[BRIEF NOTE] The Breakdown of Zimbabwe?
Oct. 14th, 2005 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldSW Radio Africa, a radio network broadcasting to Zimbabwe, has a worrying brief article by Lance Guma about tensions between Shona and the Ndebele in the growing Zimbabwean diaspora.
Relations between the Shona, a heterogeneous collection of related groups that form more than three-quarters of the Zimbabwean population, and the Ndebele, more recent migrants who form 15% of the country's population and live in the southwest, have been tense since the early 1980s and the Gukurahundi, when the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade went on a rampage against Ndebele believed to be dissidents. So far, relations between the Shona and the Ndebele have been cordial. If what's going on in the diaspora is any indication, though, interethnic relations in the homeland might very well break down. This, obviously, is not a good thing.
Zimbabweans living in exile have complained that tribalism is more of a problem in their communities than back home. Shona speakers in South Africa especially have said their Ndebele counterparts continually make reference to the Gukurahundi era and blame Mugabe’s murderous activities on them. As members of the Nguni tribe in South Africa, Ndebele speakers have an easier time adjusting to life in the country, as the languages are slightly similar.
The same does not apply to Shona speakers who say they struggle for acceptance, which is made harder by their own colleagues saying negative things about them in front of native South Africans. Human rights lawyer, Daniel Molokele agreed with this view saying there was no freedom of expression in Zimbabwe and once people left the country they took the opportunity to let out their bottled-up feelings of resentment.
Relations between the Shona, a heterogeneous collection of related groups that form more than three-quarters of the Zimbabwean population, and the Ndebele, more recent migrants who form 15% of the country's population and live in the southwest, have been tense since the early 1980s and the Gukurahundi, when the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade went on a rampage against Ndebele believed to be dissidents. So far, relations between the Shona and the Ndebele have been cordial. If what's going on in the diaspora is any indication, though, interethnic relations in the homeland might very well break down. This, obviously, is not a good thing.
