Sunday, 25th September 2011

Howzit

Y’know, there are days when the problems in Zimbabwe weigh me down like a physical yoke around my neck. And I know that I shouldn’t let it get me down – especially 6000 miles away from the action, but having lived in that Southern African country from 1964 until 1998, it is the place where I learned who I was, and learned in equal part about the African psyche.

Zimbabwe is part of my mental make-up, part of my character, part of my emotional being…

Therefore, whilst I write about five times a week about the problems that continue to confound the best minds in the land, I find myself caught up in an internal argument as to why should I really be concerned with a conflict half a world away?

Perhaps the answer is the reluctance the free world has to influence the obvious illegalities of Mugabe's rule. Perhaps it is the manner in which the free world prefers to involve itself in altercations that seem to be about who controls world oil... but, in reality, it is because of the people suffering under Mugabe's 'legalised' ruination of Zimbabwe.

The weather, the ecology, the people, the economy, the sense of belonging - all of these attributes have been consigned to the rubbish dump, and the people of Zimbabwe know little more today than a struggle to survive, a struggle to actually still be alive to face the next dawn.

Here in the UK, despite my birth here, because of my strong African accent, I am treated as a foreigner, and I find myself being consigned to the lesser opportunites. So perhaps my concerns and interests in a landlocked country in Southern Africa are well-placed.

Only time will tell.

Take care.

'debvhu