Comrade Fatso’s blog

What We Don't Know

2008-03-31T17:09:16Z

Victory celebrations, confusion, uncertainty. That's the air that Harare's breathing today. 'Zvinhu hazvina kumira bho' says a well known forex dealer to me. 'No, its looking good actually,' I tell him. 'MDC is beating ZANU by far at the moment.' Jealous, a quiet waiter, serving me coffee comments 'So its bad heh?!' 'No, they're winning actually, Jealous,' I have to affirm. 'Tsvangirai is ahead in the presidential elections'. The MDC is holding press conference after press conference while many people are holding zvakapressa conferences. Many think things have gone terribly wrong in the elections because the message from the MDC hasn't filtered to them. And the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is announcing results at the pace of a wheelchair-less cripple making their way down a power-cut Parirenyatwa corridor.

'Tahwina!' is the other popular cry that lives beside the uncertainty. Those who have got access to MDC information have erupted into parties. The popular suburb of Highfields was a people's carnival last night as residents celebrated the MDC success in their constituency. The riot police arrived and politely asked them to carry on partying the following day. The residents, stunned by the calm police force, agreed. The table next to me at the Book Cafe has been an all-day drinking session as they drink to victory and joke about ZANU's failure. Victory is in the air. But so is uncertainty. MDC has quite likely won a big victory in the polls but the updates aren't getting out to the people. The townships should be filled with flyers, pamphlets and megaphones updating the people. And the MDC should build this hope so that if ZANU does try and steal this election then the people will resist. We can defend victory. We can't defend what we don't know.

For local and international press about Comrade Fatso and MAGAMBA! see the following:

- A documentary on AlJazeera featuring Fatso and other prominent Zimbabwe artists:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8597805A-AF9B-4188-B60C-322E579D28D4.htm

- An article about Fatso's new album House Of Hunger:

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/index.php?view=article&catid=34%3Aentertainment&id=17649&tmpl=component&print=1&page=&option=com_content&Itemid=68

- A Reuters article about Fatso and other Zimbabwean bloggers in the struggle for democracy:

http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31416570.htm?=_lite_&1=

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The Streets

2008-03-30T15:16:25Z

Today the streets have a strange energy. People are waiting. Vakamirira maresults. Sundays are normally quiet in Harare’s city centre. Today the streets are shuffling from one foot to another like the thirty fourth person in a snaking bread queue. The streets are unsure. Hopeful. Young police recruits patrol the streets trying to stamp an authority they are no longer sure that they have. The cigarette vendor apologises for the high cost of her cigarettes. ‘Tichadzikisa maprices mangwana’. We will reduce the prices tomorrow. When change comes. The streets are waiting. We woke today to rumours of Mugabe fleeing to Malaysia and news of the MDC press conference. We carried our bababarazi’d selves to the conference after a night of ragga at downtown Harare’s Tube Nightclub. According to the MDC’s counting process they are way ahead in the polls. Victory is on people’s lips. But so is rigging. Because the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has yet to announce its ‘official’ tally of votes. It has yet to work out how to turn our dream into a nightmare. So expectant Zimbabweans have been subjected to endless music videos and football on the state broadcaster. It’s as if the elections never happened. So the streets wait. Shuffling from one foot to another. Waiting. Hoping. This is Comrade Fatso's Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period. See www.comradefatso.vox.com For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see www.myspace.com/magamba

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Peace

2008-03-29T19:26:30Z

Today is peaceful. Calm. Like an anesthetised patient having her stomach slit open. We drove from the elite suburbs of Borrowdale to the peopled townships of Highfields. The queues of the morning had tired into afternoon strolls into empty polling stations. All over this expectant, pregnant town there was a feeling of calm. 'Peace'. The vote happened. We went through the motions.

But it's a tense peace. Inside each polling station is an agent of oppression - a police officer. Youth militia parade townships 'peacefully'. As I write on the calm street outside the Book Cafe there are twenty police officers sitting menacingly underneath a tree. Waiting. Yes, there is peace. As long as you vote and shut up. As long as you don't disturb this fragile shack they have painted 'peace'. Peace is not the absence of war. Peace can also be the presence of rigging.

