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More
Passion. More Fire.
Amanda
Atwood
September 30, 2004
If the leaders
of this struggle have lost their passion, is it any wonder that
the rest of the population does not engage? Passion is like a
fire. A match in isolation is easily blown out by the wind. But
when a hundred matches together light a patch of dry grass, the
earth combusts, and the wind just blows the flames higher. Our
NGO leaders need to rekindle their passion, activate their outrage
and inspire one another. And if they are too comfortable or too
afraid to do that then they need to make way for a new generation
of fiery activists to lead the charge.
For the past
10 days, 50 women have been walking from Bulawayo to Harare, a 440
km journey, participating in a sponsored walk to raise awareness
about the looming NGO Bill.
They left Bulawayo
on Sunday 19 September, and expected to arrive in Harare on Wednesday
29 September. As they neared Harare, the women were ebullient. They
had never expected to make it as far as they did, and they were
in Selous, just one day's walk from Harare, when 48 of them were
arrested. Two had gone ahead to buy food for the group, and when
they returned, the other women had already been arrested and taken
to Selous and Chegutu police stations. The next morning, one of
the women went to bring food to the others, and she was also arrested.
And so, in the
pre-dawn darkness of Wednesday 29 September, Jenni Williams began
a solitary walk from Lake Chivero to Harare. She carried a small
torch to light her way, and doubtless was seriously questioning
the purpose of her journey. However, she gathered her conviction
and decided to complete what she had set out to do. As she came
into Harare, she was joined by a few other women, and eventually
made it to Africa Unity Square, where the group of 10, including
one baby strapped to her mother-s back, said a prayer of thanks
and concluded the march. But as they left Unity Square, these women
were also arrested and taken to Harare Central.
Obviously, the
arrest of these women violates both the spirit and the letter of
the SADC Protocol on Free and Fair Elections. And of course, their
arrest is just one more example of the paranoid, repressive, dictatorial
nature of the Zimbabwean ruling regime. But in many ways, it is
consistent with the over-enthusiastic policing we have come to expect
in this country. While this behaviour is brutal, absurd, and undemocratic,
I do not want to waste space here and now restating the obvious:
that we live in a police state where the ruling party will use its
machinery in whatever way necessary to crush dissent and stifle
individual opinion.
And I do not
want to use this space to detail the hideous implications of the
NGO Bill for the ordinary Zimbabwean, for Zimbabwean society, or
for the NGO sector itself because a great deal of attention has
already been paid to these very serious concerns.
I am angry that
this Bill can even be proposed. It is a senseless, disgusting, repressive
piece of legislation that will do as much if not more damage to
our society than POSA and AIPPA are already doing.
I am angry with
a dictator who has lost any respect for human rights or the rule
of law, and who governs Zimbabwe as his personal fiefdom, regardless
of the needs or wishes of the rest of the population.
But most of
all, I am angry with myself, with the 12 million other Zimbabweans,
and particularly with those in NGO-s, and in civil society,
whom this walk was most directly, benefiting, and yet were [with
a few notable exceptions] nowhere to be seen on the walk, or even
in the few final kilometres into Harare.
The women who
walked from Bulawayo to Harare are not NGO leaders, or even NGO
employees. Their organisation, Women of Zimbabwe Arise [WoZA], already
operates semi-covertly, and is subject to routine harassment and
intimidation by the authoritarian authorities. They have no salaries,
no offices, no company cars and none of the trappings so often associated
with the NGO sector. Out of all the NGOs who stand to lose so much
of their own comforts, much less their programme activities when
[not, I despair, if] the NGO Bill is passed, WoZA is probably the
best prepared. And yet, they alone decided to organise and participate
in the exhausting, painful walk to Harare from Bulawayo in protest
of this Bill.
Admittedly,
the event was largely cloaked in the beginning. Perhaps in an effort
to forestall their inevitable arrest the organisers were vague about
their departure date, and their expected arrival date. Some may
argue that this diminished their purpose. Perhaps with greater outreach
or publicity or organisation, the participation might have been
greater, the outcome might have been different, and the arrival
into Harare would have been a victory celebration, not a shadowed,
lonely trip to Africa Unity Square followed by a ride in the back
of a police vehicle.
I am not in
a position to critique the organisation of the event, or to know
what communications did or did not occur between WoZA and other
NGOs or within the NGO sector about this event. There are always
many sides to a story, and no doubt many individuals and organisations
who are much more in the know about this whole event will come forward
to defend themselves.
But what I do
know is that, on Jenni-s arrival in Harare, the hundreds of
people who had, supposedly, been mobilised for this event, and who
did, supposedly, know enough about it to understand that their participation
was crucial, were nowhere to be found. Perhaps all of them had watched
the Dead BC coverage the night before, announcing that the walkers
had been arrested. Perhaps they were put off by the hate speech
of our national broadcaster and feared for their own safety too
much to be willing to make even a small sacrifice of their time.
