Once upon a time, I was in a small Canadian town called Winnipeg for a media conference. It was a great coincidence that a good friend of mine lived in Winnipeg. Of the many stories we shared, the one that stuck with me was about the Ugandan community in that town. The Ugandans had banded together and over many years pooled their funds and bought office property which they rented out. If a new person from Uganda came to live in Winnipeg, they were offered the opportunity to join the investment scheme. The original objective had been to save for college fees for their children, but the scheme had been so successful they were now expanding its investment scope.
I marvelled at this as I thought of whether a Zimbabwean community anywhere in the world could pull this off. But, first, a detour on diasporic communities.
Diasporic communities over the last 100 years
One of my favourite pastimes is watching documentaries on migration into the United States of America by Italian and Irish people and the formation of gangs. I do not condone the crimes committed by the gangs. What I find fascinating is how these gangs built families and communities around their heritage and identity whilst fighting turf wars amongst themselves, and against others who were dissimilar. The Italian gangs would push the Irish gangs out of illicit liquor distribution during the Prohibition (1920 to 1933), and later they would push out prominent African American gangsters from the heroin trade. In many cases, there would be a transition from illicit activities to legal enterprises, whether to evade investigation or to move into “respectability”. The Italian Mafia, the Jewish gangs or the Irish Mob always retained a strong identity around family, religion and community. The factors that create a diaspora shape its character and evolution. The Irish diaspora in Europe and America was created largely due to famine in Ireland. The Italians came in different waves driven by hopes of a different life in “L’America” – far from the social chaos and poverty of southern Italy. On the African American side, there was no voluntary choice – it was the atrocity of slavery that brought black people to the Americas and over the decades Jim Crow (laws on racial segregation) and systemic racism did the magnificent job of destroying black lives, families and communities.
The Senegalese Diaspora and the deep connection with homeland
In Africa, the Senegalese have the most well-thought plans and institutions to harness the real and potential dividends of their people who are in The Gambia, Europe and the USA. Since 1973, they have had an agreement with France on the protection of Senegalese migrant workers. More importantly, there is a Ministry of Senegalese Abroad and representation of the Diaspora in parliament via 15 deputies or MPs (out of 165). Despite some flaws, institutions and mechanisms exist to harness the 12% of GDP that remittances represent, the skills, and the investments and donations.
It helps a lot that Senegal is Islamic. Membership of the Muslim community, the Umma, brings a sense of community united through religion that transcends ethnic identities. In the diaspora, the Senegalese use their religion to mobilise resources – food, shelter, funds, places of worship and more.
Zimbos – the crabs in a barrel
Now we come to the great people of the teapot. Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have the mentality of crabs in a barrel. They compete with each other even when they are not running the same race. Materialistic to the core, conversations are framed around corporate positions, car models and residential addresses. Well and good you might say, but they are not happy to live in the same hood or have the same possessions you have. Someone has to be ahead of the pack. I lead. You follow.
You cannot bet that they will give you an opening lest you end up above them. If your papers are not in order, you can be assured they will let anyone within earshot know. If the immigration folks were to offer a reward for squealing, you can be assured our folks would go collect.
It is difficult to explain the reasons for the destructive Zimbabwean psyche in the diaspora. A case of a broken country giving birth to a broken people?
The failed schemes
We have not lacked for merchants who promise to galvanise migrants and reconnect them with their homeland in a coherent and integrated way.
From Mutumwa Mawere and his investment scheme launched in Johannesburg in 1997 to Gideon Gono’s Homelink in 2004, there has been a litany of schemes launched with fanfare, promising milk and honey to diasporans, and subsequently collapsing. One scheme by civic actors was launched in Johannesburg with equal enthusiasm and a dash of arrogance. It was a game-changer, we were told. It would tap into the skills and experiences of the Diaspora – pairing and matching people as part of the Great Rebuild. The walls of our Great Zimbabwe had fallen and, with this programme, we would resuscitate a nation that was in the intensive care unit. Another scheme called Zimbabwe Diaspora Development Forum which also called itself the Global Diaspora Forum was launched in 2007 in Johannesburg and aimed to raise R500 million in its first year of operation. The ultimate aim was to raise R150 billion – yes b-i-l-l-i-o-n.
