NATIONAL HEROES ACRE II & III
National Heroes Acre II Photographs by Jekesai Njikizanava [hr] National Heroes Acre II by Brian Chikwa Sometimes you take off because you don’t want to still be around when people come back to their senses. Knock-kneed, I was never built for running, but I knew that you run faster when racing other people than when […]
MURIMI MUNHU
Panashe Chigumadzi travels to the rural Zimbabwe of her ancestors, onto land stolen and cash-cropped by a privileged minority under racist white rule. Now, almost 40 years since independence, millions of hectares have been returned to those whose birthright the soil is. Chigumadzi discovers that the land reform programme that drives agricultural transformation and justice […]
MILKING A DYING COW
Zimbabwe’s economic crises have played out in the press, in political and parliamentary exchanges, and on the streets, among the people most immediately affected. At a glance, it appears like a no-win situation. But, foreign companies, especially South African retailers, are making a handsome profit from Zimbabwe’s demise. Simbarashe Mumera boards the night vendor bus […]
SUNGURA STORIES
Ranga Mberi travels back in musical time to the 1980s and 1990s, the era of sungura music. Dubbed the “authentic sound of Zimbabwe”, sungura weaved together Congolese rumba with Zimbabwean jiti and Tanzanian kanindo. Rooted deeply in the struggles, heartbreak and suffering of the times, but also in joy and celebration of common people – […]
PORTRAITS OF POWER
The president’s portrait holds a venerable position in post-independence Zimbabwe. Not unlike its colonial predecessor’s (and in keeping with entrenched social hierarchies and royal patronage that persist in Britain), it looks down upon the toiling citizenry, casts its gaze on every space imaginable, and frames the notion of identity. Farai Mudzingwa writes about the power […]