GREAT ZIMBABWE: Land Of Friendly & Gentle People

The Border Crossing: Johannesburg to Zimbabwe

March 3, 2010

We set out from Johannesburg en route to Bulawayo, which is the second largest city and situated in the Southern part of Zimbabwe approximately 300 km north of the border. The journey we were about to embark on would begin in Johannesburg, South Africa all the way to Zimbabwe and was approximately 1000 km. I was relieved because it was going to provide me with the opportunity to let go of the ever-present lingering tension of South Africa and welcome a new country with open arms.  I had spent the past 5 weeks in South Africa and was ready for something new.

I stayed at a cozy hostel in Johannesburg called Diamond Diggers in the not as popular eastside of the city. This is where I first met the owner of the hostel whose name was Harry. He was a friendly and pleasant man, who was born is South Africa, and upon graduation moved with his family to Florida in the USA. I could tell from the moment I met him that he had a very unique charm to him but his motive was strictly business. Once I arrived at the hostel and he lead me into the reception area/office, he asked how I made it to the hostel and when I explained that I had been to the MTN taxi rand in the city center and wandered the streets of Johannesburg with all my gear on until I eventually caught a local mini bus to get there, my explanation shocked him. His reply was: “Wow, you’re a real Maverick!” He then went on to tell me that the MTN taxi rand is a dangerous area of the city that most locals don’t even venture to because so many people have been robbed. I had no real idea that I had just potentially put my life in danger by using local transport, which is the typical way I usually get around countries. Right then and there Harry realized my ‘Maverick’ style of travel and I remember him telling me that he was disappointed, as he knew selling me any kind of tour was purely out of the question. We had a good chat until I was interrupted by a phone call from my mother. She was calling from Canada and had worked herself up into a frantic worry and just wanted to make sure I was okay. If you are familiar with Apartheid or any of the 20^th century history of South Africa, you will know that Johannesburg was the heart of the government and the birthplace of Apartheid. It was also the most concentrated of anti-apartheid protests that went on during those times. The Apartheid left a huge scar on South Africa during those decades that took thousands of lives. Because of all of the above, Johannesburg has a reputation for being one of the most, if not the most dangerous, city in all of Africa. After I got off the phone and reassured my mother that everything was ok, I explained to Harry that my next destination was Zimbabwe, Botswana, or Namibia and I was looking for a unique travel experience preferably with a local. Just then, Harry’s eyes lit up and he went on to tell me that he understood my type of travel and had just the man to ensure I could experience a few of these countries in the most unique way possible. Harry contacted his friend Keith, who was Zimbabwean, and before I knew it he arrived at the hostel in rather high and jolly spirits. After we introduced ourselves, we began to talk travel and eventually negotiated a price and budget costs for the trip. The plan was to head off towards Zimbabwe the following morning. It was around 330pm when Keith picked me up in his small 4-door fiat Uno Italian made car and we headed out of Jozi. The plan was to leave a lot earlier but he had a few minor complications to take care of first. Leaving a city of 11 million people around this time was not the best idea as rush hour traffic was now something we would have to contend with. In Jozi, the local transport union was on strike and so if you don’t have your own car, it can be very challenging or expensive to get around. In times like these, everyone and anyone who has a license to drive a car does so and you can imagine how busy the road systems were. I was lucky Keith knew Jozi pretty well and we managed to take some back routes out of the city so that we didn’t have to wait in bumper-to-bumper traffic all afternoon.

