Zimbabwe Life Overview

To many people Zimbabwe life has not been easy in the 10 painful years of the Zimbabwe crisis. The Zimbabwe economy deteriorated from year 2000 non-stop to about 2010 with many Zimbabwe people losing their jobs. The overall result has been increasing poverty, lack of education and very poor living standards.

Life in Zimbabwe for many people has been one without much to look forward to due to the general despair associated with bad politics. For many people much hope had been pinned upon the opposition political party MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai to bring change to Zimbabwe. However, the ten years of continued economic and political turmoil with no end in sight brought complete mistrust and a lack of hope that Zimbabwe life would ever improve.

The majority of Zimbabweans for many years has been used to living below the poverty datum line. In fact most people in Zimbabwe especially in rural Zimbabwe live on less than US$1.00 per day. There is hardly any money to send children to school or take care of the medical needs of the family.

With high unemployment levels exceeding 80% most Zimbabweans have found refuge in neighbouring countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and even Malawi. An estimated 3.5 million people are said to be living in the diaspora. These numbers vary. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe gave a number of about 1.3 million in the diaspora. This would also include the UK and the United States of America.

The shaky political settlement of 2009 brought some relief to most Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe life greatly improved with the easy availability of food-stuffs in shops. The removal of the Zimbabwe currency in favour of multi-currency system also reduced inflation and in fact threw Zimbabwe into a period of deflation as everything is now being sold in United States Dollars or the South Africa Rand.

From that perspective standard of life has generally improved in Zimbabwe. A significant number of people can now access goods and services and education is showing signs of renewed hope once again. However, the continued contradictions in the new government of Zimbabwe which is a coalition of leading political parties remains a great worry for many people in Zimbabwe. Across cities in Zimbabwe the memories of the period 2000 to 2009 are are clear nightmare that many dare not about reliving.

What Zimbabweans do with their time

Zimbabweans are an easy going people. They value family and working hard for their families. A Monday to Friday week in Zimbabwe is a working week. People go to work and many others run their informal business such as selling wares amongst other things. Saturday and Sunday are essentially rest days. Only service providers are open the morning half of a Saturday most closing at 1 pm.

Weekends are also an opportunity to visit family and friends within the cities. Friends also take time to be with one another during weekends. Many people go to church on Sunday as generally most Zimbabweans are Christians. Some also believe in the traditional religion such that for a huge percentage the two are mixed.

It is part of Zimbabwe life to go and watch a soccer match on a Sunday afternoon. Zimbabweans are generally soccer lovers who follow local and international soccer fixtures and tournaments with a passion especially amongst the men. Soccer is therefore an important aspect of life in Zimbabwe. Other sports are important in Zimbabwe but clearly fail to command the same type of following as soccer.

The younger modern westernised generation of Zimbabweans like to spend time at shopping malls hanging out with friends. Parting is also popular with young more affluent Zimbabweans. House parties are organised during weekends and at special holidays. The younger generations of Zimbabweans pursue life in Zimbabwe the American way imitating what comes out in movies, satellite TV, music videos and the Internet.