Here’s another contribution from Sophie Zvapera, a Kubatana subscriber . . . it seems like women are tired of men talking, talking, too much.

Today I thought I should give you some of the quotations from Zimbabwean women who had gathered for a women’s weekly church fellowship meeting (Ruwadzano):

“These men (Mugabe, Tsvangirai & Mutambara) have totally killed us and our families

Do you think these men care at all? But these men think we care who is controlling Home Affairs or not? Not at the moment! It doesn’t provide food on my table!

Do these men have a conscience at all? Next time I won’t vote because the vote has no value at all in Zimbabwe

Do these men Mugabe, Tsvangirai & Muatmbara have wives? What are their wives saying about all this?

Men are the same they don’t care about our suffering all they want is power, power & power”

These exchanges went on for a while as we waited for the start of the meeting during which time I started thinking of all the women and children who are unsung, unrecorded and unknown heroines of the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe.

There are many women whose names have never been mentioned anywhere who are suffering the brunt of the failure of leadership at all levels. These women are responsible for looking for food where there is none, caring for the sick where there is no hospital, no medication; they are the ones that are experiencing both social and psychological burn out because of the situation that is presenting in Zimbabwe. They see their children, husbands, relatives and friends dying because of cholera, HIV/AIDS, starvation and still have to attend the funerals and do all the traditional rites. The question that kept on coming to my mind as these women talked is do these political leaders care at all? I recognized that the feeling amongst these women as they expressed it here was that political leaders do not care about all the suffering that is going on except to gain political mileage at the expense of the suffering masses.

Someone might say this is an unkind analysis but I am sure I am not the only one who gets this feeling when you talk to small groups of women going about their daily chores. All they want now is a solution that brings respite to the people of Zimbabwe. In my discussions with women that I meet on a daily basis in my life none of them wants fresh elections, none of them wants a coup. All they want is going back to normal where they do not wake up in the morning to the news that a woman like Jestina Mukoko or Violet Mupfuranhewe and her two year old child disappeared, for instance. If women had their way they would have stopped the suffering long back through finding a workable solution than ‘to stick it out to the wire’ as these men are doing whilst people are dying daily.

My request therefore to these leaders is for them to talk to the suffering women and find out what they think about the ongoing impasse. If they think they are going to get some ululation for a job well done then they are so far away from reality. Women want this impasse resolved immediately. They want to take care of their families and move on with their lives where there is no senseless dying from cholera, where there is enough food for their families on the table, where children can go back to school and get a decent education, where the employed earn respectable salaries and not all this political rigmarole.

How many people have to die before these three men realise it is time for all of them to compromise in one way or the other. It is political doublespeak for any of the three leaders to say they have compromised enough because from where the women stand they have not since we have not moved forward as a country.

Many people in Zimbabwe are feeling powerless right now. Alana Pugh-Jones is fighting this by putting pen to paper. She’s written a poem about a woman she’s never met – Jestina Mukoko. It’s important during these very difficult times to do whatever we can and speak out whenever we can.

Jestina Mukoko, Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was abducted from her home in the early hours of Wednesday, 3rd of December. Her whereabouts are still unknown.  We await her safe return.

Cry, Jestina

Cowards.
They came before the break of day,
Creeping towards your home in the shadows of the night.
What could have made men hardened by liberation so scared,
A cruel dictator so terrified,
Of a single woman?
Twelve plain clothes men clutching their guns to surprise you
Barefoot and in your nightgown.

You are one brave voice,
One courageous witness,
One of many,
Yet you alone were thrust into the unmarked car that day.
You stand as a giant to injustice,
In this moral wilderness.
And so they came to drag you by your hair,
Before the eyes of your son.
Cowards.

Every day I ask my friends,
Your comrades in the battlefield that has become Zimbabwe,
Who strove, side by side with you, to bring some light to this darkness,
If there is any word,
Any sign,
Any hope.
They answer me slowly,
As if their words struggle to surface from under the burden of sorrow on their shoulders,
No word,
No sign,
Yet hope.

I have never had the privilege of meeting you Jestina,
But one day,
In the future we fight for,
I pray to have the chance to meet you in the streets of Harare,
Standing tall,
Surrounded by freedom.
That day I’ll shake your hand,
Weary but steady from recording the testimony of this repression.
And I will thank you for your inspiration.

Until that day,
For you and this beautiful nation,
I cry.

Zimbabwean human rights activist Jestina Mukoko was abducted from her home in Norton, outside Harare, around 5am on Wednesday 3 December. Reports indicate that a group of at least 12 men in two unmarked vehicles came to her house. She was taken by force still barefoot and in her pyjamas. More than 24 hours later, there is still no sign of Mukoko, nor any indication of her whereabouts or who might have abducted her.

Amnesty International issued an alert yesterday, demanding that Zimbabwean authorities guarantee Mukoko’s safety. Mukoko is the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), a local human rights organisation that monitors and documents human rights violations.

Phone the Norton Police station and demand that they investigate Jestina’s disappearance: +263 (0)62 2120. Be persistent! It can be hard to get through.

November 25 to December 10 marks 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women. Pamberi Trust held a musical and poetry extravaganza to bring home a strong message of saying no to violence. One performance in particular was all that and precisely what activist voices can embody. The poignant words of performance poet Xapa and hip hopper Misfit along with an affecting and we won’t stand down drum beat by Rumbi provided inspiration. The words and the drumming made the hair on my arms stand up. Made me want to change the world and hug every person I can find who personifies peace. The title of the performance was apt with respect to violence against women. And with respect to a great many other on-goings in Zimbabwe.

