Transcripts For CSPAN Atlantic Council Hosts Discussion On G

Council for this mornings conversation. Ands really a privilege distinct pleasure to be able to to thestor Atlantic Council. He is a zimbabwean pastor of a small church and until april of this year, he was not widely known even within this country, let alone to those of us who follow African Affairs outside the country. Figure or a political activist. In fact, his identity as an average citizen of the country citizensental to the movement gaining the widespread traction that it has throughout the country. Now known to all of us through the trademark zimbabwean flag draped around his shoulders, his face is familiar, particularly to those who have been following events unfolding in zimbabwe over months. That out of his frustration at the corruption and injustice of the poverty in zimbabwe, he took to social media to express his disappointment at the lack of progress made in the country since independence. , the u. S. Am power , thesador to the u. N. Country becoming a basket case over the decades. And the movement with the video that he posted it went viral. He has suffered the consequences of calling the government out. Arrested and his house and office were searched. And the war and curiously claimed that he had stolen a button. Bad inthings were zimbabwe but i didnt know they were that bad. Something that was corrected on the part of the authorities. He has been charged with inciting public violence, later constitutionally elected government. And i suspect the news coming out in the last 48 hours is to be credited you will be shortly charged with being a cyber terrorist, which makes you a first at the Atlantic Council. We have posted many discussions but we haverorism never hosted a cyber terrorist. Thousands of wellwishers have gathered around the courthouse from when you were arrested and brought to trial. And you were subsequently released from the magistrate when they throughout the charges. We are very privileged to have you here. Not only because you have ignited the hope of zimbabweans, whose now voices can be individually heard, but also reunited those of us who follow this country from afar. Our own belief that perhaps somehow, some sort of peaceful transition is possible. For that we thank you. You join us here on the stage where our mandate here at the Atlantic Councils African Center has been to promote insperity, promote prosperity, stability and security in africa through greater geopolitical partnerships, with the peoples and the nations of africa, and certainly that comes with a peaceful transition in zambales. We have had the pleasure of hosting anyone from government ministers to members of parliament to members of the opposition here. It is now our privilege to welcome you as a representative not of a political movement, per se, but of the aspirations of a people that have been longing for some time for peaceful change and progress. Pastor evan, welcome to the Atlantic Council. The floor is yours. [applause] evan wow. If, three months ago, you had told me that i would have to speak on behalf of my country, or if you have told me three months ago that i had to run from home overnight, if you told me that my family would be accosted in the middle of the night at home, if you told me that my kids would be watched at school as my wife picked them up, i really would have asked that you had a medical checkup or some sort, because there was no way that i couldve ever planned what has happened. Let me first of all start by acknowledging the presence of my fellow citizens of the beautiful nation of zimbabwe. Thank you so much for standing for your nation. Thank you for raising your voices, from thousands of miles away, we heard the voices and we felt the passion and unity, and we are so excited that distance Means Nothing now to you and me. We have learned that we can be one and that we can stand for what we have always believed, and that you and i communicate to each other now in ways from people that are far removed from the reality we live in do not understand. We have had zimbabwe in our hearts for so long. It has felt like a crime to feel like zimbabwe can be better than the one we have. Sometimes, you and i have taken a peek into our hearts to look at the zimbabwe we long for, and we quickly hide it. When we had the chance to take it out, on our own, at night when we can back at home, or when we watch our kids sleeping, and you wish to yourself, its if only symbolic way be the nation it is supposed to be i believe we are standing at the cusp of an opportunity that allows us to see this beautiful nation become exactly what it is supposed to be. Let me also take this chance to thank the citizens of the world, that have allowed us to be able to congregate here today and tell our own story, through our own eyes, with our own voices. When i think about zimbabwe and i think about where we have come from, i think about the fact that my grandfather went to war against colonialism, and so did my father as a young man. And those two men did not see what they fought for. They gave birth to me and i have not seen what they fought for. I have come to a place where my children, my five year old and threeyearold, have to see the kind of zimbabwe that my forefathers believed in when they went to liberate our country. I made the decision i was not allowed to people that took my father streams to take mine. They have taken mine. I am 39 years old, but they cannot take my childrens dreams. You cannot do that. You have to forgive me, i am so passionate about zimbabwe. And sometimes, you have heard about zimbabwe, but you hear it through research. You hear it through statistics, you never get to see the tears. Sometimes, the tears are necessary. For you to understand. For us, it is not about votes. It is just about life. It is just about wanting to be free in our own country. It is about me wanting zimbabwe to be the best place for a zimbabwean to live. My friends say, you cry too much. Please do not cry when you go. [laughter] but this is happening in zimbabwe, we are crying. We cannot suppress the tears anymore. We have been taught for so long, to put up a bold face to always make a plan, but we cannot do that anymore. That is what caused me to stand up. That is what has caused me to