Growing up in the remote rural place of Zimbabwe, I used to walk about 10km to the bus station. There with my teens we wave ‘ joy yeah!’ to every car that pass by. I used to dream about the urban areas as paradises with skyscrapers, robots, vehicles, light soft skinned people who dress to the nines eating and drinking delicious food and enjoying many fantasies l crave.
I hate the mud grass thatched huts, yes back then I hated them , yet there was a certain magical feeling, I feel deep inside me when I was in the jungle, I loved animals, domestic and wild. Memories of me and my age mates trapping finches and feed them in small cages, catching grasshoppers and round them up enlighten my soul. Gathering wild fruits, veggies and tubers competing with my teens was a sweet soulful experience. Hunting rabbits and scaring monkeys and zebras away from our crops , chasing foxes away from our goats and sheeps used to give us a sense of responsibility.
Now I am grown up I moved from city to city and I fail to find peace. I crossed the borders there is nothing that can help me out of my miserable life. Now what I need is to turn back , turn back to mother nature . Turning back , yes turning back restoring what we have disturbed. The fields that we exploited, the soil that used to provide which is barren now, we must regenerate it now to sustain life.
We must grow those trees and weeds that used to grow abundantly in the wild. Marula fruits are a delicacy , granite mangosteen, false wild medlar, forest waterberry, octopus cabbage tree , blackjack, all nutritious medicinal herbs and lost crops we need to grow them back. We need to see honey pot ants honey dew, stingless bees , sweet bees digger bees , dung beetles , all insects used to play an important part in the natural environment. Enriching the soil organically and growing indigenous plants is the only way we can provide for our needs sustainably. The mushrooms that we used to collect in the wild must come back if we imitate Nature’s Plan.
Researching, writing and living close to nature is my passion, and my purpose is to pass health living habits from generation to generation. I am not bright at all but I am persistence and I am learning the natural revolutionary processes everyday.
Bundu Cultura 