The time was 1977, the place was a group of holiday chalets on the Zambezi river, and I’d just made a new playmate. His name was Zwanai Sibanda, also 11. My Dad had bought me a bow and arrow from the craft-sellers, with a hippo-hide drawstring and metal tip to the arrow, and we were using a baobab on the river-bank for target practice. Those days rank amongst my happiest childhood memories, and Zwanai and I corresponded for the next few years. I still have his letters, and once wrote in my 20s to see if I’d get a reply. I often wonder what became of him. It’s hard to believe that it was twelve years ago that Robert Mugabe unleashed the forces of hell on Zimbabwe in the form of the violent Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi and his land invasions. I attended the annual World Travel Market in London a few months after it began, and in the Africa hall at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre the talk was about how long the madness would last. Sprinkled over the wintry pessimism in between coffee and soup was the muttered hope that it may all be over by the same time next year. As we know now, it wasn’t to be – and since that day, before 9/11, farms have been raided and seized, lives have been destroyed, and workers daring to support the opposition beaten and killed. This in a country better known for the highest bungee jump in the world, impressive wildlife and the Zambezi river. And as I’d learnt at such a young age, its warm smiles and friendliness. So it was good to see the Zimbabwe stand rather busy at last month’s Travel Indaba in Durban, South Africa. An annual event, the Indaba is essentially a place for those involved in southern and east African travel to do business – a forum where travel agents and tour operators come from around the world to buy suitable product to sell on to their clients (usually looking to escape a northern hemisphere winter). Such product could be a coach tour along South Africa’s Garden Route, a mobile safari following the Serengeti migration, or, more appropriately in this case, a luxurious or otherwise lodge on the edge of the Victoria Falls. Occupying space similar in size to other countries in the Africa section of the Indaba, there was plenty of business being done at the Zim stand, which essentially suggests that a lot more tourists are likely to be seen in Zimbabwe from later on this year (when Victoria Falls hosts its annual New Year carnival), when the interest is converted into bookings. To clarify things, the horrific stories – farm invasions and the like – that have made international headlines have, as far as I can tell, had little or no direct impact on tourists. Obviously their numbers dropped significantly, as such news tends to be a bit off-putting. But the major impact has been on those who staffed the industry. No destination could survive such news and developments unscathed, and a number of tourist establishments closed, with many staff losing their jobs in the process. Nevertheless, Zimbabweans seem to be a resilient bunch and remain overwhelmingly hospitable people. Four years ago I remember walking the aisles of empty supermarkets in the capital, Harare, to see for myself the results of hyper-inflation. It wasn’t a pretty sight, yet the people walking the pavements still had smiles for a stranger. I felt this country still had a lot going for it. Like humanity. And courage. Even though farmer Ben Freeth – author of ‘Mugabe and The White African’ – survived things too terrible for most to contemplate (abduction, torture and near death among them), he remained in the country, with his family. For as Anglo as his original roots may be, Zimbabwe is his home, and the reason he choses not to flee with his family to his parents in the UK. In 2002 Cedric and Gaye Wilde were kicked off the farm that constituted both their living and family home. In that relative sense that seeks to impart some sort of comfort to those who’ve experienced substantial loss, they’re amongst the lucky ones, in that they ended up working for their daughter’s safari company (Amalinda Collection), which enables them to work and still enjoy the Africa – with its sunsets, people and wildlife – that had become part of their daily lives. Often the workers on such farms have even more harrowing tales. But they have no United Kingdom or Australia or family members to escape to, for even the briefest respite. Nowhere to tell their stories. But back to 2013, and the re-emerging Zimbabwe. For a long while I thought it was better to cut the country off altogether and somehow be rid of its clearly bitter, evil and irrational leader, but time has proved that rational thought doesn’t always apply. The country’s tourism needs this seeming wave of support, it needs visitors, to help the industry keep the jobs, feed its people and even grow. Because even if he once more unleashes violence to rig the upcoming elections, Robert Mugabe can’t last forever. Which is something a few Victoria Falls tourism players* must’ve thought a few years back when they started marketing that iconic little tourism hub as a virtually separate destination. Whether cunning thinking on Mugabe’s part or not, there’d been no widespread land invasions in the area, and life had pretty much continued as ‘normal’ while most of the country wept. So Victoria Falls shouted out to the world that it was a place apart. And it worked. Soon enough the message got out that many parts of Zimbabwe were safe to visit, and when the country ‘dollarised’, the goods started flowing back in, pretty much followed by the tourists. So that now even Bulawayo and attractions around the granite Matopos are once again doing business. Things will improve in Zimbabwe, that’s just the way it is. My hope is that somewhere amongst the business, relative enthusiasm and growth of Victoria Falls, Zwanai is part of it all. That he’s doing ok. *www.africaalbidatourism.com

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