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Prison
Diary April 27 - May 14, 2002
Shane Kidd
Wednesday 8th May.
There are some things I’m prepared to do for the cause once, but
they will not be repeated. Today is the 8th May, 12 days
after my arrest. Morgan who has designated himself as my personal
sidekick and is also the cell shaver has decide that I need a shave
so I give him a cigarette and off he goes to find the necessary
equipment. He comes back with a scalpel blade and we soap up with
cold water. Little do I realise that this is very definitely a second-hand
blade (seriously second-hand). He starts with my sideburn. By the
time he’s actually severed the hair the skin that supports the hair
is below the level of my chin. The exercise takes the longest 30min
of my life, never again!
There are 14 people in the cell with
a core of 9 on long term remand. Bernard is in for tearing up Mugabe’s
posters over the election and I’m pissed off with MDC because he’s
still in here. So I’m trying to organise bail. He’s a youth member
from Chipinge South. Alliance, Morgan, Elias & Elvis are all
in for public violence. One thing you learn in jail is that not
everyone in prison is a criminal. People get picked up in bar brawls
and other stupid offences that could be solved with a simple fine
but because they have no money or access to their relatives (the
prison guards do their best to ensure that there is no communication
with the outside world, despite the fact that it is a right of prisoners
on remand) they end up playing the remand game and are shuttled
into court every 2 weeks. The case is postponed and it’s back to
jail again. One poor sod, Pango, who’s a bit slow and has a hearing
problem, stole a dead cow. He’s been there for16 months without
a trial. Then there are the mental cases. Out of the 62 people on
remand at least 8 are not playing with a full deck. They range from
the simple minded to the patently insane. Their parents drop them
off at police stations or the police pick them up for miscellaneous
offences. The court remands them until they see a doctor in Harare
who never arrives and they end up in jail for God knows how long,
but everyone is happy because they are off the streets. Wonder is
our official nut, but at least he’s quiet. Bongo 2 cells down is
a raver of note and requires 3 Prozac and 3 sleeping pills every
night to quieten him down. Mental cases create their own rules in
prison and for the most part are left alone by the guards unless
they create a disturbance. If any lawyer ever takes the prison service
to court and sues them he will make an absolute fortune.
Prison officers are from all over the
political spectrum but the MDC are reluctant to be so openly for
fear of losing their jobs. You can pick up definite vibes by the
way you are treated. Yesterday I eventually won the paper war and
was given prison paper to write on. From day 1 I’ve been demanding
paper for correspondence. It’s never a problem but it’s always tomorrow,
so I had a set to with the duty Sgt at inspection. He’s ZANU (PF)
and told me I was a prisoner and he would deny or give me paper
as he wished. I reminded him that I was convicted of nothing and
he should read the prison act. If he couldn’t read he should bring
it to me and I would read it for him. Eventually in the late afternoon
I was brought 2 sheets of paper after 8 days of badgering. So I’ve
written a business letter to Doug, which they will destroy and we
can put a case together later for denying me my rights. The paper
I am writing on at the moment is an exercise book brought in by
Birgit. She brought 4 in yesterday which where promptly confiscated,
but being unable to count they missed one, so I’m writing this under
the blankets. My normal weight is +/-69kgs. When I booked into Chipinge
jail after 6 days in Chimani I was down to 62kgs & I’m still
going down. I can recommend jail to those with a weight problem.
Its funny, 15 years ago when I started climbing the mountains with
Doug I thought that I still had an army body and just needed a sleeping
bag. After 2 mountain trips I decided "sod this for a game
of soldiers" and started investing heavily in mattresses. Surprise
after 13 nights on the concrete floor with just a blanket underneath
I’m learning to get a good night’s sleep again. Its still hell on
the hips & ribcage but I’m learning to sleep on my back. With
only 3 blankets the big choice is whether or not to use 1 as a pillow.
The last 2 nights have been particularly cold with winter coming
on so it’s no pillow tonight. The only thing that is still disconcerting
is the lice crawling around with you under the blanket at night
and the light which stays on all night. Yes this cell has a functioning
light bulb.
In the evening the prisoners normally
play cards, which is illegal. The cards are made out of the inside
of toilet rolls and there is a resident card maker amongst the prisoners.
You can buy a new pack for 4 cigarettes once the guards catch you
playing and confiscate the old pack. In the absence of cards they
tell stories. The first time the cards where taken Bernard gave
us a rendition of Sydney Sheldon’s "The other side of midnight".
This was in Shona and took two nights and was done from memory.
There were smidgens of English so I could sort of follow the plot.
The second time the cards where confiscated Alliance took the floor
and gave his version of "Gulliver’s Travels" as written
by Charles Dickens. This really perked up my ears. The plot line
is as follows. Gulliver is a Polish drug lord who wants to marry
the King’s daughter, a nubile 14 year old. But he has to pay lobola,
which he doesn’t have, so he decides to steal 30 truck loads of
gold from the mafia in Las Vegas. This went on for 4 hours. There
are not many occasions that I regret not understanding Shona but
this was definitely one of them.
