Chimanimani

Chimanimani is a small village below the quartzite wall of the Chimanimani Mountains, the last stop before the Mozambique border. It began as Melsetter, founded by Afrikaner families who left the Orange Free State with Thomas Moodie in 1892 on the promise of 3,000 morgen each and reached the Ndau country here in January 1893, and in March 2019 Cyclone Idai killed at least 169 people in the district. The mountains, the Ndau villages below them and the settler graves along the road all belong to the same story, and knowing it changes what you see on the walk up to the hut.

1. 1500s to 1830s

   The Ndau, the people of Chimanimani and Chipinge and of the Mozambique lowlands beyond the range, were first written about by the Portuguese missionary João dos Santos in the 1500s. In the 1820s Nguni armies moved north in a time of severe drought, and Soshangane beat his rival Nxaba in 1837. The Nguni invaders killed many Ndau men and took their wives, which is why Ndau families have Nguni ancestry and why some say Shangaan is the better name for the group today. source

2. 1891 to 1897

   The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1891 drew a line through the mountains between British and Portuguese territory, and an arbitration by Paul Honoré Vigliani, acting for the King of Italy, was completed on 30 January 1897 and fixed the border that still runs there. Nobody asked the Ndau, whose communities were split by it. source

3. 1892 to 1895

   Cecil Rhodes wanted Manicaland occupied, and George Dunbar Moodie recruited farmers with the offer of a 3,000 morgen farm (about 2,570 ha) to every man and boy who would trek to the eastern districts. His uncle Thomas Moodie left Bethlehem in the Orange Free State in May 1892 with 29 families and 17 wagons. After a disagreement at Fort Victoria (Masvingo) most went north, and Moodie went on east with seven wagons, 14 men, four women and three children, cutting, digging and dynamiting a road and chaining three ox teams to each wagon on Three Span Berg, to stop by three waterfalls on 3 January 1893. He died of blackwater fever within a year or so of arriving. The village was moved to its present site in 1895 and named Melsetter after the Moodie home in Orkney. source

4. 1930

   The Land Apportionment Act set aside 19.9 million hectares of Southern Rhodesia for about 50,000 Europeans and, at first, 3 million for about 1,081,000 Africans. Most Africans held land under customary tenure in the native reserves, and could buy land only in the Native Purchase Areas on their edges. source

5. 1949 to 1979

   Southern Rhodesia declared Chimanimani National Park on 82 square kilometres of the high range in 1949, later grown to 155. The Rhodesian Bush War, from 1964 to 1979, ran straight through these mountains: guerrillas crossed the passes between Rhodesia and their camps in Mozambique, independent from 1975, and Rhodesian government forces mined the passes heavily. Decades later mines are still a hazard, particularly after heavy rain, which is reason enough to stay on the paths. source

6. 1982

   After independence Melsetter was renamed, first Mandidzudzure and then, after the residents were consulted, Chimanimani. The 1982 census counted 1,370 people in the village. source

7. 2004

   Roy Bennett, a white farmer, was the opposition MDC member of parliament for Chimanimani, and security forces kept a small camp on the edge of his Charleswood Estate for more than a year. At about 4 am on 9 April 2004 some 30 police and 30 soldiers took over the farm for Zimbabwe Defence Industries, in spite of a provisional High Court order from February that barred police interference. More than 1,000 workers and family members lived on the estate. source

8. 15 March 2019

   Cyclone Idai came ashore near Beira and wandered along the border, dropping 200 to 400 mm of rain on Chimanimani and Chipinge. Floods killed at least 634 people in Zimbabwe, at least 169 of them in Chimanimani, and at least 257 were still missing on 7 April; at least 82 bodies were buried as far as 40 km into Mozambique. Bridges and roads in eastern Chimanimani went with the water, and a week later Chimanimani was still hard to reach. source

Ndau

Most people in Chimanimani are Ndau, and their language, ChiNdau, was recognised in the 2013 constitution as an official language in its own right. From 1931 younger Ndau speakers gradually took Shona as their main identity; the 2013 recognition has brought the Ndau name back. Ndau n'anga (healers) are called on in drought and flood to appeal to the nzuzu water spirits, and in the ukufemba ceremony a spirit explains how it entered a family, its way of seeking justice. source

Water spirits

Bridal Veil Falls is Mutsarara to local people, named for the sound of the water, and by tradition the home of a nzuzu, a water spirit. Treat the pool with some respect: it is not just a swimming hole. source

The arts festival

From 1998 the free Chimanimani Arts Festival filled the village every August, with Oliver Mtukudzi, Alick Macheso, Sulumani Chimbetu and Ammara Brown among those on the bill and Chief Ngorima (the traditional leader) and his people opening the music with their own ceremonies. Ask in the village whether it is on before you plan a trip around it. source

Chikukwa permaculture

Chikukwa, a small communal land in the hills near the Mozambique border, started a permaculture project in 1991 after a one-week training course, when the spring at Chitekete village was drying up. It spread to six villages, formed the Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust in 1996, and by 2016 about 80 percent of households were using the methods and feeding themselves. Its offshoot TSURO works in all 21 wards of the district. source