IMAGINE if Kevin Rudd had a legion of cronies who patrolled the streets of Australia in large army tanks, destroying anything and anyone who stood in their path.
Imagine if, when he ousted Julia Gillard as the nation’s Prime Minister, there were riots, chaos, looting and bloodshed all over the country.
It’s not a pretty picture.
But it’s the reality that the people of Zimbabwe could be dealing with as a result of yet another disputed election, according to the regional superior of the Redemptorists in Zimbabwe, Fr William Guri.
Fr Guri visited Perth in June as part of Catholic Mission’s propagation of the faith appeal and explained the disturbing political reality in Zimbabwe to several parishes and schools.
He told The Record Australians tend to forget just how fortunate they are to live in a democratic society.
“I could not avoid being im-pressed by the fact that the Prime Minister left office and another one came in and, to the naked eye, there was very little collateral damage,” he said.
“You just don’t realise the disruption to ordinary life that could have happened if you did not have the stable institutions of government that you have here and the rule of law.”
Fr Guri said he was surprised to see buses running, shops open and money in the banks when he went into the city the day after the leadership change.
“I got a fright because where I come from… a long time of suffering usually accompanies regime change,” he said.
“So I was very impressed… I think it is a beautiful system, and that is what we are trying to achieve in my country.”
Zimbabwe has faced a number of major challenges in recent times, including mass inflation, widespread poverty and the effects of an AIDS epidemic.
The African country was forced to take up the US$ after their own currency became virtually worthless. Trillion dollar notes were the equivalent of about $5.
But abandoning the Zimbabwean currency and adopting the US$ has not been an immediate solution, according to Fr Guri.
“We are still in a very inflationary environment… there is not much employment and not much production in the country, and when there is no employment there is no tax base,” he said.
Fr Guri said a result of heavy unemployment was increased poverty, with everyday survival the people’s greatest concern.
“Most families survive under US$1 so life is very basic and it’s very much a struggle for survival which diminishes other aspects of life,” he explained.
“When people are always trying to gather and hunt for food, they have no time for reflection, cultural pursuits, leisure, arts and entertainment.”
Fr Guri said the fight against HIV-AIDS, which continues to ravage the country, is closely connected to the fight against poverty.
“You can provide anti-retroviral drugs but, when the people do not eat well enough, those drugs can work against their system,” he said.
“I know a woman who nearly died of AIDS because there was no saline in the country. I happened to know someone who was coming from Scotland and I mentioned in desperation that this was the situation… they came with a box of saline from Scotland in their hand luggage, and that woman is alive today.”
Although there has been significant progress in halting the spread of HIV-AIDS in Zimbabwe, Fr Guri said the battle was far from over.
“There are still sectors of the population that are very vulnerable to HIV-AIDS, and part of our evangelisation is trying to come up with interventions which are critical in dealing with this epidemic,” he said.
“What we can also do for ourselves is continue to sustain the awareness of HIV-AIDS, to fight the stigma around [it], and streamlining HIV-AIDS awareness in all our programs and our activities.”
The highly learned priest has himself initiated a program called Transformative Masculinity that is aimed at altering the mindset of Zimbabwean men.
The program looks at how Africans conceive masculinity, and how that conception can be both helpful and self-destructive.
“We find, because of our historical experience as African men, the way we conceive ourselves as men today does have some problematic consequences, especially in the fight against AIDS,” Fr Guri said.
“We’ve been… trying to do a little cognitive restructuring of how men think about themselves so that they can engage in behaviours that are more life-giving.
“For example, the myth of the African man as a bull who has many wives and must father many children by many wives, and does not have to take responsibility for those children.
“A lot of African men subscribe to that, they use it as a cop out for having affairs, and that is very counter-productive to men themselves, it destroys men.”
Yet Fr Guri said there is another issue for Zimbabwe that is even bigger than fighting AIDS or alleviating poverty.
“The highest priority is to restore the rule of law in the country of Zimbabwe,” he said.
