VOICE OF WITNESS
NEEDS YOUR HELP.
- - - -
Since 2004, McSweeney's has been publishing the Voice of Witness series of books—collections of oral histories that illuminate human-rights crises throughout the world. Rachel Maddow, of MSNBC, said this about the series:
These books are amazing ... beautifully produced, with incredible editing and literary sensibility. Voice of Witness has done a better job than I've seen anybody do with having people tell their stories in a way that really engages you.
Voice of Witness is a nonprofit organization. Right now, it needs your help.
It currently has a book in progress that will give a platform to dozens of Zimbaweans affected by the long and disastrous reign of Robert Mugabe. Two of our editors have just returned from Zimbabwe, where they interviewed dozens of witnesses around the country and engaged local interviewers to continue the work of collecting eyewitness testimony in a country where freedom of expression is often brutally suppressed.
The problem is that these important Voice of Witness books are expensive to produce, and right now the series is just about flat broke.
We need your help to finish this book, and to continue doing the work of Voice of Witness. Nine thousand dollars will get us to press on this crucial book of Zimbabwean voices.
If you can donate any sum, no matter how small, click here for more information.
More About Voice of Witness
The Voice of Witness series empowers those most closely affected by contemporary social injustice. So far, we've published the following titles:
Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated (edited by Dave Eggers and Lola Vollen)
Voices From the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath (edited by Chris Ying and Lola Vollen)
Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives (edited by Peter Orner)
Out of Exile: Narratives From the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan (edited by Craig Walzer)
Voice of Witness books have gained critical acclaim from many sources, including Publishers Weekly, the London Guardian, and the San Francisco Chronicle:
"No less than revelatory."
—Publishers Weekly
"Essential ... an admirable project."
—John Freeman, San Francisco Chronicle
"This collection of powerful, moving stories amplifies voices ... with a sensitivity and deference that puts them at the center of the narrative, where they belong, rather than as statistics or scene setters."
—ENOUGH Project co-chair John Prendergast on Out of Exile
"In a time when history is told in cheap television re-enactments, if at all, and personal tragedy is gobbled up in rapidly digestible magazine photos and reality shows, this project goes against the grain."
—Guardian
"The series does not so much weave a tapestry from different experiences as braid a rope, a lifeline by which we might haul ourselves into a less ignorant, more actively compassionate future. In them, the specific illuminates the general, destroying preconceptions, stereotypes, and cop-out responses along the way."
—Richard Vernon, Sojourners magazine
"Underground America is an excellent introduction to an ongoing social disaster. It gives a face to people in the country who are one injury, one legal problem, away from ruin."
—Oscar Villalon, The California Report
"Bold and heartbreaking."
—John Hood, Miami SunPost
"Underground America does an excellent job of showing the human side of the underground world of millions [of] people in the United States."
—Susanna Zaraysky, New America Media
"The interviewees tell their horrifying tales with a combination of grace, anger, and clarity that's entirely engaging ... Once you experience their history, you'll have no choice but to remember it."
—Mia Lipman, San Francisco magazine
Voice of Witness Needs Your Help
With the help of translators and interviewers in Zimbabwe, many of whom are themselves struggling to survive, Voice of Witness has been collecting powerful stories from men and women disenfranchised by the reign of President Mugabe. Our editors have just returned from Zimbabwe and South Africa. You can read about their experience here. Below are some brief excerpts from their interviews:
People have for years been intimidated by the political structures here. They would rather keep their families safe, their jobs safe. Voices are not really heard. And now it's harder than ever.
- - - -
I worked as a volunteer during the last election for MDC. This was in the rural area where I am from. I was arrested and then they tortured me. One of the things they did was hit me on my legs with a truncheon. They told me if I made any noise at all they would hit me harder. The more I screamed, the harder they struck.
- - - -
My husband and I lost our jobs a few years ago. Recently, we started a business. We sell packaging materials to the restaurants and hotels that are still open. I know it's strange to start a business at a time like this. But what choice did we have? We have three children and no money except for some useless Zim dollars. The alternative was to simply die.
Right now, we need your help to make this project a reality and provide a platform for these unheard voices. Your donation, no matter the amount, will make a real difference:
$25 will buy a tape recorder for our interviewers.
$50 pays for an interviewer's transportation and meals for two days.
$100 pays for a translator and transcriber for three interviews.
Note: Your donation is tax-deductible.
FAQ About Donating to Voice of Witness
Q: How do I make an online donation?
A: For online credit-card donations to Voice of Witness, please visit the Intersection for the Arts donation website. Fill in the donation form, and type "Voice of Witness" in the field labeled "Intersection Incubator donors only—Name of recipient project."
Q: Can I write a check?
A: Sure. Please make checks out to Intersection for the Arts. Be sure to put "Voice of Witness" in the memo line. Send donations to:
Voice of Witness
849 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Q: Who are Intersection for the Arts?
A: Voice of Witness is fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows us to offer you tax deductions for your contributions.
Q: Who can I contact if I have more questions?
