It got ugly. It still is ugly for the people of the region who were "liberated" from dictatorship.
Today in Zimbabwe we possibly face what we weren't expecting.
Relatively, however sad we are as a people, it could be a lot worse.
This feels more like 1980 than 1990. And there are as many looking to leave today as there were then.
In 1980, the part of the world I lived in really thought that the name to watch was Muzorewa. We did not really know much of Mugabe.
We were wrong. History suggests that those high up in other parts of the world knew more than we did of what was going on. All we knew, or believed, was that this was not good news.
Many left.
Choices are not always easy, but all power to those to make the hard decisions; choices to go, choices to stay. We all made the decisions, and we have lived with them.
For the first decade or so, it looked promising
True, there was significant genocide in the rural south of the country, but I am in an urban area in the north.
And the buzz word was "Reconciliation", and it looked promising
Later, things changed.
What will be the buzz word this time?
For those who stay, what will they face?
What has really changed?
Are we still trusting human beings to be our hope?
David, in Psalm 20 reminds me
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;There is no useful hope in dictators, liberators or democratisers.
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.
There is no useful hope in elections, election results or elected officials.
We trust in the name of the Lord our God, and we will rise and stand upright.
- whether we feel it or not
