It’s raining heavily in Harare right now but just a short while ago the skies were clear for the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) Valentine’s Day March. They brought it forward a day so that the police wouldn’t completely squash it.

So there I was sitting in my car on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue and suddenly the loudest, most joyous and defiant singing filled the air and round the corner came hundreds of WOZA women carrying roses, leaflets and copies of the People’s Charter.

And I felt, in that moment, that anything is possible and most especially, that with women as brave as this, we have hope.

Traffic stopped. Pedestrians stopped and smiled and cheered. People whistled and clapped.

The WOZA march made its way to Parliament where their singing and roses were met with tear gas. Undaunted WOZA re-grouped, turned and marched back into town. At the corner of Chinhoyi Street and Kwame Nkrumah Avenue fairly close to Zanu PF headquarters, I came across police with their dogs intent on cowering this fabulous group of women.

Many women might have been arrested, but the WOZA spirit is alive and well.

This entry was posted on February 13th, 2007 at 12:21 pm by Bev Clark and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.