At a OSISA brown bag discussion on the role of new media in the pro-democracy struggles in southern Africa on Friday, one participant discussed a current tactic in use by organisers in Swaziland.

He explained that they have launched a cultural boycott, along the lines of the one which deterred artists and athletes from travelling to South Africa during apartheid.

As he described it, a number of artists had already agreed to boycott the Bushfire Festival held over the weekend, including Baba Caiphus Semenya. However, he noted that Oliver Mtukudzi was billed to perform at the festival, and activists had been unable to get in touch with him to advise him not to come. He informed the meeting that Semenya had been tasked with appealing to Tuku directly to encourage him to join the boycott. However, he said, he knew Tuku was a democrat, and he had every confidence that he would heed the boycott call. He said a separate event in South Africa was being planned, to support the artists who had honoured the boycott with a different source of performance revenue.

But a statement released on Tuku’s website Friday afternoon shared that some Swazi activists had allegedly “threatened to harm Tuku with unspecified action” if he performed at the Bushfire Festival. On his website, Tuku said:

“Those who are threatening my life actually need healing themselves and I will ensure my music heals their anger and help them think properly. That is the purpose of art. Music must be a remedy in times of strife and artists must be given a chance to fulfill that obligation.”

He explained that he would be performing at Bushfire as planned, and that:

“The threats don’t deter me from doing my job as an artist. I have a responsibility to help heal where there is conflict. I must unite people where politicians are dividing us. It’s the business of politicians to separate people, as usual, and I am not surprised by the threats. All my life my music has promoted love, peace, tolerance and human rights and must be viewed as such. Thinking otherwise would be unfair.”

Radio VOP reported that Tuku performed on the weekend to around 15,000 people.

Whilst musicians may indeed be able to unite societies and create spaces for dialogue instead of conflict, I can understand the value of a cultural boycott. Amongst other things, it denies a government the revenue, and legitimacy, that international events can provide. The success of the South African example has inspired others to take a similar stance – for example in the Israeli / Palestinian conflict.

As Desmond Tutu said:

Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong for Cape Town Opera to perform in Israel.

In fairness to artists, it’s important that calls for a boycott be clear and consistent. In this case, there was some back-and-forth about whether the boycott was still on, which the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) dismissed as an attempt by the Festival organisers to misinform people that the boycott had been lifted.

Certainly, threatening someone’s safety should they come and perform falls more in the category of blackmail than persuasion.

But activist organisations like the Swaziland Solidarity Network insist the boycott is on, and will remain until Swaziland is democratised. For years, Zimbabweans have asked others in the region to support our efforts to democratise. With artists like Caiphus Semenya, Professor, L’Vovo Derrango, and Deep House DJ Black Coffee supporting the Swazi boycott, what will it take for artists like Tuku to follow suit?

A subscriber shared this information with us on current events in Europe:

Please pay some attention to the peaceful revolution that is taking place in Spain, France and elsewhere. 3000 people were teargassed in Paris yesterday outside the Bastille. It’s the first time in years people are waking up and in just 2 weeks the movement has already come up with proposals the politicians will have to listen to. There are meetings in the main squares which we are trying to decentralise into districts. People of all ages though a lot of young people. Small & large assemblies which are slow but give us all an idea of what a real democracy would be about. The international media are trying their best to ignore it. We want worldwide demonstrations & camps against inequality & lack of political representation of citizens worldwide. Date of reference is 15 May, next 15 June and there’s talk of trying to get a worldwide demonstration happening on 15 August.

- Here is a link to Plaza del Sol, Madrid
- Read more about these events here

Is apathy Zimbabwe’s worst enemy?

Tendai Marima’s Mail & Guardian Thought Leader blog makes some very good points. You can read some excerpts here:

Stories of villagers being terrorised by soldiers patrolling the diamond fields of Marange in eastern Zimbabwe are enough to scare off any revolutionaries dreaming of a Chimurenga-style uprising. But it’s not only the very real obstacles of violent repression that could prevent Zimbabweans from fully catching the protest fever currently doing the rounds on the continent and the Middle East. The nation suffers from a grave illness: apathy.

It’s difficult to cite books or social scientists diagnosing this to be the Zimbabwean condition but personal lived experience suggests this is the case. To an extent, academics like Brian Kagoro and Glen Mpani, who have explored the reasons for Zimbabwean passivity and indifference, confirm this. In their respective works, both researchers argue that the post-colonial condition of political apathy has its roots in decades of living under a one-party state. The multiple interlocking burdens of living under an increasingly authoritarian, economically regressive regime have resulted in a population which “normalises the abnormal” as a coping strategy. In other words, it’s become so normal to hear of opposition members being beaten and jailed that it’s hard to be concerned. Indifference makes it easier to be dismissive and say “it doesn’t happen everywhere”. Because of this standard response, its sometimes difficult for the “law-abiding” rich and poor to connect their economic woes to the absurd imprisonment and torture of someone or the shortage of medicines and medical expertise in hospitals.

…

If any lessons are to be learnt from the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions by Zimbabweans, it is that dictators can be overthrown by the people; security and stability be damned. But before any fantasies of popular uprising or ousting Zanu by the ballot can be organised by serious activists and non one-hit wonder online revolutionaries or used as campaign rhetoric by a formidable opposition party (yet to be seen) Zimbabwe needs a zenga zenga revolution, to remix Gaddafi’s words.

