PREJUDICES ABOUT OUR CONTINENT

I was recently asked to join my colleagues to do an assignment in Harare, Zimbabwe. Because this was done at short notice, I had to put most of my pending assignments on hold and go to the land of H.E Robert Mugabe. Being the aviator that I am, the last image I had of one of Africa’s oldest leaders was from a few months ago when his imposing Boeing 767-200 took up one of the prime spots at our airport during the recently held African Union Summit.

At that time, I wondered why a whole leader like him had to use such a huge aircraft as opposed to probably buying a smaller, more modern business jets that most present day leaders use but my answer would be given to me later after getting a feel of Harare and the current state that it was in.

A lot of what I shall write in the next paragraphs is based on sentiment. I’ll probably write something else on the same topic in a few months to come when I gather more facts on the matters at hand.

I went to Harare with a prejudiced mind of some sort of poverty, unsafety and all other bad things that one could expect about a country that had been painted black in the eyes of the western media (which most of us subscribe to). We landed an hour after our scheduled time (thanks to KQ’s usual shenanigans) but our hosts received us warmly. The expectation was that at the ungodly hour of 2 a.m one would be expected to be cranky from lack of sleep but not our hosts. This warmth was felt even from the hotel staff at our first hotel.

My first night/morning was spent in a room across a bar that was playing the latest dancehall music at loud volume (on a Sunday night/Monday morning). I immediately made comparisons with our Entebbe Knight Riders Discotheque that is mostly full on Sunday nights as opposed to other nights of the week.

The crowd in the hotel was an equally happy one. This is in huge contrast to most European hotels that have gloomy guests in the morning. The people here, the majority of whom had come for a conference that the hotel was hosting were chatting away like they had no problems. One could have thought that they were not in Zimbabwe (based on the situation that we had been given by the media).

My colleagues and I conducted our assignments as instructed and several things were evident;

This country was once an economic giant of southern Africa. Being the aviator that I am, I saw lots of underutilized facilities that Harare international Airport has. This place has the potential to make it again and become one of the giants in aviation in the region.

I valued the power of politics. Economic Sanctions had dealt a severe number on this sleeping city. When these sanctions are lifted, one can only tell how far this place can go. It is this power of politics that made me admire H.E Robert Mugabe’s decision to stick to his 20+ year old 767 aircraft as opposed to spending more of the countries monetary reserves to buy a more modern aircraft. He isn’t perfect, but in this field, I give him a plus.

Despite all the things that need to be worked on to make life in this place better, the warmth of the Zimbabweans is really something to write about. I think this is something that we on the overall as Africans generally have. I say this drawing on past experiences of other cities I have visited with worries about being mistreated only to be handled very well.

I intend to go back to Zim soon and more especially to Victoria Falls (in the western region of the country) to see what the rest of the country has to offer especially in terms of tourism. Which brings me back to my next point, when shall we get an African media organization that reports unbiased information for Africa only.

And when shall we support each other as Africans so that the continent grows to be the powerhouse that it is supposed to be. that remains to be found out.