Zambia and Zimbabwe

Africa - June, July 2008

"LEVY DEAD" read the bold letters of the newspaper headlines on the newsstand I passed while strolling the busy streets Lusaka, Zambia's capital. "Levy" was referring to Zambia's current president, Levy Mwanawasa.

"Dead president? Uh-oh," I thought to myself. "This may not the best time for me to be here."

Perhaps it was good fortune I was already walking towards the U.S. Embassy (I needed more pages inserted into my passport). I might have to take refuge. While this was a serious thought, the assistants at the embassy weren't concerned in the least. So I wandered the streets of downtown Lusaka until I could get my passport back a few hours later. No problems, business as usual. But I was still a bit uneasy about being in Zambia's largest city the day the president died.

Passport in hand, and having seen enough of Lusaka to know I needn't stay longer, I took a gamble and hopped on an overnight bus headed south; "a gamble" because most Central African countries had banned commercial driving at night: too many accidents. But the incoming road was smooth, straight and uneventful, so I felt the odds were in my favor.

The next morning I found myself in Livingstone, a small tourist town named after that intrepid Scottish missionary, David Livingstone, who gave the famous cataracts nearby their western name: Victoria Falls.

Passing a newsstand, I was confused by the headlines, "Levy Recovering In Paris". The story read that the Zambian president was not dead, but had suffered a stroke while in Egypt before attending an African Union summit. The South African President, Thabo Mbeki, had prematurely announced the death and held a moment of silence, but soon retracted the announcement (and, I suppose, the moment of silence?) after he received a "clarification". What an embarrassment! All this amidst the controversial results to the controversial presidential runoff election in Zimbabwe, where "Uncle Bob" (the controversial Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe) had all but killed his opponent. Levy (Zambian President) had spoken out against Mugabe and his goons. Mbeki (South African President) had implied his support by remaining silent on the entire matter (For the record, almost every other country in the world has denounced the election as a sham). Though Levy was hospitalized because of natural causes, the whole situation tightens the already very tense relations among the countries (Of course one might wonder, "Why a hospital in Paris? Are the hospitals in Zambia not good enough for a president?" Of course not!)

"Politics here are very complicated," was the second most popular conclusion Africans would offer after trying to explain things to me. The first was, "The problem is corruption!"

Though politics was certainly on my mind the whole trip, I had yet to draw any serious conclusions of my own. Instead of preoccupying myself, I spent a day admiring the vast, powerful falls spilling into a gaping gorge that resembles a giant crack in the otherwise flat surrounding landscape. I even ventured to the Zimbabwean side, to admire another perspective of the falls and check out their gateway city, also named Victoria Falls.

There wasn't much to see, just a modern-day ghost town with almost everything closed because there were no tourists, just a small makeshift market for the locals who were bartering, lots of beggars too. I exchanged some money: 1 US dollar for a 5 billion Zambian dollar note (I think I got ripped off!).

Even the national park was empty. I had an unobstructed view of the falls for an hour, which could have been longer had I not been soaked by the cold mist. I didn't dare go deeper into Zimbabwe, as Mugabe's racist rhetoric continued to inspire the thoughtless murdering of white Zimbabweans (actually, this has largely been the case for the past 28 years he's been "president"). Besides, I had done enough gambling for the day.

The next evening, after a long day bounding down the mighty Zambezi River in a raft like a madman (guided of course), I found myself chatting with some locals, white Zambians, born and bred in Zambia. Naturally, the subject soon turned to politics with all the usual reasoning, "it's complicated", "the corruption", blah-blah. But soon the fingers were being pointed at me.

"And YOUR government is making matters worse."

"I'm sure it is," I conceded.

Unaffected by my concession, the conversation continued in my direction. It was explained to me that foreign aid money was keeping the poor poor and the criminals wealthy and in power. This was not the first time I'd heard this explanation either, so I nodded in agreement.

I was told that USAID was working hard to fight malaria in Zambia, giving out free mosquito nets. People were so happy they were grabbing the nets by the dozen, but sewing them together and using them as fishing nets. With holes so small, no organism could escape such a trap and now Zambia's left with almost no fish, which used to eat the larvae that mature into the mosquitoes that transmit malaria!
Whether a hospital run by foreign aid, or a church-run orphanage, I have been given many anecdotal examples of where good intentions and lots of money are not enough, or too much rather. "Tough love" has been the most reasonable explanation I've come across so far: "Let them hash it out themselves" (of course intervening when human rights are abused and imposing economic sanctions when ... aah! ... so complicated!).