via A black valentine – The Zimbabwean 11 February 2015
It is Valentine’s Day weekend and February is the month of love. Once upon a time, when Zimbabwe’s farming sector was at its peak, the country’s cargo airline – remember Affretair ? – would have flown several times to European markets, hauling tonnes of flowers produced in a place once known as ‘the bread basket of southern Africa.’
Jason Moyo Avenue’s flower stalls would, at this time of the year, be fragrant with many scents and the country’s beautiful lasses would parade the towns, adorned in red – the colour of love.
Fast forward to 2015 and the flower-laden greenhouses which kept the country’s coffers full are no more. The beauty and hubbub surrounding the 14th of February is a distant memory. All that remains is the president’s birthday, inflicted upon a beleaguered nation, annually. Over 3million Zimbabweans live abroad; better to brave the northern hemisphere’s frosty winters than live a day under Mugabe’s rule.
Many who are jobless and without any money for chocolate and flowers will regret not being able to spoil their loved ones – when you can’t pay for a shopping basket, a picnic basket is bottom of your priorities.
Hundreds of thousands who benefitted financially from horticulture and its affiliated industries – tourism, hospitality, flower vending – will mourn a bygone era of prosperity. But the biggest loss is that of family ties that may never again be mended.
On this Valentine weekend, several wives, husbands, fiancés and even children will shed a tear for loved ones who have had to emigrate, because the place they call home has become unliveable.
Couples who exchanged vows and signed marriage certificates in rice-strewn chapels now only exchange Western Union codes. Divorce rates are higher nowadays, due to the strain brought about by economic hardship.
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