Zimbabwe: September 2008 Archives

I've moaned in the past about social kissing and I think I've found the solution: the African handshake.

This is one thing I'm definitely bringing back from Zimbabwe. It starts out conventionally enough, then goes a little bit street. It usually ends by holding hands for slightly too long. If you're lucky it might incorporate one of those gangster style hugs, or maybe an Obama style fist bump.

Perhaps I romanticise too much, but the whole thing seems to bring the warmth of Africa to any greeting. A definite improvement on the double mwah of the air kiss.

Matthew Hampton

Day one in Zimbabwe and we're off to a predictably surreal start.  

You'll be pleased to hear TW takes a starring role in a press conference, seated next to Zimbabwe Tourism Authority CEO Karikoga Kaseke.

Members of the local media document the proceedings, and we're treated to some legendary rhetoric, worthy of Bob Mugabe himself (I'll save that for the report), before ending with a slightly dubious photo opportunity.

Sensing a Jack Straw moment I manage to extricate myself from a handshake. Good thing too.

My one-man relief effort is already going awry. It's not every day I try to buy five packs of aspirin. But it's not every day I go to Zimbabwe.

Six months into my freelance career, this is one of the last trips I expected to make. Putting any ethical concerns aside, I've sold it to myself on the strength that it might do some good for ordinary Zimbabweans.

A friend at the Christian charity Tearfund advised me to take a few hard to obtain items and distribute them discretely.