Report Zimbabwe September 2022

Zimbabwe Report

Cover photo: African Dresses by Feli Nandi (Famous Zimbabwean Jazz Singer).

Photo: The Jacaranda Tree blooms in September and October, notedly without green leaves. It is a typical tree for this short summer in Zimbabwe and region.

1. Internship with FAWEZI

1.1 Recap of the first three months

Photo: Zimbabwe School Examination Council (ZIMSEC) and Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) complex in Harare, current offices of FAWEZI.

The self-organised internship with the NGO Forum for African Women Educationalists Zimbabwe Chapter (FAWEZI) in Harare, Zimbabwe in fulltime for five months has come to an end. I had joined the team Information and Communication and continued working together with my supervisor, the Senior Programs Officer (SPO), and the Communications Officer (on a half time job). During my internship, a student on attachment (an internship of one year after the Bachelor studies in social sciences in Zimbabwe) joined the team, forming a team of 14 member.

In the first three months of the internship from May to July 2022, I got into the work quickly and mainly worked on social media posts for FAWEZI. I created social posts on girls’ education and to reduce Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) as well as education for all and disability inclusion on FAWEZI social media pages (mostly Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). I was also asked to write an article about Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) that was published on the FAWEZI blog on the International Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28th of May 2022. Another article about the International Day of the African Child has not yet been published due to covid and a delayed submission.

Check out the FAWEZI Blog: https://fawezi.wordpress.com/

Photo: DIY Menstrual Hygiene Management bracelets for Menstrual Hygiene

Community Work in Zimbabwe

The main main aim of my internship was to learn about Community Work in Zimbabwe and to enrich my knowledge about community social work. I experienced two community work projects of FAWEZI on two field trips and several trainings.

Firstly, I accompanied the Towards Resilient Communities with Health, Equity and Safety for All (TORCHES) project with Community Champions, Community Leaders, and Institutional Allies from Nyanga, Shamva and Chitungwiza Districts (mainly mining areas) to reduce VAWG in the communities on various workshops in and around Harare. During the trainings, I photographed the events, and although they were mainly conducted in Shona, I could understand the main concept and publizise our work in English. In addition, I carried out some activation games with the adult participants inbetween the sections in English.

Photo: TORCHES workshop with Community Champions in Domboshawa.

Secondly, I accompanied the Design for Change (DFC) training with learners and teachers from four selected schools in Zvishavane in a mining area in the south of Zimbabwe. The children didn’t hear much English making it difficult for me to conduct parts of the training. Therefore, I continued being “Infos and Comms”. Just the signal was bad. Three FAWEZI staff stood in a diamond mining village with all the miners.

Photo: DFC group work conducted by FAWEZI with learners and teachers in Zvishavane.

My main learning result about community work in Zimbabwe I learnt from a video that I received that went viral. I received it via the FAWEZI working group. An old lady of colour states whilst standing in a maize field:

“Development is the change of relationship between people. It is relationship that makes development happen worldwide. Development is not about projects, it is about building people so they can build a future. Development is doing things ourselves, discussing […]. Development is about giving people power”.

Update of the Internship August to September 2022

In the last two months of the internship I mainly worked from the office in Harare and at the end of the weeks from home. We used to have a Monday planning meeting and then each of us followed our tasks and communicated with the team.

1.3.1 Crowdfunding on GlobalGiving

FAWEZI has two crowdfunding projects on GlobalGiving. One es to bring safe running water to a rural school in Manicaland, Zimbabwe to establish safe drinking water, handwash-facilities, and period friendly toilets. In addition, this attracts new learners and teachers end empowers them in receiving good quality education. The second project is to help send 50 girls back to school in Zimbabwe. There is currently a school drop out crisis in Zimbabwe due to various issues like early child marriage, teen pregnancies, drug abuse and, that have worsened with the covid pandemic, including increasing numbers of Gender Based Violence (GBV).

Currently, FAWEZI is preparing a crowdfunding campaign #GivingTuesday on the 29th of November 2022. Our aim is to raise $500 USD on that day. Even $10 USD per person helps to #MoveAMillion. The more we get on the 29th of November from 6am until the 30th of November 2022 until 05:59am GTM+2 (German time), the more we will get from a proportional share of 1,2 Million USD from GlobalGiving.

If you are interested in participating, please check out the link of FAWEZI‘s projects on GlobalGiving: https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/33367/forumfor-african-women-educationalists-zimbabwechapte/

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Other Tasks in the Internship and Reflection

During the last two months, I continued creating social media posts on education for all and gathered ideas for the International Day of the Girl Child on 11 th Oct. 2022 and the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV, starting on 25th of Nov. 2022.

