name and shame

It's a hard thing for us murungus (whites). We tell people to call us by our first names as soon as we strike up a friendship. In Zimbabwe, once you become a parent, you lose your first name. You become mai (mother of) and then your child's name or baba (father) and your child's name. After a few years here, I see now how Zimbabweans wince before using a white person's first name. It's such a foreign concept. Even the shop assistant down the road, an unmarried youth in his early 20s, isn't plain Harry to his co-workers. He's Mukoma (brother or cousin) Harry.

"Imagine calling an old lady by her first name," E. said to me once in horror. We were talking about an 80-year-old mutual acquaintance, a white woman who I know as Bet. E's in his 50s. "I just can't do it."

It's only occasionally that you see black Zimbabweans referred to by their first names. Like in the election campaigns. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's running his campaign under the slogan Morgan is more ("You deserve more for your life"). Former finance minister Simba Makoni is using sunflowers and the shout: Simba KaOne (Simba is the one). Only Mugabe's campaigners never ever talk of Bob. Now that would be disrespectful.