Yesterday I had a visit from Ben Bentham
the Anglican priest in Chipinge. He brought some food and we had
a chat. The visit was much appreciated. Prison visits are a strange
affair; you go into a small room with an even smaller window opening
onto the outside of the cellblock. The visitor and the guard then
stand outside the window. This is not conducive for conversation
at the best of times but with the guard right in your face scared
that you will give away state secrets or tell someone how bad it
actually is, conversation becomes a very stilted affair.
One real pillar of strength through the
last weeks has been Birgit. Her constant visits with food, cigarettes
and information about the outside world and what people are doing
to help us has boosted everyone’s moral. In Chimani she visited
3 times a day and in Chipinge once a day. She’s puts up with endless
bullshit and intimidation and still carries on. She also picks up
the guys’ wives and relatives from all over the country and brings
them through to visit. The guys are magnificent in their fortitude.
I think that CIO is going to regret throwing them in jail. Prior
to this I was of the opinion that we needed to bring down some hardcore
from Harare to teach people to stand up for their rights. I don’t
think that it’s a problem any more. We are moulding our own hardcore
right here in jail. They’ve been here and know that they can survive.
They are now genuine political prisoners. This is turning into a
badge of honour and they are no longer frightened. Birgit and I
have spoken and with the ZRP closing the bottle store down 3 days
after I was arrested and Loren unwilling to continue the lease she
is going to hand over the whole premises to the MDC as an office
and really get in people’s faces. I also have some ideas on what
I would like to see the office accomplish so I will be speaking
to Roy when I get out.
Friday 10th May. Had
a very encouraging visit from Arnold (lawyer) today. He says that
there is a 90% chance of us getting out on Tuesday 14th.
Everybody’s spirits are lifted except me. First rule, never trust
a lawyer. Question; what do you call 5000 lawyers at the bottom
of the ocean? Answer: A good start. Now that I’ve caught up with
my diary we can just go day by day.
3 new prisoners today and one released
so it’s up to16 tonight (still not as cramped as Chimani). 1 ZANU
(PF) youth with a big black eye, very unsure of himself and subdued
in this MDC environment. Another mental case, thank God he’s the
quiet and simple type and a policeman accused of fraud (now there’s
a thing). The water system broke down this afternoon, I hope it’s
fixed by tomorrow. The thought of the toilets not being flushed
tomorrow with buckets is not a prospect I look forward to. This
morning was very entertaining. The prison 2IC came for an early
inspection very concerned about our welfare, trying to solve as
many problems as possible (the ones that his staff have been ignoring
all week). It turns out we are to be inspected by the Assistant
Commissioner of Prisons Manicland at 12pm and he wants us to be
all sweetness and light when the V.I.P. arrives so he can make a
good impression. We are all lined up for inspection in the yard
when said dignitary arrives. As if on cue, the mental patients all
break out into howling and antics causing the maximum amount of
havoc and embarrassment so we are all hurriedly herded off into
our cells. It’s amazing they have just enough sanity to know when
to create the maximum impact. In honour of his visit they raised
the standard of the food from pig swill to pig slops. I’ll leave
the world to figure out the difference.
Spent an interesting hour this afternoon
hunting lice in the seams of my clothes, killed some really fine
specimens. Thank god I washed them before the water system collapsed.
When you wash your clothes you have to run around in a blanket until
they are dry. One of the high points of my visit was the lecture
given to all prisoners on the second day by the prison doctor about
the crime of homosexuality and the evils of masturbation rendered
in broken English for my benefit. Not to be missed!
Saturday 11th May.
Took a dump, had a shower, went on another hunting safari for lice.
While I was out of the cell today someone went through my blankets
and read this diary. I must find a new place to hide it. The problem
is you either trust everyone and get caught, or no-one and get paranoid.
At the moment the worst they can do is confiscate them but I would
really like to smuggle them out with me. Composing and writing them
is one of the things that has kept me sane. Last night I didn’t
sleep well. I kept on thinking of how positive Arnold was but I
don’t want to raise my hopes so I spent most of the night convincing
myself that I would be here for another 6 months. The one thing
I want to do when I get out is turn part of the new MDC office into
a community law centre, similar to what the Americans did during
the civil rights movement of the 60’s. I’m sure that we can raise
funds from the community and get additional funding from foreign
donors. The police & govt have been trampling on people’s basic
human rights for too long. We have to show people that the law is
a tool for them to use.
Sunday 12th May. Experienced
the true horror of prison today, Sunday church service. We escaped
it last week but the hand of fate would not spare us today. We started
off with a bible reading by one of the officers (no minister). This
was capped by 2 mental patients, Bongo the son of a Chipinge profit
and his sidekick getting up and praying for us for what seemed eternity.
