The situation in Zimbabwe represents one of the worst humanitarian emergencies today. This book asks the question: How did a country with so much promise – a stellar education system, a growing middle class, a sophisticated economic infrastructure, a liberal constitution, an independent judiciary, and many of the trappings of western democracy – go so wrong? We ask the people who know this complicated story best – the Zimbabwean people who have endured (and hoped) across the decades to tell their side of this story. In their own words, they recount their experiences of losing their homes, land, livelihoods, and families as a direct result of political violence. They describe being tortured in detention, firebombed at work, or beaten up or raped to “punish” votes for the opposition. Those forced to flee to neighboring countries recount their escapes: cutting through fences, swimming across crocodile-infested rivers, and entrusting themselves to human smugglers. This book includes Zimbabweans of every age, class and political conviction, from farm laborers to academics, doctors to artists, opposition leaders to ordinary Zimbabweans; men and women simply trying to survive as a once-thriving nation heads for collapse.
The fifth volume in the Voice of Witness series presents the personal stories of Zimbabweans whose lives have been most affected by the country’s political and economic crises.
Annie Holmes is a Zimbabwean documentary filmmaker and author of Good Red. She works for JASS, an international women’s rights organization based in Washington, D.C.
Annie will be in discussion with Brian Wafawarowa, Executive Director of PASA – the Publishers’ Association of South Africa.