The Talk of Lusaka

I am suspicious that not much Africa news reaches the US, so I thought that I would tell you what everyone in Lusaka is talking about these days: Zimbabwe. (The pictures aren't related - more at the end.)

Since I first started coming to Zambia, I have increasingly noticed people discussing Zimbabwe with a combination of regret, pity, and humor. The regret is for opportunities lost. The country that was once the “bread basket of Southern Africa” now has few food exports and a dwindling economy. The pity is for the lives of Zimbabweans. Because of sky-rocketing inflation combined with price fixing by the government, there are few goods to buy on the shelves of supermarkets. Bakers won’t bake bread if they can only sell it for less than their production costs. I have met several Zimbabweans coming to Lusaka to sell various wares and then buy supplies to take back to their families. The humor is often over the pitiful value of their dollar. You hear Zambians joke about how in Zimbabwe you need a sack of money to buy a meal – assuming the restaurant has food. A recent joke was that a teacher in Zimbabwe was now a billionaire – the currency value was such that their meager monthly salary was over a billion Zimbabwean dollars! The Zim dollar now also has an expiration date!

While many Zambians have in the past been supporters of Robert Mugabe, seeing the decline of his country has caused them to change camps and wonder why he didn’t step down years ago. Increasingly Zambian eyes were on Zimbabwe in the run up to the elections two weeks ago. There was talk of how he was bribing people to vote for him by buying farmers new tractors and buying corn from Zambia by the truckload to give to poor Zimbabweans. So we all watched the news with great anticipation in the days after the elections – would the opposition finally get a chance to turn Zim around? Or would Mugabe effectively steal the vote?

Throughout the big computer teacher training that I helped organize and teach last week (which I must say went very well!), during every break someone would go to the internet to find the latest news from Zimbabwe. We would see little new news, however. Now two weeks after the vote, the official results still haven’t been released [However the official parliamentary election results were released and showed a majority for the opposition party. Now Mugabe is contesting the results in several districts]. The unofficial results that the opposition party (MDC) collected from the postings at the polling stations, show a solid victory (greater than the 50% needed to avoid a runoff) for the MDC candidate (Morgan Tsvangirai). Mugabe and his election officials however, have said various things including: 1) That the official count hasn’t been finished, 2) That a runoff will be needed, 3) That some election officials had been bribed by the MDC and 4) That there is no election crisis in Zimbabwe. I can’t see how all four of these statements can be true at the same time!

Meanwhile, some of the physical excitement moved to Lusaka when Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian President and current President of SADC (Southern African Development and Cooperation organization) arranged for an emergency meeting yesterday of all SADC nation heads of state. Mugabe said he was too busy to attend. The meeting results were that Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, was asked to continue his efforts at mediating between the two sides. I hope that is successful, and that the Zimbabweans keep being peaceful. I don’t support violence as a tool for political change, but I have been surprised and impressed that the Zimbabweans haven’t resorted to it!

P.S. I haven’t updated my blog since before a lovely Easter weekend camping with friends at Kafue National Park. These photos are a spotted eagle-owl and a hartebeest from that adventure, as well as some pictures of last week’s great teacher computer training.