A few months ago, my friend Clara, who is originally from Zimbabwe and living in Namibia, had a 3 days’ conference in Bulawayo (665,000 inhabitants) and, when she said join her on the trip, I jumped at the opportunity.

To be honest, in comparison to Namibia, which is sometimes referred as the Switzerland of Africa, Zimbabwe was a big eye opener for me. I realized how hard life can become for many people, when the economy is really unstable.

To give you some context, Zimbabwe used to be called Southern Rhodesia (named after Cecil Rhodes), under the British rules, from the late 1800s until the 1960s. It then changed name and only became fully independent from the UK in 1980. FYI, North Rhodesia became Zambia.

Zimbabwe is roughly the same size as California, with about 16million people.

Rhodesia used to be one of the wealthiest countries in Africa.

The country is abundant in many natural resources, including diamond, gold, copper, coal, chrome.

Although the colonial era had many shortfalls, the old British educational system remains. Many Zimbabweans are highly educated.

As Clara was working, I decided to visit Bulawayo with a guide. It was a nice opportunity also to learn about her life. Nampumelelo is a primary school teacher in a public school.

• She explained that life is hard since the Mugabe regime and even worse today under the new government.
• As you may know, under Mugabe, in the 80s, many white people (mostly farmers) and many of the Debele tribe population, were killed.
• Today, there is about 96% unemployment in the country & there was 37% inflation just in the month of October 2024.
• There is no longer a middle-class society, it seems.
• The majority of people are poor, and the elite is ultra-wealthy.
• The elite are mostly government officials, high professionals, and businessmen.

In 2023, the current government and apparently, together with the IMF, decided to introduce a digital currency, the ZIG, and the exchange rate with the US$ changes every day.Nampumelelo is paid in ZIG. Every month, she exchanges her Zigs into US Dollars on the black market, where she gets the best rate.
Since 2023, she saw her salary drop from about US$800 to US$350/month (working from 07:30 to 16:00 Monday to Friday).

In most shops and supermarkets, you can only pay in US$. To give you an idea, a normal packet of cheddar cheese in the supermarket was 7US$. Both Zig and US$ are displayed, but only at the till do you find out how much it is in US$ as the shops cannot keep up with labeling the prices every day as inflation is ripe.

Most people, like my guide, cannot afford to go to a supermarket and buy everything on the market.
As you can see, the markets, opened every day, are phenomenal. There is so much abundance and diversity; it is colourful, and varied, and it is vibrant with life. People are very creative and artistic.

Nampumelelo and her Mum behind her in blue, invited me to the house of her Aunty and relatives…Nampumelelo et avec sa Maman en blue sur le sofa, m’ont invité à dire bonjour à leur Tante et leur famille proch

The following day, with Nampumelelo and her Mum, we travelled to a farm, in the outskirts of Bulawayo.
It is a 200 hectares’ property with 700 cows. They buy at the farm fresh milk in large quantity, to make the cottage cheese.

We will visit the farm together, which will be our next Chapter on Zimbabwe.
Until next time, enjoy your Sunday.

Cordialement Kind regards
Murielle