The Sunday Mail
Very soon the sky’s belly will be rumbling from the flatulence of heavy rain-bearing clouds before unloading on the patched earth currently being sun-baked by the tyrannical summer heat.
The patter of raindrops is always a sweet life-giving symphony for the hardworking farmer and an irritating cacophony for lazy sloths.
Rain is life.
Its imminence, which we were told by our forefathers was sometimes conjured, is always variously celebrated by different cultures.
Bishop Lazi recently told you how dance was integral to African story-telling and was designed to perpetuate cultural values, norms, traditions and worldview.
The Mbende-Jerusalem dance, for example, gradually morphed from a fertility dance to a symbol of resistance against an invading Western culture that condemned it as immoral and wanted to supplant it with equally sultry ballroom dances.
As Bantu people, we had and have rain dances that we use or used — whatever suits your beliefs — to celebrate or conjure rains.
To get an intimate understanding of this phenomenon, you might need to look no further than the playwright, poet, author, historian and biographer Pathisa Nyathi, who is a living repository of our cultural treasure.
As founder of Amagugu International Heritage Centre, Nyathi had an insightful interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)’s Zeinab Badawi in July 2017 on the twin significance of some of our local traditional dances to history and rain-making.
He talked her through why most dancers in local rain-making ceremonies invariably wore black, strapped leg rattles that would chatter to the thumbing sounds of throbbing drum beats, and all the while yodelling unintelligible hypnotic lyrics that were interspersed by the chants of “Nehoreka!”
“The first thing that we need to know is that music and dance are art forms, and art is expressive. It is a form of documentation,” he remarked.
“Africa did not write, but this is not to say Africa did not document. Africa documented through visual art; through performance art. And it tells a lot about the people, their history, their values, their perceptions and their worldview. It is all about symbolism.
“The colour black is a cloud pregnant with water, and then there were these leg rattles, and then that is when now it is raining – cha-cha-cha-cha-cha. The sound from the drum — going boom! boom! — is the sound of thunder. Then you have created the sound of rain. And then their movement — the choreography — it is the twirling clouds.”
It was a powerful interpretation of a sacred African dance. You might ask if Bishop Lazi believes in all this supposed hocus pocus.
Well, the Bishop will unfortunately concede that he hasn’t wrapped his head around all these world mysteries, but would gladly consider the submissions that were made by Pathisa Nyathi to the BBC.
He said: “There are people who think that we understand this world through the eyes of one culture. I don’t believe that one. This world is too complex to be understood, interpreted by one culture, but what has happened is that there are cultures (Western culture) that think they are superior to other cultures and their view of this world is THE view, and this has been the problem.”
Absurd
Whatever the debate around rainmaking, at least we can all agree — believer and non-believer; religious and non-religious; the foolish and the wise; Dynamos and Highlanders supporters — that water is life.
For a nation that sorely complains a lot about food shortages and food prices, we eat a lot, sleep a lot, but we do not produce a lot.
We do not find it embarrassing to gormandise boulder-sized morsels of pap (sadza/isitshwala) cooked from mealie-meal whose grain would have been imported from as far as Mexico, Tanzania and other far-off lands. Kikikiki.
We happily munch on bread made from flour whose wheat would have been imported from Russia and similarly far-flung countries.
We do not find it shameful to be importing onions, potatoes and other vegetables which we could ordinarily produce in our backyard.
We happily pay for all these provisions in foreign currency; the same foreign currency which we so desperately need.
Ironically, the far-off farmer becomes richer and happier, while the local farmer becomes poorer and miserable. Just to get a sense of this absurdity, Zimbabwe imports cereals worth around US$800 million every year, which amount can make a difference if it is either paid to the local farmer or invested in local agricultural activities. The impact in terms of economic activity and quality of livelihood can be immense.
So, paradoxically, how can we fail to adequately fund and revolutionarise our agriculture and agri-business sector if we can afford to spend close to a staggering US$1 billion importing foodstuffs?
This is utter nonsense!
It is an anomaly that has even riled the Nigerians, whose President, Muhammadu Buhari, apparently worked up by this oddity, tweeted last week: “I am restating it that nobody importing food or fertiliser should be given foreign exchange from the central bank. We will not pay a kobo of our foreign reserves to import food or fertiliser. We will instead empower local farmers and producers.” Kikikiki.
