- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- As a white African living in a black African country,
it has taken me a long time to understand that my religious and cultural
beliefs are not as different from those of black Zimbabweans as I
once thought. Just as I believe that I must pay for my misdeeds,
to man or to God, so African culture dictates that people are completely
responsible for their behaviour and actions.Failure to behave in an
acceptable and humane way will bring down upon the offender the evil spirit
of Ngozi which will drive you mad unless it is appeased. The
daily incidences of barbaric, evil and inhuman behaviour in Zimbabwe are
so totally alien to both black and white cultures that it is now almost impossible
to understand how either the victims or the perpetrators will ever find
peace.
-
- Last Saturday, as I sat writing my weekly letter,
500 women braved the wind and rain and gathered in the car park of
the Bulawayo City Hall. It was International Women's Day and they were holding
a peaceful demonstration about the crisis in Zimbabwe. When police
arrived and attempted to arrest 8 of the organisers, the woman tried
to prevent it by kneeling down in front of the police vehicles.They
sang and prayed. Eye witnesses said that the women, some with babies on
their backs, were kicked and beaten by riot police wielding baton sticks.
An elderly woman who lay on the ground begging for mercy was repeatedly assaulted
by 5 policemen who took it in turns to beat her. 15 women were arrested
and later there were horrific reports of how they were treated whilst in
police custody. They were stripped naked and made to lie on their stomachs.
They were beaten on their backs and then made to roll over and were beaten
on their lower abdomens. It was men inflicting the beating but they
were watched by police women who stood and laughed as their sisters screamed
out in agony. There was a lot of blood, both internal and external and
as a woman I still cannot get the picture out of my mind of women
police watching and laughing as this went on.
-
- In another incident in the past week a young opposition
activist was kidnapped in broad daylight in Nkayi. Mthulusi Moyo was
putting up posters on a tree when he was grabbed and hauled into a
government vehicle without number plates. He has not been seen since but
all his clothes, including his underpants have been found, covered in blood.
We fear that the young man is now dead.
-
- Other young men and women, graduates from the notorious so-called
Training Camps are reported to be fleeing to South Africa in their hundreds.
According to South African newspapers, human rights organizations, law
firms and churches in that country, youths as young as 15 are
appealing for assistance. The youngsters say they have fled Zimbabwe
because they are' tired of killing for nothing.' The youths report that
training centres have been set up in secondary schools where students have
no choice but to attend. There they are trained to kill in ways that are
'silent and leave no evidence'. They say they are given alcohol and cannabis
to give them false courage before being sent out on missions of violence.
Youngsters told how they had killed a man by breaking his neck and
were ordered to burn the body. They said they could not do that, so they just
dumped the man next to a railway line. In another incident, one boy reported
how he had been instructed to kill his own father. Others have been instructed
to kill close family members because of their membership of the opposition.
-
- I do not know how Zimbabwe will even begin to heal
these wounds.As a nation we are traumatised by evil. I know, that for my
10 year old son, it has been a long and painful two years overcoming the trauma
and memories of the awful things that happened on our Marondera farm
in 2000. Just one and a half years before he starts senior school
I had begun to despair that he would ever be able to spell. Teachers, counsellors
and educational specialists told me that he had a mental block, that he
had unlearned basic spelling and writing principles and that it was a type
of stress dyslexia. This week he came home wearing a merit badge for spelling.
He has finally overcome the trauma and opened his mind again. We can only
pray that it will be the same for all the living victims of violence. For
the dead, their spirits will never rest until justice is done.
-
- Until next week,
- with love, cathy.
-
- Copyright cathy buckle, 14th March 2003.
- "African Tears and "Beyond Tears"
- are both available from: <http://www.exclusivebooks.com>www.exclusivebooks.com
and <http://www.kalahari.net>www.kalahari.net
|