Being part of the team “Infos and Comms” also meant to carry out IT tasks for FAWEZI. For example, I installed an email distribution list for all FAWEZI staff members and new personal email signatures on all notebooks. In FAWEZI office we only have one computer. Most staff members use individual notebooks.

In the end of my internship, I was asked to lead in the proposal writing for a Grant by an Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia for small scale development projects in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique. Right away I started researching about the Grant and application requirements. Then I drafted the application (an Excel with different questions about the development goals in the projects area, a solution, the activities of the project, SMART objectives and the suspected outcomes and sustainable impacts. My project idea was accepted by the SPO, we made small alterations and cooperated with a finance staff on the budget. It was a very good teamwork. The application was handed in on time both digitally and physically in Zambia with the help of our membership organization FAWEZA in Zambia.

All in all, the internship with FAWEZI has been a major learning opportunity. My colleagues were very efficient and professional. I gained so much knowledge about non-profit management. I got insights into PR, non-profit social media, community work, girl’s education, VAWG and GBV, capacity building, crowdfunding, and resource mobilization. It was a door opener.

It was a great experience to understand the conditions under which NGOs in the global south work, there might not be power, no running water, week Wifi etc. I now know how it is to work under such conditions and I can understand.

In the future I will keep volunteering for FAWEZI remotely from Germany.

Photo: My office, shared with junior staff (a programs volunteer and another intern.

Photo: Ladies rest room, no running water, bucket system to flush the toilet and wash hands.

Photo: Team Information and Communication, left Information and Communication Officer, Information and Communication Intern, right Finance Assistant.

2. FAWEZI Wedding

A beautiful memory that I still want to share with you is the wedding of a FAWEZI colleague in the end of August 2022. FAWEZI family was invited both to the bridal shower and the wedding itself. It was the third African wedding I was invited to.

A traditional bridal shower in Zimbabwe is a pre-wedding celebration in honour of the bride-to-be. During a bridal shower, the guests „shower“ her with gifts in anticipation of the new life as a married women. No men are allowed. Usually, it takes place during the day and is thrown by a women close to the future bride. The celebration is all about the bride and her special day ahead, so most activities reflect this.

For example, at the bridal shower of my colleague‘s future wife, we as FAWEZI women arrived around 10am. It was held in a garden location outdoors with white chairs. When the bride came in veiled, we stood up and cheered for her, sang and danced. She was seated in front with her maid of honour. A person of the future groom had to pay for her to be unveiled. We than prayed (The grooms family go to the Evangelical Church of Zimbabwe). Everybody presented themselves and their connection to the future bride. The host hold some speeches and invited others to do so too. A highlight of the bridal shower was a female priest who gave 10 tips about marriage. It was a mixture of traditional, religious and modern believes. I could observe a discrepancy between the priests wedding recommendations and the TORCHES project and the community work method of FAWEZI, reducing VAWG and GBV. However, we than prayed, ate rice (a saying to have eaten something special on a special occasion) and the guests left around 3pm for everyone to get home safely during daytime before 6pm.

Photo: Bridal shower with FAWEZI women.

Photo: Selfie at the FAWEZI wedding with my colleagues from left to right: Nqobile (SPO and my supervisor), Wendy (Programs Assistant), Ms. Vangani (Programs Asisstantt, Receptionist), myself (Intern Infos and Comms).

Photo: Guests at the church wedding. Standing people from left to right: Nqobile (SPO), at the back Loverage (Infos and Comms Officer), Wendy (Programs Asisstant), Ms. Vangani (Programs Asisstant), myself (Intern Infors and Comms), Hazel (Finance Assistant), Sandra (Programs Volunteer), Mildred (Finance Officer).

The FAWEZI wedding took place on the 21 of August 2022. The FAWEZI family was invited. We were 10 guests.

First, we attended the church wedding at an outdoors wedding venue from 9am to 12pm. All seats where taken. The groom was standing in front awaiting the bride who was accompanied by her father. The priest held his speech, husband and wife said their vows, exchanged rings and kissed. Then they left for a photo shooting with their bridesmaids and groomsmen. The guests entered a decorated tent and waited at the tables.

“African weddings” vary on religion, cultures and traditions a family believes in. Traditionally, polygamy was practiced in Zimbabwe, where a man marries multiple wives. With the influence of Christianity, these marriages become less common. Nowadays, 80% of Zimbabwean citizen are Christians. However, traditional believes are still present.

