Sunday, 7 July
Midday, in Borrowdale village, a kombi pasted with election posters and filled with Zanu PF supporters did a drive around. A reminder to the elites that July might not be the month for sleeping easy.

Sunday, 7 July
In the afternoon on Enterprise Road a knot of Zanu PF supporters, one very visibly drunk, vociferous and pumped up in their new election regalia. Tshirts with slogans fade as do any election promises. Don’t they know that?

Wednesday, 10 July
Afternoon at the traffic circle in Newlands; a gathering of people, mostly women, with proceedings being officiated by some green caps with clipboards. Streams of people coming out of the police camp on their way to the gathering. New accommodation is being built for police staff and their families who live at the camp. Curious timing. Just enough built to give people hope that they’ll have some dignified living space but how long until the accommodation is completed?

“Clearly, like their ZANU PF leadership these people (war veterans who in 2000 led the violent land seizures) believed no black person was capable of standing up for him or herself unless propped by a white hand. It is ironic that Ian Smith during the Rhodesia era had also believed that Blacks were revolting because some white communists somewhere were prodding them. It is the story of our lives as black (first as Rhodesian) Zimbabweans that we were cursed with political leadership that viewed us as people with the brains of gnats and incapable of thinking for ourselves. Under Ian Smith, the Chinese and the Soviets were our puppet masters and today under Mugabe, the British and Americans are the new puppet masters.”
Grace Mutandwa (From her memoirs The Power and the Glory)

BLESSED ARE THE SISSIES
BLESSED ARE THE BOI DYKES
BLESSED ARE THE PEOPLE OF COLOR MY BELOVED KITH AND KIN
BLESSED ARE THE TRANS
BLESSED ARE THE HIGH FEMMES
BLESSED ARE THE SEX WORKERS
BLESSED ARE THE AUTHENTIC
BLESSED ARE THE DIS-IDENTIFIERS
BLESSED ARE THE GENDER ILLUSIONISTS
BLESSED ARE THE NON-NORMATIVE
BLESSED ARE THE GENDERQUEERS
BLESSED ARE THE KINKSTERS
BLESSED ARE THE DISABLED
BLESSED ARE THE HOT FAT GIRLS
BLESSED ARE THE WEIRDO-QUEERS
BLESSED IS THE SPECTRUM
BLESSED IS CONSENT
BLESSED IS RESPECT
BLESSED ARE THE BELOVED WHO I DIDN’T DESCRIBE,
I COULDN’T DESCRIBE, WILL LEARN TO DESCRIBE AND RESPECT AND LOVE

AMEN

Mark Aguhar, Litanies to my heavenly brown body

Who’s that knocking on my door?
It’s not those War Vets any more -
It sounds like a hammer with a nasty claw?

Who’s that clumping on my roof?
Not the Chef with a cloven hoof -
It sounds like a liar with substantial proof.

Who’s that banging at my gate?
It’s not Big Daddy designate -
It sounds like a braai fork on an old tin plate.

Who’s that beating my dustbin lid?
It’s not the ego, not the id -
It sounds like a stick against an iron grid.

Who’s that singing sweet and low?
It’s not Dear Uncle on the go -
It sounds – my God – it sounds like a crow!

Zimbabwe is now split between politicians who are either puppets of the West or East. Anyone who has been preaching the gospel of democracy and good governance is being labeled a puppet of the West. But still we have the new friends who are exploiting our brothers and sisters, our environment and breaking laws left, right and center while using illegal permits. Who is issuing these licenses? These are now the puppets of the East who sacrifice the country for self benefit.