really an amazing experience learning about the current situation
here. We were in a horrible lodge in Nabibia, our incredible travel
company, CC Africa, literally had us out of there in 20 minutes (which
is unbelievable when you understand Africa a little) and back to one
of their lodges which have proven to be absolutely outstanding in
every way possible. Can't even begin to tell you. Here is how I
understand things in Zim though, given the conversations we had with a
bunch of people here, unverified by any other sources:
Zimbabwe used to be Rhodesia and after 15 years of fighting for
independence they gained independence in 1980 and became Zimbabwe.
Mugabe took over and for 20 years the country prospered ad was maybe
the most stable and prosperous economy in all of Africa. In or around
2000 though all the veterans of the war for independence started
griping (20 years later mind you) demanding the land they had been
promised for fighting for the independence. Mugabe and the rest of the
government were under pressure and what ensued me to the current
situation.
Most of the farms at the time were large commercial farms run by white
Zimbabweans, producing vast exports and carrying the entire national
economy through agriculture and the use of all of the country's
infinite natural resources. Unfortunately, these commercial farms came
under siege during a massive and violent land grab. It's unclear how
directly the government participated in actually taking control of the
land and granting it to certain people, but its very clear that they
took no steps to protect the farmers who were forced out. These huge
sources of commerce all of a sudden became idle lands, since the
people who took over the land were just either squatters or high up
government connected people who made no use of their resources and
simply looked for ways to exploit it through allowing hunting and
things like that or by simply producing agriculture to be self
sufficient rather than the commercial lands they had been. With no
products or anything at all being exported or even created, the entire
economy literally collapsed. Not to mention the widespread famine due
to the sudden halt in agricultural production. That's why you hear now
about inflation at 5million percent... The inflation makes the
currency totally worthless. Ten years ago the Zim Dollar was on par
with the U.S. Dollar, now it is literally impossible to convert it
since it changes exponentially by the day but its somehere around 2
billion to one, but tomorrow it will be much worse. You can't pay by
credit card since on the time it takes to process the transaction the
ammount you paid will literally be a fraction of the price you were
supposed to pay (a charge of 100 billion Zim Dollars today - ~$50 -
tomorrow would be worth maybe half that and by the time the receiver
collects it will be probably worthless).
Currently the people are amazingly hopeful and just generally among
the most likeable a friendly people you will ever meet. I've
obviously been a lot of places on this trip and they stood out as
maybe my favorite. Thy are ubiquew in that they come from such a
prosperous place historically and they are all well educated and proud
of their land but just not their government. The country is also
totally peaceful (aside from the ongoing issues with the land grabs)
in the towns and cities in most of the land. However, for the country
to ever stabilize it will almost necessitate some sort of violence to
overthrow the government or else the economy cannot reform. There is
more potential in Zimbabwe than maybe anyplace on earth, proven by the
past, but until someone comes in and capitalizes on the resources to
spur agriculture and commerce, they're screwed. Its very sad.
The time here is yet another example of how important visions places
like this is. Had we known the plans, there is no chance we would have
come to Zimbabwe just because of the way the nation is viewed back
home and the well documented instability here. Having been, I think it
will probably go down as the most important place to see during the
whole trip.
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