For example, Lobola or Roora is a bride price paid by the groom-to-be to his inlaws. Paying a bride price is an accepted way in Zimbabwean culture to ask for the bride‘s hand. This customary token is also a gesture of appreciation to the bride‘s parents for raising her and uniting the two families. There are different categories of Lobola/ Roora.

Photo: Bride Tinotenda and Groom Edmond (Monitoring and Evaluation Officer) after the church ceremony.

Photo: Wife and Husband entering the wedding tent for the following food and party.

Photo: FAWEZI group photo with the bride and groom, showing their wedding rings.

Photo: FAWEZI dancing when handing over the wedding present. We danced one Salsa song (I tought my colleagues some basic steps in workships and office) and an African Sungura song (Imy colleagues tought me).

When wife and husband and their bridesmaids and groomsmen returned from their photo shooting, they danced into the wedding venue in pairs dancing. The bride and groom had changed to another, more comfortable outfit with matching colours. The wedding colour was purple, the colour of women’s empowerment combined with grey.

From the three African weddings that I went with my Zimbabwean Mama and FAWEZI, I learned about some of the wedding customs that are practiced in Zimbabwe. These are pledging money to dance, to hold a speech, or for the bride and groom to do something. This also contributes to the funding of the wedding.

For example, in the FAWEZI wedding, the groom is a preacher, so someone pledged for him to preach. Just before 4pm in the end of the wedding, when we were supposed to be picked up, I observed that no one had pledged for the couple to kiss again. So I pledged them to kiss. The main groomsmen supported me and added money. After the act, another groomsman pledged to dance with me, so they put a Sungura song (popular guitar music with fast drums) and made us dance. There is a variety of African music and dances, such as Mbira (traditional music using Mbira instruments to pray to the African spirits), South African House Music or Congolese Rumba. African dances may look sexual, but the dancers do not touch each other. Myself, I am learning those dances. In the wedding I improvised, mixing African dances, Salsa and Flamenco. :D

For an insight, go ahead haha: https://youtube.com/shorts/evT70gb6cXI?feature=share

The atmosphere at the wedding was amazing, we laugh up to today. FAWEZI family had a lot of fun, we danced, ate rice and enjoyed. It was also well organised.

Photo: FAWEZI wedding group photo.

3. The Shona Language

The local language Shona (in Shona: chiShona) is a Bantu language mainly spoken in Zimbabwe and is also recognised as a minority language in Mozambique. It was spoken by around 7.5 million Shona people in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe in 2007. Shona includes different dialects such as Korekore, Zezuru, Manyika and Karanga. The local language was formerly written in the Arabic script, it then got codified again by the colonial government in 1950, and is now written in Latin letters. There is also Shona Braille. Besides Shona there are 15 other official languages in Zimbabwe such as English, Ndebele, Chewa, Kalanga etc. Food for thought: Do you know a word in Shona?

Small Dictionary:

Makadii (zvenyu)

Respectful greeting when meeting for the first time Tiripo makadiwo (response) or after a while and clapping ones hands (polite)

Mangwanani

Good morning Ehe- Yes

Mamuka sei? /Wamuka sei? How did you wake up? Aihwa- No

Wakadini zvako How are you? Ne- With

Masikati

Good afternoon Ku- At (place)

Maswera sei?/ Waswera sei? How was your day? Mu- In (place)

Ndaswera bho

Maita basa

Muchitendei

My day was good.

Wati?- What?

Thank you Chi - What

Not to mention. Saka- So that

Manheru Good evening Kuti- That

Ndakumbira

Please (asking for sth., I beg)

Bho/ Good

Five months is a short time to learn a language. However, I did the least I could do to learn the basics. By only talking colonial languages German, English and Spanish fluently, and learning Russian and French, I wanted to learn a local language. My aim is to speak five foreign languages fluently.

I don‘t know any language that is similar to Shona, so I started learning it from the start. My way of learning languages is with the people. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any Shona book. I heard I could read primary school books, but I didn’t manage to organise one. I started learning greetings. So what I did was whenever I heard a new word, I wrote it down in my notes. When I forgot the word, I could look it up. I learned the formal and informal greetings, what do say and nonverbally communicate when meeting a person for the first time or after not having seen the person for a long time. I say “Makadii!” or “Makadii henyu” and I clap my hand with a clapping sound. It is a gesture of showing respect. The other person will respond “Tiripo makadiwo” and also claps their hands.

After five months, I can have a simple small talk. I am starting to hear Shona. I am learning, understanding and speaking simple sentences like these: Mangwana ndiri kuenda kubasa. Tomorrow I am going to work.

