Lessons from Zimbabwe
British Quaker Craig Barnett recently moved to Zimbabwe with his family, as director of Hlekweni Friends Training Centre in Matabeleland. In a recent talk at the Quaker Centre in Friends House, he shared his experiences of life at Hlekweni. Jo Tait reports
Craig began his talk with some background history of Zimbabwe. He is still learning how the war, violence, AIDS, poverty and hyperinflation that most Zimbabweans have experienced continue to impact on their lives.
This is not a ‘developing’ country – it is a country trying to come to terms with the humiliation of having once had a highly successful education and health system that is no longer in place.
The four Quaker testimonies – simplicity, truth, equality and peace – framed Craig’s reflections. He also reflected on notions of sustainability in a contracting economy, drawing on his past involvement with the UK Transition movement. Although the majority of trainees and staff are not Quakers, these values underpin the five-month intensive residential courses offered and the lives of the resident community at Hlekweni.
Simplicity goes hand in hand with sustainability in Zimbabwe, where choice and resources are limited. For most Zimbabweans, simplicity is not much of a choice. Craig reported that people told him that Zimbabweans are hardworking, peace-loving and law-abiding people. The aim of each Hlekweni course is to enable young people to be self-reliant and to have useful skills to help support their local community. An aid-dependent culture can undermine people’s beliefs in their ability to provide for themselves, let alone create products or services that will support their village, so success is by no means guaranteed. Learning about horticulture means dealing with problems of poor soil and drought using organic methods and drip irrigation; it’s a slow process to adapt traditional methods and Hlekweni works with local farmers around Matabeleland to accomplish this. Small scale garment-making and carpentry skills cannot compete with imported goods from China so local school uniforms are made and, grimly, the wooden products most in demand are coffins – lifespan is falling to less than forty years and the AIDS epidemic continues to take its toll.
But there are some remarkable successes, such as the young woman who combined her practical skills in the Early Years course with a prize-winning business plan to produce laminated visual aids for local pre-schools using scenes and characters of Zimbabwe, rather than the European images that local children would not recognise. Her prize of $500 will enable her to put the plan into action and will also entitle her to mentoring and support for the enterprise. A group of women (not students) who live in Hlekweni village have taken up a micro-finance opportunity, learned how to make Ndebele bead jewellry and, because of Hlekweni’s links with visitors and external markets, have successfully created a modest cash income for themselves and repaid the loan so that the money is available for other new enterprises. A simple idea that allows people to have a pride in their achievements – and survive, funded by small amounts of pump-priming.
Equality at Hlekweni is concerned with overcoming assumptions about hierarchy in the training system itself – demonstrating in everyday practice that trainees and their personal dignity are valued. ‘Equality is about everybody – not just the rich!’ commented one member of staff (a newly convinced Quaker) coming back from Central and Southern Africa Yearly Meeting. Hlekweni supports disabled trainees from the only secondary school in Zimbabwe for disabled people.
In its commitment to the peace testimony, Hlekweni provides an alternative to the militia – sometimes the only other employment available to young men. Non-violent action and negotiation skills are integral to the curriculum. When one student wielded a knife as a threat, the student representative council suspended him for a month. Somewhat to Craig’s surprise, the young man did return to successfully complete the course after his period of suspension.
Truth must be spoken with care in Zimbabwe. There is much fear and suppressed anger ‘… but at least’, Craig said, ‘we can be honest about the limitations of our work. It is very tough and often we feel on the edge of chaos. That Hlekweni is still there, after the many challenges of the last forty years, is a sign of hope’.
What can we learn from the experiences of Hlekweni and Zimbabwe, as we face the possibility of a shrinking economy and a reduction in the public services we have come to rely on?
• the damaging effects of a scapegoating or blame culture
• that when the ‘froth’ is taken out of life, practical skills and services are still needed – encourage your kids to learn plumbing!
• how rapidly we have become used to information being free and plentiful – in Zimbabwe you pay for every bit of data you download; knowledge and books are a scarce commodity
• once the contraction of services and infrastructure has happened, it’s too late to prepare. In Africa there is the potential for unlimited solar energy, but no cash to construct storage capacity. Fit your solar panels now, while you can afford it.
• education can degrade very quickly once resources are withdrawn. In Zimbabwe, the school system that was once child-centred and imaginative now uses mostly rote methods: teaching has become a low-level, low pay career choice – teachers earn $150 a month when the living wage is $500.
Lee Taylor, the clerk to Friends of Hlekweni, commented that the most important thing that we can do is help uphold Craig and the community at Hlekweni. Keeping these issues in our hearts and heads is part of our social witness.
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