I share with Judith Todd the same year, and the same country, of birth, but this is merely by the way. It helped draw my attention to her account of how she has become caught up in what she calls ‘the perilous evil of the present’ in Zimbabwe:
I was born in Zimbabwe in 1943. In 2001 Zimbabwe’s Registrar-General of Citizenship, Tobaiwa Mudede, refused to renew my passport. Along with his master and fellow Zezuru tribesman, Robert Mugabe, Mudede was intent on wiping out the citizenship and voting rights of any Zimbabwean of whatever colour or background thought to be against the ruling party, ZANU PF. It is estimated that this has affected a minimum of 2 million Zimbabweans, and perhaps even as much as 25% of our population.