The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Reporter
FOR imbibers a beer drinking outing should either be serene or lively with loud music being belted on the spot as they make an effort to drown their sorrows or exhilarate their celebratory mood.
In essence the environment where one partakes the “wise waters” depends on their choice or mood. In Zimbabwe, especially in Matabeleland region, particularly in Bulawayo, the need for one to seek an appropriate or alternative environment to down their favourite brand of liquor led to the birth of shebeens.
A shebeen was originally an illicit bar or club where excisable alcoholic beverages were sold without a licence. The term has spread far from its origins in Ireland, to Scotland, Canada, the United States, England, Zimbabwe, the English-speaking Caribbean, Namibia, and South Africa.
Shebeens are however, still illegal drinking spots in Zimbabwe despite numerous attempts by various lobby groups and legislators such as the late luminaries Sydney Malunga and Dr Sikhanyiso Duke Ndlovu to have them legalised. To them, shebeens were a place of socialisation among men from the same neighbourhood and are said to have played an integral role in the uprising against the British colonial rule.
As these beer drinking houses became more and more popular and famous, they began to attract women imbibers with some flocking there to solicit for the purpose of prostitution.
In recent times MDC legislator, Thabitha Khumalo has joined the fray to legalise these binging houses.
Not to be outdone, settlers at Ngozi Mine squatter camp in Bulawayo are now home to a number of these home drinking holes.
Ngozi Mine is situated at a City Council dump site on the outskirts of Bulawayo, which is at the peripherals of the high-density suburbs of Cowdray Park and Emakhandeni as well as the medium and low-density suburbs of Richmond and Norwood respectively.
Its habitants are mostly unemployed men and women mostly youths that seek a living through picking up and modifying various items that are dumped at the garbage site for resale. Instead of coming daily to their “workstation” most opted to reside within its vicinity.
Some individuals might rebuke Ngozi Mine settlers as societal misfits or outcasts but in reality these people are merely less-privileged members of the community.
Upon realising that they needed a place for leisurely whiling away the time after a laborious day of poking and fidgeting the mountainous heavily stinking junk offloaded by trucks at the dump site in search of “potential valuable” wares and goodies, some enterprising settlers started to operate shebeens.
The Sunday Life news crew paid a courtesy call at Ngozi Mine on Wednesday to explore how members of this community spend their pastime. This reporter warmly greeted one young man probably aged 25 and asked where one could buy beer. The young man pointed at a cluster of shanty houses. As the news crew’s vehicle meandered and made its way in between shacks, made of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and cardboard boxes, it attracted the curiosity of most of the residents more so because of its smartly dressed occupants.
Most of the people were visibly unsettled and shaken by the presence of these (news crew) strangers probably purporting they intended to disturb their “peace”. The uncertainty mood that had engulfed that section within the vicinity of the lagoon soon died after this reporter pulled a couple of the “greenback” notes to buy two calabashes of opaque beer and invited some of the patrons seated on the veranda at Freedom “Sihlama” Maseko’s shebeen for a drink.
“We spend most of our time searching for various wares in the heaps of garbage that will have been offloaded by trucks. It is quite a tiresome chore and thus the shebeens afford an opportunity for those that drink beer to refresh while taking their favourite brew,” said one of the settlers, Brighton Dube.
Maseko’s sheeben is just like most of the shanties at the squatter area save only for the fact that it has a veranda with huge speakers pitched on poles balancing the roof of the balcony.
The shebeen king who is probably above 60 years of age specialises in selling opaque beer. At Maseko’s drinking hole, imbibers have to brace the ordeal of hordes of the flies lingering around them while at the same time taking gulps of opaque beer in a bid to outsmart the “naughty” flying insects from plunging into their liquor.
“We host a number of patrons here even those coming from nearby suburbs. Even some affluent people have been here as well,” said an elated-looking Maseko.
As the news crew’s local drinking mates mellowed and started co-existing, Brighton suggested that they move to another lively joint which sells bottled ice-cold beer.
Brighton added that MaMoyo’s shebeen was a haven of local and “foreign” prostitutes that would have shied away from stiff competition at other red-light districts. The commercial sex workers are said to be charging a paltry $1 for a session. The cheap services rendered by the ladies of the night seems to be the one luring men and more clientele at the lagoon’s “up-market” shebeen.
“This shebeen is the best in this area. It is even frequented by drinkers from Cowdray Park and Emakhandeni suburbs. If you come here on Fridays and Saturdays there will be a hive of activity with local ladies as well as those from the nearby suburbs soliciting for sex for the purpose of prostitution,” he said.
As the news crew made their way to MaMoyo’s shebeen in the company of Brighton it also noted that cases of early marriages were rampant at the shanty town as girls as young as 15 years were said to be married.
“Most of these girls whom you are seeing are married but there are plenty others that make a living through prostitution,” said Brighton.
MaMoyo’s beer selling venture seems to be lucrative as the shebeen queen is even contemplating buying a gas-powered refrigerator to stock more consignments.
The shebeen queen currently stores her beer in a huge cooler box, which would be packed with ice with a blanket placed on the basement of the container as a “coolant” to keep the beers in chilled conditions for “some time”.
“This is the only shebeen around here that sells bottled beer. I buy ice blocks in Cowdray Park which I use to keep the beer cold. It can stay chilled for up to two days. I however, intend to buy a fridge which is powered using gas,” said a bragging MaMoyo.
