A Life is a Life is a Life

By Steph Hodgins

I recently sat in on a debate in Ms. Lorriane Brown’s Grade 11 English class. Two guests, Chaka Chikodzi and Dr. Brian Nichols, came in to share some information, and diverging opinions, about Zimbabwe. Chaka, a sculptor, was born and raised in Zimbabwe. Since moving to Canada, he has been active in letting society here know the living conditions and politics of Zimbabwe. Dr. Brian Nichols is a psychotherapist and art therapist from Peterborough. He makes annual trips to Zimbabwe to work at a hospital which houses many HIV infected people.

"Our class is reading Stephen Lewis' Massey Lectures, as published in his book, Race Against Time," explains Ms. Brown. "In it, he addresses the UN Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Nichols and Chaka were invited to address the MDGs as they see them happening/not happening in their experiences of Africa. Because Chaka and Dr. Nichols experiences of Africa have occured in Zimbabwe, they centred their comments on Zimbabwe."

I don’t necessarily consider myself entirely informed about the situations in Africa, but what shocked me was the amount of people who virtually know nothing. Zimbabwe is one of the poorest countries in Africa; it has no economy because of inflation (inflation is the severe rise of product prices caused by a significant decrease in the value of currency). The population of Zimbabwe is starving to death. Zimbabwe is one of the areas of Africa with the richest farm land. During the age of colonialism, white people forced the black farmers off the best farming land. In Zimbabwe today, the white population controls 32% of the most fertile areas. Since land redistribution and reform is expensive, Zimbabwe’s government can’t afford to change the situation. The poorest farmers don’t even stand a chance because the country is too poor for change.

The president of Zimbabwe is Robert Mugabe has been in power since 1980 (when Zimbabwe declared it’s independence from England). At the beginning of his reign, the people saw Mugabe as a liberator of Zimbabwe. Mugabe deeply believed in the freedom and rights of his people. Recently however, it has been speculated that Mugabe is moving his country towards becoming a dictatorship instead of democracy. Mugabe’s recent presidential campaign was to endorse getting rid of the slums in the poorest parts of Zimbabwe. Getting rid of the slums meant that many of the poor population were displaced and now have no homes.

When Chaka and Dr. Nichols came in to inform this group of students about some of the conditions in Africa, I took note of how many people seemed to know enough about Zimbabwe to be asking questions. The fact is that in general, people seemed to know very little about most African countries. There were not many questions asked specifically about Zimbabwe, but more about the general African nation.

I have found that when listening to stories of genocide or famine, it is hard to truly comprehend the information. When living in a country full of human rights and civil peace, I can’t imagine coming from war and genocide. I feel the most effective way of informing the population of situations occurring in places like Zimbabwe is not to list off large numbers, but rather to speak of individual stories. Dr. Nichols made the point very clear that there are two extremes in Zimbabwe: wonderful acts of kindness and pure evil. "The ethics and morality of some of the people who Dr. Nichols has been required to work with in Zimbabwe has been especially difficult to understand," says Ms. Brown. Dr. Nichols had just came back from another trip to Zimbabwe and was telling the class a story about a man who started a rural school. The Headmaster is severely Christian and seems like he’s genuinely trying to better his society."The Headmaster who is doing all of these wonderful things for a community, who was appointed by the President to work in this community, is the very person in the community who is propagating ethically irresponsible behaviour," explains Ms. Brown. "He is HIV infected and instead of educating his students about safe sex practices, he is taking advantage of their ignorance and exploits those most vulnerable."

When asked about the education system in Zimbabwe, Dr. Nichols explained that the only requirement to become a teacher is that they must have completed that grade. The teachers are supposed to speak English, but many of them do not. The classrooms have no supplies because the government can’t afford to spend money on the educational system when the people are starving. There is a belief among those in Zimbabwe that if they get educated, then there is hope that they will be able to have some sort of economic stability in the future.

Chaka was asked if there is hope in Zimbabwe. He responded with saying, “There is hope. Your generation is more open-minded. The more open-minded, the better the chances for change.” It is a beautiful thing that a country can see hope after so much hopelessness and despair; that some of the people of Zimbabwe believe in mankind and believe that hope will create change.