Nothing other than Beauty and Hope

The Muzondiwa family left Zimbabwe at a time when it was difficult to buy even bread. They talk colonisation in Africa and Aotearoa, and whether finding a "true" cultural identity is possible.

Watch the video version of the episode here

The Muzondiwa family left Zimbabwe about 10 years ago, with mum Nyembezi arriving here first, for two years by herself.

"It was very difficult, to be honest, to move over here without your family. I got so skinny because I could hardly eat. Every time I sat down to eat, I would think of my kids back home because there was nothing over there, even in the supermarkets."

As a registered nurse, Nyembezi was able to work hard to save enough money to bring her husband Amos and their two daughters, Shalom and Takunda, over. Their third child Ben was born here in Aotearoa. Amos is now a pastor; Shalom is at university; and Takunda is in her final year of high school. This episode features a conversation between Nyembezi, Amos, and Takunda. Amongst other topics, they reflect on how it feels to go back to Zimbabwe.

Amos reflects, "Unfortunately, now every time you go back, things are worse than they were last year. It's always a huge disappointment each time you go back and so-and-so has died and you have missed being together in times of crisis. And there's always that sense of, people think we don't care."

Takunda chips in, "We, like, left them."

"Yeah, like, we have abandoned them... and even though nobody is saying that, you kind of feel it," adds Amos.

After many years here, the Muzondiwa family have a lot to say about the 'tools' colonisation employs to keep communities operating on a tier below their European counterparts. This episode dissects frankly the effects of colonisation, and the ways that diaspora children try and search for an authentic version of their cultural identity, which, as Amos explains to Takunda, is in many ways an imagined concept.

"I think it is also important for you kids to know that even when you see me and your mother and probably even my parents, those people that you are seeing are no longer Africans. Essentially, you are looking at a European in a black skin, and we are still negotiating what it means to be really African ourselves."

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details