Celebrating the donation of furniture and equipment to Pamberi Trust, and a small ground breaking ceremony for the arts factory NGO house at 78 Kaguvi St, Harare.

Pictures from the drama performed by the Young Voices Network at the report launch of Left Behind: The impact of Zimbabwe’s mass forced evictions on the Right to Education by Amnesty International Zimbabwe

Gone are the days of money changing and diamonds at Marange and in comes business of semen. After exhausting all means of making an honest living some lazy women have turned to raping and stealing men’s semen. Recently there were reports of women moving around the country in fancy cars soliciting sex from men and then raping them at gunpoint and taking their semen. Some men often find it difficult to come out openly and report cases of rape, so some women have taken advantage of this to go on a raping spree and hijacking semen to sell. It is no longer a secret that men are also being sexually abused by women and its high time that men speak out against the abuse. The most scary and painful part to the rape victims (men) is the fact of getting raped and then having your semen stolen from you and not having a clue about where and what it is going to be used for.

The idea of getting rich quick has influenced some parts of the young generation to go that extra mile of earning a living without breaking a sweat. Just like in the North African movies where “muti” or black magic is potrayed as a way of getting rich quick, these ideas, and an element of laziness have engulfed and brain washed the young generation in Zimbabwe to the extent that crime is now being committed in pursuit of money and a good life. Recently police in Gweru arrested a group of female rape suspects with a consignment of used condoms filled with semen. People who were interviewed narrated how these young women were enjoying fancy lifestyles. These women were being admired but people didn’t know they were into the semen business.

So to all men who have been victims of rape please speak out – be a man about it!

“It is easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing–that’s the Lord’s test.”
Mahalia Jackson

These words have really challenged me, as I hope they will challenge many of you. It makes me think of women of the old school, like my mother, who, though widowed early on in her married life, worked hard and struggled on, to look after us, independently. But it seems that women like this are now a dying-breed. When I think about the young women of Zimbabwe, I feel frightened. Even though some of us are ambitious, hardworking and fairly, independent, the majority of us are far from even being able to take care of ourselves, on a very basic level. Times are hard, and with unemployment levels topping 90%, being an independent young woman, is far easier said than done.

Despite how hopeless our economic situation seems I feel as though many young women are not even bothered with independence anymore. Faced, with such a tough economic environment, a lot of us have found it easier to just expect someone else to look after us, with many young women giving up on independence, and instead, seeking out moneyed men to look after them. These young women are making use of their erotic power to get men to take care of them, and in so doing, freeing themselves from the responsibility of their own lives. What these women don’t realise it that they are creating their own monsters.

I mean common sense should tell you that you can’t rightly expect to receive resources without paying for them. All along, unbeknownst to you, the metre has been running. It may not happen today, but eventually your sponsor will get their money’s worth. One may decide to beat it out of you, while another feels that he now has a licence to control you, and another still feels that it gives him the right not to use a condom. And how can you say no to him, when he has supported you for the last year or so. Of course, you can’t say no to him now. You feel beholden, and will therefore comply, right.  And what happens if one day he shows up, and asks for it all back. Unotangira pai? Where will you even begin to source this money?

One of my aunts, a very wise woman, once told me, “Never accept something from a man that you can’t afford to give back.” This advice might be a little extreme, but I think that one lesson we have to learn from it is to not let ourselves be dis-empowered in relationships, by not being independently functional, at the very least.

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