Along the journey we were treated to a spectacular sunset and no delays. It was approximately 600 kms to the border and it took us around 10 hrs to get there, which included a few short stops to refuel along the way. The border crossing we were set to pass is a 24-hour crossing and one of the busiest in all of South Africa. I was fortunate that I was going through such a crossing with a local African like Keith because if I were on my own it would have been a big headache. Things on the South African side went quite smoothly and everything seemed to be rather organized. The only dodgy part was that the tents where the immigration officials looked over passports and gave exit stamps was outdoors. Luckily enough, the lineup was quite small and the line moved at a steady rate so before we knew it, our passports were handed back to us and we were on our way. I have read that Zimbabwe is a very unique country and doesn’t have the most stable political or economic conditions at the moment. Not too long ago, Zims was booming and one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Now, it has been rated as one of the slowest growing economies and has actually gone backwards in stability in comparison to earlier years. Even with this shocking economic situation, I found the Zim people to be some of the friendliest and most welcoming people I’d met so far in Africa. Once we parked our car at the border control on the Zim side, I immediately could tell things weren’t all that organized and the idea of queuing in a lineup was not that easy of a concept for some people to grasp. 3 hrs later, we finally passed all the stages to enter into Zimbabwe and were relieved that we had no hookups or major delays with any of the necessary documents we had to provide or fill out. Passing a border between 2-5 am is probably not the best time to be doing this, as it seems all the bad people and criminals in this world usually come out to show themselves once darkness arrives. I was approached by a few people during the border crossing and Keith said if it wasn’t for him, I would have been hassled a lot more and might have ended up being robbed or having things stolen so I am very grateful he was there to show me the way and make sure nothing major happened. Throughout South Africa, I could not believe the amount of police out on the highways pulling people over and doing speed checks. Even in Zimbabwe, it seemed like we passed security/police checkpoints every 20 kms or so. We must have had luck on our side as we never got searched, fined or any tickets throughout the entire 17-hour journey so I was very relieved at this and quickly realized I was travelling with a man who had the necessary experience to ensure everything went smoothly.

We finally arrived at our intended destination at around 9am the following day. Once we arrived in the city, we stopped at a friend of Keith’s (that he grew up with) named Solomon. He was a short, stocky, and gentle looking man who welcomed me with a smile and told me he was happy to find out Keith and I had made it to Bulawayo unharmed. He took me on a brief tour of his well-lived in home and as he pushed open the drapes of the back door, he looked at me with a big grin on his face and said “this is our pool”. I was impressed; it was a big pool and did not expect that in a country with such a staggering economic situation, that people would be well off enough to afford to have a pool in their backyard. I guess my understanding of Zims was way off and I knew this was just the beginning of an eye opening experience that I was about to encounter in this country. Solomon’s wife generously cooked up some eggs and we had egg sandwiches before we headed off to our final destination: Keith’s bachelor pad. In South Africa, most homes are guarded with a large wall, barbed wire fencing and home security as home invasions have become all too common, especially during the devastating times of the apartheid. I was surprised to see that even in Zimbabwe, most homes have similar high security as in South Africa. Most of the houses throughout South Africa and Zimbabwe had 2 m gated fences, lined with barb wire or broken glass along the top of the wall to ensure nobody could climb over the wall to get into the property. There seemed to be a large police presence in Zimbabwe and it was difficult to drive more than 50 km without being stopped at a checkpoint by the police. Luckily enough Keith showed them the required permits and driver’s license and we were free to pass through. The high presence of police checkpoints somewhat frightened me and led me to wonder why all the extra security was necessary but what Keith explained to me is the crime rate in Zimbabwe is very low and the checkpoints are put in place to maintain the low occurrence and keep the country as safe as possible. I guess when you work hard for something in this world you don’t want to give anyone the opportunity to take it away from you so the heightened level of security is a necessary thing. 

I was very relieved to finally reach the first leg of our journey and spent the remainder of the afternoon catching up on some well-deserved sleep. From the moment we crossed the South African border into Zimbabwe, I could tell that I was in a different country. I felt as though there was still a lingering tension present in South Africa and the way the black african people looked at me was far from inviting. I couldn’t help but be on guard most the time I went anywhere in South Africa and always had to be certain I was ready for the next move. The way the local people in Zimbabwe looked at me was quite different. I didn’t feel threatened or any tension when their curious gaze was set upon me. Their stare brought me back to my time in India but the ‘stare’ was far from confrontational and came across with more of a gentle, warm and welcoming manner. That evening, Keith took me to one of his favorite restaurants called “Dickie’s” and we filled our bellies full of isitshwala (almost known as pap in south Africa), chicken stew and this spinach like vegetable. If you’ve never tried isitshwala, it is a white maize meal porridge that most locals are raised on and the best way to describe its texture is halfway between rice and mashed potatoes. Its consistency is very thick and it is one of the staple diets for most Africans as it is quite cheap and extremely filling.

