There is no feeling like the joy one feels when he/she lets Jesus Christ into their heart. The term “being born again” is a more than apt description of this experience. It literally feels as though you’ve been re-introduced into this world with renewed vigour, your mind and heart converted and restored to their intended state of purity and clarity. It’s like being given a clean, fresh start. Many say, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

However, with the sudden surge in the number of different churches in Zimbabwe, many people are now being born and re-born, again and again. I’m sure we are all familiar with people, (each of us knows at least 3), who bounce about from church to church, searching for the light of salvation. We’ve watched them at this crusade and that revival, each time, re-dedicating their lives to Jesus and once again experiencing this re-birth of the spirit, and transformation of the heart and mind. Every time you meet these people, they are worshiping at a new church (usually the latest).

It used to be that one remembered the time they received salvation. I know many people who even remembered the exact date, and related details of this momentous occasion, like one would remember their wedding day, or the day the day their only child was born. Yet, with so many now opting for spiritual transience, how do they keep track of the many times they have been saved or indeed, the last time they saw the light?

In the bible, a man named Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can a man be born again?” However, with things the way they are, I feel the question should now be “How many times can a person be born again?”

Inspired by her parents, this very special woman began Amuya Sara Nursery School, out of her rural home, to look after children of working mothers. The school is situated at Mahusekwa Growth Point in Chihota district. Ms Mkondo sought to relieve their burden, as many of the mothers worked long days in the fields, with their small children on their backs. The children were guaranteed at least one good meal a day whilst under her care, and with her nursing background, she tackled malnutrition among these children and also educated the mothers on the importance of immunization.

Older children were soon drawn in as well, (initially by the food), and Ms Mkondo started a story telling session, led by her late father, to entertain and educate them. After getting a diploma in Library Studies, she managed to get sponsorship to buy books at the book fair and started a library. The Sekuru Sara Children’s Library now has 500 books and is enjoyed by those who can read in the community.

The project soon expanded to include mothers. The women began the Amuya Sara Women’s Group, where they got emotional support and embarked on economically empowering activities.  Making use of another one of her diplomas, in interior décor, she taught the women how to sew goods for sale. This group has proven to be an invaluable resource and ideas base for the women, as they get an opportunity to put their heads together, and improve each other’s lives and skills by teaching each other all manner of things from cooking, to gardening to budgeting and so on.

Ms Mkondo was also interested in including school-leavers and dropouts in the project in order to keep them gainfully and productively occupied. She trained young women to be pre-school teachers and also how to sew, while her brothers trained young men in carpentry and welding.

These projects have had their ups and downs, due to drought, and limited funding, with the nursery school even closing down for a few years. I’m glad to say that the nursery school is operational again and the project has received further support from the chief of the area in the form of land to grow food for the children as he had seen the benefits his community received from this initiative.

Ms Mkondo has had to leave the project in the hands of her brothers and other women she has trained, as she currently works in Harare as a nurse aid. She hopes one day to be able to return to her projects on a full-time basis. In the meantime, she is working on future plans for the expansion of their current library. This small library has become a de facto information gateway in this area. There is therefore the need for a larger building, furniture, more books and a computer in order to sustain and expand the reach of the service.

Even though she has already done so much, one gets the sense that she has only skimmed the surface, and that there are greater things to come from this inspiring woman. What a wonderful place our country would be with more women like Tabeth Mkondo.

It is now very common to see families functioning without full-time maids. Fewer and fewer people can afford to pay a maid for a month’s work, with the trend now being that a maid comes in once or twice a week to help with the bigger jobs. In addition to this, few mothers (the custodians of the home and family life) can afford not to work, so as to take care of their homes and families. Despite all this, the dishes still need to be done, laundry washed and ironed and houses swept and dusted. So, with mum and dad working, no maid, and young children at crèche and school, who is doing all this work? Who is taking care of the home?

Mum, of course! It’s what mum’s do of course, and they’re so great at it! She is the first to get up, preparing everyone for their day (ironing, cooking breakfast, bathing kids, packing school lunches), and cleaning up after them along the way, before they all, (including Mum), set off for work or school.