Somewhere in the furniture cabinets of Mukwati Building is a Zimbabwe Diaspora Policy signed in 2016 by the great Dr Obert Mpofu. What came of it, other than wasting the technical expertise of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), is anyone’s guess. Seriousness is not a characteristic of Zimbabwean politicians.
But let’s go back to the characteristics of our dear brethren and sistren living outside the borders of the Mutapa Empire.
The miracle of zero budgeting
One thing you learn really fast about Zimbabweans is to be careful about payment for services rendered. In the early 2000s, a young Zimbabwean came to study at Wits University. He struggled to pay for his fees and upkeep and took on odd jobs and the occasional research assistance to established academics. One Zimbabwean professor used his labour extensively but would delay paying him or give one or other excuse. It was sad to witness. Fast forward to 2024 – that mean professor has fallen and the erstwhile student is now an esteemed professor himself. The wheel of life.
You also learn not to be emotionally blackmailed into projects of “national importance”, where someone is eating and you do the labour with the promise of one day entering the land of Canaan. Refusing to pay for services is very Zimbabwean. When I ran a project called Zimbabwe in Picture, NGOs requested to use our photos for free, promising to give us “publicity”. Well, why don’t you get paid in publicity at your NGO?
Some leave a muddy reputation behind when they return to Zimbabwe. Take for example, a businessman who, whilst staff salaries went unpaid, would display bottles of expensive of liquor set on some table in a garden – lush grass, blue pool and dogs. Horror stories abound of investments not recouped.
The one who went abroad with our money
We also have our share of con artists in the diaspora. In 2010 or thereabouts, someone I had known for over 20 years and ran a travel agency in Johannesburg took money that I had paid him for flight tickets and headed for the UK. As I tried to reach him, his other close friend told me he had sold off his house and car and shipped out. I could only lick my wounds, but the story had a twist. Some five years later, I received a call from the fugitive. He was back in SA and wanted to meet. We met. He apologised and then bizarrely said that he believed the misfortune that had befallen him was due to me. Well, well – I did not know I had superpowers, but it was good to know my ancestors had freaked out this dude.
I could go on and mention the reputation Zimbos used to enjoy across South African banks as the ultimate con artists, especially in relation to cheque fraud. But back home, this was nothing new. We had music promoters that brought international acts to Harare using forged bank guarantees and then disappearing after gate collections. Newspaper headlines would have some reggae icon or soukous maestro begging a promoter to pay up.
Proximity to whiteness
Despite the reputation of the Man from Zvimba, diasporic Zimbos love their white folk. Exhibit One. Take the behaviour of Zimbabweans in the hospitality industry in Cape Town. Those ones will give any black person the worst table or dump you as soon as white folk walk in. We can be the ultimate House Negro. Only a self-hating person hates a person who looks like them.
The incestuous circles
I spent 15 years at Rhodes University. Outside of the country societies such as ZimSoc, the Nigerians were the best organised. In one of the professors originally from Nigeria, the Nigerian community had an elder who held every one of them accountable – from their studies to relationship issues. They listened to the advice of the professor and mobilised resources for agreed causes. On our side, we were very much the United Castle Lager Front.
Our unity is at an individual level with people we went to school with or met later in life but developed some affinity for. The greater good is reduced to personal connectivity. We are hostile to anyone coming into spaces of privilege that we feel should be reserved for us. Last example. A year ago, I was at a function at a foreign embassy in Pretoria when some drunk Zimbo demanded of me: “How did you get invited?” Unfortunately for him, I am at an age where I believe the value of politeness is exaggerated.
I am also tired of our people.
