Harare's dark. A dark city where street lights are now ragged flagpoles holding up the billlowing black sky. And the black sky shines down on us. It shines down on the gaping potholes-now-ponds. It shines on the broken bottles of imported beers that now ironically litter local streets. It shines down on the single file queues of prostitutes who line Harare's avenues. As rooted to the scenery as its trees. Black sky shines down on the police looking to arrest the prostitutes. And extort sex from them in a dingy avenue. The sky shines on the shadows that live behind the trees. The tsotsis who wait to stab a body for a few worthless Zim dollars and a cellphone. The sky shines down on the bodies huddled in shop doors. Not waiting for food. Just waiting to die. The black sky shines on us all. Every evening. After sunset. These are our home affairs.
Desperate isn't the word. It's not even close. Human beings dying from hunger in what was once a bread basket. Inflation reducing souls to scavengers. No, Zimbabwe isn't desperate. It's dying. Slowly.
Street kids litter the streets like a Marechera nursery tale. Children who should be singing in school uniforms are on the streets hustling for a breath of life. But they still smile. Like all Zimbabweans. We have a disease. Maybe our smile is supposed to make you feel sorry for us. Maybe our smile is to show you that we are powerful enough to rise above the decay. Maybe our smile is just laughter on hold until it can continue once again. But still we smile.
While ZANU PF decides ministries are more important than people. While the West goes through a credit crunch. Still we smile. We have no credit to crunch. Their crunch comes from years of shop-til-you-drop greed and consumerism. Our crisis means drop-til-you-shop. Their crunch comes from economies built on fat cats' fantasies. Our crisis comes from non-economies built on politicians' illusions. They thought they had endless credit. We have no doubt about our debt. Maybe we can teach them a lesson. Maybe we can export smiles to London and New York. Smiles during times of hardship. Smiles that mean nothing. And everything. A smile that you wear when you wake in the morning without a penny in your pocket. A smile that means victory and defeat. A smile that is just laughter on hold until it can continue once again.
Purple flowers carpet Harare's streets. The jacarandas have blossomed and fallen. The seasons have changed. Heat has replaced cold. But the sun has never made poverty smile. The poor stand in sun-drunk bank queues that have now been dubbed 'bank crowds'. Because any semblance of a queue disappeared along time ago. Now the mobs are on the streets. Paused. Waiting for cash. Because who has the energy to demonstrate. For what? Don't we now have an opposition ruling party?
The queue curves around the corner like a frozen riot. People are standing chin-to-back, stomach-to-buttocks. Shoving. And desperate. What would have been ZANU propaganda from heaven if it were a queue at a polling station just weeks ago is today a sad sign of the times. They are queuing for sugar. A rare sweet thing in life. Because all politics means to the people of Harare is beatings, blood and broken hopes.
This is Comrade Fatso's Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period. See: www.comradefatso.vox.com. For blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see: www.myspace.com/magamba
To buy Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka’s new album, House of Hunger, go to: www.comradefatso.com
To see Comrade Fatso’s Exclusive Blogs for CNN go to: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/14/zimbabwe.blog/index.html
To see Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka live in concert go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cyv-ozu3JA
“So, Dread, where’s your mbanje?” Coffee is a good way to start the day. I started mine in a more Zimbabwean way: arrested for avoiding a road block and then being searched for mbanje. Not having smoked weed for a while luckily I didn’t have any. But that didn’t stop the long arm of the law from asking for a greased palm. This was Harare City Centre on the day of the premiere of ZANU (PF)’s one man play ‘Robert versus Common Sense’. Police milled about a deserted city centre. Some stood lazily at road blocks waiting to add a few zeros to their sick salaries. Others searched the pockets of our sunshine city’s army of hustlers, reclaiming US dollars for their own personal treasury. Those are the only people who went about their work in our comedy of errors town: corrupt cops and forex dealers competing for space on empty street corners.
Harare itself stayed away from the polling stations. Many made use of the public holiday to put their feet up at home and watch blank screens in this power-cut country. Many others who were forced to vote and report their serial numbers simply spoilt their ballots. Even though ZANU (PF) militias frog marched voters to some polling stations all in all it was a day of stayaways and spoilers.
The city cautiously came back to life this evening. People ventured onto the streets, beer bottles in hand. Like mice unsure if the rabid cat is really gone. The bars have opened their doors. People trickle in. Most are waiting for the real violence to start.
This is Comrade Fatso's Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period. See: www.comradefatso.vox.com. For blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see: www.myspace.com/magamba
To buy Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka’s new album, House of Hunger, go to: www.comradefatso.com
To see Comrade Fatso’s Exclusive Blogs for CNN go to: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/14/zimbabwe.blog/index.html
To see Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka live in concert go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cyv-ozu3JA
Bread now costs fifteen billion dollars. Hustled. On the street corner. Meat in the shops goes for nothing less than thirty billion. These insane numbers put basics out of reach for the average, struggling Zimbabwean. This, we are told by the military junta’s election adverts, is 100% Empowerment. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sickening.
Zimbabweans are not too sure what to do. This Friday we will have a single candidate run-off. We seem to be in limbo once again. Politics has paused the people’s lives. Action is the only thing that can unpause it. This past weekend saw Magamba, our cultural activist network, organising MAKE SOME NOISE! Concerts For Freedom In Zimbabwe. The tour aimed to raise awareness about the Zimbabwe struggle and to mobilize people into action. It kicked off at Harare’s Mannenberg Jazz Club on June 19th moving to Jo’burg’s popular live music venue, House Of Nsako. House Of Nsako saw an array of artists - from Pops Mohammed to Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka, from Kwani Experience to Outspoken - all calling for action on Zimbabwe. The hundreds present danced and screamed all night as hundreds of letters were signed and sent to Thabo Mbeki demanding action on Zimbabwe and the deployment of a peace-keeping force. The event also saw a rousing speech by respected Zimbabwean civic activist, Grace Kwinjeh. Southern Africa had spoken. Through poetry, music and action.
