By Andrew Mambondiyani
“Farming should not be boring.” That’s the mantra of one traditional leader from eastern Zimbabwe.
Blessing Zimunya, a traditional leader in Nyamana Village, Mutare District, is using drama to make farming knowledge engaging and relevant, especially for the younger generation. Nyamana Village is a drought-prone small farming enclave about 50 kilometres south of Zimbabwe’s eastern border city of Mutare. Zimunya’s efforts focus on promoting drought-tolerant crops like pearl millet (mhunga), sorghum (mapfunde), and finger millet (rukweza or zviyo), which are more resilient to changing weather patterns.
“We are currently working on a drama focusing on various aspects of climate change. We have realised that the adoption of traditional or small grains like finger millet, pearl millet, or sorghum will help small-scale farmers fight climate change-induced droughts. These crops are drought-resistant,” said Zimunya, who is also a thriving small-scale beekeeper and crop farmer.
Known in the area for his charming smile and uproarious laughter, Zimunya is using drama to target the young generation to embrace small grains. “Our children are no longer interested in eating food made from millets or sorghum. They say the food is not tasty. Yet, these small grains are more nutritious than maize, which they’re used to. We are teaching them through our drama. Drama is a powerful tool to send a message,” he said.
Zimunya leverages his acting skills, which he honed during his days at school, to engage his community. He has found that drama is an effective way to drive action on social issues, including climate change. Zimunya’s approach, he says, is rooted in his personal experience as an actor, as he has seen firsthand how drama can inspire meaningful change. By harnessing this powerful tool, he can convey important messages about climate change and encourage his community to act. Drama, Zimunya said, helps him to connect with his community and inspire action.
“As a traditional leader, I want to lead by example. I want people to learn from what I do,” he adds.
Leonard Madanhire, a farmer at Village I in Mutare District, mixes farming with adventure. He explores and forages in the Gutaurare, Njeza, Gombai, and Madzimbahwe mountains near his village, where their forefathers used to stash grain in case of a raid during wars.
“I have explored caves where they [forefathers] used to hide their grain in times of war. I have seen some caves that still have remnants of finger millet. I have learned how our forefathers stored their grain in large clay pot-like containers. This shows that the most common crops during that time were small grains. We need to retrace our steps and grow those crops that are both drought-resistant and nutritious,” Madanhire said.
Madanhire becomes animated as he narrates his adventures in the mountains; adventures that he says will help to restore his area’s traditional grains. He showed me videos of some of his escapades and even offered to take me to one of the mountains.
“I’m sharing these stories with other farmers; they should know which crops are good for our area and how best we can restore and increase production of these crops. For us to address the current droughts, we should look at our past. The answer to the present droughts lies in our past,” Madanhire said.
But Madanhire, Zimunya, and other advocates of small grains face a difficult task; many farmers are hooked on maize as a staple food. Maize was introduced and aggressively marketed by the colonial government in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, in the 1930s. Crops like pearl millet, finger millet, and sorghum increasingly became known as a ‘poor man’s crop,’ according to Bryan Kauma, an expert in African history at Durham University (UK) and a research fellow at Stellenbosch University (South Africa).
Under the colonial regime, white maize fetched higher prices on the market, leaving small grains at an economic disadvantage. With limited land and ever-increasing taxation obligations, growing small grains was no longer viable, forcing many small-scale farmers to abandon their traditional grains.
Smallholder farmers are now paying the price the hard way. Recurring droughts are wiping out the farmers’ rainfed maize crop, leaving millions of people in Zimbabwe without adequate food. The country’s by about 1°C since the 1960s, and rainfall has decreased by about 20 percent. The drought frequency has risen from once in ten years to once every 3 years. Yet, more than 70 percent of the country’s population still depends on agricultural-related economic activities. In 2024, an El Niño-induced drought, the worst in over 40 years, ravaged Zimbabwe, leaving more than 6 million people food insecure. Millions of livestock died too as a result of the drought. In some parts of Zimbabwe, many small-scale farmers have abandoned their farms, and their land has now been taken over by thorny shrubs.
The hunt for and multiplication of drought-resistant crops in Zimbabwe has never been as urgent as it is today. Unfortunately, many small-scale farmers are still reluctant to fully embrace traditional grains as their staple crops. Maize is easy to process and is versatile, as some farmers argue.
But some elderly farmers still have small grain seeds tucked in the roofs of their small kitchen huts, where the seeds are preserved by smoke and soot. Some farmers, particularly women, in Gutaurare, a farming community in Mutare District, have been sharing their seeds. Their concept is known in their local dialect as “kuromba mbeu,” literally translated as “seed initiation.” If a farmer gets a small amount of seed, they will plant the seed, harvest it, and keep the harvest as seed for the next season. This farmer will repeat the same process until they have enough seed to grow on a larger piece of land or share it with other farmers.
The efforts to revive traditional drought-resistant small grains in Zimbabwe have also received major boosts from philanthropic organisations. Mhakwe Heritage Foundation Trust is one of the philanthropic organisations working with smallholder farmers to promote small grains, such as millets, sorghum, and cowpeas. Mhakwe Heritage Foundation Trust advocates for heritage and culture preservation through research and documentation. Farmers in Mutare District’s Ward 5, Dora, Nyakunu village, and Mutare North constituency, and Ward 18 Betera, Mhereyenyoka Village, and Buhera District and Buhera Central Constituency are benefiting from this initiative.
“These areas are predominantly under [Zimbabwe’s] Region 5, which is characterised by low rainfall. As a result of the effects of climate change, the communities are experiencing acute food shortages, resulting in school dropouts among learners,” said David Mutambirwa, the executive director and founder of Mhakwe Heritage Foundation Trust. “We are training the small-scale farmers in the respective areas in planting small grains to provide household food security.”
Some of the successful farmers, Mutambirwa said, are processing and packaging the products for sale in their communities and cities like Mutare and Rusape, getting income for the families.
And Anna Brazier, an independent climate change researcher based in Zimbabwe, said that though she does not usually work directly with farmers, she sometimes does a bit of training for lead farmers and extension officers. Last year, Brazier was involved with an interesting climate change adaptation project with a local nongovernmental organisation called Partners for Integrated Growth and Development (PIGAD).
“We did participatory research with communities in Hwedza, Murewa, and Buhera [districts]. We had workshops with community representatives, including elders, traditional leaders, youth, farmers, people living with disabilities, agriculture extension officers, and other government representatives,” Brazier said. During the workshops, she added, they discussed how communities have changed their methods to cope with climate change. Notably, here too, philanthropy actors have noticed an increase in the use of indigenous knowledge methods just as Madanhire and Zimunya are doing within their communities.