Getting back to, getting on with life

As I disembarked from the 9pm flight, a large photo of Robert Mugabe is displayed on each of the walls in the arrivals hall. The blue carpet and old fashioned airport chairs made the arrivals hall feel like not much had changed since the 1970’s. This would have been state of the art then, but not had changed since.

Harare is a city of stark contrasts. The public infrastructure, roads and traffic lights are in a state of disrepair. Litter lines the pavements (as is the case in most African cities), and the “Zimbabwean National Botanical” gardens are overgrown and look more like an ill-maintained lot.

Then we arrived at the guest house where we would be staying. It used to be an old farm house and within the surrounding walls was a small piece of paradise. Manicured gardens and a well maintained space, with service from the staff in long white aprons as I imagine it would have been under colonial rule.

The next day our aim was to visit some retail stores and see the state of the market from the point of view of my customer. Our first stop was a Spar store. The shelves were FULL of stock, with95% of the brands we’d see in a similar store in South Africa.

“This is one of the ‘new’ Spar stores, which has just been redone” – the local operator told me. 

It was as though I could have been in any grocery store in the smart northern suburbs of Johannesburg. The store was clean and modern. Prices in US dollars were roughly the same as they would be in South Africa - This is in a country that 3 years ago, had inflation figures at over 2000% per annum, lacked basic commodities and looked hopeless. An in-store marketing campaign, boasting that consumers could win a car, shows the ‘re-found sophistication’ of this market.

In spite of this sophistication - 150m down the road in the informal market a street vendor sells loaves of bread to passersby. The social economics of most African countries, force people towards an entrepreneurial spirit, and they get on and make a living. Always with a smile on their face.

That's how Africa is.