concept "mayland"1
photographic exhibition mayland

photos by Bojan Brecelj ("Strange Friends" -Stemmle 1998 )
text by Sasa Petejan

The photos were taken in ex Rhodesia last September and October, 21 years after the independence war, when the natives took over the power from British colonist. The government changed but the problems of the Zimbabwean majority remained more or less the same. Unequal land distribution is still not solved and the state seems to be in free fall. Therefore the poor Zimbabweans continue the Chimurenga – the historical battle for the land - and try to reestablish the traditional relationship between social, natural and spiritual worlds. Even if the government fast track land reform is going on with a radical programmed redistribution of white owned land, Zimbabweans are struggling for fertile land - to live from and on it.

Words of Images /
Selected images can also be read trough the handwritten characters united in words and sentences by journalist Sasa Petejan. Images and texts are related elements that can be observed independently one from another.

"back bone"
The story behind
Key words: Zimbabwe/Agriculture/Food production/Land distribution/Tradition/ Monsanto/ Farming innovators/ Natural farming systems/ Water harvesting/ Communal gardens/ Commercial and individual (traditional) seed production/ Binga district — the Land of Nothing - where the Tonga people are living as poor as any people in Zimbabwe/ Permaculture/ Conservation framing/ Zero-tillage/ Solutions/ Success stories/ Community/

Photos are focused on agriculture and land allocation in Zimbabwe in times of a fast track land reform with a radical program of land redistribution. The government plans to hand over to black Zimbabweans 95 percent of the 4500 farms currently mostly under white ownership. Unbalanced land distribution between a tiny elite deprives millions of black small-scale farmers of a crucial resource - the land. As land becomes increasing scarce, small-scale farmers are managing to survive as subsistence farmers even if the soil is harsh for mass-scale "food farming" and rainfall is erratic. We witnessed a renaissance in a small-scale agriculture that is close linked-up with strengthening of traditional beliefs. Poor small-scale farmers are turning back to traditional farming techniques using natural resources. Successful farmers are producing enough food in unpleasant natural conditions. They are producing more on less land without expensive fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. They are proclaimed innovators.

Within the total 12 million population of Zimbabwe there is the story of large-scale commercial farmers that accounts for less than 1 percent of population and own a third of the arable land. Since last February Zimbabweans, the so-called war veterans from the country’s independence war, invaded and occupied white owned commercial farms which are mostly export orientated. The commercial farmers using relatively capital-intensive technologies were used to produce over 70 per cent of the value of the agricultural output in most years and achieved high yields by international standards. Now-days their production is limited or completely arrested. Commercial farmers together with the remaining farm workers out of two million people living in farm-villages struggle to survive waiting for batter times announced with next years’ presidential elections in Zimbabwe.

As the opposition to the commercial, profitable, large-scale and capital-intensive agriculture the poor Zimbabweans continue the Chimurenga - historical battle for the land - awakening the relationship between social, natural and spiritual worlds. A local NGO, The Association of Zimbabwe Traditional Environmental Conservations (AZTREC), revives and develops an indigenous knowledge and cosmovision, which should result in community-based development, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. At the moment they are implementing their vision to solve the land conflict between the colonial successors and the natives in the Charumbira community in Masvingo where they developed the Zimuto cultural village. They are reinforcing the role of traditional and spiritual leaders, since they are the authentic custodians of the indigenous knowledge and of the land.

At the same time Zimbabwe is living a renaissance in agriculture. Majority of the population depends on agriculture. Since colonization Zimbabweans assumed foreigner’s solutions to increase and improve agriculture and food production. In many decades farmers havw lost their autonomy, they depend on seed and expensive chemicals producers. Zimbabwean farmers are not more tad or less hungry as they were in the last century. They are crashed. They are facing and at the same time successfuly solving the environmental degradation. Intentionally or unintentionally they step out of the roundabout of missed development. They are able to produce enough. The more important input is the seed. To have seed means to have power. In Zimbabwe breeding a productive plant from a tiny seed in extremely unpleasant natural conditions is an invention.

We witnessed Zimbabweans who shifted to natural farming systems. They are utilizing locally available organic soil and enrichment materials such as cattle, goat and sheep manure, anthill soil, crop residues, compost and humus from hilltops and under trees or planting legumes to add nitrogen to the soil. They apply inter-cropping of various crops to combat the effects of drought. They are solving the problem of soil erosion planting special variety of grass (vetiver grass), introducing indigenous crops as cassava, rapoko and sorghum and developing the production of indigenous seeds.

On the opposite the agriculture industry is developing and sustaining conventional farming patterns, promoting hybrid seeds, mono-cropping, external inputs as inorganic fertilizers and numerous chemicals. Monsanto, the huge North American multinational, is entering the Zimbabwean agricultural sector at the back door. In Zimbabwe Monsanto is distributing hybrid maize varieties and chemicals, especially herbicides. The North American multinational will start trial plots of genetically modified cotton on the governments’ land in a rainy season (starts around December). Probation period would last for three years, sells manager Enoch Chikava said. In Zimbabwe Monsanto is focused on developing seed business in small-scale farming sector as a future market producing most of cotton and maize as important cash crops.

Africa is not a hopeless continent as Zimbabwe is not a hopeless country. Despite rising poverty and Aids pandemic there are individuals and communities developing agriculture methods that enable them to produce enough food for living and to earn extra incomes. Even if the land becomes more limited they succeed to produce more on less land just by applying different soil and water conservation methods more intensively. During our visit in Zimbabwe we noticed how important is who gives the solution to the problem of low fertility, overgrazing and soil erosion. Solutions coming out of the discussions between community members, chefs and ancestors spirits are successful. This can be observed in environmental recovery, organic farming and self-sustainable communities. One of these communities lives in Chikukwa in the eastern part of Zimbabwe. Solutions brought form British colonial successors or other organizations and individuals are mostly adopted for a certain time and are rejected sooner or later. Mostly the rejection happens because no solution from outside improved the lives of the natives or solved the problem of malnutrition and hunger. That’s the story of Brian Oldreive, a profoundly religious white commercial farmer, who firmly believes that God led him to establish the benefits of conservation tillage. He has the method and he is spreading his successful vision nationwide trough KingsWay Community Church he established. In spite of his devotion and a deep commitment to share this knowledge with poor communal farmers, distribute free seeds and prepare trial plots in communities, he didn’t succeed. He has an interesting religious explanation for the failure. Moreover he is white and he is bringing the solution from outside the community. Despite everything he is continuing his mission. He is also on the list for land seizure and he can loose the church’s farm. If things will go wrong, he will move with his family to Zambia and continue his mission. But he will come back to Zimbabwe, he said.