From Rhodesia to Zambia

‘There is a vast difference between Zimbabwe and Zambia because in Zimbabwe there is no freedom of speech of movement or freedom of land or rights. It’s under dictatorship through the government of Mugabe so people are fleeing that country, running away from unemployment, hunger, suffering’ explains Dustin who can be considered to be a reliable source of information on life in Zimbabwe. He is a distinguished figure with grey hair, well dressed in comparison to the other patients on the ward. Dustin was Shabami in what was then Rhodesia in 1942 though his parents were from Zambia. After completing school Dustin gained employment in a hospital pharmacy in the Zimbabwean midlands near the town of Gweru. He retired in 1997.

Despite having lived all his life in Zimbabwe Dustin felt he had little option but to leave there and come to live in Zambia. ‘I left a very good house there, but I left it through a bad situation, life is bad through the government, but here I am free there is land to plough’ He explains that he made the decision to leave Zimbabwe in 2000, leaving behind his home, the life he and his wife had built and some of his then grown up children. ‘I spoke to a certain gentleman whose family were poor, just keep the house and send me a small amount’.

Dustin made the decision to move to Msoro in Zambia’s Eastern Province because that is where his parents are from. He is fortunate in that he can still draw his pension from his long years of service, indeed he uses the opportunity when mentioning same to press me to discharge him so he can go to Chipata and collect same the following day. He speaks fondly of Zambia and the freedom he perceives people to enjoy here ‘Zambia is a free and holy country, freedom of speech of movement so it is a god country’.

Notwithstanding this concerns are rising regarding corruption in the Zambian government and indeed in recent weeks $300 million of aid for health care has been pulled on the back of these concerns. He is circumspect when I mention this ‘you find corruption in political groups everywhere they get money from donors and use it for themselves, not give it to the poor.’ I decide not to argue this point reminding myself I am from Ireland.

He talks fondly of his life in Zimbabwe and mentions in particular an occasion when he had the opportunity to help a friend of his daughters complete her studies. ‘There was a girl in school with my daughter who came to my house crying and asked for money which I gave her to complete her nursing exams, later she qualified as a nurse and worked in England. Sometime later she sent a card form there with English money which I used to build things up for my children’

I ask Dustin to tell me about his own children. ‘I have children, one completed university six years ago, he I a bank manager in Johannesburg. One is married and he is there in Zimbabwe’ Dustin’s two other children have passed away one son who was a church pastor quite recently ‘he had a long illness’. His daughter who had lived in Malawi passed away aged 30 ‘she had BP and died from a stroke’. He tells me none of his children suffered form HIV.

Dustin speaks some more about life in Zimbabwe ‘If you are going there be sure whatever you speak does not blame hi (Mugabe’s) party or his government. Farming is poor because he has chased all the good farmers, the hospital has no medicines, otherwise it is a good country, but with poor management’.

Criticism of Mugabe continues and in particular his treatment of the farmers who had been so vital to Zimbabwe’s economy. ‘These people do you known what they were doing, they were shooting white people in farms. When us Africans we are killing on another, outside countries supported Tsvangirai because he didn’t want the white to be chased away’.

Dustin believes that if Morgan Tsvangirai takes over ‘it will be wonderful, he wants all the farmers who were chased to come back.’ I ask him is not concerned as a black Zimbabwean that the majority of arable land was in the hands of a small number of white hands. ‘These were the people who were working the property, they could build on the farm schools farmers, those are good people those British people’ When asked surely are they not Zimbabwean ‘they are not Zimbabwean, they are British’

He feels this is all the story he has to tell though I suspect there could be much more. ‘you said you don’t have a cough mixture for me’ I explain we may get some from the pharmacy the next day though his symptoms are related to cardiac failure rather than anything treatable with cough mixture. ‘I will sleep dreaming of that because tomorrow I will go to Chipata (to collect his pension) and then shoot to Msoro. What I have told you is the proper news, it is true’