This is where we stand today. In a peaceful election where my comrade, Godobori, registered to vote in the town of Chitungwiza, had to got to different polling stations in various suburbs of the next door town of Harare after he had been 'moved' on the voter's roll. He finally voted at 6:15pm. It is a calm election of ghost voters and living human beings who are dead to the voters' roll. The rigging has already begun as dreams are stolen while dreamers sleep. But democracy isn't about putting an X on a piece of paper every five years. Democracy means people reclaiming their lives and running their communities. Democracy means power at the grassroots where decisions are made face-to-face in neighbourhoods. Democracy means fighting to reclaim your power. So these elections will be determined not by the rigged result but by the people's reaction. ZANU (PF) want to steal our dreams and tell us it was a nightmare. We have to turn our dreams into action.

This is Comrade Fatso's Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period.

For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see www.myspace.com/magamba

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Independence Eve

2008-03-28T21:38:54Z

Hapana chakanaka! Toonana kumastreets! Life's bad! We'll see you in the streets! This is the cry that rang out in the Avenues this evening. A rebellious chant erupting in Harare's nocturnal heart. Black, white, coloured, German, Zimbabwean, Dutch, journalists, activists, state security agents. A multi-cultured crowd gathered at the Book Cafe in Harare on the eve of elections for our MAGAMBA! concert - The Day Before. A Concert featuring rebel MCs Outspoken, Upmost and Godobori aswell as Harare's most rebellious band, Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka.

I'm writing from there now. The Book Cafe in Harare's dark heart. At 11:20pm. A revolution happened here today. We created a liberated space. Our words gave birth to a taste of what-it-is-to-be-free. The rhythms of chimurenga, hip hop and jazz combined with poetry to create a new sound of toyi toyi. A militant song that talks in everyone's voice. Our songs talk of the people's struggle and the people's resilience. And the crowd here today on 'Independence Eve' was in an uncompromising mood. Freedom or nothing. They demanded a replay of MaStreets, our we-want-freedom-and-we-don't-give-a-damn song. The people toyi toyi'd and sung. The people wailed. As if a new country were being born tomorrow. Over a hundred people are dancing around me at the Book Cafe as I write. 11:34pm. Harare is dancing tonight. They dance for the vadzimu, the spirits. They dance for rain. They dance for a new beginning. Tonight on 'Independence Eve'.

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Signs of the Times

2008-03-27T17:45:40Z

Our town is filled with signs. Signs of frustration, suffering, humour. A town where free expression is a price-controlled commodity that only exists as an empty space on a shop shelf. We queue for things that aren't there. We read half of the truth. And half of the lies. They call it news.

In such towns, people create their own signs. Walls are bombed in a graffiti-drunk uprising where once-white-walls now scream black writing. 'ZANU PF IMBAVHA CHETE!' ZANU PF are thieves! In a land where non-state newspapers are bombed the povo find their own grassroots journalism. A popular worm seller along Churchill Avenue has turned his rickety sign into a sign of the times. The sign has grown from 'European Worms for Sale. Pliz take me to Kariba' to 'Jesus Christ It's Desperate Man. Canadian Worms For Sale. Please Take Me To Europe'. Stickers spring up all over the city 'TIRED OF POTHOLES? GO VOTE!' Our subversive album now finds itself being played in dozens of kombis as the public transport system becomes our pirate radio station. Old signs spring up too as walls become the flashy toilets of politicians' promises. Our people use whatever small space they have to express themselves in. From political messages scribbled on a bankrupt currency to poetry performances that paint revolution. Many signs are born at a time when the old is dying. Signs that signal fatigue and hope.

Our sign tomorrow is one of hope. Tomorrow MAGAMBA! is hosting a show called The Day Before. A concert of poetry and music, dreams and hopes on the eve of the election day. We create freedom spaces with our words, new worlds with our rhythm. A sign of things to come. A sign of a new Zimbabwe.

This is Comrade Fatso's Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period.

