Zimbabwe: The dream of a better life | DW Documentary

Zimbabwe: The dream of a better life | DW Documentary

The income that I am getting, I feel it’s not enough. It can cover [the basics], but the amount is enough so that I can save for something. I can’t save any. So I am thinking if I just try to venture into a different country altogether and see if it works. I’m just trying. It’s a trial. I am just going to try something and see if it works. I came to the UK 2015. I’m a domiciliary carer. I help the elderly live their lives as normal as possible and I go to university as well. I haven’t been to Zimbabwe since I came here. I am missing my family quite a lot. In Zimbabwe, I support about 4 people. My mom, my two cousins, and occasionally my sister Kiki. The most that I’ve ever sent to my mom was 200 pounds. Most of the time, I’d just send her about a hundred pounds every month, because I’m still a student, I don’t really get much. I came to the UK in September 2015. That’s the same year my sister Portia came to the UK as well. For my job, I work as an IT Consultant and engineer in schools. I do dance, Southern African Contemporary and traditional dance forms. It’s my side self-employed business. When I first moved, I had to think about finding myself again, in this new continent. On average, I send home about a 150 to 200 pounds per month, depending on who needs that money and why, because I don’t earn very much myself here in this country as an immigrant. I left Zimbabwe in 2008, because my life was threatened. I was threatened, because of my sexual orientation. I work 3 jobs, as an actor, a hotel manager and a freelance translator. I send money to Zim[babwe] when I can. I miss my family and Zim, but I cannot go home, because I would be risking my life if I did. LGBTQIA+ people have no legal protection from violence and discrimination in our country. So with the pandemic, the effects of COVID-19 continue to be felt globally and Zimbabweans have not been spared a recent study by… Aw, that’s such a sweet thing to say. All the time! All the time! All the time, Mommy. Good question. In August. In August. She said in August! Yay! So it’s set. Definitely August. Yeah, definitely. Now that the queen has said it! I’m actually going to Bulawayo to see my mum. It’s been about three years without seeing my mum. It’s been a while. I don’t have money right now. I’m broke. So I hope she won’t mind me being there whilst still broke. Because I haven’t been paid. Hopefully our salary will be coming anytime this month-end. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Compliments of the new season. I just want to shed some light on the issue of COVID 19 allowances. I don’t think there’s much we can do about it. It’s most likely that we’ll get our January pay very late. We should not pin our hopes on money that will not come soon. Just so we know. Thank you. My phone never stops. One of my friends just lost his wife this morning, so we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to assist him. We’re going have to send him some money through Mukuru to help with the funeral. Message from Mum. It’s not just about saving up for this constant, like, visits to home, but it’s also about saving up to actually have money that’s readily available for family emergencies and family support, because we know that the systems are not the same as the systems here. There’s a high demand for money, especially foreign currency, and a whole lot of, like, stigmas around being in the diaspora versus being in Africa. Because you’d be expected to be obviously earning more money, which is true, but I earn money that’s relative to the economy of London. So it might be more money to someone who doesn’t live here, but to me, it’s not very much money. You will always have a responsibility to send money home. Remittances are sort of like the backbone of so many people’s lives. Every month you’ll have someone from home that will say, “Oh, please, I need money for this.” There’s no month that will go by without having to send someone something, or [having to] think about sending someone some money. Speed up a little bit. I’m trying. Do you know I’m fifteen years older than you? 1, 2, 3… 8, 9, 10,… 19, good one, check. You’re just trying to kill me, that’s what. Nice. I’m ready. Can we go home? What do you think is your future? Do you see yourself going back to Congo? I would, trust me. You see, for me it’s different, I don’t see myself… I love my country, I love being in touch with family that are there, but there isn’t an opportunity to kick-starting a new career as somebody that left and went so far ahead in my career to go back. It would be a setback. What about your mom? She’s got a lot at stake there at the moment, stuff that she’s building and she’s looking after, you know, my little cousins there. She’s got a whole thing running and, you know, we help support where we can, if there’s anything needed. I can be more useful to Zim and to… …to Bulawayo from this side than being actually there myself. I mean that’s the situation in most Congolese lives as well. You need to make the money. You need to do what you need to do to live. Yeah. I’m getting message after message after message. And you’re trying not to answer them today, I see. Sometimes I just wanna switch my phone off and not attend to anything besides what I want to attend to. And it’s just simply not that possible. Hello! I feel lonely, bored. I feel like I would go back to Bulawayo and still have more days with Mom and everyone. I’m not earning much, but I believe if I go to Poland, I might be a better daughter than I am now. Hello! Hello! Hello, Mom. You have to come for your birthday. Do you feel I didn’t give you a chance to talk? No. It was alright, you were straight to the point. I didn’t think I needed a chance to talk. Okay, that’s good. So we’re good. Relationships are more important than stuff. You can’t always just look after stuff, you gotta look after relationships as well. So, that’s what this means to me at the moment and I’ll be damned if she’s going to not come, because of a house that needs to be painted. How does it feel to be graduated? You’ve done a very good job. Oh, thank you. Listen to your mother. So what we need to do, is we need to make sure we all dedicate an amount that we are going to put together. I’ll calculate and then I’ll text you guys what it will cost. Yeah, I can see. Alright, let’s end this here. Thank you, guys. It was nice talking to you. See you later, take care! Me being a foreigner, it’s something that I really don’t like. In Poland, I could be stranded and no one can maybe try and help me, because I will be alone. Those were two of my uncles. The last few times they haven’t helped, so I’ve been doing a whole lot of payments and sending money, which is a little bit of… struggling a bit to put stuff together. I just feel like I’m stretching myself more than other people are. And it’s a little bit of a strain at the moment.

Zimbabwe’s economy has collapsed and many young people emigrate to earn money. Those who remain in Zimbabwe rely on remittances from family members who work in Europe or other African countries.

“Transactions” tells the story of migration in Zimbabwe through the eyes of one family whose members have been separated by the failed economy. Frank, who lives in Cape Town, and Miles and Portia, who work in Britain, support their family back home through regular remittances. At the same time, they yearn for their homeland. A fourth sister, Chrysthle, still lives in Zimbabwe and is unable to offer the family any financial help, despite her full-time job. Their mother, Mamilo, is the central point of contact for everyone in the extended family in Zimbabwe. Anyone who needs money comes to her, full of hope. But with every loan, tensions rise. Frank wants to help, but he resents it when his mother uses the money for things he doesn’t agree with.

After the Covid-19 pandemic leads to hard lockdowns in South Africa and Zimbabwe, life becomes increasingly difficult. Mamilo urges her youngest daughter Chrysthle to follow in the steps of her siblings and leave Zimbabwe.

This intimate film documents the situation faced by Frank and his family. How much are they prepared to sacrifice to provide for their family?

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