/ 19 April 2013

Zim: Accidental celebrity returns to her roots and tumbles to earth

Makosi Musambasi appears to be reinventing herself to fit the local environment.
Makosi Musambasi appears to be reinventing herself to fit the local environment.

Musambasi returned to Zimbabwe in October last year, but appears to be grappling with the country's obsession with politics and little care for celebrities.

Musambasi said she is now on a path to "rebuild her image and find a place at home", which at one time she seemed determined to avoid coming back to. Her plight was widely publicised after an embarrassing deportation from the UK because she had allegedly attempted to use a friend's passport to get into that country after her own permit was not renewed by the home office. 

Musambasi then lived for a while in Nigeria, where she reportedly took on a controversial modelling job. After a while, she bravely made the trip back home.

Returning to Zimbabwe brought her face to face with how she had represented herself and the nation to the world. Musambasi described coming back home as a long road. 

"I found the courage to face the music, even if I didn't like the tune, and to be responsible for my own actions, knowing that a country is only as good as its own people," she said in an interview with the Mail & Guardian recently.

Her time on the reality TV show is something she prefers not to talk about, but said that it is a chapter in her life that needs a book of its own. 

Political consciousness
"Even though I was thousands of miles away from home, I felt the wrath of Zimbabweans. For the first time, I realised that being a Zimbabwean is not about geographical location. Wherever you are in the world, what you do is a reflection of where you come from."

Absent during the height of the country's political and economic turmoil, Musambasi relies on stories told by her family and friends as she seeks to relate with the country's political polarisation. Sounding detached from reality, she said: "I am told that life got hard during those days; the food shortages, sanctions, the cholera outbreak, the devalued currency."

A new political consciousness seems to have dawned on Musambasi, or perhaps the reality that celebrity status does not mean much in Zimbabwe. 

As a so-called born-free – children born in or after 1980, the year the country attained its independence – she also turns 33 and, like the country, finds herself at a crossroads as an election looms. 

Musambasi said she is finding her own way after she "lost it" in the past 10 years. The same could also be said for the country.

Part of fulfilling that creed, she said, will see her cast her vote in the pending election for the first time.

"I am excited at the prospect of participating in my first Zimbabwean election, an obligation we all have. Casting my vote is a sacred reminder of the responsibility I have and not just for me, but for all generations to come."

I'm not convinced. For her, voting appears to be a pastime, a part of a struggle for public relevance.

I asked her about rumours on social media that she is keen to start her own talk show that will be aired on the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. She refused to comment.

I walk away with the feeling that, if she had the chance, she would be on the next flight to London, away from a place called home where she no longer fits in.