While the international community generally attributes the cause of such problems in Zimbabwe to the nation’s government, Fr Guri said the government delivers a specific message to its people when quizzed about their responsibility.
“They will tell you… we have got all these economic problems because Britain has forced the international community to boycott us because Britain wants to engage in change and to decolonise our country,” he explained.
“It sells very well with people who are not well educated… but I know that our problems are due to the mismanagement of the economy by the current regime.”
In particular, the government’s interference with farming and mining ownership has significantly hampered Zimbabwe’s agricultural-based economy.
“At one stage, 80 per cent of Zimbabweans were not formally employed, so that just puts things in serious disarray, so I think the crisis of governance in Zimbabwe and the mismanagement of economy is what has resulted in this situation we are in,” Fr Guri said.
The way forward for Zimbabwe revolves around a major reform of the current government, according to the Redemptorist leader.
“If the government turns its hearts towards the people, if the government becomes aware of the plight of all the people because of this economic situation, then things will change,” he said.
“The people of Zimbabwe are willing to work, they are very educated, very intelligent, and they will build the economy in a very short time if they are given the chance.”
Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe, has ruled the country during the tumultuous last three decades, and Fr Guri said he had been disappointed by the way Mugabe has run the country.
“President Mugabe is a very, very remarkable fellow,” he said. “To have managed to stay in power for 30 years is an act of genius.
“But I am very disappointed in him for overseeing and presiding over a litany of destruction of the country and of the people’s will.
“A lot of our people have left the country because of the mismanagement that has happened in the last 10 years, and are languishing in the diaspora.”
The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe has also had its run-ins with the Mugabe regime, but continues to fight for social justice.
“The Church is very much involved in the situation of people in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“It’s very much part of the struggle of the people of Zimbabwe for democracy and for good governance.”
Although Zimbabwe is a predominantly Christian country, with a large percentage of evangelical Protestants, religious freedom has been compromised in recent times.
“On the surface, people in Zimbabwe are free to worship… however, in the past 10 years there has been a lot of friction between Church groups and the current regime, when the Church challenged the government, or the Church provided support or protection to people who were being persecuted by the government,” Fr Guri said.
Nevertheless, Catholicism in Zimbabwe is steadily growing, with religion perhaps the only place to which people can turn in desperate times.
“The Church in Zimbabwe is very alive,” Fr Guri said.
“There’s a lot of interest and a lot of activity of people in the Church, a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of willingness of people to go to Church.”
Fr Guri said the major challenges faced by the Church in Zimbabwe were vastly different to those faced by the Church in Australia.
“We are two Churches at different stages,” he said.
“If I was going to come and work here on a permanent basis I would have to overhaul my pastoral theology.”
One of the biggest ongoing challenges for the Church in Zimbabwe has been the struggle to develop and express an authentically Zimbabwean Catholicism.
“We adopted a very Western form of Catholicism, and trying to make it a truly African expression and experience is the challenge of our catechesis, the challenge of our theology, the challenge of our liturgy,” Fr Guri said.
Another equally difficult task for the Church in Zimbabwe is providing sufficient formation to an unstable community.
“People have become more mobile, people tend to move a lot and it’s very difficult to have stable formation and catechetical programs when people are moving a lot,” Fr Guri said.
“We’ve got a new generation of people who… will easily do the seven years of primary school in seven different locations. The challenge for the Church is to keep apace with the new reality.”
While the future of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe appears bright, the nation’s people are struggling to remain hopeful about their country’s future.
“A lot of people have given up on the possibility of a change, not just a change in regime, but a change in regime mentality,” Fr Guri said.
“It’s very difficult to see another alternative after being battered for the past 10 years.”
For Fr Guri, the only way to combat such pessimism is by cultivating a firm hope and faith in God.
“I’ve been tempted a lot to think like everybody else,” he said.
“But I keep fighting my doubts and believing that there is hope that Zimbabwe has what it takes to change, to reinvent itself again.
“Without that hope and faith we are doomed.”