be able to raise my voice and say, i dont know what may happen to me, but i cannot justify my silence anymore. The bible, which is a force that drives me, says in james, chapter one, verse 27, it says true religion, that god our father accepts, is to fight for the widows and the orphans. Zimbabwe has the unenviable record of a rising number of orphans, because moms and dads are dying before they can see their children grown up and enjoy the sweet spots of zimbabwe. They are dying of diseases that can be cured. They are dying because they have no access to good health. They are dying because they do not have decent incomes to look after their children. So, as a pastor, i cannot justify my silence anymore. When men and women sleep on the streets, and the irony of it is, it is not just the street. There is a street named after robert moog abbe, our president. Every night, hordes of vendors, old senior citizens, old women sleep in the streets together with their grandchildren, because their daughters and sons have traveled to lands far off to work for the family. So grandma must sleep with that child on the street, not because she does not have a home, but she was not able to make enough profit. She could not make . 25 or . 50 on her six tomatoes to be able to go home and come back the next day, so they sleep on Robert Mugabe street. That is the reality of what our nation is going through. On a road named after our own president. We are saying our government has failed. We are not afraid to raise our voices, because it is the truth. The citizens of zimbabwe are the missing link. We are the missing voice. We are the voice that has not been present in the timeline of building zimbabwe. We have realized that. Over the years we have called on foreign powers. We have called on the african union. We have called on all sorts of people to come in and help. While we are glad for the help, we realized that nobody loves you more than a zimbabwean. We have to be at the forefront of pushing our country in the direction we wanted to go. We cannot expect anyone to do it for us. So what began as an accident has today become a voice, and i am glad it is not about me. I am glad my fellow citizens realize it is not up to one person and it is not about him. He may have spoken up first but every one of us is responsible for where our country needs to go. So we begin with a simple video i posted one day as i sat in my office and so frustrated at the situation. I failed to raise school fees for my children and still have not been able to. The reason why i recorded that video is because i looked at the small flag that sits on the desk in my office. And i thought to myself, this flag makes a promise to me as a zimbabwean. But what this promise stands for in a state of my nation are so far apart, i felt like this flag was a fraud. I felt like the promise had been compromised. That everything that this flag stands for is something that is a promise that has been broken. But it also dawned on me at that moment of frustration, as i limited the fact that my country seem to have stood in the way of my dreams, it dawned on me, im the one responsible. I am the one responsible for helping zimbabwe to regain an honorable place amongst the nations of the world. I realize that me and my fellow citizens, wherever we went, we would hide when we saw the zimbabwe flag. That we would keep silent and hope no one noticed when people were talking about zimbabwe and what was going on. We were so ashamed. Now the idea is that you and i must stand. We will represent zimbabwe better than any politician, because we live the life every day. We are the month that case one goes on in zimbabwe every day. So today, i really come to join my fellow citizens to tell that story of zimbabwe, to tell how we are turning it around, and to invite anyone who wants to help us to come and do so on the condition that you are helping the citizen. That you hear our story, and you understand where we come from. But if the world was never to help us, if there was never going to be anyone that would come to our rescue, we want the world to know that we have discovered that we are the heroes that we have been waiting for. [applause] i will end my opening remarks this morning by letting you know that i am not a man of vast educational assumptions, but i do know when i am hungry. I know when i can see that my future is being destroyed. This one statement encapsulates how we stand and how we carry on today and it simply says this. It says, if we cannot cause the politicians to change, then we must inspire the citizens to be bold. That is our rallying cry. All we have is each other. We are discovering that our power is in our numbers. We are discovering that the tenacity we have to ride through tough Economic Times must now be used to face our own government who will not listen to us. All we have said is they must be held accountable. They have threatened us, they have arrested us. They have beaten us, as early as a couple of hours ago, my countrymen in zimbabwe, today demonstrating against the cash crisis and the bond notes that want to be introduced. Unarmed citizens were beaten. We want our government to know that they will beat us some more and they will jail us some more but we will only get stronger. The generation is now on their hands and we have had enough. We have drawn a line in the sand that says we will hold you accountable. If we voted for you, we will ask the tough questions. So i ask that even as we discuss this this morning, you do so with the thought that my brothers and sisters on the ground in zimbabwe face a very harsh reality. My very presence in the United States is courtesy of citizen number one in zimbabwe, who himself said people like mawarire have no place in zimbabwe and must leave. But that is my home. Absolutely nobody, including the president of the republic of zimbabwe, can ban or any other citizen from my home, for standing up what i believe. I close my remark for staying what i said in response to the president the first time he asked me to leave. I said, there are many things you can do, mr. President , but there are two things that you are powerless in this season to do. You cannot stop your son from setting and you cannot stop mine from rising. Thank you. [applause] peter thank you very