Neil in Zim: Cecil Rhodes flooded my AirBnB

I’ve been in my money spending era lately (cosplaying like I have money). I have about a month and half left in Zimbabwe and I realized that I haven’t been exploring enough lately. This is also an excuse for me to attempt at exercising work-life balance.

I went to Bulawayo (the other major city in Zimbabwe after Harare) with a fellow teacher and TA. We drove (about 6 hours) and passed through a lot of small towns. We stayed in a gorgeous 5-bedroom AirBnB on a four-acre lot with amazing views of Bulawayo. Ate some Indian food (Curry in a Hurry) and enjoyed listening to music more representative of Ndebele/Zulu/South Africa. The main reason I wanted to go to Bulawayo was to visit Matobo National Park. Several people have told me that this is the heart of Zimbabwe, with hills and rocks, etc. Notably, this is also where imperialist Mr. Cecil Rhodes’ grave is – he had it listed in his Will; and we visited his grave.

Cecil Rhodes was responsible for the Anglo-Ndebele war and the killing of so many Ndebele people, the stealing of countless natural resources, and the colonization of Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia), as well as the Rhodes Scholarship. Mr. Anesu cursed his grave when we visited, sprinkling water and ill wishes. We spent the rest of the day driving throughout the park, eating at a lovely restaurant for linner, and then returned to our AirBnB. I think Rhodes had heard us from his grave and wanted to return the gesture – when we arrived to our AirBnB, it was completely flooded (this was also around the same time as OceanGate) from top floor to bottom, every room. We frantically called our AirBnB host, but quickly found brooms to get out the water, and mops to dry it up. Luckily, the floor was tiled and cement, there was little furniture, and almost all of our belongings were not on the ground. Within an hour, we had cleaned up the place and it barely looked like anything had happened. The AirBnB host fully refunded our stay, and we enjoyed the night watching Spirited Away.

Speaking of Spirited Away, a few days before I went to Bulawayo, Michael (a PiAf fellow teaching at the African School of Economics in Benin) visited me in the African bush. We put on a recital for my students (he plays piano) of a lot of different music from around the world: Germany, Russia, Ghana, USA, Argentina, Japan. We also used it as a teaching opportunity to talk about music, how to clap in a concert, etc. We ended the concert with Studio Ghibli pieces, including from Spirited Away. My students really loved the concert – they said they saw a different part of me (the real me), and felt very English (colonial, I presume). Overall, I think the evening of music was really special and it was really sweet to be able to share another part of me with this little slice of the world I live in. You can see the recordings here.

Regarding the conflict I have with the boy TAs, one of them sat down with me to apologize. However, his apology was honestly an admission of being xenophobic against me. It was also to say that he feels my presence feels like I am rejecting his culture. Not sure why, but I think my conversation confirmed a lot of the thoughts I have of certain people who have not wanted me to feel welcome here. That’s not to say I don’t feel welcome as a whole, but not everyone seems to want me here (and that’s fine).

I think all of this has me really conflicted about leaving. To be honest, I have been feeling unsettled about ending here (sadness, but frustration, but excitement, etc.). It’s been a combination of feeling conflicted to leave, while also reflecting on my identity and positionality here, but also think about Eva’s death (but more specifically about how it’s impacted Alice).

On a brighter note, I’ve been thinking a lot about one of Lucy’s new research projects – looking at the path an ant takes to walk around/through a bird’s nest. There’s something really provocative about it, but I can’t put my finger on why. I mentioned it in today’s lesson (side note: I ate up today’s lesson! It was on quantitative data analysis, deciding what kind of hypothesis-tests to use depending on the variables, and visualization of data).

Anyway, here are some pictures as of late, a fundraising video I made for the school, and a Beyonce reference.