My life in Great Britain [2008-2012]

Just over 5 years ago I was living and working in Johannesburg S.A as an IT Field and Call Centre support engineer, not bothered about politics and what was happening in my country of birth, all I was interested in was spending my time and my hard earned wages with my humble and beautiful wife Shabaan Banana, my four kids, members of my extended family and close friends, sharing stories about interesting events in our lives. I never imagined that perhaps one day my focus will drastically shift towards having an interest in improving the lives of people disadvantaged by social injustice in our socio-economic and political environments in a very passionate way.

When I migrated to the U.K in May 2008, South African's had just started a spate of Xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in their country, it was a really sad and unfortunate period in what was once seen as a Rainbow nation whose future in African democracy was being seen as the leading example. I took the opportunity to to leave my South African wife and kids behind to visit my mother, brothers and sister that I had not seen much of since my father's passing in 2003. 

On arrival in the U.K, I found myself in a lonely and much closed society compared to the open African communities where you could look over your wall and have a chat or borrow some sugar or salt from your neighbour. I suddenly found myself with so much time in my hands, whilst at the same time struggling to integrate into this new environment. I was not yet permitted to work as I had come through with a visitor’s visa, so I decided to rather further my education whilst I waited for the very slow application for residential status. I do not know what made me choose to study sociology, psychology and criminology at diploma level when I could have done something in-line my I.T qualifications as had been suggested to me by the local education authorities. They also advised that it was a good way of refreshing ones learning abilities after such a long period away from academic study so as to effectively prepare for higher education study.

To my surprise I found myself enjoying my study of these subject areas as they somehow opened up my understanding of how society functions, how people behave and how best they can be controlled by state institutions and its arms of governance. It wasn't long before I came across news about new developments that were taking place in Zimbabwe; the outbreak of cholera was one of the stories that first captured my attention. As I read on I also discovered that election violence had become a nightmare to communities on the ground, there was fear of a total collapse of the Zimbabwean economy. I immediately felt a sense of betrayal, somehow I felt in my quest for self-emancipation I had ignored my responsibilities as a son of the soil [Zimbabwean], I felt I had neglected the people in my country by choosing to live a simple life away from what I never realised was now a downward spiral of socio-economic and political conditions back home. All kinds of questions flew through my mind, was there really anything I could do even if I was at home at the time? What had happened to our liberators and heroes that we had entrusted to deliver Zimbabwe to that free and fair environment full of opportunities for all? I immediately went on a quest to try investigating and understanding what had gone so wrong to a once so great nation, and the best source of information accessible for me from where I was, was Zuckerberg’s social networking platform FACEBOOK. I found myself reading people's views of the experiences they were facing at home, I felt angry but helpless as I knew there was nothing I could do to reverse the harm that had come upon my fellow ccitizens.

My interaction on Facebook led me to meet other concerned Zimbabweans living in the U.K, one such Zimbabwean was Barbara Nyagomo. Barbara has always been a very passionate social activist and aspiring businesswoman, we decided we would try and form a community organisation called Kumusha/Ekhaya to try assist Zimbabweans living in the U.K first and fore most and then hopefully with time organise a Diaspora Fund that we would then use to support the creation of self-sustaining income generating projects for people from disadvantaged communities back home, but deep-down our hearts were always in Africa, we knew we had to try and do something to help displaced Zimbabweans in S.A and those struggling with basics in Zimbabwe, it was not something easy to coordinate without any resources at our disposal.

Barbara then informed me that she was also part of a new project called Rebuild Zimbabwe based in South Africa, and thought that perhaps through coordinating the U.K community project we could then support the Rebuild Zimbabwe idea in South Africa. As with all new projects in particular charities and non-profits, getting funding is key for its success, we could not get support from Zimbabweans in the U.K and some of the conditions to access funding for communities and charities in the U.K made it difficult for us to have successful applications. One such condition was the right to register as a charity that required organisations to have a minimum turn-over of £5000, most funders did not approve funding for organisations without a charity number. So eventually we parted ways as the community project failed to get sustainable funding to take off the ground. However we all progressed to set-up non-profit organisations all intended to try help people back home, Barbara established One Million Voices which focused on assisting displaced Zimbabweans in South Africa whilst I first started a group project called Zimbabwe Young Leaders composed of a global Board of management, with Ben Chiza Mukandawire [Malawian Academic/Social Activist], Vimbai Chonyera Jennings [Zimbabwean based in Brazil at the time], Ashley Mwanza [Zimbabwean Student Leader based in Ireland], Abigail Siziba [Project Manager based in South Africa], Elizabeth Demanyundo [ I.T Professional based in Harare] Tafadzwa Gidi, Tafadzwa Madzimbamhuto and Betina Sibanda who joined when the project was renamed Youth Leadership Project Africa in order to represent a much broader continental objective. 

However because of pressure of study I decided to step down from the YLPA Board to concentrate on my studies, part of my course work required me to start a social enterprise, so as part of my University project I started Vision Inspired People Zimbabwe, which won me a prize for the best new social enterprise which helped me kick start the projects activities. Part of the projects goals was to collect pen's pencils, rulers, books and other educational material to send to high density and rural schools in Zimbabwe, in consultation with the Ministry of Education. Some of the funding to cover the costs of shipment was raised by student volunteers who sold wrist bands in support of Orphans and children struggling with buying basic school materials. Again this was all trial and error in a new environment where few minorities had successful projects of this nature breaking into the highly controlled charity environment and again it was a struggle to sustain the organisation as the more established non-profits like Oxfam, Red Cross and many other's simple had more credibility and access to funding than our establishments.

We have learnt hard lessons about sectors dominated by big organisations, the questions about helping people back home remained in our minds, eventually politics seemed the only other way left for us to explore in order to try and influence change. I am now a social and political blogger, social activist and aspiring politician, I am itching to complete my studies and start preparations to return to Africa, things are not looking very bright at the moment for the future of our nation with a rising national debt that now stands at approximately 10 billion, the increasing levels of corruption in all sectors of our society, the struggle is not getting any easier but more difficult.

Giving up is becoming even more difficult as so much effort has already been put towards moving towards this new political challenge, I guess the way I feel is probably the same way a cocaine addict feels when they try to quit, is this a normal thing to be so passionate about wanting to bring social justice? I have joined hands with like-minded individuals from Zimbabwe based in various locations across the globe to start work towards creating a new socio-economical platform coined "Zimbabwe Dream Project". Zimbabwe Dream project aims to create a very strong administrative institutional foundation that will act as a launch pad for a new generation of achievers in Zimbabwe. The current focus of the idea is finding experienced and qualified volunteer professionals to help put together the administrative functions that will ensure the projects sustainability and effective implementation  if you would like to join and support us you can click the following link: Zimbabwe Dream Project or email volunteerzdp@gmail.com for further details.

We view the challenge ahead being more about changing our economic, social and political culture than just leaders and systems of governance. We see it as a journey rather than a destination that can be reached within a specific time period. It is a dream we hope will attract the equal participation of all hard working and peace loving citizens of our country, for without the people there can never be a successful vision for our future.