In one of the most unusual stories, a United Kingdom-based man’s desperate search for a Zimbabwean woman, who he shared an “amazing” experience with him more than 20 years ago, has tickled the fancy of many.
By Phyllis Mbanje
“This is an unusual search, if not an almost impossible one, I post this message more in hope than expectation of success. I am looking for someone whose name I don’t recall,” Jeorge Asare Djan said in an advertisement recently.
Djan flighted a desperate appeal in the media, saying he was looking for someone whose name he could not recall. He claims he shared a memorable connection with her at Chelsea College in London in 1992 on an art foundation course.
Djan’s poignant appeal is punctuated with seemingly romantic overtones that he carefully masks.
“The experience was of such an unusual nature . . . I am looking for her because we shared an amazing experience, the very first moment we spoke to one another,” he wrote.
Djan said it was something hard to process at the time and when he decided to talk to the woman, she had left the course.
He then launched into a narrative of how the woman looks like and his description, despite more than 20 years having passed, is astoundingly detailed.
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“She was of European extraction, full-figured, around 5,5 feet to 5,7 feet with a calm and placid demeanour.”
He describes her as well dressed in a casual manner, without being showy or wishing to standout. Djan even remembered that she produced illustrations of colourful flowers from Zimbabwe as part of the course assignments.
“She may have a passion or interest in the flowers of her homeland, gardening, horticulture and wildlife,” he said.
The woman was a foreign student from Zimbabwe, who was there with a male friend. His desperate plea was laced with raw emotion: “If you are that individual, I would dearly love to meet you again, for I am certain you saw what I saw and you heard what I heard and it had a meaning.”
He also reaches out to anyone who might have knowledge of the woman, saying: “If anyone reading this recognises the individual I am looking for, please pass on the message.”
NewsDay Weekender, keen to find out more about this man and his lost “friend”, got in touch with him.
But he expressed reservations about sharing more details about the nature of his relationship with the woman.
“I think I understand the interest in this story. Believe me, the unusualness of all of this is not lost on me.
Although I have to say I am not sure, I am all that comfortable with answering very revealing questions to the nation of Zimbabwe. I am not sure I want to lose the relative anonymity I have in the public arena,” Djan said.
Whichever way, his search has aroused a lot of interest, but the nature and the circumstances of the experience may never be known.
