January 4, 2005

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….

Posted by jon jack at 8:57 PM

January 3, 2005

Zimbabwe / South Africa Border Crossing

“Fifty-five US dollars for your Visa”, the border guard grumbled. Abby handed him a $50 and a $5 dollar note. I only had three $20 notes, which I handed over. The guard then tried to tell us he had no change to give, though after a while he eventually pulled out a bundle of notes of all sizes - 10s 20s - and of course the $5 Abby had just handed him. Welcome to Zimbabwe.

We got through immigration with no real hassles (our hosts later that evening told us of some guests who were held there for eight hours). I was a bit alarmed when we did actually get through the gates as about six or seven men appeared from out of nowhere and ran towards the jeep shouting and waving their hands madly in the air. It turned out they were trying to get us to exchange our foreign currency with them.

On first impression Zimbabwe seems easier to take than South Africa. It’s not so ‘in your face’ with the rich and poor living side by side. The rural areas seem very rudimentary with a prevalence of subsistence farming, yet it seems far more preferable to the people crammed into the ramshackle townships that seemed to accompany every city in South Africa (out of sight most of the time but there all the same).

We managed to go on a tour of the great Zimbabwe monument (this is where Zimbabwe took its name from when it changed from Rhodesia in 1979). The monument is impressive, 12th century stonework ruins scattered around a natural fortified outcropping of rock. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Posted by jon jack at 6:54 PM