Am not entirely lost in The Netherlands.
Spent a few hours in the newsroom of Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) in Hilversum, 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam, and guess what? There are several Zimbabweans working here.
Nevanji Madanhire
I am seated next to one as I write this. Name of Shuan Matsheza who has been here since 2008.
He produces a programme called Speak Up, a 15 minute radio discussion with young people in Africa on the thorny issues they wouldn’t discuss openly in their countries, for example they recently discussed public show of affection in Nigeria and transgender issues in Zimbabwe.
The subject was the transgender individual arrested recently in Bulawayo; the theme had to do with individual privacy: is it necessary to pry into the private lives of individuals when we are not affected by what they do? Recently he also produced a program on commuter omnibus conductors.
Matsheza and his team cover countries such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi.
Several people in this newsroom have been to Zimbabwe and have lots of interesting stories to tell about our country. My fixer, for example, Serginho Roosblad was in Zimbabwe as recently as last month for Hifa together with Matsheza.
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RNW works with local partners in the countries they cover. It has signed a MoU with ZiFM in which the latter will produce Zimbabwean programs and broadcast them.