Fortunately it was all in Shona and I could sleep through most of
it. One of the prison guards woke me from my reverie wanting to
know why I was not participating after all it was my people who
brought the bible to Africa. I made it very clear that I come from
a long line of atheists and bastards, neither I nor my ancestors
have ever inflicted the bible on anyone. I then tried to get back
to sleep but the singing and dancing woke me up again. This was
at least entertaining and far better than everyone singing along
with a tape recorder at St. Georges in Chimani. Church was followed
by the obligatory louse hunt and then we were at last issued with
our prison numbers. Chom’s 545/02. David 543/02. Lovemore 547/02.
Talent 548/02, & Isaiah 549/02. Then finally in the afternoon
we were issued with our ration of toilet paper and soap and supplies
of tobacco which the remand prisoners with money in their prison
accounts can buy from the staff canteen. This is a prelude to another
evening of frenzied gambling. On returning to the cell everyone
starts wrapping their tobacco up in twists of toilet paper, enough
in each twist for one cigarette. If the previous Sunday is anything
to go by no one will walk away while they are winning so instead
of having 3or 4 winners and the same quantity of losers they will
carry on until one man has won everything which he will then sell
back to them at interest leaving them indebted until the following
Sunday.
Had an interesting talk with the ZANU
(PF) youth with the black eye. I pointed out our group who were
MDC and the fact that we had lawyers, visitors, food and people
working for us on the outside. He had been intimidating people for
money and now that he was in prison where was ZANU (PF) to support
him now. It left him a bit bitter and twisted with lots to think
about. Roy came to visit this afternoon but the guards wouldn’t
let him in. Never the less we could see him through the cell windows
and it gave the guys a tremendous boost in morale and increased
their stature with everyone in the prison. Even the guards were
slightly in awe.
Monday 13th May. Had
a visit from Birgit this morning, she’s very optimistic about tomorrow’s
hearing, she even has Audrey from the Africa desk of Amnesty International
working our case. I’m still happily pessimistic. She’s also had
a call from Andy & Allen in London last week. It’s amazing how
news travels. A worrying development happened last night. Isaiah
was transferred from Talent’s cell which is for ordinary remandees,
to the D class remand which is for murderers, rapists and armed
robbers. Conditions there are a lot harsher. The inmates sleep without
clothes in the cells and only have limited contact with the rest
of the remandees. I’ve asked Birgit to see a lawyer today to see
what can be done. She also promised to sort out bail for 3 guys
that I’ve been trying to get out for the last 2 weeks. I haven’t
spoken to them because in prison you try not to give anyone false
hope.
An interesting thing about this place
is the absence of time. There are no watches or clocks in prison
so if the consensus is that it is after 9pm then the time is PAST
NINE or if it’s close to 10pm then its TO TEN. It’s a weird system
but seems to work. The one thing that is apparent is that we offer
the children of Zimbabwe an education and then no means to exercise
it except through poverty or crime. The number of young people in
jail under the age of 25 who have never had a formal job is amazing
and most of them are in for stupid petty crimes and brawls. But
give them a few years and I’m sure that we can turn them into hardened
criminals. It’s a hell of an indictment of the society that we live
in. One thing that you will never teach prisoners is compassion.
They all deplore the beatings that they receive personally, yet
line up to cheer and laugh when it’s someone else’s turn. At breakfast
this morning I had a set to with one of the guards. He tried to
slap Isaiah around so I confronted him and said if he wanted to
prove he was a man he should try me instead. I thought I was in
for big problems but surprisingly he backed down and left Isaiah
alone.
On a purely personal front I feel like
I’ve taken the first steps on some inevitable road of confrontation
with the government. Whether things will peter out or escalate after
this I have no idea but I am determined not to back down. The one
thing I am confident of is my ability to handle prison. I no longer
fear that and I’m sure that I have the ability to make trouble wherever
I go.
Good new Bernard, Elvis & Tokmore
are leaving tonight on bail. Birgit obviously managed to sort them
out. My decision to help them and believe in their cases might be
wrong but the important thing is that 240 prisoner know that MDC
said that they would try to help and did. Well now we wait with
baited breath to see what our hearing brings tomorrow.
Tuesday 14th May. FREE
AT LAST. Went through to court at 8am, hearing was at 10am, there
was a long written judgement on the bail application and for most
of it I didn’t think that we were going to be released. We ended
up with $10,000 bail each, instructions not to intimidate Mwali
and having to report to Chipinge police station on the last Friday
of every month. Birgit, Roy and everyone else were at the hearing.
Bail was paid at 10:30 am but they would not release us until we
had cleared with the prison, so we were transported back at 5:30
pm and eventually cleared at 7pm, those remaining hours were longer
than the preceding 20 days combined. A hot bath and comfortable
bed were heaven.
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