Valentine Marc Nkwame
29 November 2008
column
Arusha — It is very early Sunday morning as I walk behind a guy known as Delight Tawengwa, one of the Zimbabweans living in the Durban port city of KwaZulu Natal.
Now Tawengwa, like many foreigners living in South Africa, wears the trademark 'refugee' long locks of hair and today he is taking me to see the area where he and thousand other Zimbabweans live. I won't go into details about the exact location lest the police decide to raid the camp and deport them all back to their country.
Suffice to say it is in the town center and it wasn't easy for Tawengwa to agree to take me to their place of abode; "We live in constant fear here," he explained later on, "We are being hounded by the locals and hunted by the police, whoever gets us first, we are dead meat!"
We enter a narrow grayish street and from which we take a detour into an even darker alley. All along we meet with Zimbabweans, women carrying groceries, young ladies with pails of water and youths standing in deep silence along the dark walls. Tawengwa greets them in their local language and they seem to respond cheerfully.
"This is Marc, he is from Tanzania," he introduced me to a group of men who were relaxing along the alley; apparently this is how they keep themselves on guard. The guys brightened; "Wow that is very good, we have never been to Tanzania but now we can tell people that at least Tanzania came to us," said one of the guys giving me a firm handshake.
"Yeah, that is alright," added another, "Though it would have been even better if he was coming from Kenya and we would be able to boast to our fellows back home that a guy from the county of Barrack Obama did come to visit us in Durban," upon which all men laughed uproariously.
"Hey! Welcome 'Mjomba,'" shouts another Zim guy, giving me what they described to be a 'comrade hug,' "and by the way what does the term 'Mjomba' mean?" he asks, "Because we hear that is how Tanzanians call themselves." I tell them it means 'Uncle' somehow they think it is very funny.
"My mother goes to Arusha regularly, she takes things for sale there," another Zimbabwean who has been so quiet finally spoke. "So do you know where Arusha is in Tanzania?" he asks. I tell him I actually live in Arusha. He jumps up happily, now if there is a place I'm heading to next from here then it should be Arusha, my mother say it is a very nice place and if it wasn't for the fact that she has children and family to take care of in Harare she would have moved to Arusha for good," he said.
Here the Zimbabwean live together in a close-knit dynasty helping each other whenever possible they practice some sort of 'socialism' each trying all means to earn something then they pool together the resources each month to come up with consignments of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities that they send back home.
This morning the mood is somber around the settlements. The previous Saturday was the day when another consignment was to be dispatched to Zimbabwe . Now a team of men and women who were sent to deliver the goods to the place where trucks would take batches to Harare got attacked, beaten and robbed of everything.
"All our efforts for the past four weeks went down the drain with some of our people badly hurt," laments Tawengwa. Even as he was speaking sirens of an approaching ambulance could be heard. The ambulance van pulled into the alley as a couple of paramedics brought out a stretcher.
"Our people got attacked last night, we have to send these things in the cover of darkness and the trucks also must travel in the night to reduce 'inconveniences' from patrolmen, bandits and other parties who may want to ensure that the goods are not delivered to where intended," explained another guy who identified himself simply as James.
While others sustained minor injuries in the previous night ambush, there was one guy whose condition kept getting serious during the night so they had to call medical help early in the morning. Fortunately the ambulance service was free, or so I was told.
Unfortunately the robbery could not be reported anywhere; "Most Zimbabweans are here illegally and the last place they are likely to go is at the police station, it will be like turning themselves in so they just suffer in silence, and when I say 'Suffer' I mean real suffering, it is as much hell here as it is back home," Stephanie Miller who works with 'Urbanize' in Durban explained.
Actually it was Stephanie who had made it easy for me to be taken into the Zimbabweans' settlement. Having studied in Harare herself she is quite sympathetic with the people from the country. She contacted Tawengwa who agreed to take me to their quarters hoping that Stephanie would return the favor by helping him get a job in Durban
So how do the Zimbabweans live in Durban and how are their habitats? We will find out next week.
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