August 18

 I have hit a low spot.  Despite the failure of the recently planned protests against the government, there has been a huge crack down on the opposition country-wide. The journalist who uncovered massive corruption within the government and was able to name exactly who was involved and how much money had been taken, is still in prison and his bail hearing is continuously postponed.  It is quite incredible that one of the ministers he exposed stole millions of dollars meant to go towards combating and treating the  coronavirus.  He is out on US$2000 bail, which no doubt he paid for out of the looted funds.  Chances are he will never stand trial.

I don't think I am alone in feeling I would like to do something a little more proactive than just reposting pictures of the journalist being led away into the cells on Facebook. The question is, what does one do? My heart goes out to this man, who really may never see freedom again, because here are the rest of us just going about our usual day.

I often feel my blog is too 'middle class' for want of a better description.  Perhaps I should be out, recording every single that is wrong or at least making more of a political protest. Writing about the difficulties of getting tuna fish or how I have to go and meet someone in a car park to buy a bottle of whisky is hardly highlighting the extreme poverty that the majority of the population live in here.

However, that is not why I began writing the blog.  It was originally to record the highs and lows of trying to run a B&B in Zimbabwe: some of our funnier and more trying moments.  I don't want to write too much about politics because I don't want to give it too much power over me.  It's not about ignoring it and living in a bubble, but not centring on it  and letting it control you.

I still feel useless though.  The outside world is not at all interested and some initial support for the Zimbabwean Lives Matter appeal from various well-known Afro-Americans seems to have dwindled into nothing.  It is unfortunate that in Western eyes, Africa is a collective failure.  It is even more unfortunate that African leaders are never taken to task and held responsible for this failure. Everything and everyone else is at fault from colonisation to famines, cyclones, Western indifference, poverty . . . the list is endless.  The West feeds this narrative by continuing to give aid even if they KNOW it does not go to the people who need it most.

It is also a sad fact that whilst movements such as Black Lives Matter will call on Western governments to address matters of racial inequality and injustice, they will turn a blind eye to Africa where far more horrendous acts are committed. If black lives matter, as of course they do, then they must matter whether you are in New York or Harare, Berlin or Lagos.  It's time to take Africa seriously.