An Outsider Within

Mary Ndlovu

Description

'In 1966, at the age of 23, I made a life-changing decision.' That decision, to travel from Canada to Zambia to work as a volunteer teacher, did indeed change Mary's life. During her years in Lusaka, she married Edward Ndlovu, an executive member of the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union, who had escaped from Rhodesia in 1964. They married, started a family, and moved to the newly independent Zimbabwe in 1980
Over the next 36 years, before retiring to Canada, Mary's life was a blend of politics, teaching, human rights advocacy, and writing NGO histories. The book is particularly candid and insightful about issues of race and culture: raising children of mixed race in an historically segregated educational system; dealing with the responses of traditional medicine to the AIDS epidemic; learning to fit in with a large extended family.
Her experience as the widow of a National Hero, and her engagement with a range of civil society organisations, gave her an intimate proximity to political developments in the new Zimbabwe, and she writes of these with clarity, honesty and moral courage.

Sujets

• Autobiography
• Memoir
• Biography
• Personal Memoirs

Informations

• Publié par: Weaver Press
• Date de parution: 08 mai 2024
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781779224330
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

AnOutsiderWithin

AnOutsiderWithin

A Memoir of love, of loss, of perseverance

Mary E. Ndlovu

Pubîsed by Weaver Press, Box A1922, Avondae, Harare. 2023 <www.weaverpresszîmbabwe.com>

© Mary Ndovu, 2023

Typeset by Weaver Press Cover Desîgn: Zanee Ndovu Maps by Parascope ïnvestments (Pvt) td., Harare

A potos except were oterwîse îndîcated are rom te autor’s persona coectîon.

A rîgts reserved. No part o te pubîcatîon may be reproduced, stored în a retrîeva system or transmîtted în any orm by any means – eectronîc, mecanîca, potocopyîng, recordîng, or oterwîse – wîtout te express wrîtten permîssîon o te pubîser.

ïSBN: 978-1-77922-431-6 (p/b) ïSBN: 978-1-77922-432-3 (ePub) ïSBN: 978-1-77922-433-0 (PDF)

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Contents

Map of Zimbabwe and neigbouring states Map of Zimbabwe Autor’s Note

A Lifetime Diversion Scool in te Bus A President’s Visit Misfit he University of Zambia Africa Day and After Going Home te Roundabout Way Austrian Interlude London Limbo Reluctant Returnee Development Decade? Questions witout Answers Marking Time – or Preparing for Return? Hig Dive First Steps Matero Girls Scool Tying te Knot Facing Reality Settling Down Becoming a Moter UNZA Again for Me: Canada for Edward A Home at Last University Lecturer he Political Logjam begins to Crumble Living in te Sadow of War Growing Family and Absent Husband Canadian Holiday Geneva Conference Loss of a Leader

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xi xii xiii

1 3 12 14 17 21 26 31 34 40 43 47 50 54 57 62 65 70 74 78 85 89 92 98 103 108 111 114

Refugees and Militants: te Binaries of War Belonging – or Not Family Crisis he War Intensifies Scooling in Wartime Hope for Peace at Last Zimbabwe’s Independence Election – 1980 A Long-Awaited Day A New Home Ekaya First Year in Zimbabwe Teacer Again A Year of Disasters – 1982 Canging Prospects Producing housands of Teacers ‘Darkness at Noon’ More Loss A Year of Catastropes Pulled in Two Directions Detention Prison Walls Treason Free Again Hillside Teacers College – Education Department Hillside Teacers College – Teacing Practice Cildren – Home and Scool Beyond Scool and Home A Surprise Development A Big Decision Dark Clouds A Hero’s Burial Picking up te Pieces Canging World, Canging Zimbabwe Srinking Family Time for a Career Cange A New Work Environment

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i

117 120 124 129 136 141 145 150 154 157 164 168 175 182 187 191 198 202 207 211 216 219 223 226 232 239 244 250 256 260 265 270 273 278 282 289

Widening Horizons Teacing Human Rigts to te Police – Daring te  Impossible? Callenging Times – Breaking te Silence Zimbabwe Reaces Tipping Point Tectonic Sifts Witccraft – Muc More tan Magic Viral Devastation – AIDS on te Marc he Next Generations Struggling towards Democracy Living a New Normal New Directions in Work and Family Fractured Families – Zimbabwean Diaspora Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) Politics Ascendant Building a Movement Activist Adventures Annus Horribilis – 2008 Quadrillionaire Daring to Believe in Unity Becoming a Historian Binga Beckons Lucky Once More A Last hrow of te History Dice Closing te Circle Epilogue – Remembering Edward

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300 304 308 313 319 322 328 333 339 345 349 354 359 364 369 375 381 386 392 400 405 409 414 418

Dedication

This memoir is dedicated to the memory of Edward Ndlovu, my loving husband, partner, friend, companion, greatly missed for over thirty years.

And to Tyler Mhlanga, my beloved eldest granddaughter, taken from us two years go; and to my treasured first-born Gugu, who passed away while this book was in production.

It is also written for my children and grandchildren, Zanele, Vulindlela, Zimmi, Kaya-kii, Zoe Ayo, Thabelo, Isabel and Gemma. And for anyone with questions to be answered.