THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | 21 Years Living Under a Dictatorship

On November 15, the military took over my country’s main broadcasting station, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation, and announced that it had put our president of 37 long years under house arrest. A week later on the 21st, President Mugabe turned in his resignation letter just as the impeachment process in Parliament began. I watched all this from my dorm room, terrified that the bloodshed and pillage that I had seen in other countries like Syria, Somalia and Egypt had come to my home. I feared for the safety of my family back home. The army, however, was quick to put out the disclaimer that its actions were not a coup and news from my family, friends, and other countrymen mirrored these sentiments.