Gevas Moyo: A Man without a Country

Gevas Moyo speaking at the Kiwanis Club Meeting in Traverse City.

On Monday March 5, 2007, YourPlace had the opportunity to attend the Kiwanis Club meeting of Traverse City.  The luncheon speaker, Gevas Moyo, was a passionate man without a country.  Introduced as a Zimbabwean political refugee, a family man, and "the king of the air waves," Mr. Moyo began his talk with some personal background.  Mr. Moyo originally moved his family to Traverse City in 2001 from Zimbabwe, to pursue a Master's degree at Davenport University.  He laughed, saying that he had no idea that they would end up staying.  Although, he firmly states that the place he now calls home was a godsend.  Indeed, he found a church to attend that bears the name of his home Cathedral: St. Francis Catholic Church. 

 

Mr. Moyo highlighted the history of Zimbabwe explaining that, "some of the mistakes we see today, if people had studied history, probably could have been averted or avoided."  In the 20-minute talk (click the play button below to listen), Mr. Moyo shared his opinion on the colonization of Africa, the diamond trade, the rise of Black Nationalism and militancy, reconciliation, fast-track land reform, inflation, and agriculture.  With respect to agriculture, the country's most lucrative industry, he was despondent, "Zimbabwe use to feed the region...right now Zimbabwe cannot feed itself." 

 

He ended his speech with a plea. "My appeal today would be, let's contact people who can help, let's contact people who can put word in the ear of our leaders here in the US...if Zimbabwe was a factory it would have shut down, but sadly it is a country, people are trapped, they have no where to go..."

 

To listen to a portion of Gevas Moyo's speech by clicking on the play button below.

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