‘I Had No Time For Emotions’ - The Impeachment Of Mugabe, Through A Photographer’s Lens

Jekesai Njikizana felt the mood change quickly as members of Zimbabwe's parliament gathered for a special joint session Nov. 21. 

At first, “the atmosphere was very strange,” said the Zimbabwean photographer who works for Agence France-Presse in Harare. “You had a sense of how momentous the occasion was.”

‘I Had No Time For Emotions’ - The Impeachment Of Mugabe, Through A Photographer’s Lens

The joint session had just one item on its agenda: to impeach president Robert Mugabe, who had ruled Zimbabwe since it gained its independence from Great Britain in 1980. “When the parliamentarians began their impeachment process, they were saying things about Mugabe that hadn't been said in public in this country for more than a generation,” said Njikizana in an email interview.

As both members of Mugabe's ruling party, Zanu-PF, and opposition leaders agreed in their criticism of their president, the speaker, Jacob Mudenda, suddenly called for a halt to the proceedings. “That's when I became alert to the tension in the air,” Njikizana said.

‘I Had No Time For Emotions’ - The Impeachment Of Mugabe, Through A Photographer’s Lens

The speaker, with a crackle in his voice, asked for patience as he read a letter he had just been handed. “Then, everyone in the room realized something big was in the offing.”

Source - ‘I Had No Time For Emotions’ - The Impeachment Of Mugabe, Through A Photographer’s Lens.