’, fortune tellers, invitro specialists - Ruth and her husband Zviko have been to all of them, all in an attempt to end their misery of not being able to conceive. Despite living a pretty...
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: Married to pain and sorrow
Chipo is now permanently disabled after her husband Joseph broke her back with a hoe handle during a dispute, accusing her of ill-treating the children from his first marriage. Theodora is no longer on Facebook, because her husband Tatenda...
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: Dreaming of a peaceful Zim without power cuts
“Come on, its 2011 already”. “What have you in store for Zimbabweans?” “More gloom than bloom?” These were the thought-provoking Zimbabwean newspaper headlines of a brand new year. Every January...
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: Stuck in Harare’s clogged arteries
Recently, I nearly missed a flight out of Harare due to my outdated travel planning. Traffic congestions are the order of the day, which is why I struggled to negotiate my way across the capital city to the airport, using my now misleading...
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: Mixed marriages without a happy ending
When Temba left his home town to look for a job in the capital city Harare five years ago, his parents gave him some advice: “Come back and get yourself a wife from your own region. Not someone from unknown lands,” they said.
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: English still rules the roost
Granny Chidzonga has a complaint. Whenever she visits her children in Harare she is forced to speak to her grandchildren in English, instead of Shona. “They can’t utter a word in Shona despite the fact that their mother...
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: Naming and shaming the scandalous lot
After several weeks of abuse and battering by Timmy, her husband, she recently threatened him into silence: “I shall report you to the newspaper H-Metro so that the whole city reads about your dishonesty and wayward behaviour.”
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: Not eating from the pot to please our heavenly spirit
The behaviour of my middle class friends does not seize to fascinate me all the time. Tendai will not hand anyone a salt shaker directly during a meal because he believes that by doing so they may end up quarrelling and becoming worst...
Article: Letter from Zimbabwe: Teenage mothers allowed back in school
At the age of fifteen and in her third form at high school, Emilia is already the proud mother of four-month old baby Future. She expects to be back in class next year since she has missed a number of lessons after her expulsion when she...
