Resisting Forgetting In 'New' Zimbabwe

On November 22, after 37 years in power, Robert Mugabe resigned as president of Zimbabwe, albeit under pressure from the military. He had kept the country on tension for a week refusing to give in to resignation demands as tanks moved towards the presidential palace. Still, the prospect of the 93-year-old autocrat stepping down or forced out was already getting many Zimbabweans to their feet as the army assured the nation that the president and his wife were safe.

Mugabe took over as president in 1987 after seven years as prime minister. He was recently African Union chair and before his forced resignation had even got a short lived nod from the World Health Organisation as a Goodwill Ambassador. Zimbabweans have faced hardships since the early 2000s and their situation got worse in 2008 when Mugabe crashed the opposition after a threatening loss in the polls. As the economy collapsed and inflation skyrocketed, many Zimbabweans fled. There are more than 400,000 Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa to date.

So when the parliament speaker, Jacob Mudenda, announced that Mugabe had submitted his resignation in a letter, the country erupted in celebrations. Later, Emmerson Mnangagwa, a vice president that Mugabe had fired, and liberation war veteran known as “the Crocodile” was sworn in as the new president of Zimbabwe.

However, not everyone is jubilant. The writer Fungai Machirori narrates her experience of the change of leadership and why she still can't find any tears of joy. She remains "wary of forgetting"