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Two years later
Levi Kabwato, Zimbabwe in Pictures
March 26, 2010

Zimbabweans went to the polls on March 29, 2008 with a propitious cloud of change hanging over the country. Our interest, back then was to tell, in pictures, the story of the fiercely contested Election 2008 as it unfolded.

To enable us to undertake this task, the Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa (NiZA) kindly gave us a grant. For this show of faith and confidence, we will always be immensely grateful. Using that grant a team of 3 journalists (two in Zimbabwe and one in South Africa) started capturing the images of the election as it unfolded.

And thus, Zimbabwe in Pictures was born. Our first ever publication of pictures was on March 27, 2008, two days before election. This is what our Publisher, Chris Kabwato said about Zimbabwe in the run-up to the vote; "As I traversed the country a few days prior to the election the feeling of something more than a political earthquake was palpable. People had now hit rock-bottom and they wanted to swim back to the surface and to the shore. It was an exciting period. Everyone wanted to vote. Everyone believed change would come from the ballot box."

There have been further developments in Zimbabwe since that election. The delay in announcing results, the run-off, the political stalemate, the talks, more talks, even more talks, xenophobic attacks in South Africa, a political agreement, food back on store shelves, a government of national unity, more talks, disengagement, more talks, threats, abuse of power.

All of this also prompted us to look at other spheres of Zimbabwean, arts, sports and so on. Zimbabwean life has continued despite the political circus occurring around it most of the time. Zimbabweans will always find a reason to live despite the fact that the thorn of poor governance and bad leadership forced into their flesh by cheap politicians has not quite been removed.

And, as a lot of us are coming to realize, pumping analgesics into the system relieves you of pain but the real challenge still lies within, safe, even unashamedly regrouping in order to mount a stronger defense against the next dosage. Not the kind of stuff you want to hear when you have been surrounded by so much pain and despair

But hope is always defiant in situations such as these. Everyday, hope breaks forth and gushes through as the walls of quiet violence, de-humanization, abject poverty, unemployment and injustice are torn down by a desire to find the deeper meaning of life in Zimbabwe. It is to this kind of hope we began speaking in March 2008

Please join us as we celebrate our 2nd birthday; ypu are the one who makes it all happen. More importantly, be on the lookout for our March 29 Commemorative Edition which we will release this coming Monday, as Zimbabwe remembers the general election of March 2008.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

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