The London Route

By Memory Dete-Mawere

The book is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. However, readers will note that the incidents are composites of real situations faced by Zimbabwean immigrants living in the United Kingdom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Aug 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469146997

Memory Dete-Mawere

MEMORY DETE-MAWERE WAS BORN AT Dombotombo Clinic, in Marondera Town, Zimbabwe, on 12 January 1975. She is the second daughter to the late Lazarus Dete and Mavis Dete nee Makoni. She has three sisters, namely, Patience and Felistas. She attended Courteney Selous Primary School from 1982 to 1988, Girls High School, from 1989 to 1992 and studied journalism at the Christian College of Southern Africa (CCOSA) from 1994 - 1996. She however did not branch to mainstream journalism but has worked for Non- Governmental Organizations in Harare, Zimbabwe in information and documentation roles. Her other publishing credits include magazine articles and nonfiction articles covering a wide variety of subjects which have been published in various magazines and websites. Memory is married to Musa Mawere and is blessed with a daughter, Vimbainashe, who was born on 13 October 2001. She can be contacted on her mobile number [phone] or on email address [e-mail] LONDON IS A COSMOPOLITAN AND racially diverse city, with a myriad of ethnic groups and Zimbabweans make up part of the immigrant community. Many Zimbabweans consider London to be the most exciting city in the world. After all, it has been around for centuries and to centuries and is famed for being the home of King Arthur and Robin Hood. Migrating to England was no mean feat for Zimbabweans, but that did not stop their mass exodus. Finding England to be a fascinating country, many professional Zimbabwean citizens chose to stay there permanently. But what happens in their lives as Zimbabwean immigrants is a mystery to many people. Whether you have “been there or done that” or whether you have only dreamt and longed to travel to London, by the time you finish reading this book, you will have a little bit of enlightenment on the experiences of Zimbabwean immigrants in England.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Memory Dete-Mawere.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4653-9648-8

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-4699-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers’ prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-800-618-969

www.xlibris.com.au

[e-mail]

501246

Contents

Chapter One      New Horizons

Chapter Two      Settling In London

Chapter Three      Finding a Place to Live in London

Chapter Four      Dzimba Dzamabwe

Chapter Five      Dot-Com

Chapter Six      The President’s Daughter

Chapter Seven      The Cleaners’ Cupboard

Chapter Eight      Love at First Sight

Chapter Nine      Divine Intervention

Chapter Ten      Going Back to Zimbabwe to Live

Dedication

The London Route is dedicated to Zimbabwean citizens who are living in England. Only those who have left Zimbabwe, for reasons best known to themselves, know of the unspeakable pain, which is involved with leaving. No one can describe the painful separation from family and friends and living in the wilderness.

About the Author

MEMORY DETE-MAWERE WAS BORN AT Dombotombo Clinic, in Marondera Town, Zimbabwe, on 12 January 1975. She is the second daughter to the late Lazarus and Mavis Dete. She has three sisters, namely, Patience and Felistas, who both reside in Australia with their families, and Rutendo, who lives with her family in Zimbabwe.

Memory attended Courteney Selous Primary School from 1982 to 1988, Girls High School, from 1989 to 1992 and studied journalism at the Christian College of Southern Africa (CCOSA) from 1994-1996.

She however did not branch to mainstream journalism but has worked for Non—Governmental Organizations in Harare, Zimbabwe in information and documentation roles. Currently she is working as a freelance journalist/researcher/writer and her other publishing credits include magazine articles and nonfiction articles covering a wide variety of subjects which have been published in various magazines and websites.

Memory is blessed with a daughter, Vimbainashe, who was born on 13 October 2001. She is married to Musa Mawere. She can be contacted on her mobile number [phone] or on email address [e-mail]

Introduction

MASS EXODUS TO "HARARE-NORTH"

BY MEMORY DETE-MAWERE

AS WE ALL KNOW, ZIMBABWE EXPERIENCED an unprecedented mass exodus of it’s citizens from all walks of life, to England. It was due to the influx of Zimbabwean citizens, who had joined the bandwagon to England, that England became colloquially known to Zimbabweans as "Harare-North".

The major wave of migration was both voluntary and involuntary, and for all sorts of reasons, and although many Zimbabweans claimed to be refugees from political persecution, most were actually fleeting inflation and not persecution and resolved to abandon or leave their country (it depends which way you look at it).

The massive emigration of professionals, inadvertently created a debilitating brain drain of highly qualified and experienced professionals such as lawyers, medical doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers etc. and seriously affected Zimbabwe economically.

Zimbabwean immigrants living in England were seen has having let the country down and were often berated by their fellow Zimbabweans back home for having ‘abandoned ship’ in search of better personal opportunities outside the country.

They however argued that that they had not "‘abandoned ship’ and had not cut their umbilical cord, but remained totally committed to their motherland in every possible respect. They asserted that their main reason for having left Zimbabwe was to support their family members as their intention was to improve the lives of their family members, who looked up to them when faced with death and many other social problems.

They also argued that remittances from England actually kept the Zimbabwean economy afloat and that half of Zimbabwean households had their lifestyles transformed for the better, as they frequently received money from distant relatives and friends who were are living in England.

It was in April 2002, that I traded my post of Information Officer for a Non Governmental Organization, and joined the bandwagon to England, and headed for the unknown. I had heard so many tales about England and naturally I was curious and excited. Other people told me how lucky I was to have this opportunity.

People back home gave me the impression that people in the Diaspora automatically become rich, but I was yet to find out that, in actual fact, no matter how much money people in England were making, there was a better quality of life in Zimbabwe.

When I set foot on English soil, there was no time to be wasted and I quickly realized that it is only in Africa where there is no hurry and where people do things lackadaisically. In England everyone seemed to always be in a terrible hurry and had to run after the time, as opposed to Zimbabwe, where one has "all the time in the world".

I noticed first hand as Sarudzai Elizabeth Chifamba-Barnes, notes in her book, The Endless Trail . . . ‘mwana washe muranda kumwe’ ( a king’s child is a slave elsewhere) as well as that ‘Gatwick maenzanise’ (Gatwick became the social equalizer) as those who did not possess any educational qualifications in Zimbabwe becoming of equal status with those of the Zimbabwean elite class.

As I became acclimatized to the stressful and hectic way of life for immigrants, my excitement at being in England soon wore off. I did not have time to even visit the historic places in England, which I had always heard about because it was all work and no play, if I wanted to live a decent life.

Of course I met some people who were doing extremely well but for the majority, life was hard and some even admitted to me, miserable. Most people had to work hard from dawn to dusk, often without a rest, to make ends meet, and it was no mean feat.

Many Zimbabweans had fallen prey to the extremely dangerous pattern of overworking themselves. The London grapevine circulated a rumor that a certain Zimbabwean woman had collapsed and died, while she was travelling home in the early hours of the morning, in a tube train, from one of her numerous night shifts. The doctor who performed the autopsy cited the cause of her sudden death as extreme exhaustion.

I juggled both work and college (I had gone to England on a student visa) but in the long run, I did not do well with the juggling act, and did not succeed in putting in