After a long hard day in the office (just like dad), mum gets home, and begins her “evening shift” at home. Whatever she has not done in the wee hours of the morning, will be waiting for her, when she gets home. Again, she gets everyone settled in for the night (bathing kids, preparing supper, supervising homework and play). All the while, dad is either out, having a beer or seven, or in front of the TV with the day’s paper.

After supper, mum carries the dirty dishes to kitchen sink and washes them, so that at least she can wake up to a clean kitchen at 5am the next morning. You’d think that once the dishes are done and the kids are in bed, her day is done. Oh no, it is quite the contrary, mum must now go out to washing line and bring in the laundry she did before sunrise that morning, and begin to iron it. Maybe, she’ll set herself up in front of the TV, so she can be entertained while she irons. From time to time, she has to switch off the iron in order to go and check on the sleeping children and refill Dad’s water glass, or get him another beer.

With the ironing Mum can now relax. But not before she has soaked the kids’ uniforms so that they are easier to wash in the morning. Finally, she can rest! But can she really rest, with this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she has forgotten to do something? “Oh, well, whatever it is, I’ll do it in the morning.” Mum’s off to bed, to join Dad who’s already been there for a while, (he went straight to bed when he got back from socialising at the bar).

Bathed and thoroughly exhausted, she climbs into bed. He turns over and reaches for her. He’s in the mood tonight. He tells her how beautiful she looks. She rolls her eyes. “I look haggard,” she thinks. “Like I’ve worked three jobs today. And in 6 hours and 23 minutes, I have to do it all again. And he picks this moment to be in the mood! He’s got to be kidding!”

I know several women who have days like this most of their lives. They toil at work and home, putting everyone’s needs before their own. How can it be expected that she should cope with this much work in a day, especially when her husband is so tired and needs a break after a day in the office? These grossly unequal work contributions in the home, (especially where there is no hired help), no doubt lead to burnout, resentment and other issues that can lead to the degeneration of relationships.

The USA Embassy played host to a very lively discussion on Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe, based upon a national survey report compiled by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. Shastry Njeru, Manager of the Transitional Justice Section in this organization, presented the findings of the report. This presentation was facilitated by Leon Hartwell, a South African academic, passionate about African politics.

Transitional justice refers to legal or non-legal processes in which past violations are systematically addressed. It is a deliberate process of addressing the wrongs of the past.  Though used synonymously with ‘national healing’, the term refers to a more definitive process, focusing more on righting past wrongs than on just forgiveness and getting over the past.

Njeru reiterated the need for the process to begin, expressing hope that the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, would come up with policy framework for management of a National Healing Process soon. Njeru believes Zimbabwe needs transitional justice because it has gone through several violent processes, namely,

Colonization
Liberation struggle
Post-independence disturbances & atrocities (Matabeleland & Midlands)
Other processes after the Unity Accord
Land reform
Murambatsvina
2008 elections

He feels that the ideal transitional justice model for Zimbabwe will draw from both western and traditional models, striking a context-driven balance, in order to achieve results that are legitimate to the citizens of this country

Njeru outlined countrywide outreach efforts of the Human Rights NGO Forum, from 2009 to date, including the Taking Transitional Justice to the People project, focused on seeking opinions of Zimbabweans and clearly showed that most Zimbabweans want restorative as opposed to retributive (revenge) resolutions. The Transitional Justice, National Survey continued on from this, and with the use of scientific research and selection tools 3189 randomly selected people were interviewed on what they thought was important for transitional justice.

Their findings

49% – effective healing can be achieved through compensation.
13% – perpetrators need to openly ask forgiveness.

Who’s responsible for compensation?
24% – individual perpetrators
(The majority of which have nothing themselves)
55% – Government
(Which essentially means the people of Zimbabwe, through taxes)

Who leads process?
60% – churches & government.
(But, which church(s)?

Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration the second, least-trusted to lead process.
(Due to lack of awareness?)

Which periods addressed?

41% – from 2000 onward.
18% – from just after Independence onward.
14% – from the Liberation Struggle onward.
1821
Below 45% – indifferent to questions.
(Due to fear and lack of awareness).

