Kachere War Memoir

In the essay, “War Memoir,” by Marevasei Kachere, there was a civil war in Rhodesia and Kachere’s village had been taken over by the government in order to prevent the housing and training of guerilla rebels. In these camps food becomes something more than just a routine meal. The guards allowed the village residents time to search for food, but will beat them if they have even a slight suspicion that they are giving food to the rebellion. Kachere faces a dilemma and has to choose between staying with her village and hoping the war ends soon, or abandoning the village in hopes of finding a better life. Eventually Kachere leaves the camp and joins the rebellion where they have food of their own that is, at this point, luxury to her. I am arguing that in Kachere’s essay desperation turns food into the most valuable substance, and even overtakes currency, in a dystopia. It can even track the state of Kachere’s society through their forms of currency.

As war occurs around Kachere’s village, some citizens wanted to help the rebels fight for their causes in order to protect themselves and their children. In their society though, they did not have money to give, nor could the rebels use money. Kachere says that, “When they first came they questioned people about the presence of terrorists,

Money’s only value comes from what a couple rich people want it to be, and in turn everyone else puts the same value on it. It more represents the greed in us then an actual worth. Our culture sees money as something so much more important that some people will spend their entire lives trying to get more. If people were able to look past the fake value of money, we might be able to make changes to not only ourselves, but our culture as a whole. We are greedy for something that in actuality has no value. If we instead fought for something that mattered, society could instead fight to help better people and the community rather than