Nhasi kuri kupisa. Today it is hot. Nhasi kutonora chose. Today is very cold. Kunekakulas. :D It is cold in Shongrish (Shona-English) slang. Moswera/ woswera zvakanaka. Have a good day. Murisei? / Urisei? How are you doing? Unonzani? Ndinonzi… (name). Whats your name? My name is… Unovakupi? Ndinovako ku… Where do you come from

Ndiri kudzidzira Shona. I am learning Shona. Ndiri kudya Sadza. I eat Sadza. Kurisei kweny ku…(place)? How is life in … (place)? Kubasa kurisei? Kubasa kuri bho. How is work? Work is good. Unoshanda kupi? Ndinoshanda ku Where do you work? I work with … Kubva ku… (place) I am coming back from… Nematambudziko. My sincere condolences. Etc. (Careful, there might be spelling mistakes).

Mainly I learned Shona from a friend that used a great and simple method. She comes from Zimbabwe but studies her PHD in Germany. Her method was writing me in Shona and in English in brackets: “Hesi Keti, kunoitei?” (Hie Kati, what are you up to?). It was great. Consequently, I asked all my friends to apply the same. We met a few times in Harare and she introduced me to her friends from church. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture with her. This special friend also connected me with FAWEZI.

After five months I am starting to hear Shona. I am starting to understand simple sentences in everyday life conversations. Shona people like to mix Shona and English. If I do the same, I get by. If I great a new person in Shona, some people actually think that I was born and bread in Zimbabwe. Most people are very astonished how fast I learn. In my anticolonial reflections, it is the least I can do. TO be able to properly start speaking, I would need another half a year. However, I hope to keep up the greetings and basics.

Photo: Tinaresi (Tina), our new maid and I in the chicken stable in the garden at home.

Photo: My friend Chikomborero (Chiko) and I, it’s the nephew of a former colleague of mine in the UK.

4. Farewells

Photo: Good bye party and last day in the office at ZIMSEC, Harare.

4.1 Farewell with FAWEZI

Times flies and five months come to an end. The internship experience with FAWEZI has been great. The team is very professional and efficient. I learnt so much about community work and non-profit management. I had a spontaneous farewell party with FAWEZI. I baked a cake and FAWEZI bought chicken wings with chips, the typical fast food in Zimbabwe. We sat together for a couple of hours, shared feedback, stories and laughs. I received a present from FAWEZI: typical leather sandals, a special cup and a fabric with starch to make African attires. In the few days left I managed to tailor an African skirt and a top.

Photo: Lydia, the Executive Director of FAWEZI, our boss. She traveled a lot.

Photo: Good bye cake and thank you for the internship with FAWEZI.

Photo: Nqobile (Ndebele name with a click loud), SPO, my supervisor, and I.

4.2 Farewell with my Friends and Neighbours in Harare

Photo: Good bye with Chiko in Avondale, Harare. I could be his big sister.

Photo: Good bye party with my friends from Church, my neighbours, and some other friends.

Photo: Good bye party with percussion life concert at Pariah State Belgravia, Harare.

Photo: A good friend Mac Donald. The brother of a friend in the UK, here in a Combi-bus coming back form Mbare, a ghetto of Harare.

Photo: Arrival at the airport in Harare on 28th April 2022. Mama on the left, a friend of her on the right.

Photo: Mama kuMusha (at the homestand) in her rural area Domboshawa where she grew up.

This has not yet happened. I still have two days with Mama. I just want to show my gratitude towards her now and every day. Without her, all this would not have been possible. Thank you so much Mama! Maita basa chose! Iwe ndiwe wakanakisa.

Photo: Family photo in the garden kumba (at home). From right: my brother Mac Donald, my friend Lamia (the friend of my Zimbabwean sister), Mama, and I.

Photo: Mama and I with our new Feli Nandi (Jazz singer) dresses and the puppies.

Photo: Mama jumping in the air at the campsite at Mazvikadei Dam on my birthday and family holiday.

Photo: Local art exhibition, painting of an African women with aspects of kuMusha (homestand) in rural Zimbabwe, National Art Gallery in Bulawayo, south of Zimbabwe.

Maita basa for your time and support!

Thank you for reading my reports. Now its time to come back to Frankfurt. I am thinking to create a blog for traveling in Zimbabwe. Support and share the work of FAWEZI. Remember the #GivingTuesday campaign on the 29th of November 2022.

You are warmly welcomed to a live photo show with all of you when I am back. Without you, all these experiences would not have been the same. Thank you!

Photo: Palm trees in the Central Park in Bulawayo in the south of Zimbabwe.