ery. A small blue, dilapidated pick-up truck goes past, a red flag hanging sodden from a wing mirror. It is the only vehicle and is laden with mourners perched precariously on the edges of the back, the coffin lying in the middle, at their feet.
It is raining intermittently, the wind is gusting and we are drawing breath from the advance storm winds of Cyclone Favio. There are leaves and branches strewn on the roads and between the blasts of wind come the sounds of the funeral. Singing, clapping, drumming, ululating and blowing of a horn. This is a very familiar picture of life in Zimbabwe this February 2007. It is a picture of real, ordinary people in the country with the highest inflation in the world and the lowest life expectancy.
This picture is a world away from the live coverage of President Mugabe’s 83rd birthday celebrations being shown on television as I write. The live coverage was prominently advertised but something went badly wrong. This was “live” coverage Zimbabwe Television style: it began an hour later than advertised without excuse or apology; lasted for an hour without an appearance of the President and then stopped without excuse or apology – altogether!
In the hour that there was coverage I saw a massive white tent on a stadium sports field. Chairs covered in white, decorated with gold sashes. Hundreds of people wearing red sashes around their necks – an interesting choice of colour: the same as the church women at the funeral, the same as the colour of the opposition MDC! Two young teenagers were commentating – children who were not born or even thought about when President Mugabe came to power 27 years ago.
Children who have never known any other leader, never seen any other political party in power in their lives. Around the stadium grounds were printed banners which read: “Youth league says Mugabe for 2010” and “Succession politics not ouster politics please.” There wasn’t much else to see at that stage and no chance to see anything more as the ‘live’ coverage never came back. At the time of writing we can only assume that it was a cyclone that disrupted the broadcast.
Cyclones are a rare event in Zimbabwe and they seem to bring winds of change. Just a few months after Cyclone Eline in 1999 Zimbabwe’s land invasions began and political and economic turmoil took hold. That was seven years ago and perhaps now Cyclone Favio may blow in new winds of change. Until next week, thanks for reading, ndini shamwari yenyu.
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