For Daily Election Blogs by other MAGAMBA! poets and activists see www.myspace.com/magamba

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Potholes or portals.

2008-03-26T18:42:30Z

Zimbabwe has become a pothole. A gaping wound with a hollow, cynical smile for all to see. Or an empty space that needs to be filled. Recreated. That's the choice for us Zimbabweans today and for the next few days. Young Zimbabweans have recently been reclaiming the streets as the State retreats to Borrowdale Brooke. Since the potholes weren't being dealt with the youth decided to deal with the problem themselves. Today youths from ZIYSAP (Zimbabwe Youth Survival Alternative Project) were filling potholes and stopping cars asking for donations for their work. The public road was dotted with makeshift, mighty marker signs reading 'Now Is The Time To Rebuild Our Country'. The youths stopped cars and handed out leaflets that showed what they demand from a new Zimbabwe and from those who stand to be elected. Potholes were turned into Portals.

Other small fires were being lit today by Zimbabweans who dare to dream. MAGAMBA! were distributing my new album, House of Hunger, all over Harare. From the upmarket Avondale Flea Market to downtown Market Square, it was alternative marketing through and through. The revolutionary album has been banned on the state airwaves so we come up with alternative distribution strategies. We turn a power cut into darkness where the light still shines. Because the word is invincible. And it will now be played from Highfields to Avondale, township to suburb. The album is being reported on from Al Jazeera to SABC, from AFP to Yahoo. "The most revolutionary album since Thomas Mapfumo since the 1970s" in the words of AFP.

We light many small fires that become an inferno. Because the core of a revolution is in the detail.

This is Comrade Fatso's Daily Blog during the Zimbabwe Election period.

For international media reports on his debut album, House of Hunger, please see the following:

www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2840

allafrica.com/stories/200803100470.html

news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080325/ wl_africa_afp/zimbabwevotearts

news.my.msn.com/lifestyle/ article.aspx?cp-documentid=1306329

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The Day They Banned Toyi Toyi

2008-03-21T15:41:25Z

I write from my third office at the moment: Book Cafe. In the pounding, Harare heart of the Avenues. Dotted around at tables are aspiring hip hop artists planning a show and opposition politician Fay Chung having coffee. Harare's alternative reality. Where art thrives and radical thoughts are encouraged. They even have my album on sale here. And on their notice board an article entitled 'Zim Artist Targets Mugabe' with a photo of me next to it. Unfree Harare expressing itself freely.

We toyi toyi'd the day that toyi toyi was banned. Our album launch coincided with the banning of the popular urban militant dance. But as we launched House Of Hunger to a capacity crowd at Mannenberg Jazz Club on 13th March we toyi toyi'd through the night. Inciting people to dance militantly. Unleashing Zimbabwe's most revolutionary album since Thomas Mapfumo in the 70's. The House of Hunger is now a reality.


In a land where the airwaves are controlled and even our concert adverts get banned you have to be creative with distributing the word. MAGAMBA! comrades are running around Harare as part of our 10-pronged album distribution strategy that has seen the album distibuted to:


1. The Internet. My shamwari Roddy is uploading it onto zimaudio.com so that it will be internationally available.
2. Shows. The album is for sale at all our shows.
3. Flea markets. We have a distribution deal with the cd stalls and pirate cd hustlers at Avondale fleamarket and other fleamarkets will follow
4. Record stores. We await feedback from the major record stores 
5. Kombis and Taxis. Next week our street team will get the cd into kombis plying all major township routes.
6. Clubs and Bars. The album has been given to DJs at most of Harare's top clubs and bars 
7. Township shopping centres. Next week the album goes out to township shops to be played
8. Book Cafe and Manneberg. The album is being played at Book Cafe and Mannenberg and is on sale there.
9. Democratic forces. The album will be distributed next week to all key forces in the struggle.
10. Press. The album has gone out to at least a dozen local and international press agencies, ranging from ZBC to Kaya FM Jo'burg.

The House of Hunger is out now. A nail in the coffin of oppression. A dance beat to the joyous heart. Get it now!

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