much, pastor evan, for those remarks. Very inspirational remarks. It left us with a great deal to ponder. We will carry those sentiments out with us and apply them, not only in the case of zimbabwe, which we know is close to your heart, but many other nations in africa. Your comment about if we cannot convince the politicians, then we have to inspire the citizens to be bold. I think that applies in many places, so thank you for bringing that voice. Now to moderate and lead this conversation. By the way, i neglected one of my obligations earlier as acting chair to inform you, if you are tweeting out or engaging in social media or cyber terrorism about this event, the hashtag is aczim. We are delighted to facilitate this conversation. The newest member of the team here at the Atlantic Councils africa center, a person who worked hard over the last few weeks to pull this event together, along with the other members of the team. Chloe mcgrath is a south african fulbright grantee who recently joined as a visiting fellow, to develop our Southern Africa work and to reinforce it. We decided we needed to build up, because of what was going on in zimbabwe but also in other countries in Southern Africa, we needed to reinforce our work in that part of the continent. Chloe grew up in malawi, worked in south africa, tanzania, kenya, and zimbabwe in a variety of research and consulting positions. She has followed the events closely the events unfolding in zimbabwe, and recently, for those of us that are washington insiders, wrote a very powerful and good piece in Foreign Policy explaining the significance of the thisflag movement. When she was previously here with us during her graduate studies as an intern, already as an intern, she showed extraordinary promise. She wrote the case study on external support for nonviolent civil resistance movements in zimbabwe for the Atlantic Councils Strategic Force site future of authoritarianism project. So we are delighted to have her back. Delighted to turn the floor over to chloe to moderate this discussion with pastor evan. [applause] chloe thank you, everyone, for being with us today. Its a great privilege at the Atlantic Council to host evan mawarire. Thank you for sharing your heart with us. That is something that resonates with all of us massively. Thank you for being vulnerable with us. I want to start by asking, it seems that you became an activist in some ways, by mistake. If you dont mind me putting it that way. I know a lot of people have wondered, what is the significance about this moment . There have been many times where we thought there was a chance for change. We looked at the 2008 elections, the excitement around that, specifically when the parallel vote tabulations showed that the opposition had won the election. So what is it about this specific time in zimbabwes history that has given this flag so much traction . Evan from my perspective, a couple of things have taken place. Foremost, the growth of the demographic of millennials is something that zimbabwe didnt really watch out for. And these are a group of people that have such a passion for zimbabwe that we have not seen in a long time. Maybe we havent seen this passion since the war of liberation. So these people are fearless. And they connect easily. Couple that with an opportunity to express your discontent and you get something that is explosive. That,fferences in citizens are just regular people like myself and they have finally decided that i have nothing to lose. As i have lost everything as it is. And i am about to lose more. And i remember one of the flashpoints over the last few months is protesting the bond notes. A currency that the government wants to introduce in zimbabwe withhey say it will be 11 the u. S. Dollar but it is backed by nothing. And i think for the regular citizen, they are thinking to themselves, how stupid do you think we are . Excuse me if i am not politically correct. In those circles where you have to be careful about certain things. Thanks very much. Some things might happen that you are not comfortable with. But we got to the point where. Verybody said wait a minute how stupid do you think we are that you want to introduce a note that has no value and it is going to take everything that i have saved and this is the second time you have done it and you want me to just be quiet . Even when people have spoken to us as citizens, they say we are too emotional and we need to put then and we need to complaints across in a more formal manner and we said no, the time for formality is done. Its ok for the emotions to come out. Thats all we have left to show. They have taken the shirts off our backs. Think what is different right now is that there is a passionate group of people who understand the issues. Refusing to be hoodwinked by our government. Who are refusing to be sidetracked by what the real issues are. No matter what the propaganda is , we stick to the issues of corruption, injustice and poverty. That is the differentiating factor. A group of young people who have said we are done. We are not afraid anymore. It means, we are fed up and we are not afraid anymore. We are not afraid to stand up or to tell you the truth. We have a constitution that allows us to speak the men and women that secured freedom for us have felt for a long time that enough is enough. Our generation has provided that voice, they backed that up. There is a consensus of crosspolitical divide, racial divide. We have an unprecedented level of unity, and that is exciting. Could you outline for us how the movement went from this one video you posted on social media to the streets . I know a lot of people dismissed it as a social media fad, did not think it would have a lot of impact. This is the first time im. Dmitting this fad. D start as a it was, lets do something on social media that will be fun. But he laughed at us and called us names. At that point, it started to change. This is the thing with zimbabweans that we are aware of. Ornever we have complained try to hold them to account, they treat us as if we dont think. Your western founded and western funded. I started to think about the fact, what is so western founded about the fact that i cant send my kids to school, and pensioners can only access 20 a month of their own money . I went to a