I once heard of a European photographer who came all the way to Zimbabwe to take some photographs of all the carnage here. Perhaps he hoped to win an award for taking photographs of Africans killing each other. Perhaps he thought he would see streets strewn with dead and dying people: people dying of hunger and disease. Who could blame him for thinking that Zimbabwe was on fire? That’s what the stories say which the world gets to see.

He was deeply disappointed when he stepped off the plane: no sign of trouble. He saw a lot of shiny cars, clean streets and what seemed like happy people. I say ‘what seemed like a happy people’ because Zimbabweans in general have been a frustrated people for over a decade and the people of Matabeleland have been bitter since the country’s ‘independence’. The photographer went to the rural areas and again he was disappointed when he realized that he wasn’t going to get the photographs he had come all the way from Europe to get. In a foolish act of desperation, he paid for a grass thatch hut and then paid some men to set it alight. He went back to Europe with photographs of ruling party supporters setting the houses of opposition members alight. Not that those scenes have not been witnessed in Zimbabwe, but he wasn’t there when it happened and it doesn’t happen as often as people the world over think.

There is a lot of corruption in Zimbabwe. There is a lot of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe, and thousands have been killed and thousands more maimed. But the question that has to be asked is, is it as bad as we put it out to be? There is a lot of exaggeration and a lot of fabrication even. Those who carry out this fabrication and exaggeration argue that the international community will only intervene if there is a certain amount of blood and death – so an alarmingly exaggerated picture of Zimbabwe is painted to try and get the international community’s attention. Like a child who gets slightly injured whilst playing and screams loudly until the mother’s attention is attracted.

The problem with this approach is that the perpetrators of human rights abuses sometimes prove that there was some fabrication or exaggeration. They will tell anyone who will listen: ‘You see, all that is said about us is lies. Zimbabwe is a democratic and peaceful country.’

Far from it; Zimbabwe is not a democratic and peaceful country. But then people’s limbs were not chopped off during the last election, despite what those who have never seen even a political slap reported from within Zimbabwe. The short sleeve, long sleeve story was copied from Sierra Leone and other countries where it did happen. It is alleged that machete-bearing rebels would ask their victims if they wanted their arms cut at the wrist (long sleeve) or at the elbow (short sleeve). But that didn’t happen in Zimbabwe.

A lot of people have won awards for writing on the Zimbabwean situation; protest plays have been written from which people have made a lot of money. A lot of people have sought asylum in a lot of countries, but mainly Britain. One girl in Britain went as far as saying she did not want to go back to Zimbabwe because she would be put before a firing squad when they tried to deport her. Maybe that happens in North Korea; certainly not in Zimbabwe. Those who have sought asylum have done so because of the gross human rights violations in Zimbabwe, yet for over a decade, Zimbabweans have not achieved the one objective they have so ‘passionately’ devoted their time and energy to: removing Robert Gabriel Mugabe from power and restoring Zimbabwe to a democracy.

While it cannot be denied that there are gross human rights violations in Zimbabwe, we have to examine whether our strategy of exaggerating and fabricating in order to attract the world’s attention has let us down and perhaps put us in a worse situation than we should really be in. Have we, as Zimbabweans, relied too heavily upon international intervention that might never come, instead of thinking of solutions we can implement on our own?

Have Zimbabweans been suffering for too long that standing tall and telling lies about one’s own country with a straight face has become a stroll in the park? I think it is high time Zimbabweans took back their country, embraced it with pride and realized that no US fighter jets are going to come and bomb Mugabe out of power. Our destiny is in our hands, and the sooner we realize it, the better. Fabricating and exaggerating has not helped us thus far, and nor will it. Or maybe some view the millions of money ‘donated’ to Zimbabweans in the name of removing Mugabe as progress. I don’t.

^{Photo: Zooey under a CC Licence}