Posted on 08/31/2002 3:11:09 AM PDT by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
It's been a long time since I wrote a personal letter about my own life in Zimbabwe and since so many of you have made me a part of your lives I would like to tell you now what has been happening to me as I've walked the very frightening path of a victim who refuses to be silenced.
I have spent the last few days of the school holidays playing a marathon game of Monopoly with my 10 year old son Richard and they have been special days which have taught us both a lot of lessons. Richard swung between elation when he was winning and a quivering lower lip when he was losing. As turn after turn I landed on his hotels, Richie watched his Mum going bankrupt and when I finally had no money left and all my properties were mortgaged to the bank, he got very upset as the game drew to a shuddering close and I had lost.
Richie learnt that it isn't always fun to win and I learnt that life, like Monopoly, sometimes deals you a whole series of bad hands.
On the 28th of February 2000 I lost my home, livelihood and job when strange men came to our gate and declared that everything on Stow Farm belonged to them.
On the 20th April 2002 a man who called himself Wind evicted the tenants leasing Stow Farm and moved into the family house. He evicted the workers from their houses, took over our farm store, destroyed the borehole and water supply and removed my last source of income in the form of rental.
Stow Farm and a monopoly game are not the only losses I have had to come to terms with. I've been fighting back tears of anger and despair all week as the South African publishers of my book African Tears have held out to the last minute before finally announcing yesterday that they are closing down.
Covos Day Books is jointly owned by an ex Zimbabwean and a British lawyer who was last week in Kenya distributing British government money to nomadic Masai herders.
Covos Day Books have never paid me one cent of the royalties owed for the sale of 10,000 copies of African Tears. Neither have they paid me for the serialization rights to the book which were bought and paid for in May 2001 by the UK Sunday Times, Rapport Newspaper and Femina magazine in South Africa.
Today I faced the reality that I had lost 2 years of my life and income but am picking myself up now. I will not be beaten and have found another publisher. Jonathan Ball Publishing in Johannesburg and Cape Town are producing my new book which is called Beyond Tears and both this and a re-issue of African Tears will be in print in early October.
I remain determined that the world hears about the horrors in Zimbabwe. The more outspoken I have been about the situation in the country, the scarier my life has become.
I've been forced to go into hiding, have been warned that my house would be petrol bombed and have received threats against my physical safety.
I am frequently bombarded with obscene hate mail and my forms of communication are regularly "tampered" with.
On many occasions the burdens have almost been too much to bear but always the goodness of ordinary people has kept me sane and given me the courage to go on.
Every week I receive hundreds of emails, letters and parcels from people all over the world who read this letter. Strangers send food and toiletries, salt and coffee. People send poems and prayers, stickers and little treats for Richie and I.
When I wrote about my elderly neighbour begging for money for a loaf of bread, messages poured in from all over the world, parcels arrived for Jim and complete strangers helped me to help him.
Life for us all in Zimbabwe has become a case of helping one another to survive, financially, emotionally and spiritually.
This morning I met with a long lost black friend. There were huge embraces and smiles which soon became tears when he told me how he too had lost everything.
His business in the tourism industry has collapsed, his shop and all it's contents have been burned to cinders by government supporters and he has had to send his wife and three children to the other side of the country as there is no food in his home area. He is not giving up though and will find ways to rebuild his life when Zimbabwe's madness is over. We are not broken yet, each and every blow builds strength and determination.
My losses are minute compared to the losses of our now starving country and desperate people ravaged by an issue which is not about land or race but only politics.
As a friend said to me last week: you reap what you sow although not always where you sowed it.
Until next week,
with love and thanks, cathy.
Bump!
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