14 posts from April 2008

The streets are empty. The state has retreated. So has the opposition. All we are left with are their torn posters, pasted over each other in a confusing collage of symbols and slogans.

"We used to respect him. But we don't any more", says the old taxi driver. "Mugabe should have left power and been a hero like Mandela", he continues,"Now there's no food, no fuel. He's fucked it up."  Everyone in South Africa has an opinion on  Zimbabwe and it appears today that that even includes the ANC. Their statement that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe is step in the right direction. But just that. A step.

Zimbabweans in the diaspora began taking steps today as those in South Africa began a march to the border demanding election results. Meanwhile in the UK Zimbabwean activists have planned a three day vigil at the Zimbabwean embassy. I've been doing interviews with South Africa national radio, SAFM, and various newspapers raising awareness about the Zimbabwe struggle and our activism. Our revolutionary music played all over South Africa today as SAFM let our album, House Of Hunger, do the talking. We are taking our word to the airwaves.

The stayaway failed as expected. It will take many steps to win. And they have to be new and clever actions. Not tired, worn out ways of doing things. South Africa is emerging more and more as a key to the crisis in Zimbabwe. Now in South Africa we have to use our many feet and many steps to gather the diaspora, the political parties, the ANC, the movements, the artists into one new popular movement pushing for justice in Zimbabwe. It can happen. One step at a time.

Buy Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka's brilliant new album, House Of Hunger, online: http://www.zimaudio.com/artistPage.php?artistSent=Comrade%20Fatso%20and%20Chabvondoka

Fast, arrogant, blind, seductive. This is Egoli, Johannesburg. The City of Gold. Attracting hordes of Southern African moths with its sensual shine. Prosperity lives here. So does poverty. It's a city that has a passionate night with you and then tells you to leave in the morning. Jo'burg.

Hope easily becomes frustration. People’s dreams are daily being butchered into a nightmare. The dream of last week becomes the agony of this week. A week is a short time in politics. Here in Zimbabwe we have learnt that in the most painful way. 

ZANU (PF) is trying to steal the election before the results have even been made public. Meanwhile the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has been intimidated and virtually disbanded. ZANU has been beaten but it’s determined to push for a re-run of the election by intimidating election officials and beginning a new wave of violence. These are the last kicks of the jongwe that I feared. We know this beast all too well. If the Zimbabwean democratic forces and the international community don’t act quickly and forcefully then our country is going to descend into darkness. At the moment the daily response to ‘How’re things?’ is ‘Zvinhu zvakangomira’. Things are standing still. Yes, they are. A moment of calm before a vicious storm.  

This is Comrade Fatso’s Daily Election Blog. See www.comradefatso.vox.com

To listen to music from Fatso's new album, House of Hunger, click on: http://comradefatso.vox.com/library/audio/6a00d4142fa2f4685e00f48ceaa51d0003.html

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

The billboards are blank. Like the people’s faces. Everything seems to have stopped. Billboards that used to be megaphones for products now become the products of politics. They are littered around the city. Huge metallic creations that proclaim nothing. Empty. Apart from several dressed in makeshift ‘Vote Robert Mugabe’ banners. Holy underwear on an otherwise naked body.

Billboards and advertising are about consumerism. The endless consumption of products for the sake of buying and consuming. A life dominated by desire for the latest brand, the newest product. It can border on being sickening. We are on the other side of the spectrum. Instead of the over-consumption of the West we are down to gritty survival. There is no bread to advertise. No products to sing of. The basics have become luxuries. The shops get emptier by the day while rumours persist of trucks carrying foodstuffs into the country being denied entry. It feels like we’re being starved for daring to believe in change. Like the ‘X’ the people place on ballot papers is seen by the regime as the people’s cancellation of their right to food.

