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Dr Simba Mavaza

THERE is a feeling that afflicts people abroad — one so horrible it can only be described as ‘severe home-sickness’.

This feeling is heightened by nostalgia or a longing for the familiar, especially if one has been away for a while.

Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. It is the state of being homesick, homesickness and “a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition; also something that evokes nostalgia.”

Ever thought about a past memory and got sad?

Maybe a picture of something causes you to well up. All of that is normal, we are emotional beings and it’s okay to be sad from time to time.

Being in diaspora needs some skills which are so intricate and delicate.

Ben Machamire grew up in Zengeza 3 in Chitungwiza. He remembers vividly when his father’s car will be parked so close to the door.

It was a Peugeot 404.

Ben was by now used to the routine, every Friday evening he would wash the car until it was squeaky clean.

This was in preparation for the weekend journey home – home that time will mean rural areas.

Early in the morning, the family would be pecked in the Peugeot 404.

The most fun part of the journey was viewing nature as the car moved.

Then you will be jostled back to reality when the car hits the dirty road – you will know you were now at Bhora township off the Nyamapanda Road.

The dust now mixes with the smoke bellowing from the car, sending a smell welcoming you to Chikwaka –  the land of the blessed.

The hamlets strewn along the dirty road welcomes you to the villages of Chikwaka. The car cuts through the dirty road which takes you via Kadyamadare School.

That is the area where Munetsi stays.

Munetsi was a young boy who was always covered in dust. You always saw him waving at cars passing by and that memory made an impression in Ben’s mind.

The most important thing was the hamlets and one or two modern houses along the way.

That was Zimbabwe. It was what made it Zimbabwean. It was a settlement which identified us as a people.

Now, with modern development, Bhora has been turned into a sprouting town.

Some people think destroying our cultural dwellings and substituting them with modern houses is development.

The memories of the past are erased and destroyed in what is called development.

We only remember this past, but never to live it again. This is called nostalgia depression.

Lots of people in diaspora are affected by nostalgic memories; both good and bad.

What is nostalgia depression?

Nostalgia depression, simply put, is the melancholy feeling you get when something induces a memory from your past.

Nostalgia, unlike screen memory, does not relate to a specific memory, but rather to an emotional state. This idealized emotional state is framed within a past era, and the yearning for the idealized emotional state manifests as an attempt to recreate that past era by reproducing activities performed then and by using symbolic representations of the past.

Although nostalgia can be positive for some, it can create a depressing state of being.

Many people in diaspora are victims of this depression.

Dr Lovemore Nganunu of Wellingborough, United Kingdom said: “Nostalgia does have its painful side – it’s a bitter-sweet emotion – but the net effect is to make life seem more meaningful and death less frightening.

“When people speak wistfully of the past, they typically become more optimistic and inspired about the future. Nostalgia was originally described as a ‘neurological disease of essentially demonic cause’ by Johannes Hoffer.”

People in the Diaspora are always having these bouts of nolstagia and many are coping in many different ways.

Nostalgia can play a factor in anxiety and depression. Looking back on a time of your life that was positive or happy can cause negative feelings when compared to your current life, especially if it’s not all you want it to be.

One misses home; the smell of summer, the smell of the rains hitting the sun-baked soil for the first time after a dry spell.

Social gatherings where one speaks in his/her language are severely missed.

You have day dreams of crossing flooded Masekandauya stream or of just seeing a cow or milking it.

So many things we take for granted at home become a wonder abroad.

The insensitive ones will be quick to say, ‘pack your bags and go back home’.

Home sickness is technically classified as an anxiety and can express itself in mild to extreme forms. This can happen to anyone; children, adults, seniors, short-term travellers, long-term travellers and expatriates.

Many people feel this way if they see something which reminds them of home.

Many Zimbabweans get homesickness because of the culture shock.

The culture shock is intense and many feel unstable in their new surroundings and are frustrated by the language barrier and the lack of close friends.

Sometimes our accent makes it difficult to communicate effectively with those around us.

Most realised that the nose-stifled accent was not the proper English accent when they got to the UK.

Speaking through your nose, which is widely accepted at home as classic English, makes you queer here and this failure to hit-it-off with the Britons triggers serious home-sickness.

This is a feeling that affects everybody at some point, while they try to sort out their new life here.

Most people wish for visits from friends and family.

When we are visited here, people travel from far and wide to see guests from Zimbabwe. This is not always a sign of love, but serious home-sickness.

Any person old enough to be your mother and who speaks your language becomes your ‘mother’.

When best friends visit, just seeing the familiar faces brings indescribable feelings of joy.

When you drop them off at the airport, you are overwhelmed with sadness.

We make many new friends, but they can never compare to those we grew up with — those we have many years of goodness and badness.

It is only when you are in a foreign land that you begin to see the value of the many things taken for granted.

These feelings of loss are made worse by the fact that you cannot easily pick up a phone and ask friends over to hangout; there is barely enough time as most of it is spent in work.

We go about our daily business and lose touch if we don’t work at keeping in touch.

Of course there is Whatsapp, Facetime, Facebook and e-mail, more than enough tools in our hands to stay connected, but there’s nothing like hugging an old friend and seeing that excited look on his/her face.

People abroad miss out on weddings and parties. They miss dinner with the family, as well as visiting aunties and uncles.

All the time people are thinking about going back home.

The cities here are not paved in gold; they do not glitter at all.

We could be in cities filled with millions of people, but they are all strangers who cannot take away the loneliness.

Just hearing the familiar voice of your parents, or siblings, helps in curing home-sickness.

People abroad may say all they may, but they have a deep connection and love for home.

Zimbabwe is their country and it can never have a substitute.

Home is best!

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