That evening, Keith took me to his favorite parking lot drinking spot where there is a bar called the “Watering Hole”.  This was not your typical bar and was more like an alcohol mini-mart. In the bar there was loud music blaring and behind the bar, there was about a dozen refrigerators full of varying kinds of alcoholic beverages. To order something you had to catch the attention of one of the many men behind the counter by shouting and telling him what it was that you wanted. To ensure people couldn’t just jump over the counter and help them selves, steel bars like in a prison were in place that separated you from the men behind the bar. Keith explained to me that he has spent many evenings in this parking lot growing up and has had a lot of good memories here with friends. Most Africans really enjoy ending the day watching the sun set over the horizon and it is usually celebrated by having a few drinks. This parking lot was a popular spot for sundowners for the local people here in Bulawayo. Having a little party in the parking lot seemed like a bit of a joke to me but I soon came to realize this is a big part of the culture in Africa. The ‘Watering Hole’ is a cheap place to have a few drinks before going out to a bar or another more expensive venue.

After we downed a few drinks, we headed to one of the local favorite spots called “Mojo’s”. The bar was packed full of local Zims people and I was officially the whitest person in the club. We were treated to some lovely live music and drank and danced the night away. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and didn’t end up making it back home till about 4:30 in the morning. Once we got back, I was so relieved to crawl into bed and sleep off a rather extensive consumption of alcohol we endured throughout the evening.

 

After a weekend of meeting some of Keith’s friendly and welcoming friends and getting to experience some of the nightlife in Bulawayo, we set off to Matobo National Park which is the oldest National Park in Zimbabwe. It is said to be home to black and white rhino’s, giraffes, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, and leopards. Before Zimbabwe’s Independence, this land was known as Rhodesia and was first explored by a European known as John Cecil Rhodes. He and his team of explorers came to Rhodesia and he built a home and fell in love with the area called Matobo. Before his time was up, he arranged to have his body buried on a lookout point in the park that was referred to him as ‘the top of the world’. We spent the afternoon driving through the park and managed to find an area called Rhino Cave. Ancient bushman that used to reside in these areas left a legacy of rock art/paintings and this was one of the areas where they were discovered. It was a short 5-minute walk, down a barely recognizable trail, that eventually led us to this cave. On the rocks were paintings of running men with shields and spears that seemed to have an entourage of wildebeests with them. The paintings depicted several men running towards the silhouette of a white rhino. The atmosphere was spiritual and I let my mind wander into the past and I envisioned what it would have been like to be standing there watching these paintings being created and wondered how long ago it was. Although we didn’t get to see much wildlife, one of the most impressive parts of the park were the rock formations. Randomly scattered throughout the park, the massive boulders stood on top of each other and has become one of the most intriguing and unknown understandings of how they came to be. During my travels through Zimbabwe, I asked a young guy who had just graduated how these are explained and he went on to tell me a story of how they used to be large rocks, that slowly became separated through erosion and earthquakes. The composition of the rocks have been worn away with the wind and rain and have formed individual boulders of thousands of years.

Even though this park didn’t seem to have an abundance of wildlife, I was there during the end of the rainy season, which means animals are often harder to spot because of the dense growth of bush and grasses. Also, if there is plenty of water in the area the animals will be more dispersed throughout the park, which means you have to drive longer distances to see any of the animals. My experience going to this park wouldn’t fit into the top 10 of the things I’ve seen during my travels, but I would still recommend spending a few days here driving the park to see these impressive rock formations and maybe you will encounter more luck with the wildlife than I did.

One of the most unexpected things I could have imagined seeing in Zimbabwe was that there were loads of donkeys in every corner of the country. When never drove more than a few kilometers out of the city before we’d see them grazing the fields or just lazing the day away on the sides of the highways. I didn’t manage to find out their main purpose but they seemed to belong to farmers. From my knowledge I know donkeys are bred to carry heavy loads but oddly enough every single donkey I saw was not carrying anything at all. Another interesting thing about Zimbabwe and most of the other African countries I’ve been in is that hitchhiking is commonplace. Young kids from all the way up to elders can be seen standing on the side of highways attempting to flag passing cars by in hopes they can get a ride to their intended destination. The more time I spent in Africa, the more I realized it was the acceptable thing to do and not frowned upon like it is in the west. I saw loads of people getting picked up along the way and put into jam-packed pick up trucks or work trucks. Even private cars would pick up hitchhikers, if they had the room. When I saw so many locals doing it I thought it would be a shame not to. The quote: “When in Rome…” started playing over and over in my head and so I too can say I hitched a few times in Zimbabwe and it wasn’t long before I got picked up and dropped off safely at my point of destination unharmed.