Other actions are blossoming. Today vigils for peace in Zimbabwe went ahead across South Africa while petitions have been sent to the SADC leaders demanding action. Sokwanele, the underground propaganda organization, have called for a massive boycott of Friday’s illegitimate poll. We must let these many actions become an avalanche. We must make the grassroots shake the ivory towers. Already the SADC emergency summit today has demanded that the elections be postponed. We need to continue lighting our many fires demanding a boycott of the vote, a deployment of peace keepers and a transitional government. Time is not on our side. But history is.
To download Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka's new album simply go to:
In a country of deadly silence some choose to make noise. In a country of fear some choose the word as a weapon. I am sitting in the Mannenberg Jazz Club, Harare. We are about to kick off the MAKE SOME NOISE tour right here in Harare. Concerts for Freedom in Zimbabwe that we take tomorrow to Jo'burg, South Africa. It all starts here. Tonight. The word versus the fist. Time to go on stage. Mike check. One. Two. Let's hit it.
Positive things can also happen. A flower can spring from the shit. I'm just finishing a short European tour that has taken me from the Slam Poetry World Cup in Paris to the UK and from there to the Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam, Holland. I moved with the word in my front pocket. And hope in my voice.
The Poetry Slam World Cup was flooded with all the world's national poetry slam champions. I won the first three rounds, beating the US, the Candian and Polish champions. My word was my weapon as my Shonglish poems from the struggle and streets of Harare enthralled the judges and crowd alike. Once in the semi-finals though, I spent too long introducing a poem and went over the time limit. I was penalised, losing two points with which I would have made the finals. Without them I didn't. It was an enjoyable event nonetheless. I got alot of respect from the poets there and also used the opportunity to do loads of media interviews for TV and radio about the struggle in Zimbabwe. And I also signed a record distribution deal with an independent label in France. So House of Hunger is now readily available in Europe.
I have just returned from Rotterdam where I performed at the Poetry International Festival. Me and Josh Meck did our powerful poetry-bass collaboration that sees my words of toyi toyi wrap around his melodious bass riffs. It was a different way of communicating the truths about Zimbabwe to an international audience: through poems that are the people's stories, through hope and humour, through showing that humanity always wins. It was broadcast live on the internet. And House of Hunger is now also being played on Radio Netherlands...
Now Southern Africa is calling. The Presidential Run-Off is two weeks away. So with Magamba! we are organising the the MAKE SOME NOISE Tour - Concerts For Freedom in Zimbabwe that will tour from Zimbabwe to South Africa. The tour aims to mobilise South Africans into action on Zimbabwe. It culminates in an explosive concert at the House Of Nsako in Jo'burg where leading SA and Zim artists will be united in their stand against oppression. Featuring the likes of Pops Mohammed, Kwani Experience, Comrade Fatso & Chavondoka and Outspoken we believe we'll definitely get everyone to make some noise!!
To read an article about Fatso in the French press and to listen to the interview and his music click below:
http://www.leblogde21.com/article-19755362.html
To read the article by John Mokwetsi about Fatso's participation in the Slam click below:
To read about Fatso @ Poetry International and to listen to some of his poems click below:
http://zimbabwe.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=11655
To download Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka's new album simply go to:
Dead. A cold body in a mortuary. That’s how they found Tonde today. Abducted last week, he was tortured and beaten to death. An inspiring, young township freedom fighter whose words were in my ears last week, his breathing body in my eyes. Today the breath has been beaten out of him because he dared to believe that his people could be free. And dreams here are criminal things these days.
Tonderai Ndira was an example of everything that this military junta is trying to weed out and destroy. An energetic township organizer for the MDC, Tonde was inspiring to watch as he would lead us through his tree-lined Mabvuku suburb showing us his community’s problems and how they were determined to solve them. He was a true community activist, greeted by all who walked by and more popular than the local MP.
Once me and other comrades joined him for one of the most creative actions I’ve been in here. Mabvuku has had endless water shortages due to a corrupt City Council so letters supposedly from the Council were sent out to residents calling on them to come to the local Mabvuku council offices to discuss their plight. Soon there was a gathering at the offices of hundreds of Mabvuku residents, from water-bucket-on-head grandmothers to dread-locked scud-in-hand youths. The council representatives were overwhelmed and denied ever sending the letters. Angry residents told the officials and police where they wanted to stick their empty water buckets. Tonde, as usual, was in the forefront. The young and the old were united in their disdain for the answer-less officials. The riot police were called in. Santana trucks began hungrily chasing us and other township youths as we all evaporated into the sprawled out veins of dusty Mabvuku. But the point was made. No justice for us. No respect for you. And that is the message that Tonde’s activism has left written in the soil of his much-loved Mabvuku.
This is Comrade Fatso's Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period. See: www.comradefatso.vox.com. For blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see: www.myspace.com/magamba
To buy Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka’s new album, House of Hunger, go to: www.comradefatso.com
To see Comrade Fatso’s Exclusive Blogs for CNN go to: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/05/14/zimbabwe.blog/index.html
To see Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka live in concert go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cyv-ozu3JA