A revolution of conscience in every city, every street, every house, every village and every hut. Zenga zenga; every nook and cranny must be cleansed of the viral strains of apathy that allow evil to flourish and culminate in an inability to equate human rights with the right to pursue prosperity and live in a relatively stable country. If Zimbabweans truly want a change in the status quo or “no other but Zanu, but without the violence” as some desire, then it begins with this critical mass realisation. Legitimate desires for stability and prosperity can never justify indifference towards the unjust persecution of another Zimbabwean. Just as the apolitical urban middle and working classes deserve to live in peace, so too do the villagers of Marange. As do praying parishioners. And White Zimbabwean, Zimbabwean Indian and Nigerian traders and business owners harassed in the name of indigenisation. As Zimbabwe continues to discover the highs and lows of 31 years of independence, may the spirits of past liberators bless her with the realisation that indifference to the suffering of others can be cured at the church of born-again humanitarians by St Conscience, the Empathic One.

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Hopewell Gumbo shared this update on the case of Munyaradzi Gwisai of the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe) and five others who had been charged with treason. In a victory for the accused, the treason charges have been dropped and the bail conditions have been relaxed.

Monday May 30, 2011, at 1030hrs, our application for the relaxation of bail conditions was heard before Justice Kudya. We had sort the return of our passports and the removal of stringent reporting conditions. The judge has concerted to the altering of reporting conditions and has granted us to report once every last Friday of the month a major leap from the three days a week we were yoked to. The state has also indicated that the Treason charge has been dropped and would prefer one of Subverting a Constitutional Government when the trial opens on the 18th of July 2011 in the Harare Regional Magistrate’s court. The judge however did not grant the return of passports and ruled that the court can only do that in the event of the production of credible itinerary for intended travel. This we will abide by and we feel the struggle continues as we go towards trial and seek ultimate freedom. But ultimate freedom will only come when the full trial is completed, but the solidarity and support cdes all over the world have given will continue to drive our will to fight oppression and is key in smashing the equally spurious Subversion of Constitutional Government Charges. Do not tire in fighting for total freedom through the actions you have continued to organize.

Merit Rumema’s blog on the definition of fatherhood reminded me of a recent conversation with a friend.

She and her two teenaged children are South Africa citizens. They live in Zimbabwe with her husband, their father, who is not a South African citizen. She needs to get passports for her children, and for various reasons the embassy here will not process them. Instead, she’s been told to go to Pretoria to have them processed – and she’s been informed that the children’s father must be present. It is not enough even for him to write a letter, or to give her his ID to take with her – he must physically be present when they go to apply for their passports. She explains is as if they fear she might abscond with the children without the father’s permission. This is South Africa – with allegedly the most progressive Constitution in Africa (if not the world) and with a supposed respect for human rights and basic issues like gender equality. Why then is the mother’s presence sufficient “adult authority” to process these children’s passports? Why does the father (who isn’t even South African) count for more than the mother in this instance?

Merit Rumema ponders what really makes a father in this moving piece:

I had a wonderful father when growing up, in fact, he was the first man I fell in love with and I realize I have been looking for a part of him in every man who shows an interest in me, and sadly I cannot find another Onesimo Luckson Rumema. He was indeed one of a kind.

Over the years I have seen father who dote on their little girls and have appreciated the term, “Daddies little girl” but the older I grow, the more I see and hear, the more I have questioned the meaning of the word father. As an Information Officer for Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA), I have seen countless women walk through our doors, seeking help so that an errant father can pay maintenance for his children’s upkeep. I have heard of fathers denying paternity, and other pretending they earn very little so as to avoid the responsibility of taking care of their children.

What has driven me to write this article and question what it is really that makes one a father is the case that is now in the supreme Court, of a 22 year old female student at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), whose father is refusing to pay fees, arguing that she is no longer a minor and therefore not his responsibility. He further states that when he divorced the mother, he only agreed to maintain one child who is still a minor. What then really boggles my mind is the fact that he can afford to take the case back and forth in court and pay lawyers in private practice. I do not know this man’s income, but to me, if he can afford lawyers, he can afford to pay school fees.

Out of curiosity, I posed a question on the ZWLA website and on the organisation´s Face book page, just to find out from people what they thought about this particular case and got really interesting responses. All of the participants in the poll agreed that a parent should pay school fees regardless of the child’s age as long as it is a first degree, as this has become a necessity and no longer a luxury. A young man shared how he went through a similar situation with his father who had sour grapes with his mother and to fix the mother, refused to pay fees.

Still, my question was not answered. Who or what really is a father. Is it someone who merely through an act of nature makes a woman pregnant and shares some DNA with the child, or is that man who is there for the child, looks after them, teaches them to ride a bike, helps with the homework and plays peek-a-boo? I then thought of my own little girl, who has never seen her biological father but still loves him, who has never had the pleasure of pulling his beard. It got me thinking, when she gets married in 20 years time, who will claim lobola and for what reasons? I know in my culture, when the groom pays lobola, there is something called matekenya ndebvu (beard tickling) and I have seen little girls do that in fascination to their father. But my angel never did that, well at least not to her “father”. Will he have the right to claim the lobola, or should the stepfather claim it? After all, he was there more than her “father” was, and is helping shape and mould her into a woman of integrity.

Back to the case that prompted me to write this article, seeking learned opinions, does the problem lie within the legal framework or the cultural ideologies? Currently, the law defines a minor as anyone below the age of 18, and I remember at 18 I was in Lower Six and still in boarding school. Was my father supposed to stop paying school fees for me then because I was a major? I am not a lawyer but surely there is a serious error under the sun? So all those “fathers” who have been compelled by the law to be responsible towards their children will stop when the children turn 18, regardless of whether they are still in school or not, self sufficient or not? Is that when one stops being a father? I am almost 30 years old now, but everyday, I miss my late father and am confident if he were alive today I would still be his little girl. He may not have been able to solve every problem but he would have stood by me.

So please tell me, what defines a father, is it a blood issue, a responsibility issue or a relationship issue?