Kudzanai Musengi

I am a multi-media freelance journalist working mainly from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, with over 18 years’ experience in print and radio journalism. 
I initially pursued a career in teaching, but after an increasing interest in journalism in the
intervening years, I went back to college and graduated from a public journalism school in the country in 2002.

I share the view of famous British playwright Tom Stoppard who once said: “I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.”

Since November 2006 until the latest changes in Washington DC, I have been a regular stringer for the Voice of America's Zimbabwe Service or Studio 7, a radio station that was broadcasting to Zimbabwe from the US. The station, established in 2003 with the help of some journalists living in exile, became a credible, popular alternative to the propaganda churned out by state-owned electronic media in the country.
The state has had a stranglehold on electronic media from the time the country attained independence in 1980.

I have over the years also had the opportunity to write for other media houses including the now-defunct New Frame, which was based in South Africa; the Financial Times, BBC (Focus on Africa) and Agence France Presse, or AFP.

In spite of a seemingly endless and much reported cycle of socioeconomic problems, I believe there is still a lot to report on in Zimbabwe.