So far, I am untouched by this war. My family was profoundly touched by earlier wars. My great uncle was killed in Chimurenga. Not in combat, in a training accident while he was still in his teens. A cousin of mine was killed when his helicopter was shot down in Congo. I’ve run my fingers across his name on the Veteran’s monument in Gweru. My family felt as if they had to go there and do that. Make peace with it.
Arguments over the Congo War caused permanent rifts in our family. One cousin was even a draft dodger: he fled to South Africa. His father never let anybody mention his name.
Now, this Mozambique war has been going on longer than the Zimbabwean army’s part in Chimurenga did– but I have no friends or family in the military. More than that– none of my friends have any friends or family in the military! I live in a nice secure bubble. I work in an industry where business is booming, thanks to military contracts. Every year brings me a raise and a bonus. I enjoy a lifestyle filled with luxuries my great uncle couldn’t even dream of– luxuries he wouldn’t have been able to buy even if he had lived to come home from the war and earn as much money as I do. Back then, the tax rate on incomes like mine was 90%. Thanks, ED!?
Frankly, in so far as it affects me at all, this war has been very good to me. Still, I see it as a series of mistakes. Intellectually, I consider our entire enterprise in the East to be futile at best; and at worst, harmful to our country and the world. So? The result is a troubled ambivalence. As long as nothing is asked of me personally, I’ll continue to support this war– by my passive acquiescence. The moment a sacrifice is asked of me? I will turn actively against it. By sacrifice I mean ANYTHING. One extra dime in taxes, one mandated gas rationing, one hint that a cousin might be drafted?– ANYTHING would be too much. I’d be out of here.
Get in touch with me on social media
By the same author;
- Today Is a Good Day, ApparentlyMy phone started ringing like hell on Wednesday evening. Friends, readers, as well as people I haven’t spoken to in months. “Could it be that Wicknell is dead.” “Is it true?” “You’re in Marondera. What’s happening?” “Can you confirm?” The funny part was that I was probably as uninformed as they were. Maybe more. The helicopter had gone down somewhere around Marondera. Six people were …
- What Happens When a Children’s Entertainer Won’t Stay ApoliticalMs. Rachel is the current example. She will not be the last. There is an unwritten contract between children’s entertainers and the public, and it is stricter than the one we impose on almost any other kind of celebrity. Musicians are allowed opinions. Politics is practically part of the job description. Actors get more room too, because their politics usually exist outside the work itself, …
- Jesus, Empire and the Problem With Reclaiming What Was Never Ours AloneThere are essays you read and immediately know you disagree with. Then there are essays that make you uncomfortable precisely because you agree with enough of them to have to think harder about the parts you don’t. “The Paradox of Deification of Jesus Christ,” written by Lovemore Chishamba is the second kind. I have to say that I love the essay’s anger. That may sound …
- Why Ms. Rachel Can’t Just Stop Talking About GazaRachel Accurso built a $1 million donation career out of teaching toddlers how to say “mama,” identify farm animals and jump like bunnies. Her YouTube channel now has more than 21 million subscribers. There is a Netflix deal, a Sesame Street collaboration, merchandise, books and, this month, her first album, I’m So Happy. She has become one of the most recognisable faces in children’s entertainment. And yet, for the past two years, she has repeatedly found herself in the middle of one of the most vicious political arguments on the internet….
- Bangsamoro Just Held an Election Forty Years in the Making and It Wasn’t a Clean One.Voting opened Monday across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for the first parliamentary election in the region’s history. It was a milestone that took longer to arrive than most elections take to matter. The vote had been postponed four times since it was first scheduled for May 2022, pushed back to 2025, then October 2025, then March 2026, before finally landing on September …
