A different way of life

13 May, 2018 - 00:05 0 Views
A different way of life Looking terrified . . . These children from Doma community feel uneasy with the presence of strangers while standing in front of a hut where they stay with their grandmother at Mariga village in Kanyemba last week - Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda

The Sunday Mail

Veronica Gwaze
In this thick forest, one-roomed structures built with poles and earth are common dwellings.

No one farms in the truest sense of the term in this community in the extreme northeast of Zimbabwe, and hunting and gathering is the preferred means of subsistence.

The Sunday Mail recently visited the Doma to get an insight into the lives of this highly conservative group.

Their founding myth is that their ancestors emerged from a baobab tree, and they are the only traditional hunter gatherers indigenous to Zimbabwe.

Historically, the Doma dwelt in the mountains, leading a nomadic lifestyle that changing times across the rest of the world have barely touched.

Now, churches and NGOs have taken it upon themselves to bring some modern creature comforts and other trappings of “civilisation” to the Doma.

This includes bringing aid that is hoped will improve food security. The Doma do not store any food donated to them: they eat it all and then continue with hunting and gathering.

They do not store the food because they fear the possibility of enemies poisoning it, so it should be consumed immediately. It is easy to call them “uncivilised”. But the Doma have a strong sense of community that urbanites would do well to learn from: Strong ties are important. They protect each other and source for food together.

The Doma believe death is a punishment, and they bury their deceased on the same day.

In days gone by, they would leave a dead person where they lay in the hope that they were asleep.

In those days, they would not bury the deceased upon being convinced that the life had expired. Instead, they would leave the body and resettle somewhere else “less cursed”.

The world has largely condemned child marriages, and incest is abhorred.

At 23, Tariro (not real name) is a mother of five. She eloped at the age of 14 and her first born son turns nine in June.

When one is pregnant, they are fed herbs in preparation for delivery, while tattooing is employed to inject other herbs to strengthen muscles in preparation for child birth.

But some in the community are slowly embracing modern medicine. Village health workers have even been appointed but they admit that it is slow going.

At 12, a girl can become a hunter.

Karichi (not real name) moves around with her spear, ready to kill an animal or defend herself if attacked by wildlife.

There’s something quirky about her: Karichi clutches a spear in one hand and her birth certificate in the other.

The paper was issued on April 16, 2018 when officers from the Registrar-General’s Department came to Doma to document people and she can’t seem to leave it behind.

Human-animal conflict is widespread.

Apart from the more than 12 attacks recorded in the past two months, two weeks ago Cainos Kariwo was attacked by hippopotamus while gathering food.

She was hospitalised, awaiting surgery in Harare.

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