What does it mean to be Zimbabwean? If propaganda and political rhetoric from Our Dear Leader and his cohorts are to be believed it means winning a medal at some sporting event while, say, swimming or playing cricket for Zimbabwe. For those of us who are under achievers, or lazy, it means being black. I cannot help but feel that Zimbabwe is further away from resolving its racial issues than it was at Independence. Being born-free, and a member of the generation that attended private school without there being a quota system that mandated my presence, being Zimbabwean meant simply a love for my country and the things that make it unique. That is not to say that we weren’t aware of the cultural difference between races – we were.  But back then, it was ok to discuss them, to explore our individual identities within the context of our group identity as Zimbabweans, now it’s considered racist.

I think Zimbabwe is far from being post racial. I think there are those of us who in our heads, there are friends who I hang out with, who are definitely post racial in their outlook, but I think we’ve still got a lot of issues to deal with. There’s no doubt about it…racial issues and class issues. I’m not sure, but I think the last ten years have in some ways dragged us backwards, and in others have dragged us forwards. Dragging us backwards, there does seem to be more racial tension here now than there was when I was growing up. It’s definitely because of all the hate propaganda, the political propaganda that gets spewed in the state media. In how it’s dragged us forward, I think it’s made those who believe in Zimbabwe have to fight for it, be they black white or coloured, and that’s hopefully brought people closer together. At the same time Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, black, white: all these middle class kids who’ve gone abroad, connecting with their Zimbabweans identity. They grew up here and wanted to go away as quickly as possible, and then they go over there and try to find their identity and realize what connections they’ve got back here. There are interesting things that come out. You’ve got white kids in London who’ve got an mbira punk band and things like this that you end up appreciating what you have when you’re far away [from home].
- Comrade Fatso.

Read the full interview with Comrade Fatso here.

This entry was posted on April 15th, 2011 at 10:27 am by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.