A: Please feel free to call Mimi Lok from Voice of Witness at (415) 642-5684 or Bea Dominguez from Intersection for the Arts at (415) 626-2787, ext. 109.
To thank you for your support, we're offering these gifts for the following donation amounts:
$250 or more: A signed set of VOW books (each signed by its editors)
$50–$100: A signed copy of our latest title, Out of Exile (signed by Dave Eggers and Craig Walzer)
$25: A Voice of Witness T-shirt
When making your donation, please indicate if you'd like to receive a gift or not by e-mailing mimi.lok@voiceofwitness.com. Also, please indicate whether or not you'd like to be acknowledged on our website.
Thank you!
Notes From Zimbabwe, January 2009
It's been raining in Harare for the last few days and the city is overgrown and green. Weeds grow tall and lush beside the roads. I'm struck by how silent everything seems. All is quiet, as if the entire capital were holding its breath, waiting. But for what? Nobody knows. Zimbabweans, it seems, have stopped waiting for anything in particular. They've spent years waiting and know better than to get their hopes up. The best they can hope for now is something—anything—different.
We drive at night. There are no streetlights. Our headlights pick up people walking by the side of the road. Others walk down the median. No one looks directly at us. Traffic lights aren't functioning; they're merely empty, hollow eyes in the dark. Just a few other cars on the road. At intersections, people are polite, hesitant. You go. No, after you, please. Nobody hoots their horn at anybody else. We drive by Harare City Hall: completely dark. We drive by Harare General Hospital: also completely dark.
Some statistics estimate that at least one-third of the population has fled to neighboring countries, mostly South Africa, but also Mozambique, Botswana, and Namibia. And every day the Zimbabwean diaspora becomes larger. They're leaving because of systemic political violence, lack of jobs, the almost total breakdown of education and health-care systems, and rising rates of deadly disease, most notably cholera. It's impossible to know if this one-third estimate is correct, but the country feels emptier. On my first visit to Zimbabwe, in 1992, I remember Harare as being especially bustling, an up-and-coming African capital, a regional and cultural hub in a country that was feeding itself and educating its people. For instance, I remember the bookstores in particular. They were well stocked with books by such great Zimbabwean writers as Dambudzo Marechera, Charles Mungoshi, and Chenjerai Hove. No bookstores are left in Harare. A few of the remaining stationery stores sell dusty books, but the titles are mostly by popular American and British authors. Nobody buys them.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest inflation rates ever recorded. This week, the government issued a trillion-dollar note. Yet no matter how often new denominations are issued, inflation (due to, among other factors, the collapse of agricultural and industrial production) keeps rising. Today's rate: 34 trillion Zim dollars to one American dollar. Soldiers are paid in bundles of cash that are dumped out of trucks like hay bales.
People laugh and laugh over the zeros. What choice do they have but to laugh? An article in one of the few remaining independent newspapers, the Financial Gazette (known locally as the Pink Paper), laments the nation's loss of identity, as their currency has become a national and international joke.
On the street, it's almost completely an American-dollar economy. Milk is two American dollars; bread is one. A Mars bar can go for three. A bag of maize is between eight and ten. Most people, though, don't have many dollars. In the shops, as on the roads, people tend to be quiet. They wait patiently with their few dollars gripped tightly in their hands. Only crisp, clean bills are accepted. A sign at the Bon Marché supermarket in Harare reads: Dear Valued Customers: Please note soiled, torn, written on, or stamped notes are not accepted. Thank you. Cashiers examine each bill with the concentration and intensity of jewelers. Often, they reject them. And yet even then there are few confrontations, no raised voices. These supermarket cashiers hold an immense amount of power in Zimbabwe these days, but they don't tend to abuse it. They simply shake their heads sadly at the bills they can't take, and wait as the person silently separates out the groceries they now can no longer afford.
But dig a little deeper, ask a few questions, and people begin to tell you their stories, quietly at first. One man who did some work for the opposition party MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) during elections a few years ago tells us how he was tortured. While he was being hit on the legs, he was ordered to keep quiet. If he made any noise, he would be hit harder. A woman, a young mother, tells us she fears for her children and prays that she'll be able to scrounge up enough dollars to pay for food through next week. Another man, a teacher, tells us he had to stop teaching, explaining, "How can I love these children if I know what some of their parents do."
Today's headline: "MUKOKO ABDUCTED BY STATE SECURITY, ADMITS MINISTER." Jestina Mukoko, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), was kidnapped by state security agents after being accused of recruiting personnel for military training in Botswana. Yet, instead of being arrested and booked, Mukoko was taken away and hidden for 19 days, during which time she was beaten. In other news, Robert Mugabe and his wife, Grace, are on holiday in Malaysia.
- - - -
OTHER McSWEENEY'S FEATURES:
- - - -
Voice of Witness Needs Your Help
An Honest Acceptance Speech By Mali Perl
Roomba FAQ By Dan Moreau
Suggested Scenarios for Howie Mandel's Howie Do It By Benjamin Kumming
Commentary by David Simon, Creator of The Wire, for the He's Just Not That Into You DVD By Maureen Miller
Red dot denotes content that is new today.
Black dot denotes newish content.