BZS Annual Report 2003

Britain Zimbabwe Society

Home WhoWe Are Contact Us Activities Events How To Join Links Archives

Report from the Chair 2004
(Dr Diana Jeater))

Once again I have to report that much of our work in the Society has been in response to continuing political and economic difficulties in Zimbabwe. It has been disheartening during the course of this year to see how the lively interactions that used to flourish between organisations in Zimbabwe and Britain have died away to a whisper. The BZS was founded as a friendship society to link people at a grassroots level, and to provide an umbrella organisation for the many different initiatives that were flourishing to support the newly-independent nation. Over the years, we have worked with teachers' organisations, town twinning groups, youth organisations, church groups, water projects, organic farmers, drama groups, musicians, film-makers, academics, tour operators, small businesses, medics, and many others. Last year, we became aware that organisations here and in Zimbabwe that had, in the past, been keen to publicise their links, were becoming more circumspect. As relationships between Britain and Zimbabwe became increasingly strained, people in Zimbabwe no longer wanted to be seen to have close links with British organisations. This was disturbing. The Society is independent of any government or political party, and although we have always been prepared to criticise the British government where we felt that it was undermining the interests of the Zimbabwean people, we have never before commented on Zimbabwean domestic legislation. However, October this year, we felt obliged to speak out against the NGO Bill. The Bill bans any independent external support for human rights and governance activities, thereby threatening much of what the Society was founded to support and encourage. We did not take this step without much internal debate and soul-searching, but I trust that you, the members, understand our reasons.

While links with Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe are becoming harder to maintain, we find that much of our work is now focused on Zimbabweans in the UK. We have continued to provide expertise to lawyers involved in Zimbabwe asylum applications to the UK. We have commented on gender issues, political repression, the availability of anti-retroviral treatments for HIV, and also on sexual orientation in Zimbabwe. We have attempted to counteract some of the crude stereotypes of Zimbabwe as a failed state, and to address the positive as well as the negative aspects of recent history. The volume of this work is depressingly large, despite the consistent attempts by the British government to make it difficult for asylum seekers to get a fair hearing and a properly-assessed appeal. We were shocked to hear this week that forced repatriation of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers, suspended in 2002, is to be reinstated, on the grounds that the system is being abused. As our President, Terence Ranger, observed in his open statement of protest, issued jointly on behalf of the Society and of Asylum Welcome, 'What has changed since 2002 is not Zimbabwe but the British political climate. In 2002 Zimbabwe was much in the news because of the take-over of white-owned land. Even the Conservative Party supported the suspension of removals. Now Zimbabwe has dropped out of the news headlines. Few British politicians care much any longer about what happens to black Zimbabweans.' The Society will continue to lobby for fair and effective processes of asylum claim assessment.

In February, we held the Open Forum on Zimbabwe and South Africa, in association with the Zimbabwe Association, Action for Southern Africa, End the Silence, Canon Collins Educational Trust for Southern Africa, Centre of African Studies, University of London and the Royal Africa Society. This was an initiative in the United Kingdom to expand dialogue and engagement between Zimbabweans and South Africans, and to bring together the expatriate communities of the two countries and their friendship societies. The day was an enormous success, thanks to the hard work of those involved in its planning, and in particular Margaret Ling, who convened the planning meetings, and Oliver Phillips, who produced the extensive report on the event, currently available on the BZS website. We hope that the Harare North event this afternoon will carry on the important community-building work that this event put in motion.

In June, the Research Day expanded into a Research Weekend, on the topic 'What History for Which Zimbabwe?' The papers were all, in different ways, responses to Prof Ranger's papers on the ways in which patriotic history has been mobilised during the current political struggles, to reinscribe the past as a conflict between colonial Britain and anti-colonial forces, thereby fostering anti-British sentiment, as well as suggesting that all internal opposition is externally-supported and colonialist. The weekend was characterised by lively comments and contributions from the many Zimbabwean academics who were there - an indication of the increasing economic and academic pressures on the Zimbabwean universities, which have driven people to seek posts overseas, as well as of the extremely high quality of research by its young scholars. Prof Ranger is collaborating with two of these young academics, Gerald Mazarire and Ennie Chipembere, to produce an edited collection based on the day, which should be available early next year.

Meanwhile, members of the Society's executive have also represented the Society on various organisations concerned with human rights and trade union rights. The BZS is a co-convenor of the Zimbabwe Action Network, along with ACTSA and the Commonwealth TUC, and Terence Ranger, Margaret Ling and Yvonne Kassim have continued to attend meetings over the course of the year. ZAN is currently considering how the organisation will respond to the looming election period in Zimbabwe. Margaret Ling and Katrina Phillips are also involved with the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, which has been working on strategic planning for international bodies/gatherings at which Zimbabwe should be raised or represented.

Of course, the Society's core activity as an umbrella organisation for groups involved in grassroots linking with Zimbabwe has continued, despite all these difficulties. One of the main ways in which information about these activities is disseminated is via our Newsletter. Once again, we are deeply indebted to Marieke Clarke for the enormous amount of work that she puts in, as editor of the Newsletter, commissioning, editing and overseeing its production. Marieke also acts as production manager for the BZS Zimbabwe Review, which provides an excellent source of detailed information. The work of her contributors is, of course, also greatly appreciated.

The Society also has a long-standing Research and Archives committee. This has been a fairly sleepy committee for some time, but has recently become the focus of renewed energy, because of an international project to provide a digital (ie web-accessible) archive of material from Southern Africa's liberation struggles. Prof Ranger has agreed to act as European co-ordinator for this project, and the Society's R&A committee will help him to identify suitable British material.

Clearly, then, one of the positive things about the work of the Society in current circumstances is that we do still get to hear about the interesting projects in which people are involved. News from Zimbabwe is not all doom and gloom. In the last month, we have heard from the Dabane Water Project, that the water supplies in the targeted communities have been completed and the irrigated gardens and plots established; substantial quantities of food have subsequently been grown at each site and at almost all the previously assisted gardens; and that through effective training and a practicable and basic water delivery technology the irrigation systems have remained operational. We have also been told about a project to supply Zimbabwe with alternative technology SW radios. Nor is the news from the UK simply about asylum and human rights. Many new communities, projects and organisations are emerging, to help and support the Zimbabweans in the UK, including the newly-founded Bristol Zimbabwe Association, and the Zimbabwe Women's Network, which is particularly interested in supporting women with HIV/AIDS. We have also been invited to circulate information on the World AIDS Day 2004, on the topic Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS, in London on 6th December, and on the Chiware project, co-ordinated from London Metropolitan University, specifically for Zimbabweans with HIV+ status.

The other positive thing about the BZS is the wonderful people who are involved in its Executive Committee. Everyone involved has something special to contribute. However, I would like to single out the officers for special thanks. I have already mentioned the work that Marieke Clarke does as Publications Secretary. I would also like to thank Iain Whyte for his work as Treasurer, and Frances Chinemana for her work as Secretary. Both are rocks of reliability, sanity and efficiency, on whom the effective running of the Society depends. Margaret Ling acts as Information Officer and oversees the email list, bzs-info, upon which so many of us rely for our news, and also ensures that the website, kindly maintained on our behalf by Richard Brown, is kept up to date. Peter Cotton has been a wonderfully effective Membership Secretary for many years, and is now stepping down. We will miss him very much, not only for his efficiency in keeping the membership records in order, but also for his clear-sighted highlighting of the key issues in discussion and his guiding moral vision. I must also make mention of Clayton Peel, who, alongside his many other contributions, always manages to make us laugh in Executive Committee meetings. Clayton cannot be with us today because he has to care for his family, newly augmented by the arrival of his son Jordan Joshua, whose birth was the occasion of much rejoicing but also of serious surgery for his wife Rosie. We wish them all well and Rosie a speedy recovery.

Diana Jeater, November 2004

Home WhoWe Are Contact Us Activities Events How To Join Links Archives