Chapungu Sculpture Park

[Collimatrix]

Being that the antipode of Harare is closer to me than the entire continent of Africa, I find it odd and amusing that there is a Zimbabwean sculpture park within a thirty minutes drive of my house.  But the world is filled with such small wonders:

 

 

 

It's quite a large establishment, twenty acres or so and filled with carved stone statues from various Zimbabwean artists.

 

It's not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon.

 

The style of the carvings, to my eye, are deliberate callbacks to the soapstone birds of great Zimbabwe.

 

The ruins of Great Zimbabwe are the remnants of the seat of power of an iron-age polity.  During the period where the country was called Rhodesia, the official government line was that the ruins could not possibly have been constructed by blacks.  Archaeologists were censored from pointing out that they obviously were.

After Rhodesia became Zimbabwe the ruins and the soapstone bird carvings became a symbol of national identity.  That's why there's a little bird thingie on the flag of Zimbabwe:

 

All of this would be easier to celebrate if the leadership of Zimbabwe hadn't proven themselves such a pack of murderous swine.

[Toxn]

As opposed to Zimbabweans themselves - all the ones I've met/briefly dated have been honest, earnest, educated and hard working.

Politically, its kind of sad to see the level of patience they have for shitty governance. God knows my countrymen and I would be burning things if it ever got as bad as it did there. Let alone that it seems to be happening again.

[T___A]

 

All of this would be easier to celebrate if the leadership of Zimbabwe hadn't proven themselves such a pack of murderous swine.

 

How else did you expect Jimmy Carter to get slaves for his peanut plantation?

[Collimatrix]

As opposed to Zimbabweans themselves - all the ones I've met/briefly dated have been honest, earnest, educated and hard working.

Politically, its kind of sad to see the level of patience they have for shitty governance. God knows my countrymen and I would be burning things if it ever got as bad as it did there. Let alone that it seems to be happening again.

 

Brutality and intimidation go a long way in making people accept shitty governance.

 

When Mugabe sent his North Korean-trained thugs to murder thousands of Ndebele, where the hell was the Western press?  Where the hell was the wrath of NATO?

Mugabe was still a Western Media Darling.  If you are a Western Media Darling there is precious little you cannot get away with, at least in the short term.

 

Perhaps some day I'll write a piece on the final days of Rhodesia and the early days of Zimbabwe.  I think I'll call it "Georgia Peanut Farmers Suck Big Shona Dicks Volume One."

[Walter_Sobchak]

I know very little about Mugabe.  That said, what the hell is up with that mustache?  Anyone sporting the "mini-Hitler" stache really must suck.