In a country whose people are notorious for not speaking out, notorious for being passive and not standing up for what they believe in, there arose two women called Jenni Willims & Magodonga Mahlangu who refused to be intimidated by the POSA and AIPPA repressive laws of Zimbabwe and formed a group called Women of Zimbabwe Arise, WOZA, whose aim is to empower Zimbabwean women with knowledge and skills designed to stimulate courageous activities within the community. Over the years WOZA has managed to build strength of character among its members that demonstrates courage and leadership qualities as it spoke out, demonstrated and picketed for democracy, good governance and human rights in Zimbabwe. On Monday 23rd of November 2009, President Barrack Obama of USA showed his appreciation for their efforts over the years by awarding Magodonga Mahlangu on behalf of WOZA the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award of 2009. The awarding ceremony was held at the Whitehouse in the East Room. President Barrack Obama made a beautiful speech in which he narrated what WOZA has been up against in Zimbabwe for the past years up until now, before handing over the award to Magodonga Mahlangu amid a deafening applause.
You can read President Barrack Obama's beautiful speech by going to the link below.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-presentation-robert-f-kennedy-human-rights-award
Congratulations WOZA!!! I am proud of you and am sure all Zimbabweans who are for democracy, good governance and human rights are indeed proud of you.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
He loved me but never told me
I am posting on this blog address again until I find a way to make readers be able to make comments on the articles I post on my new address, http://www.peacelovehappiness.org.zw
A group of my friends were at a Zimbabweans and South Africans only dinner party in UK watching photos of yesteryears which were on a slideshow loaded on the host's desktop computer and reminscing about the good old Zimdays whilst watching the photos. When my photo filled the screen a male friend of mine who used to belong to the same book club as myself when we were teenagers asked Babra my friend who was hosting the party to freeze the slideshow so that he looks at my photo for some more minutes. She obliged and asked him to tell the party members what that picture reminded him of. He started talking and Babra switched on the tape recorder of her phone. This is what is recorded on the tape that Babra sent to me.
My secret admirer"This woman's name is Eusebia and we grew up together in Greendale and she has a good deal of character and is awfully attractive. There was always something poetic in her, a sort of lyrical quality, as it were, that coloured her movements, her acts and everything about her. It seemed to exalt her above common cares. There has always been something so candid in her expression, so courageous and independent in her bearing, that-oh, made other beauties in the neighborhood just flat and dull compared to her."
My secret admirer's wife "I remember you telling me about her when we started dating."
Babra " You speak as if you had been in love with her?"
My secret admirer " Of course I was. I should have thought you would have guessed that at once. I was frightfully in love with her but I never told her so we never had a love relationship?
Ike (Babra's husband) "What made the friendship feelings turn to love?"
My secret admirer "For many years I thought I just liked her as my friend until her elder brother Ephraim who was a medical student was stabbed by a knife and died in 1989 and when I saw her broken-hearted at the funeral my heart bled, it hurt me so much and I wanted to hold her in my arms and shield her from all the hurting in the world. It was then it suddenly struck me that what I felt for her was special, I don't know how to explain it but it was a sort of shattering turmoil that affected every bit of me and that feeling was love.
Ike "So why didn't you tell her that you loved her.?"
My secret admirer " I wanted to badly enough but I never gained the courage to say so. Although she was always so nice to me and so easy to get on well with and we were such good friends, I always felt there was something about her that made me feel inferior when I was with her. Although she was so simple, so frank and natural, you never quite got over the feeling of an inner kernel of aloofness, as if deep in her heart she guarded, not a secret, but a sort of privacy of the soul that not a living person would ever be allowed to know. I don't know if I make myself clear.
One of the male party members. "Maybe if you had declared your love you would have been the only person she would let into that private place."
My secret admirer " Maybe but I never got the courage to tell her that I loved her and up to now I regret not doing so. Her aloofness was not the reason because I found it quite captivating. It was strangely exciting to think that if she loved you and you were married to her you would at last pierce right into the hidden heart of that aloofness, and it would be as it were a consummation of all that you'd ever desired in your life.
One of the female party members "If you found her aloofness attractive then what exactly was it that made you hesitate to tell her that you loved her.?"
My secret admirer " What really made me not ask her is because I couldn't bear the thought that if I proposed to her and she refused me our friendship would never be the same again, there would be a tension between us. I enjoyed her friendship so much and didn't want my proposal to disturb that friendship. It made me so happy to be her friend and I wasn't sure if she loved me too. Babra did she love me too?
Babra "She never confided that to me, and anyway even if she had loved you, knowing her and her pride she would never had told anyone unless she was sure that the love was mutual."
My secret admirer "I saw her photo on facebook the other day and damn she still looks as beautiful and elegant as ever, her beauty has defied age. Funny enough what made me fall in love with her was not her looks, though they were quite alluring, with the tenderness and sweetness in her eyes and her sexy legs. What made me fall in love with her was the sensation of well-being when I was with her, she made me relax and be quite natural without putting up appearances because she was so down-to-earth. You felt she was incapable of meanness and it was impossible to think of her as envious of other people or catty. She seemed to have a natural generosity of soul.
Ike "Do you still love her?
