Zimbabwe has teetered on the brink of becoming a fail state for the past decade due to the failed policies of President Robert Mugabe. I traveled from Bulawayo to Harare where I met people committed to saving a lost generation.
(If large chunks of text make you feel queasy, then check out this story in pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14615402@N08/sets/72157624767750176/ or in spoken word: http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20100713-bid-save-zimbabwes-lost-generation)
The Zanu PF Youth League has become notorious for brutally enforcing the policies of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s despotic president. Youths as young as 10 are recruited into the National Youth Service where they are clothed, fed and indoctrinated using government funds. During elections or when important legislation is about to be enacted, members of the Zanu PF Youth League have been ordered to inflict the worst kind of violence against men, women and children across the country. The unity government, set up last year between Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has made very little difference to young people. Local NGOs say Youth militias still go on the rampage enforcing the political will of both parties.
The prospects for young people have become so bleak over the past decade that the UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates more than 40 percent of 20 to 35 year olds have left Zimbabwe. Those that remain are faced with high rates of HIV and AIDS and 90% unemployment. But still there is hope. The global recession jolted many people in the diaspora to at least consider returning to Zimbabwe. And home-grown non-governmental organizations are sprouting up to provide Zimbabwe’s youth with support and guidance. Upwards of three million Zimbabweans live in South Africa today. Events of the past two years which include deadly xenophobic attacks and a slow down in South Africa’s economy, has led Zimbabweans to consider returning home.
The University of Cape Town attracts the highest number of foreign students of any university in Africa. Germans rub shoulders with Jews from Israel, and Americans in search of an Africa on the safe side can be heard across the campus. But the largest group of foreign students are Zimbabweans.
”I think we are liked by the teaching staff because our level of education when we enter university is higher than many of the black South Africans,” says Anthony Chipazi, a Master’s student who has been at UCT for five years and now teaches first year students.
People born in Zimbabwe in the 1980s have benefited from a well-functioning education system. One that was overhauled after independence in 1980 to become more racially inclusive but also to reflect the needs and interests of black Zimbabweans. Fai Chung was deputy minister for education from 1980 until
1988 when she took over the ministry. But within five years she left government after a disagreement over policy. After a decade of working for Unicef in New York, she returned to head the NGO Envision. Fai Chung remains committed to the development of young Zimbabweans. In spite of the challenges they face, she refuses to see them as a lost generation:
“They are young people facing very serious problems, 90 percent unemployment, HIV-AIDS to name but a few. But worst is the lengths politicians will go to exploit their vulnerability...But in spite of it all, I refuse to see them as a lost generation.”
Old men
The reign of terror inflicted on poor communities across Zimbabwe by youth militias is not restricted to election times. When arch rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal that led to the formation of a unity government in February last year, they also agreed to write a new constitution within 18 months. The aim being to introduce democratic reforms.
But Tsvangirai's MDC now accuses Mugabe's ZANU-PF of not only attempting to sabotage the drafting of a new constitution in a bid to delay elections, but also of using violence to do so. But not everyone is intimidated. Arnold Chamunogwa leads the Youth Agenda Trust, a grassroots organization that is politically neutral. He says that he feels compelled to continue protesting against the old men in politics who are oppressing young people:
“What is still happening just recently is that whenever we hold a meeting for school-aged children to inform them about what the new constitution could mean for them, Zanu PF come and break it up, sometime violently. But we wont let those old men who control some misguided youths stop us. We are committed to trying to reclaim the future.”
Head-to-head clashes with political youth militias can be a very dangerous game. The Youth Agenda Trust claims to have lost several of its members over the past decade by doing just that. So what other methods are at the disposal of Zimbabweans committed to ensuring that young people in today’s Zimbabwe don’t become a lost generation? Fai Chung thinks that a return to traditional values can help remind people that killing in the name of politics is not acceptable:
“I think it is really a matter of getting the whole community clear about what is acceptable behaviour in the political arena and what is not. No religion I know of in Zimbabwe, whether it be Christianity, Buddhism, Islam or traditional beliefs, none of the condone killing. So what we need to do in Zimbabwe is get back in touch with our youngsters back in touch with their traditional values.”
Empowering girls
Children, particularly girls, are the silent sufferers of political violence in Zimbabwe. More and more girls are being referred to the NGO, Girl Child Network, as a direct result of political violence as well as the knock on effects of political instability. When men don’t have jobs then girls are more likely to be taken out of school and in the worst cases be sexually abused. The organization aims to be apolitical so as to draw on the support of the entire community.
Girl Child Network has three empowerment villages in rural areas for girls who have been abused and cannot return to their families in the short term. They’re all built on land donated by a local chief.
“Why we are here is because it is closer to the chief’s homestead, so we receive the protection afforded to him when there is political unrest in the country. But also our founder thought that it was best that we get the full backing of the chief so that our project doesn’t stand out too much in this very rural community. The girls here need to feel part of the community and understand their culture in order to feel loved and not rejected,” explains Nyasha Mazango the director of Girl Child Network who returned to Zimbabwe at the height of the troubles four years ago, after completing her Masters in Development Studies at the University of Oslo.
Local Chief Nguwa’s support of the Girl Child Network is imperative for the survival and protection of the seven little girls and one boy who live in the empowerment village, and the thousands of others who live in the 100 villages that come under his jurisdiction. As a man in his 70s who has lived through all manner of political upheavals he is still upbeat about the fate of Zimbabwean youths:
“The young generation of Zimbabwe must return soon before they forget their culture. It is understandable that they want to go outside (the country) and learn more, but soon they must return to show us other people’s ways,” says Chief Nguwa.
With more than 40 percent of 20 to 35 year olds living outside the country and those who remain facing continued turmoil and political division, Chief Nguwa’s plea for togetherness may be too late. Of the tens of Zimbabwean students at the University of Cape Town when asked when they would return to Zimbabwe only one said “straight after my studies.”
So for now Zimbabwe looks set to remain a place of limited possibilities for young people prospering in the diaspora. While young people left in Zimbabwe or returning after years away are faced with the perils of building constructive political unity. But for the immediate future their freedoms and opportunities will continue to be curtailed by a stubborn octogenarian, who seems intent on making them Zimbabwe’s lost generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment