Zimbos Are Not Paralysed, We’re Just Not Stupid
A reply to the sermon that the diaspora is too emotional to invest at home. Caution after a country has robbed you twice is not paralysis. It is memory.
Christopher Nyamandi
Ideas on Africa, liberty, leadership, business, travel and the future.
I am a Zimbabwean who has spent most of his working life leading humanitarian and development organisations across the continent, and most of his private life reading, arguing and taking notes. This is where I put the notes.
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All essays →Also worth reading
All essays →SIMBA, 60 days, and then the hard part
Nobody voted for Munhumutapa Day
The state sent 300 police to clear Harare's traders, then made the President's birthday a public holiday by decree. No vote. No consultation.
We are paying twice, sometimes thrice
You queue to buy the form that lets you join the queue. The passport office is not a passport problem — it is a governing philosophy, and citizens pay for it twice.
More writing
Archive →Zim’s Got 99 Problems, a 3rd Term Ain’t One!
The argument for a third term is an argument for making elections meaningless. Rules that bend once bend again.
Human rights violators must pay
After the abduction and torture of Joana Mamombe and two others: why Zimbabwe's civil damages law should reach the perpetrator's own pocket.
We are not savages
Zimbabwe went into Mozambique expecting a fast job. Nigeria's experience of Boko Haram says otherwise — a purely military answer makes the thing worse.
We should be moving forward
Written from Afghanistan as the MDC Alliance turned on itself: the 2018 election was a plebiscite of hope, and the party was busy squandering it.
Projects
All projects →SIMBA
Infrastructure for African enterprise, built on the assumption that the talent is already here.
Read the project →The next one
The section is built for expansion. Each project gets its own page: problem, idea, vision, model, progress and what happens next.
About
More about Chris →Zimbabwean. Reader.
Occasionally useful.
I grew up in Zimbabwe, was educated in [place], and have spent [X] years leading organisations through some of the harder situations the continent has produced. I have lived and worked in [countries]. I am interested in why some places flourish and others do not, and increasingly convinced the answer has less to do with resources than with rules.
Portrait — [location, year]
Portrait slot
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Occasional notes from Chris
New essays when they are finished, plus the odd thing I have read that I cannot stop thinking about. Roughly monthly. Never more.
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