Unrelated to reading fiction

...well, unrelated to fiction to the extent that the official story/results on the Zimbabwe election end up being "true" or "accurate".

My secondary education was light on history and politics outside of European and American history.  And even that was the skimmed, whitewashed version.  It wasn't until a poli sci class in college requiring daily reading of the world section of the paper that I paid any attention to what was going on outside the Western Hemisphere.  Even today, I tend to pay closer attention to elections in North & South America and Europe than I do to elections in Africa and Southeast Asia.  But I've been paying a lot of attention to what's going on in Zimbabwe.  

One of my colleagues is originally from Rhodesia, and hearing her perspective on what's going on is fascinating.  I asked if any of her family or friends would be among those returning to rebuild if the opposition won...and managed to take power without another civil war erupting.  Her answer:  no, there's nothing to go back for now.  Those they know who are still there are in terrible straits.   Even if she wanted to, she doesn't think she could go back, because her family had to give up their Rhodesian passports when they fled to South Africa.  She has now lived in the US longer than she lived in South Africa.  Although she says that Africa is in her blood, she doesn't ever expect to go back for anything other than a visit or vacation; she's an American now.

After our last discussion, it struck me how rootless I would feel if I could never go back to my birthplace or childhood home again.  (Even the name of the town where she was born has changed, erasing a little bit of her history.)  I suppose home isn't necessarily about a place, but about people and history.  But it's one thing to choose to never go back, and another thing entirely to be unable to return.