But one thing the Bishop finds unbearably mortifying is the spectacle of Zimbabwe, which is home to only 13 million souls, receiving rice donations from China, our perennially reliable ally which, however, has 1,3 billion mouths of its own to feed. China has managed the remarkable feat of feeding 20 percent of the world’s population from just 9 percent of the world’s arable land.
You see, the Chinese long realised that a hungry and rumbling stomach feeds a toxic tongue.
This obviously defines the politics of the stomach, which shape national politics.
Yet Zimbabwe stands in better stead to feed herself and the entire region.
Not only is it probably the most dammed country on the continent with more than 10 000 water bodies, but it is blessed with fertile soils capable of growing a variety of food and cash crops, including favourable and enviable climatic conditions.
Pitiably low local production and productivity, which keeps Zimbabwe desperate, especially after the land reform programme at the turn of the millennium, works well for foreign policy interests of the powers and forces that are opposed to the country’s success, as they can always use it as a deterrent example to any country daring to even consider rightfully repossessing its own land as Zimbabwe did.
The specious narrative that currently exists claims that Zimbabwe finds itself in the current challenges because it “foolishly” took back the land from “experienced” white farmers who were magnanimously feeding it over the past century. Conversely, success would embolden other countries to follow suit.
This is why Zimbabwe cannot be forgiven and has to continue to suffer.
Turning the tide
Thankfully, the tide is beginning to turn.
Proverbs 6:10-11 warns us that: “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”
As Bishop Lazi told you last week, even as the commissioned infantry of naïve opposition parties continues to make as much noise as possible on social media by raking up and staking up vitriolic tweets against the establishment, President ED continues to indefatigably work.
The meaningless noise from ephemeral hashtags cannot possibly drown out the droning and growling sounds of machines that are opening up land for production in various parts of the country.
A miracle is presently underway in Kanyemba, where more than 276 hectares have already been cleared. By winter next year, a staggering 2 000 hectares will have been opened up.
Overall, 10 000 to 15 000ha will be cleared.
This is the same effective strategy that was used by Brazil to open the Amazonia for production.
Connection of a power line from the Luangwa District of Zambia, which will provide electricity for the irrigation projects, is now imminent.
It is that serious!
You might be aware that earlier this year Government flighted a tender for companies that were interested in clearing 100 000 ha in Kanyemba, Bulawayo Kraal in Matabeleland North and at Tugwi Mukosi.
Another miracle is happening in the Lowveld, where enthusiastic farmers have also jumped on board to put more hectares — in fact more than 8 000ha — under winter maize.
Creating two cropping seasons will be able to augment local production.
After enduring countless promises from the old administration, the people who are served by Chilinga Irrigation Scheme (Masvingo) and Bulawayo Kraal in Matabeleland North (15 000ha) can now heave a huge sigh of relief as the former has been revived, while trenching for the much-needed new pipes for the latter is well underway. This is progress.
Tied to plans to increase production by expanding the hectarage put under various crops is the conscious effort to increase productivity through increasing the area covered by irrigation.
It is envisaged that through the Accelerated Irrigation Development Programme, 45 000ha of irrigable land that currently lies idle will be resuscitated.
The grand scheme is to eventually have 200ha in every district.
Earlier this year, Government inked a deal with Maka Resources, a local company, to revamp and resuscitate 100 000ha of irrigation schemes. Need the Bishop also mention the US$50 million mechanisation deal with US’s John Deere?
Bishop Lazi can go on and on.
But these are the grand plans.
A phalanx of close to 2 million communal farmers already stand ready to deploy the new model (Pfumvudza) of producing under epileptic weather conditions induced by climate change.
All these plans were outlined in the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) and are being incubated through the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy, which was launched on August 26.
The only difference between old and new plans under the current administration is that the new sheriffs are incredibly efficient and effective when it comes to delivery and execution.
Some people underestimate the impact of stable prices and a stable Zimbabwe dollar — which must now be defended at all cost — on the value of producer prices.
Stability gives just and lucrative reward to the hardworking farmer and allow for smooth preparations and future planning.
As the twitterati continue to analyse and over-analyse what is currently going on as “the man in the arena” does what he knows best — delivering what he promised — when they eventually figure out what is happening it would already be too late.
The Bishop can only assure them that their moment of epiphany, which will forebode their comeuppance, will come soon enough.
When will they realise that this administration means business — literally and figuratively?
Bishop out!
