On April 19, 2016, pastor Evan Mawarire sat in his church office feeling hopeless and overwhelmed with a sense of failure. He couldn’t afford his daughters’ kindergarten fees (one of many consequences of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse under dictator Robert Mugabe).
So, he did something simple yet extraordinary.
He placed his phone on a Bible and recorded a 4:11-minute video about what it felt like to live under Mugabe's rule.
By morning, the video had gone viral. His first reaction? “Oh no. Oh noooo.”
He knew the danger of speaking out in Zimbabwe -- you either go to prison or run for the border... or worse.
In spite of the fear, Evan would go on to lead a peaceful uprising against the regime—risking everything to demand a better future. He was determined for his daughters not to experience the failure of their dad within the failure of a country.
As you can imagine, interviewing him last week was the honour of a lifetime. In our conversation, we talked about how Evan became an unlikely activist, financial repression as a weapon wielded by dictators, and why freedom technologies—like Bitcoin—are vital for those who live under authoritarianism.
His battlecry to freedom tech builders? “Keep building for the least among us.”
If you watch one thing today, please let it be this (skip to min. 2):
https://www.youtube.com/live/PhDuPy05dbY?si=WIBykxUhZNdb2SUg
