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Zimbabwe: Mugabe Held at Gunpoint, Says Exiled Writer
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INTERVIEW
7 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
Charles Cobb, Jr
In Chenjerai Hove's novels and poetry one finds deep passion for ordinary people under the lash of oppression and struggling against poverty. That very passion has forced him into exile from Zimbabwe, where as both newspaper columnist and novelist he butted heads with the government of President Robert Mugabe.
In a wide-ranging conversation with AllAfrica's Charles Cobb Jr., Hove, now a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University in the United States, discussed the failure of regional leaders to respond meaningfully to Zimbabwe's ongoing turmoil, as well as his thoughts on why the 84-year-old Mugabe clings to office. Excerpts:
Tell us a little about your background. You're a native Zimbabwean. You grew up there?
I started as a teacher, a high school teacher during the liberation war, in the countryside in 1977.
Where in the countryside?
In the southern parts near Masvingo, in an area called Bikita. We didn't teach much because that was the height of the war and so we were always in the mountains, taking food or carrying messages from this guerrilla group to another one and that sort of thing. When the school was closed in 1978 I got a job teaching in the Lowveld in the sugar cane plantations, in a school owned by the [sugar] company, and of course the war was there also. So it didn't quite stop. Then after independence I decided to leave teaching because when we went on strike to ask for equal pay...
The teachers went on strike?
Yes, black teachers went on strike because there was a teacher's college for whites, coloureds [people of mixed race] and Asians, and a teacher's college for blacks who were studying the same curriculum – education, English, languages and all that – and then when we went to teach, the white teachers would get four times our salaries. So we wanted Mugabe to regularize these salaries in 1981. The transitional government of [Abel] Muzorewa in 1978 had done a little to try to improve the situation but didn't go the whole way.
So when we went on strike to demand that these salaries also acknowledge our years of experience where we were underpaid – we went on strike the same time as black nurses – Mugabe came out on television and radio and said these teachers and nurses contributed nothing to the liberation movement.
Now when I was teaching in the countryside, there was a month for example, when I remained with 23 cents because my whole salary had gone to buying shoes, shirts, trousers for the fighters – some of them wanted sunglasses and things like that too. And then the man stands up and says we contributed nothing! I was so annoyed, I decided to leave teaching.
So I got a job as editor at Mambo Press in the Midlands in the town of Gweru. I worked there as a senior editor until 1985 when I went to Zimbabwe Publishing House. We had political differences with the owners so I left and became a journalist, because at Mambo Press I had also been editing the magazine called Moto, which was a monthly.
After Mambo, in 1985 I went to Zimbabwe Publishing House as senior editor in charge of literature, education and training of younger editors. Then because of ideological differences – the owners relied and depended on the patronage of the Minister of Information – I refused to continue because when the minister, Nathan Shamuyarira, was removed to be foreign minister we were concerned about our books because he was the one pushing the books, especially political books.
So I left and became a journalist for Inter Press Service. I was the regional editor for Southern Africa in charge of culture. From there I was appointed writer-in- residence at the University of Zimbabwe from 1991 to 1994, after which I went as visiting professor at Lewis and Clark College [in Oregon in the U.S.]. Then later on I went to teach at Leeds University [in Britain] and I was also a guest writer for the whole of the Yorkshire region. When [Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher closed the coal mines, [trying] to weaken the trade union movement, there was a lot of unemployment. People were just sitting there so I would go and try to help them [use] their potential skills in writing poetry or short stories or essays and things like that.
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Would it be correct to say you're in exile from Zimbabwe or can you go back?
I'm in exile but I have not been sent out. I left on my own. I had a column in the newspaper called The [Zimbabwe] Standard and after the parliamentary elections of 2000 [amidst] the violence which was happening, I was writing, satirising the political system and how some people like President Mugabe were so power hungry that they didn't care whether people were being butchered.
Then we were heating up [ahead of] the presidential elections in March 2002, I was continuing to write [and] began to be informed by friends who were in the secret police that there was no way they could arrest me because that would draw a lot of international public attention. They could only find a way, like an accident.
The question to ask is this, what is the special love that Gordon Brown has for Africans? Mugabe and the Sudanese government which has committed more atrocities against Africans? Why has Gordon Brown and the West not come down with the same heavy hands on Sudan as they have on Zimbabwe? Harare was a city where over 60% the true African workers worked as domestic workers so what is in such a past. For those who do not know, Britain and the West are using Zimbabwe to make a statement to South Africa, Namibia and other Southern African nations where... [Read Full Text]
Mr Kalu, I donot beleive that your thinking is clear. Are you now claiming that Zimbagwe should be left alone because Darfur has not been settled? What is the relationship between Africa's past and the refusal of a "dirty old man" to give way after loosing an election? By the way, what does an Ibo man have in common with the situation in Zimbagwe?
Mr Gradehelp,
Your ignorance is astounding!(let alone your spelling)
Does your statement suggest that an Ibo man should not be concerned with the affairs of another country? Or should we all be concerned with our own small patch of grass. The fight for economic and spiritual progress takes place on all fronts and cannot be hampered by the blinkers of tribalism.
Open your mind and close your mouth!
I beleive that you are the ignorant one and not gradehelp.
What my counterpart is ipmlying is that the ibo man does not understand what is going on in zim. It is not just a matter of blacks trying to fight imperialism, but most importantly, blacks killing blacks in the name of and old liberation war, greed, human rights abuses and etc. Until ibo man has lived in zim and has done some homework on what zanu has done and is still doing to it's people in zim, he and u all need to shut up or more politely reserve... [Read Full Text]
You must be blind deaf and stupid to believe Mugabe is a good leader. Good leaders go when they are told to go by their own people that is democraticaly voted out!. Good leaders don't engage in violence to put down opposition parties, good leaders Run their government with integrity instead of corruption. Don't tell me that Zimbabweans are prosperous under the Dictator Mugabe. Who are you have you ever been to Zimbabwe. Good African leader!? what an insult.
i hate heartless people in malawi
Thank you Chenjerai Hove. Your clarity of voice and analysis is inspiring in your humanity. This is evident and clear in your novels. I look forward to hear more of your voice and encourage all strong souls of Africa to invest in their own voices -- full of conviction, dedication and vision for the future. Be strong and well, not divisive.
This guy has just explained why there wont be a civil war in Zimbabwe, because no bady knows who is ZANU PF or MDC except for those who are active in politics.
Can someone explain this to me please? The guy was a school teacher, at a school in the middle of no were, 'pakati pechakasara ku Bikita'. A place which require all the effort you can get just to get there (kunoda kuti utorumira rundebvu kuti usvikeko) today from Harare, what about in the 1980s. This same guy tries to explain something alleged to have occurred in the... [Read Full Text]
Tinashe,
It sounds like you might know one or two things that you did not want anyone else to know abot your boss Mugabe. It is appualing to read you commentary on the most revealing piece of work yet published by Mr Hove. I do not condone Mr Hove for making some outlandish comments about Mugabe, however, he gives us, the ordinary Zimbos a pigeon hole into what Mugabe is all about. Mugabe is a corned man who has ghosts from the past haunting him, and yet most of the culprits that are pepatrating the attrocities are trying by all... [Read Full Text]
Yes this guy shows the kind of fiction that the British can buy with the centuries of African slavery and colonialism that they conducted to build their economic empire. You would think after all this they would have the decency not to try to re-colonize Zimbabwe by putting in African stooges. It's great to see that some strong, uncorrupted African leaders like Mbeki are willing to stand up to all the pressure. We know of course that the well-oiled and well-financed Western media will step up its attacks on Mbeki as well as Mugabe.
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