There is something unique about Zimbabwe. People who have never been here or lived here do not understand it; do not understand what it is that makes us want to keep living here when nothing about our lives is normal. My letter today is for the millions of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, people who do get it, do understand.
Most have left, not by choice but by necessity. They have left their families, their homes, their communities, their lifestyles and the very essence of themselves. When I took to one social media site (Facebook) this week and asked people in the Diaspora to identify the things that they most love and miss about ‘home,’ the responses were overwhelming.
This wasn’t one of those social media posts where you can just click an emoji indicating like, love, happy or sad. This was a post where I was asking people to open their hearts and actually type a few words. A huge outpouring of love and emotion and the most heartfelt comments followed.
I spent hours reading hundreds of comments about why people love Zimbabwe and what they miss the most. I smiled, laughed and cried and commented on as many as I could. The overwhelming comments on what people love and miss the most, probably slotted into three categories: There are the Zimbabwean people: warm, smiling, friendly, welcoming and generous, always sharing meals, stories and memories and always finding humour regardless of their hardships.
Then there is the Natural Zimbabwe, the wild and everything about it from.