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Sekai Nzenza On Wednesday People said she drank in bars full of men and she walked the streets. Maybe she did not exactly walk the streets, kuita pfambi, because African women were not allowed in the streets of Salisbury in those old colonial days. Rhodesian police arrested them and ordered them to return to their […]
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Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday “Don’t you think it is strange that black and white people in Zimbabwe do not mix socially?” asked Doug, who was visiting from Australia. Doug is my friend Alison’s boyfriend. Alison and I went to university in Australia together many years ago. We have been close friends ever since. Alison met Doug […]
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Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday There was a wedding on New Year’s Eve in Harare. No, I was not related to the groom or bride. In fact, I had never met them before. The groom was the son of the landlord where my cousin Piri lives in Highfield. When Piri invited me to the wedding, she […]
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Sekai Nzenza Correspondent We are walking around the fields with my cousin Piri. Surrounding us are small healthy plants of germinating maize, each with four or five leaves. It was not like this four weeks ago when we stood in this same place, with my friend Bhiya, my cousin Piri and brother Sidney. In my hand, I […]
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Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday IN this village homestead, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we paid respect to Jesus Christ because he saved us from our sins. Then we poured beer on the ground before the elders drank it to give respect to our ancestors, because we believed that they understood our problems because they lived in […]
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Sekai Nzenza On Wednesday The young man from Nhiriri Village beat up his wife because he said she was due for disciplining. In the middle of the night, when all was quiet and only the owls and hyenas were moving around, the beaten wife ran away, leaving a nine-month-old baby lying on the old
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Before the white man came to this country, before Cecil John Rhodes chose Matopos as his burial place, prayers for rain were held at Njelele shrine in Matopos, near Bulawayo. People travelled with zviyo, the red millet, from all over the territory. They walked from as far as Buhera, Gutu, Mutare and from up north […]
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Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday When Muchaneta died two weeks ago, most people around this village celebrated. They said, God is wonderful. He brings justice to the poor and the oppressed. “Who poisoned her?” asked my cousin Piri laughing. “Nobody,” said Mai Girasia, our neighbour from along the mountain. It was Saturday
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Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday “NEXT time, when there is funeral, I want to mourn, sing, dance and laugh the way we used to do. No church will stop me,” my cousin Piri declared. It was Sunday afternoon and we were watching the rains coming over the mountains. My brother Sidney was there too.
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Sekai Nzenza On Wednesday Everyone is welcome here, as long as they have hunhu, deep respect for the other person. But on the day of the kiss, Piri said hunhu was seriously under threat. The prolonged kiss happened right here in the village, under the moonlight.
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Sekai Nzenza On Wednesday The day after we buried Rowesai, we all stayed the night with her mother. At dawn, Rowesai’s mother walked around her hut calling Rowesai: “Chimuka Rowesai. Kunze kwayedza. Maiwe kani vana vangu vapera! It’s daylight, rise Rowesai. Oh my mother! My children are dying,” she cried. Grief was eating her heart.
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Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday An old woman, whose face I could not recognise because she was too far, stood counting my mother’s cattle in our kraal. We have 14 cattle, two cows, one bull and several steers and one calf. This kraal where we have always kept our cattle is only a few metres away from the […]
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Sekai Nzenza On Wednesday We are driving along Leopold Takawira Street in Harare, going north, to a coffee shop. With me are two friends visiting from Europe and Dubai. They both marvel at the beauty of the jacaranda trees, the purple flowers above and the carpet of flowers in the ground.
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Sekai Nzenza On Wednesday THERE was a time, back in the village, when getting older was very important. We all wanted to be older than the other person. Being older also came with responsibilities. “Ndiani mukuru pakati penyu?” meaning, who is the eldest among you, was a common question whenever we met someone who did not […]
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Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday When we were growing up in the village, we did not worry or think about time. We did not have a clock. The sun told us what to do.