This is Comrade Fatso’s Daily Election Blog. See www.comradefatso.vox.com

To listen to music from Fatso's new album, House of Hunger, click on: http://comradefatso.vox.com/library/audio/6a00d4142fa2f4685e00f48ceaa51d0003.html

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

Torn posters of presidential candidates on durawalls. At every intersection. At every street corner. It feels like something from the past, from another era. But this is the era we are in now. Still hanging on the sun-soaked slogans of these ripped-apart politicians. The fist and the fury is our daily bread, our breakfast. As we sit at the robots, the traffic lights. Still. Not moving. 

And now we have fear. A new, complex emotion to add to our ragged shopping basket that also holds anger, hope and anxiety. We fear that the regime may begin to end the beginnging of the end by trying to end our new beginning. We fear that the last kicks of the jongwe may last more than a few seconds. It may be weeks. Or months.

One shortage our rulers don't seem to have is a shortage of humour. Their make-believe propaganda makes you smile and shudder at the same time. They have started a new propaganda offensive. White farmers are about to invade the country and steal back their farms. The MDC rigged the election by bribing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). It would be funny if it wasn't so morbidly real. They have allegedly started arresting ZEC officials and invading farms. 

So fear is in our stomachs. We're in a state of limbo between where we were and where we want to go. Between an old Zimbabwe and a new Zimbabwe. The waitress comes to my table, serves my food and then delivers what she really wanted to put on the table. "What are they doing now? Do they want a re-run or a re-count? We have no president. We haven't had one for over a week now. Now they've started invading farms again and the riot police are on the streets. We are being calm but we are scared." Fear. Our familiar staple diet in this hungry land. Msavaya, a comrade of mine, was in the townships yesterday when a police man announced to a group of drinkers oustide a bottle store "We may not have a president but that doesn't mean that public drinking is now legal!" The police know it just as the waitresses do. We are in limbo. And we are in fear because we know this beast. It has started kicking and lashing out.

Those of us in the democracy movement here need to campaign for the results to be released. If ZANU claims the need for a re-run then we must push for it to be within 3 weeks of the election. Together we must give birth to a nationwide campaign that keeps hope alive, from township to growth point. Those in the international community need to push for the results to be released. We must avoid a re-run because it could be bloody. But if ZANU wants a re-run then we must give them a re-run for their money. And their dirty wealth. We are so close to that sun on the horizon. I can almost see it through the dust. We need to walk together towards the sunset. We need to be crazy enough to keep hope alive. 

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

See www.comradefatso.vox.com

For the MAGAMBA! Daily Election Blogs by Zimbawean artists and activists see www.myspace.com/magamba

Winter is a refreshing month. Clean, pure skies of sunlight. No clouds. It almost feels as if Zimbabwe has cleansed itself and is starting anew.

"If only kids could vote then Mugabe would have been really beaten", says my partner's 11 year old child. "They should let us vote because there are more kids than adults. All my friends at schools want MDC to win", she continues. Asked why her and her school mates don't like the old man she replies “He’s boring and old. He needs to go.” Radical common sense has now become common currency in Zimbabwe. Even amongst teacher-less school children.

The waiting game has infected our social lives. Today’s House of Hunger Poetry Slam was maybe more interesting for its crowd than its performers as rowdy audience members shouted election-related comments. The three year-old live poetry competition at Harare’s Book Café had young, angry, subversive poets performing to our town’s impatient residents. Each time the crowd disagreed with points awarded to a poet someone would cry out that the score was rigged. Others shout out that the judge in question is from ZEC, Zimbabwe’s unpopular electoral commission. And when it comes to the final round of poetry performances the crowd unilaterally decide it’s a ‘run off’, a reference to the probable second round of voting between Mugabe  and Tsvangirai. Harare is waiting. So in the meantime all we have from the election is freedom to use its jargon. 

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 

The only run off we want is for Mugabe to run off. Is this an election or an erection because everything seems to be standing still? These are the words on Harare's lips and in its text messages. Our joy is agony. So close but yet so far. We are tired. We can't take this anymore. Everyone I talk to wants the old man to go. If he doesn't they will. Some say they will take to the streets. Others will leave the country. Everyone has a plan in Zimbabwe. Most of us plan to be here. But many will leave if Bob doesn't.