In the meantime,
50 women sacrificed their homes, their families, their security
and their health and WALKED from Bulawayo to Harare. Why? For all
of us. They represent all of us. But particularly, they represent
the board members, leaders, staff persons and members of NGOs who
stand to be closed when the NGO Bill is effected into law. And when
they arrived at the end of their journey? There was next to no one
there to welcome them. Sure, a few cars drove past and hooted in
encouragement. Yes, a few people phoned in regularly to check on
the progress and find out how they were doing. But, in theory at
least, these organisations do not consist only of chairpersons and
secretariats. Many of them have members. Members whom they exist
to assist. Members whom they supposedly inform, educate and mobilise.
Where were these members? Where were these staff members? And where
were these chairpersons?
After the remaining
women had been arrested, the cell phone activists went wild - a
call went out for people to come to Harare Central to bring food
and show support. And when we arrived for jail solidarity? Only
11 people were there.
Where were the
hundreds of people who had been, I was told, prepared to meet the
walkers and join the victory procession into town? Perhaps there
was confusion as to the timing or status of the walk. But there
was no confusion as to the status of the women in detention, their
location - Harare Central, or the time to bring them food - 5:30.
I was told that many of the organisations were busy trying to co-ordinate
donations of bail money from their own funds. This is a worthy and
commendable effort. But does it take the entire board, secretariat
and membership of the hundreds of NGOs who are about to have their
lives turned upside down by this Bill? I was also told that there
was no time to organise people for jail solidarity as hundreds of
women were already being organised to take buses to Soweto for a
prayer service this Sunday. Again, this activity is admirable. And
certainly prayer is a valuable first step for many people involved
in the struggle. But it implies to me a sorry misunderstanding of
priorities if an organisation can go through the mammoth effort
involved in transporting hundreds of people to Johannesburg and
back, surely they can organise even a few dozen to go to the police
station in Harare, if not Chegutu, for even one hour?
Where is the
passion, the drive, and the commitment in the rest of civil society?
The story of these women-s bravery, dedication and resolve
is deeply, personally moving. It is a story not of statistics or
petitions or politics but a story of individual humanity, and a
courage that transcends articulation or understanding. And yet,
when it came time for the individuals who both stand to lose the
most and who know the most about their story to step forward in
solidarity, support, and conviction, they did not step forward.
Is this what Zimbabwe has become? A nation where even the so-called
leaders of the pro-democracy movement are so tired, so jaded, or
so disillusioned that they are not moved by these inspirational
act of singular determination. A nation where these leaders place
more emphasis on international activities or securing their own
narrow minded vision of the future than they do on our own united
resistance at home. Where is our conscious? Where is our humanity?
Looking out
from the gates of Harare Central onto the Charge Office commuter
rank, we watched thousands of people waiting for transport. It was
easy to feel frustrated. What are we missing in explaining the struggle?
What would it take to bring even a fraction of these thousands away
from their queues for just an hour to demonstrate in front of the
police station? What shift in consciousness do we need to better
inform, outreach and mobilise? What is missing in the explanation
of the struggle that makes it so much easier for people to ignore,
get by, and avoid confrontation?
Yes it is hard
to confront. It is frightening and lonely and difficult. Someone
once said, people will only change the way they do things if the
existing reality becomes too difficult and so they are desperate
for something new, or if the new reality you are proposing is so
powerfully compelling they cannot resist it. I-m sure there
is truth in that. But is the solution to just sit back and wait
for things to get even worse in Zimbabwe so that we finally feel
the burn enough to want to do something about it? Perhaps. But that
is too depressing and disempowering a strategy for me. Surely the
solution lies in articulating a clear, powerful, and convincing
vision of the Zimbabwe we deserve, the Zimbabwe we can all have,
the Zimbabwe that we all know can exist.
And maybe that
is exactly the problem. Because the people who are supposed to be
articulating that vision - the pro-democracy civil society organisations,
do not seem to believe in it themselves. With few exceptions, they
do not practise the ideals of participation, collective action,
or solidarity. They cannot explain, and perhaps do not even see
how each of their own activities fit into a larger picture of a
new Zimbabwe. They have no unified understanding of the broader
struggle, and the critical importance of not only each of their
individual programmes, but the desperate need for unity. They have
no vision of the Zimbabwe they are fighting for, or the new reality
they are trying to achieve. They have no creativity, no innovation.
They are too tired, or too afraid of trying new things to find new
ways of communicating with and inspiring people. They are bureaucrats,
not activists. They are as comfortable with their salaried jobs,
their leave days and company benefits, as any corporate officer
is with hers. And they have lost the ideals, the vision, the passion
for the struggle that they are supposed to be not just fighting,
but also leading.
If the leaders
of this struggle have lost their passion, is it any wonder that
the rest of the population does not engage? Passion is like a fire.
A match in isolation is easily blown out by the wind. But when a
hundred matches together light a patch of dry grass, the earth combusts,
and the wind just blows the flames higher. Our NGO leaders need
to rekindle their passion, activate their outrage and inspire one
another. And if they are too comfortable or too afraid to do that
then they need to make way for a new generation of fiery activists
to lead the charge.
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