A surprising fact about Zimbabwe that you may or may not know is that their currency no longer has any market value. Zimbabwe’s’ economy used to be seen as one of the fastest growing countries in Africa but after a new government came into place and changed everything, their booming economy quickly came to a halt and instead of improving, it went backwards and foreign investments withdrew which caused their currency to lose it’s value. Any money that was in the banks could no longer be taken out and all that the banks could do is issue bearer cheques of the value that you had in your account at that time. The bearers’ cheques from the banks were just monetary value that served no real purpose until the Zimbabwe dollar would eventually gain value again. Even at this current time of writing, the situation has not improved and they are using USD or South African Rand as the only acceptable currency. To make matters even more interesting, Local Zimbabwean people have begun selling their old bills to foreigners as ‘souvenirs’ in places such as Victoria Falls or other highly populated areas with tourists. Not only has the economy pretty much collapsed in a backward direction. The unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is amongst the highest in Africa at a whopping 90% rate. This statistic is incredibly high for a country but it is for official jobs, but that doesn’t cover most of the local people who are doing business and making their earning unofficially.

Despite the problems in the country, the education provided in Zimbabwe remains one of the best in Africa and has some of the highest academic scores throughout the continent. While travelling around Zimbabwe and realizing this statistic alone, it became quite obvious that there is a lot of potential in Zimbabwe. The locals there seemed to portray an enormous amount of hope for the future and were brainstorming ways in which they could one day achieve a secure financial future. It was wonderful to see most children provided with education but unfortunate that transportation for them seemed to be non-existent. It was not uncommon at all to see young children, all the way up to teenagers, walking along the highways sporting their school uniforms on their way to school. Keith told me that the majority of children in Zimbabwe have to walk 5-10 kms to school everyday.

Along with all the school kids using the highway as their main route to school, hundreds of adults and even elders are also walking along the roads. Most of the people that I saw, that weren’t students, were either carrying buckets on their heads or had babies wrapped on their backs with a sarong.

As I’ve been travelling around Africa, I’ve realized that each country is different and has its own unique appeal or iconic symbols but the way of life for the local people remains relatively the same, regardless of what country you may find yourself in. As in most countries in the world, urban life is usually bustling with people, traffic, touts, and are highly polluted. Most people living in the cities reside in big concrete buildings or office towers, work office jobs, and live a fairly busy lifestyle. In Africa, it’s much different in the rural areas where life is a lot more relaxed, easy going, quiet, and most live in small huts.  These huts are often circular and made from a mixture of cow dung, soil, and wood or bricks. In Zimbabwe these huts are called Dagas and are seen all over the country. The roofs have a cone shape and are made with a strong straw that even protects the inside from leaks during rainstorms. The Dagas are quite small in comparison to western style homes and the cooking is done inside the home usually using coal and once the food is prepared, the coals are removed and cow hide sheets or blankets are laid down on the hard soil to sleep on. The hide does not give any real cushioning like a bed would but it helps give a bit of warmth and keep their bodies off the cold hard soil.

My understanding of Zimbabwe has been greatly enhanced by travelling around the country for a few weeks and I would encourage others to go there. I felt as safe there as any other African country I’ve been to and the only thing to make sure of if you do venture here is to resist the urge of speaking about the government. It is forbidden to do so and it could get you in a lot of trouble if you spark up a conversation about it with the wrong person. So, if you ever get the chance to come to Zimbabwe you will immediately feel welcomed by the locals and I can assure you it will be a worthwhile trip and it is eye opening to meet such happy and hopeful people that are living in a country during a time of such uncertainty and poor economic stability.