Chimanimani

I recently travelled with Fidelis and Steven on a Kufunda outreach trip to speak with communities about the upcoming Youth Program, and to also brief them about Kufunda's Pre-School and Solar Gogo programs. We headed east to Manicaland, starting in Rusape. The next night we slept in Mutare, and then headed further up into the mountains toward the Chimanimani district. Chimanimani means 'narrow place'; people have to squeeze into tight valleys. This is the view from Skyline Junction, down towards Chimanimani village.

Chimanimani village commuter bus rank.

Our ultimate destination was Chikukwa, an area of six villages under Chief Chikukwa that is tucked in a valley beyond Chimanimani, right by the Mozambique border. (Actually Chief Chikukwa's area extends over the border; people will come to him from the Mozambiquan side to settle disputes. There is no border post.) The drive took about an hour; I lost my heart to the area after about 10 minutes.

As we came out of Chimanimani's saddle valley the views opened up. This is looking east into Mozambique; the border is just into the mountains. The farm on the valley floor was owned by Roy Bennett, elected as an MDC (opposition party) MP in 2000. His farm was subsequently seized as part of the land redistribution program.

Driving through the Martin Forest. This is owned by Allied Timbers, itself owned by the Zim gov't. Martin Forest 1 was bought by the parks service in 1986 and added on to Chimanimani national park. Allied has been trying to evict squatters who have been occupying their lands and cutting the pines to create fields for maize. The gov't is now trying to close the Pandora's box of land redistribution; they also recently kicked 30-some squatters out of a wilderness conservation area, leaving them homeless by the side of the road.

In Chikukwa we stayed at Celuct, a permaculture centre that has also started doing conflict resolution work in the community. They teach local youth techniques to deal with political, domestic, and community conflict; the youths in turn have been out in the community sharing these techniques. The results have been good. The Chimanimani District is a political hotspot, with 13 MDC councillors and 11 Zanu councillors, but of the 24 areas in the district only Chikukwa experienced no political violence during the last year.

It's a breathtakingly lovely place, and I'm now dreaming of doing a Nhemamusasa South here, maybe in 2013.

 

Chikukwa is also right on the edge of Chimanimani National Park, so one afternon we hiked up a side valley into the park.

  Looking back at the Chikukwa valley and Martin Forest, with Mozambique in the background.

 Spent some time swimming in the pool at the base of these falls, where an Njuzu (mermaid) spirit is said to live.

Walking to the shops to catch a lift out on our final morning. There is a Danish (I think) woman living in Chikukwa who came 30 years ago and never left; I'm already planning my return...