I yearn for my childhood Zim

By Naseemah Mohammed

As the pilot announces our descent to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, I cannot help but remember the last flight I took on this continent, or rather, out from this continent. That was five years ago, and now, while I know that Kenya isn’t Zimbabwe, I feel both nervous and excited to be coming back to Africa. Will Kenya be anything like Zimbabwe? With friendly faces, good food, a beautiful landscape and the invigorating smells of my childhood, like when raindrops hit the hot, dry earth?

"Are you for Mugabe or Tsvangirai? How is their coalition government doing?"

"I’m not sure, how is YOUR coalition government doing?"

This is the standard conversation I have after friendly Kenyans find out I am Zimbabwean. It is frustrating that while I have been away from Zimbabwe, everyone I meet only associates my country with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and high inflation.

While I may joke, "Ahh, make it cheaper my friend, Zimbabwe’s inflation is very high," when trying to bargain with a Kenyan hawker, what pains me is that for all my life I lived in one of the most beautiful, affluent countries in Africa. Its landscape boasts Victoria Falls; it has a literacy rate of well over 95 per cent, growing infrastructure and a growing middle class. But few people understand this — only inflation and political turmoil make the international news.

We Lived Comfortably

I come from a middle class family. Born in Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe, my parents, after graduating from high school, had brief technical training and my father became a printer while my mother was an accountant. I went to a government school called Hillside Primary School that prepared me well for the Girls’ College, an affluent girls’ high school that I attended on scholarship.

While we were not rich, like many Zimbabweans up to 2005, we lived comfortably. There was never lack of food. There was, and still is, very little crime compared to other places. Although typical generalisations are made, there is no tribalistic backlash between the Shona and the Ndebele, the two majority ethnic groups.

In fact, few people realise when you look past Mugabe’s racist comments and his attempt to create racial division in the country between the black and white populations, there was little enmity between the two groups.

When I was in primary school, Zimbabwe had a great economy, excellent education and health systems, and a growing middle class. What went wrong? Mugabe.

As Zimbabwe’s economy and infrastructure continued to improve, Mugabe realised that he was no longer gaining ground politically since all of the major issues since independence were being addressed. We wanted change. He wanted power.

Zimbabwe’s Greatest Asset

He, therefore, chose to address one of the most controversial issues in Africa — land taken during colonisation. It is true that over 80 per cent of Zimbabwe’s wealth was predominantly owned by white, commercial farmers. But Mugabe used this issue to gain political ground. He knew that by promising the locals and war veterans a piece of Zimbabwe’s greatest asset, they would keep him in power. But elections were just ahead. He had to act fast.

Within two years beginning around 2002, Mugabe kicked out the vast majority of commercial farmers. He gave most of the land to his cronies. The few people that received small pieces did not have the knowledge or the capital to farm commercially. Without our cash crops of tobacco, maize and sugarcane, the economy spiralled downwards.

Meanwhile, Mugabe claimed only to be taking what rightfully belonged to the country. After all, Britain reneged on their promise to compensate Zimbabwe for the land that was taken.

However, I believe that if Mugabe truly had his people’s interests in mind, he would have first educated them and given them capital before slowly returning unrightfully owned land to independence veterans. By the time the common Zimbabwean realised he wasn’t getting a nice piece of land and that his standards of living were decreasing exponentially, it was too late.

But it’s never too late. Although the coalition government is not ideal, over the last few months the country has been improving greatly. For the first time in years, Zimbabwe’s GDP growth this year will be positive.

Our economy has been US dollarised and, therefore, inflation is stabilising — so Kenyans, stop making fun of our wheelbarrows of money. Since our infrastructure was excellent to begin with, I have no doubt that over the next few years investors will flock to my country.

However, for the country to return to its previous position as the ‘breadbasket of Africa,’ we need to reverse the brain drain.

My family alone has dispersed over the continent. My father recently moved from Zimbabwe to a printing company in Botswana. One of my sisters is a Rhodes scholar in England studying for a PhD in Astrophysics. My other sister is moving from America to Poland with her Polish husband. My mother is in the US with me, waiting for the ‘baby in the family’ to finish university — I received a scholarship to Harvard, where I am pursuing a degree in Social and African Studies.