Dear Family and Friends, Under the beautiful red Msasa trees a woman sits on the ground, her precious wares fidgeting in front of her. Balanced across a wheelbarrow is a home-made cage filled with live chickens; chicken dinner is the intention but business is slow, very slow. “How much,” I ask; “Five usa,” she replies, …
The red Msasas and the crisis that isn’t a crisis Read More »
Dear Family and Friends, On the dusty highway kids sit on the roadside alongside the potholes. It’s sugar cane cutting time in the lowveld and the enormous trucks are hugely overloaded with blackened sugar cane sticks being taken from the fields to the processing plants. As you get closer to the town it’s not just …
“Fear runs down the spine of many of our people” Read More »
Dear Family and Friends, “Zimbabwe on the edge.” “Crisis in Zimbabwe.” “De facto state of emergency in Zimbabwe.” These are not my words but the banner headlines on South African television news channels this week. After a fortnight of crisis which saw over 60 people arrested including journalists, internationally acclaimed author Tsitsi Dangarembga, Advocate Fadzayi …
Dear Family and Friends, I write this letter from a bitterly cold Zimbabwe where tension is high and people are anxious. There are 300,000 civil servants in Zimbabwe. A month ago they were promised a “cushioning” allowance of US$75 a month for the next three months and pensioners would get an allowance of US$30 a …
Dear Family and Friends, On these late winter mornings you don’t have to listen hard to hear Zimbabwe’s clock ticking towards an immense crisis. Civil servants at ground level: teachers, nurses, security personnel, clerical and office workers are barely surviving, earning a basic salary now worth the equivalent of less than one US dollar a …
Dear Family and Friends, Three young guys stood at the check- out counter at the supermarket a few days ago with their shopping: 6 buns, a dozen slices of polony, one 750 ml bottle of cold drink and a small cream cake. I waited while they tried to work out how much the shopping was …
Dear Family and Friends, On these cold winter morning when the temperatures are down into single digits and thick white mist conceals dips and valleys, Zimbabweans aren’t snuggled up warm in their beds but are out looking for water. Boreholes with hand pumps, wells with ropes or murky shallow pools in what’s left of our …
What’s hiding behind the mist of Coronavirus lockdown in Zimbabwe? Read More »
Dear Family and Friends, Sixty one days into Zimbabwe’s Covid 19 lockdown, I went into the supermarket early in the morning. There was thick mist and it was cold and muggy. The infra red forehead thermometer at the door wasn’t working (because it’s cold, the lady said) but masks were on and hands were squirted. …
5 slices of bread and willing participants in their own torture Read More »
Dear Family and Friends, With anxiety and excitement I headed out onto the open road one day this week; everything was in order: travel permit, face mask on, hand sanitizer and gloves at the ready. I had anxiety for what I suspected I would see and excitement at seeing what I knew I had missed; …
LULU publishers are currently undertaking major upgrades to their online operations. The BUY NOW links are currently unavailable but my books are all still there! Please click this link to get to all my titles www.lulu.com/spotlight/CathyBuckle2018 Choose the book your are looking for, click ADD TO CART and follow the steps from the shopping cart …
