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Zimbabwe has an election coming up

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My thanks to the United Nations Publication Board for permission to use this map of Zimbabwe, Map No. 4210 Rev.2, December 2017, UNITED NATIONS
(My thanks to the United Nations Publication Board for permission to use this map of Zimbabwe, Map No. 4210 Rev.2, December 2017, UNITED NATIONS)

Zimbabwe has an election coming up, so I thought I’d put together a few points about the country’s recent politics. (If you’re interested in the early history of the area, you might find this Britannica link useful.)

  1. The country became Zimbabwe in 1980.
  2. It is a presidential republic.
  3. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front) was the country’s first president, and ruled for 37 years.
  4. There was a ‘soft coup’ in 2017 which removed the 93-year-old Robert Mugabe from power.
  5. He was replaced by Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa – also ZANU-PF.
  6. On the 23 August 2023 Zimbabwe will go to the polls again.
  7. The 80-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa is standing as the presidential candidate for ZANU-PF.
  8. ZANU-PF has now ruled the country for over four decades.
  9. The main opposition is the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) led by 45-year-old Nelson Chamisa.
  10. Since 2000, elections in Zimbabwe have seen bitter contests between ZANU-PF and its main opposition (formerly known as the Movement for Democratic Change – MDC – led by Morgan Tsvangirai).
  11. Today there are allegations that the fairness of the upcoming elections has been damaged by systems that favour ZANU-PF and make it difficult for the opposition to hold rallies, or publicly challenge the government.

I hope we’ll get to see what really happens there in a month’s time.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Postcard book review: Muhammad Najem, War Reporter

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This book is a true story about the impact of the war in Syria on a young boy, Muhammad Najem, who grew up beneath the bombs. The circumstances are awful, but even though this graphic memoir never hides from that reality, the way it is told left me thinking not about damage, but about the power of the hope and courage that grow in the roots of loving families.

The story begins at the outbreak of the Syrian War in 2011. Muhammad is just eight years old, and has two big brothers and both parents still alive. Much will change. We are shown everything through Muhammad’s eyes, seeing the horrors unfold to the point where, aged 15, he feels compelled to record the damage on a mobile and send it out into the world via social media.

“I want to show the world what is happening in Syria.”

Muhammad’s posts are seen. I can remember seeing a few on Twitter, and I struggled to believe then that they were real. In America the same reaction was happening, but one young reporter, Nora Neus, decided to contact Muhammad. She followed his posts closely, and over the years since has got to know the family and their lives, eventually working with Muhammad, and the illustrator, Julie Robine, to produce this book.

I had the great privilege of reading the book with a young reader whose family are from Syria. At the time I was worried that it might bring the trauma too close, but it did not. Rather there was joy at being able to read about ‘home’, and a hunger for the intimate family details, particularly the love story that emerges at the end.

I think this is such a powerful book, mainly because of the way it manages to bring us so close to Muhammad and his family. We live the bombardments beside them, and then, right at the end, just in case we might be doubting the reality of any of it, there are photographs confirming what we have been shown.

How did I come across this book? Nora Neus, is the daughter of a friend of mine.

The first edition of the book was published in 2022 by Little Brown and Company (New York and Boston)

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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A little more about tomato plants

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A week ago I posted about the smallest of my tomato plants, one of the crop still struggling up from the seeds that I planted from the same packet at the same time, slightly late in the season.

The smallest of the plants is still not making much progress, but today I looked at the biggest of its siblings and discovered these tiny ‘love-apples’ hiding in amongst the leaves. The name love-apple is new to me, and only recently discovered thanks to an old Encylopaedia Britannica, published in 1797, (if I have got the Roman numerals right – MDCCXCVII). This was how it described the tomato, entered under ‘solanum’.

We may have added to the way we eat tomatoes since this entry was listed but, as far as I can discover, they are still classified botanically as berries.

A final piece of tomato trivia that I found out from more recent online sources, is that the world’s largest producer of tomatoes, by far, is China.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023