Have You Ever Shot a Zebra?

We spent the night at the Pa-Nyanda Lodge, which was unbelievably opulent. The accommodation consisted of traditional style cottages with stone walls which kept them nice and cool. Our hosts were great, giving us an insight into Zimbabwe. Malcolm is 55, white and had only left Africa for the 1st time a couple of years ago. He described the Zimbabwe that the tourists see: “if you imagine Zimbabwe as a bottle of milk, you guys only get to see the cream at the top, not what happens underneath”. After spending a couple of days driving through Zimbabwe I think I kind of understand. Everywhere we go there is evidence of the disastrous ‘Land Reform’ Policy. Obvious fertile arable land sits fallow as weeds take over where once white farmers ran productive operations.

An old page of newspaper we came across (Zimbabwe Chronicle, 30th November 2004) detailed a visit by Mugabe to a local secondary school where he donated computers and made a speech. Some of this speech was quoted in the paper and made for interesting reading:

"The white flag you see does not represent the whites but the whiteness in our hearts, as honest people. Wee fought the whites and said that after fighting it’s now all over and said let’s reconcile provided you are now prepared to obey the new order, accept rule by the majority. Even you Mr Ian Douglas Smith [leader of Zimbabwe until its independence] we will forgive you, otherwise we will have had to cut your head off but we have allowed you to keep it, it is a borrowed head, because really it belongs to us."

We had a 7.00 am start in the morning as we arranged to go on a ‘game walk’ at dinner the previous evening. We set out armed with our cameras and within fifteen minutes we were standing in front of a half a dozen zebras. Our guide asked me, “have you ever shot a zebra?” Not yet, but there’s a first time for everything. Ten minutes later and we entered a clearing where a group of giraffes were feeding. It was amazing to see these animals in their own habitat, not really scared of us or paying us that much attention.

Harare was busy, frantic and scary. We drove through the capital at around lunchtime and decided to just keep on driving. After we had passed the police roadblocks to get in and out again, I felt relieved. I found the place pretty scary and felt threatened. Every town or city we pass seems to have a Robert Mugabe Street or Robert Mugabe Ave. He must be very popular to have all these streets named after him. Or something….