The bird’s loud voice consists of a single, short, sharp call described in the bird book as: ‘kleeu’. Again and again it calls: demanding attention and earning admiration. It takes a little while to locate the bright yellow belly and glossy black head of the bird amongst the leaves but when you do the search is worthwhile.
Feeding on the soft green flesh of the avocado, the bird seems completely unconcerned at being watched. He scrapes away at the fruit with his pink bill, stopping to listen and then to call every few minutes and the magnificence of the oriole dissolves anger and frustration at a Zimbabwe still so far from being right.
As I stand watching the Oriole I can’t help thinking of the strange and disturbing things going on around us this winter. A constitutional outreach programme riddled with intimidation, confusion and disruption as teams try to get opinions from a population still deeply fearful after a decade of being repeatedly punished for daring to differ and to strive for change.
Equally disturbing and out of sight, but not out of mind, is the case of Farai Maguwu. Head of the Centre for Research and Development, he was investigating and highlighting human rights violations at the Chiadzwa diamond mines. Maguwu was held in detention without trail for over a month, apparently charged with ‘endangering Zimbabwe’s economic interests.’
He was eventually released this week following calls from Amnesty International, which said that Maguwu was: “a prisoner of conscience – being persecuted for carrying out his lawful work of monitoring and documenting alleged human rights violations by security forces at some of Zimbabwe’s richest diamond fields.”
Until next time, thanks for reading, Ndini Shamwari yenyu.
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