When did they last care for Matabeleland?

By Mukomana We Kuseri

My friends, you know I have been very angry, out here in the back house, the boy’s khaya.

But, ha!

I went to visit my folks who live down in Emagumeni, not the stadium baba, but the city, Kontutu Ziyatunga. Because you see, even though I grew up with udadhe wethu, eMasvingo, home is where the heart is. But enough about me today.

Went through all the right places, in Zvishavane they have become familiar with their potholes, so the combi driver could talked with his friends outside the car (he knows everyone it seems) while weaving the car very fast in meandering manoeuvres around the ditches, looking for patches of what used to be tar.

In Gwatemba I remembered a girl I once knew, that went here and returned with a pregnancy she tried to pass on to me. Then in Mbalabala I saw a sign that used to say Zvishavane 100, but is worn and tired, the result of neglect, and lack of care. Roadblocks and tollgates galore, money going in, never coming back.

Then I entered the City of Kings, and my heart sank. Nxa!

Come on people, why are you not angered by this gavmenti? This is not the city of Lovemore Majaivana, no-one would compose a 15 minute song on a town this tattered and old mhani. The city has been neglected, and life is bad here, so bad you see it in the faces of the old people meandering around the streets, the young left a long time ago and now roam the streets of Johannesburg and remember a home that loved them not. Or went and became like me, natives of parts foreign but where life is at least visibly bad, not this dismally terrible and invisible.

I looked around this city and thought, this is the house that Bob built. A house of suffering and sorrow. A long time ago we used to see doves and say ‘One for sorrow’ if it was one, and ‘two for joy’ if it was two. Two meant luck, so you always wanted to see two. Seriously, I think the people of Matabeleland went and all just saw one dove each.

You can taste the neglect, you can feel the patchy throat of this once beautiful city yearning for a piece of the pie. Those mansions they are building in Brooke in Harare, where are they here? Where is our Ballantyne Park, our Shawasha Hills?

When was the last time they mentioned a project in Bulawayo? Remember those mega deals we were told the Chinese were investing in? How many of those are coming to Emagumeni? Will Bulawayo see any of those deals we went and signed in Belarus? Sizodla nini here in the City of Kings? When will it be our time to eat?

When will this suffering end? Kuzo phela nini lokhu?

They run around parading our people from this end on Unity Day, and we are told that since 1987 things are the same, but really? Bayasidelela abantu laba mhani! Nxa!

Yes, we see some of our people from this end, overfed and preaching the lies of the rich and powerful, but then again, maybe they are getting something and building mansions in Bambazonke too. Otherwise, batholani esingakwaziyo? What are they eating that we do not know about? Umm?

And will this last forever? Akupheli? Or should we be angry enough to take matters into our own hands? Will it take anger to get them to listen? After all, yilizwe lethi lathi mani! We are not visitors here you know, asisozivakatshi lapha! Ngokwethu lathi.

When did they last talk about a project in our area? Remember that pipe dream of a pipeline from Zambezi? What happened to those pipes? Bacine nini ukukhuluma ngati? When was the last time they talked about us, and it was not unity day? Some unity!

They need to stop treating us like we are stepchildren, we own this thing mani! Nxa! Singabantwana balapha ekhaya. We deserve to be seen, to be noticed, and a piece of the pie. Otherwise we might start asking, Nini? When will it be our turn to eat? And why? Isizatho?

Why are we being ignored, even when we are angry? What do people need to do before they are noticed? Do we need to take to the streets first before we are noticed?

When you see me in the back house in Bambazonke and I speak your tongue, do not think that I do not recall that you have ignored my people and made them like they do not belong.

What will it take for you to listen to the people of Matabeleland?

Mukomana We Kuseri