I was in Zimbabwe during the coup

Can you remember what you were doing on 14th November 2017 at around noon? Don’t go back to the calendar and see it was a Tuesday and say “duhh it was a weekday, of course, I was in the office.” Nope. That doesn’t cut it. I mean, what were you doing exactly? Or was it who you were doing? What were you wearing? Or not wearing? Do you know who you talked to? What were you talking about? Listen. If you won a lottery or something really traumatizing happened to you on that day because you chose to forget your girlfriend’s birthday or your marriage anniversary, then it’s difficult to remember the exact details. I remember 14th November 2017 vividly.  Some people tend to remember what happened on a specific date if something good or bad happened on that day. Well, I remember 14th November 2017 vividly. It was the day that I would witness a coup for the first time in my life.  If you ask me what I was wearing two days ago, I will have a hard time trying to recall but not  14th November 2017?  I was in faux braids; I was wearing a denim overall, a grey shirt and maroon flat shoes.

It all started when Tatenda of Free Walking Tour Harare to show me around. Tatenda does this service free of charge and if you are ever in Harare, contact her for a free city tour.

A few hours later, Tendai, Tatenda’s friend joined us. Don’t you love Zimbabweans’ names? Anyway, we decided to grab lunch at Chicken Inn, and in typical tourist style I said: “YOU GUYS HAVE CHICKEN INN TOO?” Tendai responded as a matter of factly “What do you mean us too? Chicken inn is a Zimbabwean franchise under Innscor Africa.”

Kenyans, at this point I would like to break it to you that Tendai was right. I do not know why I always assumed that chicken inn is a Kenyan brand. Oh yeah, Pizza Inn and Creamy inn too. All Zimbabwean. All this time I had been living a lie

After this shocking revelation, we continued eating. The chicken did not taste the same after that. Okay. I lie. I am still a regular at chicken inn.  I remember asking various questions about Zim like why their carnivore has giraffe meat on the menu. How do you even slaughter a  giraffe surely?

All this time, while I was busy getting familiar with the culture, a whole freaking military take over had already happened.  Imagine that. And I had no idea. (insert clapping emoji here)

People went on with their business as usual, or so it seemed. I swear. Nothing tipped me off that something was amiss.  It was until I got to where I was staying and my WiFi connected When I got 100 WhatsApp messages, 20 twitter DMS and Instagram messages all saying “RIOBA. GET OUT OF HARARE. NOW. THERE’S BEEN A COUP!!!!”  Okay, maybe the DMS were not that many, who do you think I am, Queen of the North?  I don’t even have that many friends, but nevertheless, the messages startled me.  I was there thinking maybe these people reaching out had the wrong country because a coup? In Zim? How? I had been in Harare the whole day, and I saw no damn coup.

I would not have believed the messages until  I switched on the TV and saw a guy in military uniform speaking on TV. Guys, I may not know how a coup looks like, but I know that no army man is responsible for broadcasting the news.

Hell broke loose.

He was saying something in either Shona or was it Ndebele? Whatever it was, it sent me straight to the capital of panic nation. And those who know Rioba, also know that once she panics, she will wear that feeling elegantly and I suited up entirely with a matching headband.

I didn’t even know what that army guy was saying, I had never witnessed a coup in my entire life, so I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I was traveling alone in a foreign country, and there was a military dude on TV talking about an apparent coup that had happened. The colorful trees that I had earlier found beautiful? They made me feel dizzy. I felt sick. I was nauseous, and I no longer had the energy to talk to anyone on the phone.  I had traveled through 5 countries, and until then I had never questioned my decision to go solo until this very moment.

My panic took me to the owner of the place, a tall, gentle man who saw the terror written on my face and asked one of the workers to bring me a Zambezi. How dare he? Its like he had heard that to calm this girl down you have to get her a beer.  And What do you know? It worked! He sat down, and he asked why I was worried. WAU!! I gave him the are you serious though look and sipped my beer. He asked me where I was from and after saying Kenya, he laughed and said, “Don’t worry. We Zims are very peaceful people. You won’t fall into any harm. ”
I was about to say, “What’s that supposed to mean? Kenyans are peaceful!”  Then I remembered how horrible and messy things were back home due to the elections and I kept my parrot pie shut.

It got worse because we had made plans with Tatenda to explore the outskirts of Harare then her text came in, ” Rioba… Can’t make it tomorrow. I don’t think it will be safe to walk around.”

Want to know how I afford to travel? Have a look at my cheat sheet:

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