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HARVEST OF THORNS: PART 1 (EDUCATION)

ZIMBABWE IN PICTURES2008

blogspot: http://zimbabweinpictures.wordpress.com Harvest of Thorns - Part 1 (Education)

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ZIMBABWE IN PICTURES EDITI

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a Harvest of thorns - Part one [education] over the years many have predicted the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy. However, the economy seemed to be able to defy the doomsayers and we all remarked on the resilience of both the country and its people. but the real collapse has now arrived. In this edition of Zimbabwe in Pictures newsletter– the first in a series called Harvest of Thorns – we look at the education sector and show how things have fallen apart.on october 16 2008 – just 30 days after the signing of what some termed a historic deal – our political leaders were back at the rainbow towers in Harare - and not for a drink. on the agenda was the allocation of govern-ment ministries amongst the three parties – mdc (tsvangirayi), mdc (mutambara) and Zanu Pf. true to char-acter, mr. mugabe and Zanu were now reneging on the deal. Giving up power when all you ever known in your adult life is to be tHe leader is heart-wrenching – if you do actually have a heart. so now there we were - warming the bar stools of the rainbow towers and buying whisky in greenbacks (oh the mighty dollar!) and all around Zimbabwe, people were saddled with the harvest of thorns mr. mugabe had be-queathed us. the thorns had grown in the place that Zimbabwean parents value most – the school yard. a Zimbo will sell all her cattle to send that little one through school. and if now the cattle were gone and the school was a mountain of rubble what would she do?at one of the state primary/preparatory schools that was still functional, the parents were not only paying the teachers’ salaries but they had gone further and raised foreign currency to enable the teachers to travel to south africa for grocery shopping! on top of that the parents had met with the principal of a well-established high school to ensure that those learners moving to grade 8/form one were guaranteed of places. look, reader, for the greater part of the 80s and 90s, we declared that politics was crap and we went on with our dirty little lives just trying to get that promotion, a company car and move to marlbourough enroute to bor-rowdale. now we have discovered, rather late, that politics is too important to leave to politicians – especially to a geriatric and deranged megalomaniac…

the bricks have fallenwe shall rebuild with dressed stone

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Me


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When we met again in Harare at his hotel, Garfield wasn’t in the mood for a chat. He just lay on the floor soaking the early morning sun. He just said one word to describe mugabe – “mee-diow-crity”. ah, mediocritY! Just the word, G. Just the word.

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Harare in heat. w#$!es in plenty. sun-light harsh, stridently bright. dark but unconvincing clouds now and then chal-lenged the timewhite brutal heat. Here and there in the milling crowds, the first street glitter fashions, the jaded second street jeans and michael foot drab-ness, the milling black and white crowd wearily raised an eye to the sky won-dering whether the rain would come at last. there had been no rain for weeks; not a single drop. the only sound of water in the city was the plungent cecil Square fountains, the flush of toilets, the horrible oogle of the sink. of rain, not a smell, not a taste, not a touch. and the heat in my mind raged; a raw seething wound.

excerpt from mindblast by dambudzo marechera, p. 119, college Press, Harare, 1984


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our team visited two schools that tell the story of mr. mugabe’s Zimbabwe – a narrative of gross inequality, shameless abdication of public duty and downright violation of people’s dignity.

in the leafy northern suburb of borrowdale is Heritage school and this is what it was like on 16 october 2008

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the oldest suburb of Harare is mbare – a sprawling urban settlement that now looks like it has stepped straight out of maxim Gorky’s novel the lower depths.

in spite of that mbare had its proud school, Harare High school. on october 16 2008 this is what the school looked like…

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Just down the road from Harare High school is chirodzo Primary school. on 16 october the pupils had been asked to go back home because there were no teachers…it is a daily ritual. Kumukira kumunda kusina chiriko.

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we also visited the once prestigious university of Zimbabwe…the alma mater of one of our crew and this was what we found …

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THINGS FALL APART

a lone dinosaur at the department of Veterinary sciences (uZ) wonders if it is not better to go back to the Jurassic Park.

anatomy of a disaster…

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THINGS FALL APART

faculty of (what?) education – our (dis) service to the nation

the only sign of life was a group of footballers kicking their life away…


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THINGS FALL APART

rogues-in-chief…can you trust your children with these delinquents? if ever there was a time to institute a class action against Zanu Pf and government for derelic-tion of public duty that time is now.


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in faraway rural mashonaland west...

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classic tony namate cartoon


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on sunday 12 october Prime minister-designate morgan tsvangirayi had addressed the people in chitungwiza, a satellite town of Harare.His message was one – the deal was not a bad idea but it could only succeed on th basis of trust - and this ingredient was missing

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THE CONTEXT OF MADNESS


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now that you know that Zanu Pf is ruining the future of our children what are you and i going to do about that?


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on being asked to write a Poem for 1979

without kings and warriors occasional verse fails

skeletal Kampuchea children staring, coldstubborn irish children throwing grenadesthese are objects too serious for verse,crushed soweto children clutching their entrailsthen in verse bruised, mocks

Today no poet sufficiently asks why dying children stare or throw bombs. and why should we compute painful doubts that will forever occupy us?talking oil crises in our eight-cylinder cars is enough travesty…

the year of the child must make no difference thenwhere tadpoles are never allowed to grow into frogs!

Jack mapanje

(mapanje is a malawian poet and also a lecturer at university of newcastle-upon-tyne, uK)


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the netherlands institute of southern africa (www.niza.nl) for their ongoing support for Zimbabwe in Pictures.

the ZiP team wishes to thank:



blogspot: http://zimbabweinpictures.wordpress.com Photos under copyright to ZimbabweinPictures.com for use please enquire from [email protected]

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