The double life of exiled Zimbabweans

The double life of exiled Zimbabweans

By Norah Spie

ALLOW me to interrupt your normal reading and introduce myself, and my new self-titled column on New Zimbabwe.com.

My name, as you have gathered from the above, is Norah Spie, a journalist from Harare now based in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Oh, Spie is my maiden name and yes I am Zimbabwean!

So how did I end up having a strange name (at least that's what I have been told)? Well, its a long story but the short of it, is that we used our grandfather's first name, who was called Spie Murindagomo. If you are interested in the long version then its all in my book, Parallel Lines.

Some of you will remember me from my days at The Herald in Zimbabwe (just to be clear because I later worked for the Herald and Post in Luton). I had a daily task of reporting on the government diary and once a week I had my very own a lifestyle page.

Since moving abroad, I have been freelancing for various newspapers including the The Voice (London) and The Independent. I have also moved into broadcasting which I find very interesting, but writing will remain my passion.

In this brand new column for New Zimbabwe.com, I will be writing about life matters. The stories that affect our every day lives, but with a light-hearted approach.

The world we live in now is so busy that it is easy to forget about the little things that really matter. The news from home is distressing, but I want you to read this column and hopefully laugh.
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Do you ever stop and think who you are? Where you came from and where you are going?

We often hear that phrase, 'don't forget where you came from', but what does it mean? How does one balance between knowing your past and not being stuck in the past?

Lately, I have been having difficulties in accepting that I might spend the rest of my life in a foreign country. Everywhere you look there is something reminding you that you don't belong. Is it all in the head or are these signs for real?

As an individual, that choice might be the one to make or break you.

Then there is the issue of having a 'double life'. I'm talking about how Zimbabweans have to take care of themselves here and families back home. That is no easy task but for many years now, this has been the order of the day.

This 'double life' existence has given some people in the diaspora a reputation for not 'taking care' of themselves here compared to other Africans because we send all our money home.

Zimbabwean women are often accused of not spending enough on hair, make-up and clothes while the men are laughed at by their African counterparts for just wearing the same old baggy jeans and hideous American T-shirts.

Have we got our priorities wrong or is it a matter of "not forgetting where we came from"?

What I find curious is that on the other hand, they say Zimbabweans are too westernised, referring to the fact that we do not have a national dress or lavish African dishes and how most of us thought plantain was some funny-looking banana, but these very people have given up on Africa because they don't run two families like most of us do, they don't invest in their own land like us. So who is westernised there?

What our fellow African brothers and sisters don't realise is, unlike other Africans in the diaspora, Zimbabweans dream of the day they will go back home. Nobody knows if this dream will come true but it is better to be prepared for it so that if it does come true, you have fixed assets in your own land.

I often wonder if that dream is stopping people from making sound developments where they live today. How long are we going to live in a temporary state of mind? Isn't it time to let go of the past and start living the present?

Some people still work very hard like they did in the first six months of entering a foreign country. There is nothing wrong with working hard but we need to be smart about it. People are neglecting their well-being in the name of money. Yes we live in a capitalised world but it is up to us to balance the act. Love yourself, be proud, stop and think about what is really important. It is quite easy to get stuck in a rote.

Everyday life is a battle with an invisible enemy. Sometimes we create the enemy among ourselves. If you speak to anyone in the diaspora who has visited home recently, they will tell you it was no holiday. After working extremely hard, one often looks forward to going home for a break but often they come back even more stressed out because everyone home expects the one living abroad to pay for everything.

That is one end, the other end is when you see your friends who never left doing much better than you and you start to wonder if moving was a smart idea in the first place. I think it is time to put it right.

Zimbabweans in the UK are partly to blame. Remember about five or six years ago when UK banks were dishing out loans like food about to go bad? People back home were seeing UK based Zimbabweans purchasing properties within a few months of being here and it looked easy. But things that are too good to be true usually are. Its like a salesman that offers you a free pen after you have signed your life away!

It is not easy to have been born and brought up in one culture and then spend adult life in a totally different society, a society that promotes individualism. What we have to do is keep the good aspects of our culture and adopt other good aspects of the new cultures we are now encountering because of our lives.

So where-ever life has taken you, be it Malaysia, Estonia, Qatar, Cuba, Finland or the more common places like Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Mozambique, the United Kingdom or Europe, remember to keep your head up and say a prayer for our beloved Zimbabwe.

Norah Spie's new weekly column appears here every Wednesday. You can e-mail her at n_spie@hotmail.com. Her new book, Parallel Lines, is available at many good bookshops and you can also order it online from AMAZON

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