We should protest always

Always
The beating of the bongo like the beating of my heart
The beating of the bongo like my heart before you come
The pounding of the bongo like your fists upon my skin
The pounding of the bongo like the agony within

Violence in the garden
Violence in the house
Violence from the children
Violence from the spouse
The weeping and the wailing and the terror and the tears
The weeping and the wailing and the terror and the tears
The fat and the thin, the soul and the hurt and the fears
Violence from the sober
Violence when he’s drunk
Violence on the weaker
Violence on the young

The rhythm of the bongo like the rhythm of my soul
The rhythm of the bongo like the agony
The pounding of the bongo like his fists upon my skin
The pounding of the bongo like the agony within

Violence is coordinated, violence is control
Violence is from the place of the young of the soul
The fighting and the pressure and the struggles and the drone
The beating and the fighting and the immediate unfolds
Abuse of her body and abuse of her soul
Abuse of her feelings and abuse of her hopes

The throbbing of the drum is like the throbbing of my pain
The throbbing of the drum is like crying in my grave
The booming of the bongo there it is, let me go
The booming of the bongo, there’s victims no more

In response to my blog Civil society needs to re-strategize one of our subscribers sent in the following comment:

I do agree on peaceful demonstrations but fundamentally differ with the writer on the accountability of the organizer (s). I think the NCA, Woza, Zinasu and ZCTU have done enough as it is. Remember, it is illegal to have a group of more than four people or organising such. The organisers will be taking risks in organizing these demonstrations. My suggestion is for Zimbabweans to start getting involved in protests in a cunning way. No one should be given the task of organizing because then you need to coordinate and plan and put the whole project into a scheduled start-do-end scenario which has failed so far. In Thailand people have been protesting for 5 months. I don’t think there is a project manager for this, everyone feels responsible and they do not have an end date but an end objective and are actively dedicated. By cultivating bravery, Zimbabweans can change their destiny because those with power are a very small number compared to those who are suffering. Also those with power are actually frightened that is why they rely on guns, violence and intimidation. We are still at a stage where we value “going to work” even if that is now meaningless or “queuing at the bank” even though we may not get our money. We need the same determination to be cultivated in changing the lame duck mentality when it comes to demonstrating for social progress. The whole world is actually waiting for Zimbabweans themselves to actively and practically SHOW their disgust at what is happening in their countries before they can come and assist.

First off, to say civil society has done enough as it is akin to saying HIV and AIDS workers must just stop because now it is up to people to abstain, be faithful and condomize. The civil society organizations the author mentioned as examples are among the many others that pledged to stand up for the rights of others. It is their core business and what donors give them funds for. So to say they have done enough gives the impression that all their goals and objectives have been achieved, and that the human rights situation in Zimbabwe has improved to such an extent that they can now stop. Alternatively it gives the impression that their efforts have failed and its now up to Zimbabweans to sort this mess out themselves.

Secondly the fact that POSA criminalizes mass mobilizations is a matter of public knowledge. But despite that knowledge, WOZA, Zinasu, the NCA among others still go out to protest in large numbers because action like this is fundamental to civil disobedience. The quest to be heard calls for the need to do something that attracts attention. Mass protest achieves that goal.

Third, it is unfortunate that the author does not suggest means and ways Zimbabweans can “start getting involved in protests in a “cunning way, ” neither does he say how Zimbabweans can start “cultivating bravery” in order to change their destiny. I must point out that we are talking about a highly traumatized people that are scared out of their wits of the invisible government. A people that is trying to recover from witnessing their wives, mothers and sisters being raped senseless in their presence. How simple is it then for people to just jump up and protest one day without any form of leadership? Steve Biko so rightly put it that the most important weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. Zimbabweans have more than one enemy; they still have to get over the fear in their minds to be able to move forward.

That civil society has dared to protest is what gives us hope and is the very reason why we ought to harness that strength. Why should they not be encouraged to incorporate more practical means of protest that everyone else will feel compelled to join? Indeed Zimbabweans need to cultivate bravery but right now the pressing matter is that we’ve got a dictator in our midst, and the actions of civil society are what will give the ordinary citizens the clout to engage in protest. Cholera has failed to galvanize people, so have hyperinflation, poverty and food shortages. Only people can move people now.

The small protest activities that civil society has organized so far have required a lot of planning and have been dangerous to implement. Why shouldn’t they be encouraged to do the same thing at a more coordinated level so that we see some real change? Do they not owe it to the people whose rights they represent to form more practical, effective mobilizations that will include those same people in change processes?

Yes, it is true that the world is waiting for Zimbabweans themselves to do something about this situation, but remember, the rest of the world does not live here, like you and I do, and we happen to have first-hand knowledge of the exact situation on the ground.

It is on a sad note that this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence Campaign is commemorated in the context of a collapsing health delivery system in Zimbabwe where women continue to face the impact of the current political intolerance.

Access to adequate health care is among the most basic human rights and it is currently being violated in this country. Most pregnant women in Zimbabwe are resorting to risky means of delivering as they cannot keep up with the soaring charges at private doctors and hospitals. With the public hospitals not admitting any patients there is no choice but to deliver either at home or in an unsafe place.

A few days ago I had a chat with a friend of mine who is expecting. From our discussion I discovered some very disturbing realities that women are going through to access antenatal services.  Private gynecologists’ consultation fees are ranging between US$20 and US$40. Delivery charges are about US$500. Admission charges at private hospitals cost about US$850 for a normal delivery. This means that one needs to prepare about US$1 300 for delivery. With the rising cost of living few people can afford this.

Some doctors now propose back door deliveries. This is when the doctor suggests that delivery can be arranged for a ‘reasonable’ fee at a surgery in the outskirts of a residential area. These surgeries do not have adequate facilities thus both the mother and the baby are at risk.

A woman’s right to maternal health care in Zimbabwe is compromised by the delay in resolving the political differences in Zimbabwe. This is indeed an insult to motherhood.