My secret admirer "I can't answer that question because I am married and have four teenage children ."
My secret admirer's wife "Honey it is important to me that you answer that question."
My secret admirer "Of course I don't love her anymore, I love you my wife of sixteen years."
When I listened to the tape Babra sent to me yesterday I couldn't believe my ears and I cried till my eyes were red because I loved him too though I never dared tell a single soul because I thought that the love was not mutual. If human society was such that it was acceptable for a woman to make the first move or to propose to a man I would have told him that I loved him way back then and we would have got married to each other and not to the people we both eventually married. As it is, that love we shared secretly in both our hearts will forever remain in our dreams buried into history never to be consummated between us. What a waste. I will never forgive him for not telling me that he loved me.
A group of my friends were at a Zimbabweans and South Africans only dinner party in UK watching photos of yesteryears which were on a slideshow loaded on the host's desktop computer and reminscing about the good old Zimdays whilst watching the photos. When my photo filled the screen a male friend of mine who used to belong to the same book club as myself when we were teenagers asked Babra my friend who was hosting the party to freeze the slideshow so that he looks at my photo for some more minutes. She obliged and asked him to tell the party members what that picture reminded him of. He started talking and Babra switched on the tape recorder of her phone. This is what is recorded on the tape that Babra sent to me.
My secret admirer"This woman's name is Eusebia and we grew up together in Greendale and she has a good deal of character and is awfully attractive. There was always something poetic in her, a sort of lyrical quality, as it were, that coloured her movements, her acts and everything about her. It seemed to exalt her above common cares. There has always been something so candid in her expression, so courageous and independent in her bearing, that-oh, made other beauties in the neighborhood just flat and dull compared to her."
My secret admirer's wife "I remember you telling me about her when we started dating."
Babra " You speak as if you had been in love with her?"
My secret admirer " Of course I was. I should have thought you would have guessed that at once. I was frightfully in love with her but I never told her so we never had a love relationship?
Ike (Babra's husband) "What made the friendship feelings turn to love?"
My secret admirer "For many years I thought I just liked her as my friend until her elder brother Ephraim who was a medical student was stabbed by a knife and died in 1989 and when I saw her broken-hearted at the funeral my heart bled, it hurt me so much and I wanted to hold her in my arms and shield her from all the hurting in the world. It was then it suddenly struck me that what I felt for her was special, I don't know how to explain it but it was a sort of shattering turmoil that affected every bit of me and that feeling was love.
Ike "So why didn't you tell her that you loved her.?"
My secret admirer " I wanted to badly enough but I never gained the courage to say so. Although she was always so nice to me and so easy to get on well with and we were such good friends, I always felt there was something about her that made me feel inferior when I was with her. Although she was so simple, so frank and natural, you never quite got over the feeling of an inner kernel of aloofness, as if deep in her heart she guarded, not a secret, but a sort of privacy of the soul that not a living person would ever be allowed to know. I don't know if I make myself clear.
One of the male party members. "Maybe if you had declared your love you would have been the only person she would let into that private place."
My secret admirer " Maybe but I never got the courage to tell her that I loved her and up to now I regret not doing so. Her aloofness was not the reason because I found it quite captivating. It was strangely exciting to think that if she loved you and you were married to her you would at last pierce right into the hidden heart of that aloofness, and it would be as it were a consummation of all that you'd ever desired in your life.
One of the female party members "If you found her aloofness attractive then what exactly was it that made you hesitate to tell her that you loved her.?"
My secret admirer " What really made me not ask her is because I couldn't bear the thought that if I proposed to her and she refused me our friendship would never be the same again, there would be a tension between us. I enjoyed her friendship so much and didn't want my proposal to disturb that friendship. It made me so happy to be her friend and I wasn't sure if she loved me too. Babra did she love me too?
Babra "She never confided that to me, and anyway even if she had loved you, knowing her and her pride she would never had told anyone unless she was sure that the love was mutual."
My secret admirer "I saw her photo on facebook the other day and damn she still looks as beautiful and elegant as ever, her beauty has defied age. Funny enough what made me fall in love with her was not her looks, though they were quite alluring, with the tenderness and sweetness in her eyes and her sexy legs. What made me fall in love with her was the sensation of well-being when I was with her, she made me relax and be quite natural without putting up appearances because she was so down-to-earth. You felt she was incapable of meanness and it was impossible to think of her as envious of other people or catty. She seemed to have a natural generosity of soul.
Ike "Do you still love her?
My secret admirer "I can't answer that question because I am married and have four teenage children ."
My secret admirer's wife "Honey it is important to me that you answer that question."
My secret admirer "Of course I don't love her anymore, I love you my wife of sixteen years."
When I listened to the tape Babra sent to me yesterday I couldn't believe my ears and I cried till my eyes were red because I loved him too though I never dared tell a single soul because I thought that the love was not mutual. If human society was such that it was acceptable for a woman to make the first move or to propose to a man I would have told him that I loved him way back then and we would have got married to each other and not to the people we both eventually married. As it is, that love we shared secretly in both our hearts will forever remain in our dreams buried into history never to be consummated between us. What a waste. I will never forgive him for not telling me that he loved me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