Recommendations for the way forward

Encourage awareness and further discourse through outreach programmes.
Use more victim-centered approaches in further programmes.
Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration needs to spread awareness and encourage discussions.

He concluded by saying that Zimbabweans would have to do the work by demanding more on the part of government, civil society and communities, to engage in the issue, and that if past issues are not addressed now, it will become more costly in the future.

Leon Hartwell’s comments

“A lot of people assume… that democratic elections in Zimbabwe will solve your problems… I don’t think that will happen. Looking at the past, if we don’t [properly] deal with transitional justice, violence will happen again.”

Hartwell believes that despite the nature and results of upcoming elections, unless something concrete happens, transitional justice will become meaningless and that Zimbabwe can no longer drag out the issue.

He naturally, drew parallels to South Africa’s TRC process, asking if it might be one way Zimbabwe can approach transitional justice. Although he stated that the TRC helped to bridge the transition process in SA, with over 21,000 people breaking the silence on apartheid, he admitted to its eventual failure. He said, even though it “did not get the complete truth…it [the process] gave a more complete picture of the truth”. South Africa still has a long way to go, and Hartwell said that the country has much to learn from Zimbabwe, and that his country is having discussions now, that Zimbabwe had in the 90s.  He concluded by that the process will meet with resistance and it is important for civil society to keep the debate alive, in spite of 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.

There are so many Zimbabwean women who don’t like what they see when they look in the mirror. They look at their skin, and wish it would be lighter and brighter, because they believe that then, they will be prettier. Even when I was in high school, it was commonly believed that if a girl (or guy, come to think of it), was light, they were automatically more attractive. This really used to frustrate me, as I thought that some of these “pretty” girls really weren’t pretty at all. It’s attitudes, and silly beliefs like this, that I thought people left behind, when they finished high school, but it seems this that is one belief that haunts so many of Zimbabwe’s women, throughout their lives.

When you look in the mirror and see something you don’t like, it really bothers you, right? You try all you can to remedy it. If it’s a pimple, you try squeezing, drying it with toothpaste and all manner of face washes, masks and creams. You do everything you can to get things back, just the way you like them. In the same way, a lot of women are doing everything in their power to remedy their complexion “problems”. I can’t help but think that, while some of us looked at Michael Jackson’s pasty skin and chastised him for how he had gone too far with the lightening creams, there were many among us who secretly envied him, and longed to know his secret. Now, Zimbabwean women have skin lightening secrets of their own. Illegal and controlled legal substances, that drastically change the appearance of the skin, making it light and bright. The most popular of these are Diprosone ointment and Hydroquinone – oral tablets and creams. Below are the dangerous facts about these drugs. Facts that so many of our women choose to ignore:

Diprosone is a topical corticosteroid, commonly used to relieve the effects of eczema and other skin irritations, due to its anti-inflammatory qualities. This prescription-only substance is however, only used on a short-term basis, as it can cause real, lasting damage to the skin. Many women ignore the recommended dosages and opt to use it daily, as a skin lightener, and to promote hair growth. Prolonged use, or in this case, misuse makes the blood vessels more prominent, can lead to bacterial infections, causes the skin to eventually degenerate, making it thinner, more fragile and susceptible to bruising, then eventually, skin cancer, liver damage, kidney damage or poisoning. Hydroquinone tablets and creams work by basically lessening the concentration of melanin in the skin. It banned in many countries around the world. The long term side-effects are the similar to those mentioned above. One can also begin to get blue-black pigments are deposited onto the skin, (I’m sure you may have seen some unnaturally light women in Harare, with purplish lips).

It is clear that these are very dangerous substances, even in the right hands. So, where are women getting these substances? Well, getting these prescription drugs is easier than you think. One can even get them from their hairdresser, or in some of the Nigerian shops in Harare’s Gulf complex. The dream of lighter, brighter, (and eventually whiter), skin is one that can now come true for the women of Zimbabwe. More and more women are taking the plunge and taking their skin on the road to disaster and ruin. The side effects I mentioned earlier will happen to all its users, eventually.