God Blessed The Broken Road

Zimbabwe: Last Bastion of Africanism

Thank you for taking time to have this interview. I started reading New African in the 80s and that was when a friend, an academic recommended that I should never skip reading Baffour's beefs. With such a long history, I have so much to ask, but I will limit myself.

We were at Gwanzura Stadium on March 28, 2008 when President Mugabe held his last rally before the harmonised elections the following day. You made a remark that I will never forget - when you said that Zimbabweans did not know and understand what they were doing. What was it that you had observed and why were you concerned knowing that people were going to the polls the following day?

Thank you for being a long-time New African reader. Yes, Baffour's Beefs goes back a long way - in fact to July 1988, and it has allowed me room to vent my spleen and write about anything that came to my bald head.

It's been on and off, of late, because sustaining the column and making it relevant over this long period - is it 23 years? - is not easy.

I write out of inspiration, but sometimes I am so dry of inspiration that I feel it is not worth putting anything in that column. But it's been wonderful having it.

Regarding March 28, 2008 and President Mugabe's last election rally: As I stood in Gwanzura Stadium amidst all the cheering and chanting of party slogans, I felt that most Zimbabweans in and outside the stadium had not yet understood the "war" their country was in.

Perhaps, because it was not a hot war with bombs and airplanes flying about, most Zimbabweans had not factored - for lack of a better term - "cold war" that the imperial powers had unleashed on their country.

I had earlier spoken to the former Zimbabwean foreign minister, Stan Mudenge, who had told me what Robin Cook, the now deceased foreign secretary of Britain, had told him years before. "Stan," Cook had told Mudenge, "you guys must get rid of Bob (President Mugabe)."

Stan said he had told Cook back: "For the same reasons that you guys want him out, we want him in."

Cook then went on the offensive: "OK, you guys must not say we didn't warn you: If you don't get rid of Bob, what will hit you will make your people stone you in the streets."

What Cook said was pregnant with meaning. And, as a Ghanaian who had studied in depth how the imperial powers had overthrown our first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and succeeded in getting Ghana back in their sphere of influence, and also having then lived in Britain for 23 years and watched how Britain and its allies were so hung on bringing Zimbabwe down in the vain hope that it would spur the people to take to the streets and overthrow President Mugabe's Government, my soul was grieving that most Zimbabweans in 2008 did not appreciate the enormity of the war confronting their country.

(God) Bless the Broken Road « insert coins here

Lately, one of my close friends have been listening so much to Rascal Flatts causing a flooding of the band’s videos on my facebook newsfeed. i have heard their song “Bless the Broken Road” way back in the early part of 1st year 2nd semester.

To me, it seemed like another love song to me. But right now, I’m trying to see things in a different light and just like what my friend Jam told me, the YOU in the song could also be Jesus. I listened to it again and read the lyrics and i just felt like crying.

I set out on a narrow way, many years ago i would not deny, i have tried so much to sum up too much to the world’s standards. I didn’t accept who i was and how my life was going and how God made me. I was insecure and hurt and i tried hard to please others and satisfy their expectations of me but somehow, people disappoint me and hurt me. I was looking for love at the wrong places, from the from people, for the wrong reasons. I valued myself as how the world saw me. I used to be the “girl who was always on top” and it made me feel good that i was better than others at something. But time came when i can’t be on top anymore and it just broke me and i lost the enthusiasm to work for it. what was the use anyway? I was the fat girl who can’t be good enough at anything. –> normal teenage drama at that stage. Looking back, now i realized He was calling me all those times but i was too caught up in myself. Those pains, problems, rejections and humiliations were needed to make me strong, to be who i am now, to be where i am now: In Jesus arms because I finally found Him and surrendered to Him. I needed to love myself before others could love me. I had to know and feel the greatest love of all from Him. The true love that i was looking for was in Jesus all along. Every goal and selfish dream (with the standards of the world) i had for myself is nothing to me now. It was never about me. NEVER. This pretty much tells me where i am now. Jesus loves me and though there are times when i doubt if what i’m doing is pleasing to Him, i hold on to His hand and trust Him that He will take care and guide me. Just like any sinner, i felt terrible and sorry for who i was before. I wanted to praise Jesus and give back for what He gave for me (though i know that’s a price i could never pay back) but somehow, everything else tells me to LET GO AND LET GOD. God has plans for me.. they might not be easy but I know they are way bigger than what i have imagined and planned for myself Our broken times are sometimes ‘the wake up call’ to make us realize that we had forgotten HIM. That is why I would never choose to forget the sufferings I’ve been through, because like the song had said, they are nothern stars that lead us to our lover’s arms. and those difficult times led me back to Jesus when I had gone astray.