I am essentially a village boy; I did not see the city until I was well over twenty. Now I am receiving my advanced education overseas. It is exciting, but it also involves tremendous emotional and cultural risks. How it all ends up is yet to be seen.

One thing has always been important since the day I began to dream of an intellectual, academic, and political experience beyond the borders of Zimbabwe: A man like me, whose parents never saw a school door, must ask himself if he can really justify such a risky and expensive investment in education. My parents and my brothers and sisters ask the same question, and they are right to ask it.