adminand on spindly legs makes “baby-steps” towards us from the thatched hut into the sunshine outside.
“Amos, kwakanaka here?” she quizzes her great-great grandson who has accompanied us to Hwedza to see her.
Her name is Jesmen Chimutemwende, thought to be 115-years-old and has become the talk of Hwedza because of her advanced age.
While many people seldom reach that age, and if they do so, they become frail, Gogo Chimutemwende on the other hand, is still as active as she was some years ago.
Her memory is still sharp, although her eyesight is now failing.
Believed to have been born in 1897 in Tsanzaguru, Hwedza, the woman is a natural archive of wisdom, history and a fountain of numerous progeny who span more than five generations.
If she indeed is 115-years-old, Mbuya Jesmen would share the distinction of being the world’s oldest living person with Ms Besse Cooper from Monroe, Georgia, USA.
The Guinness Book of World Records, the global authority on record-breaking, last year confirmed Brazilian Maria Gomes Valentim as the “Oldest Living Person” aged 114 years and 313 days on May 18 last year. Ms Gomes; who was born on July 9, 1896 in Carangola, Brazil where she resided all her life; did not make it to her 115th birthday.
Her demise saw the record go to Ms Besse Cooper from Monroe, Georgia, USA, who is now officially listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Oldest Living Person’’ at 114 years 299 days on June 22 last year.
Ms Cooper, who was on August 26, 1896 in Tennessee, turns 116 years this year. And she also prides herself in having given birth to 10 children, some of whom unfortunately passed away and has about 325 grandchildren and great-great grand children.
“I don’t know all of them, and I can’t remember all of my grandchildren,” she said, cracking that toothless smile of pride after being told by Amos of the long list of offspring who have descended from her.
This is Amos Mahendere, the popular gospel artiste whose mother Diana Lihaka Shashi (55) is daughter to Ambuya Anne Chinyama (83) who is the second daughter to Gogo Chimutemwende, the 115-year-old granny!
Although her age is pegged at 115 years, Gogo Chimutemwende is believed to be several years older than her estimated age after the colonial registry system adjusted her age.
But what is her secret to longevity?
“It is God’s will for me to be here today.
“But the secret also lies in good morals and a good diet of traditional foods, not what the majority of you young people are eating today.
“Taidya dovi, mumuriwo wako wemusango wokurungira. Taidya muriwo wemunhenzva, mutsoropotwe, mudyamhembwe, fototo, musungusungu, waiti kurapa woti kusimbisa muviri.
“We grew up eating a diet of traditional foods that included wild vegetables cooked in peanut butter and these served many purposes ranging from their medicinal value and also keeping the body in shape.
“We didn’t have salt then but we used mutomba, which was potash extracted from burnt maize cobs,” Gogo Chimutemwende said.
She regretted how the arrival of the white settlers upset the traditional way of life.
“The coming of the whites in this country disturbed our way of life because the kind of lifestyle that we used to enjoy was changed.
“They stopped us from eating the foods that we were used to,” she said.
She also said there were no clinics, hospitals or professional medical facilities except relying on the bush to provide medicine for the various ailments.
She also remembers delivering all her 10 children single-handedly because there were no maternity clinics then.
“I delivered all my children on my own and cut their umbilical cords. I didn’t have a midwife assisting me through the process of giving birth because my mother had taught me everything about the whole process.
“There were no maternity clinics then and we gave birth at home, and after giving birth, I would wrap my children in goat skin because there were no blankets then.
“The closest to a blanket that we had in that time was called a gudza which was woven using tree bark.
“When we fell sick, we would just go into the bush and gather herbs some of which could be mixed with sadza for treatment,” she said.
Gogo Chimutemwende however, rues the period of hunger, drought and the wars that she witnessed.
‘‘Hwiza dziya zhinji ndakadziona dzaidya mapfunde nemhunga, varungu vaiita dzekufirita. Dzaiti dzikapinda mumunda maisara musina chinhu zvakakonzera nzara. Nzara yekutanga yakatiruma tiri kuno kuHwedza tikararama nekudya mazhanje ipapo ndanga ndichiri mudiki. (I witnessed the famine that was caused by the swarms of locusts that ravaged all our crops such that we had to rely on wild fruits called mazhanje. The second famine that I experienced occurred after we had relocated to Rusape and we had to
fend for ourselves by eating the locusts),” she said.
Gogo said she attended school for only two years before her parents withdrew her and her elder sister from school and church because they felt that the school was located very far away from home and also because these two institutions were ‘contaminating’ their children’s minds.
“I attended school for only two years and did Standard 1 before we were withdrawn from both school and church.
“We would then teach ourselves at home just to grasp the basics of education like ‘Bhi Aah, Bhi Aah’ (the first two letters of the alphabet A and B).
“Tainyora pachiredhi (we would write on a small black board that acted as our school notebooks,” she said.
Despite, this Gogo Chimutemwende still maintained her faith in God and today, she remains a staunch Christian.
She worships with the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
“I seldom attend church services because of my legs that are now weak as well as my sight that is now poor.
“But if I get someone who can lead the way for me, I still want to attend church,” she declared.
Gogo Chimutemwende urged people to follow the proper marriage channels, saying this was strictly observed during her time.
“Marriage was a communal issue that involved everyone, and it was a very strict process that valued virginity.
“Munyai (go-between) would take a read platter full of ground millet and an egg on top of the heap of millet to the in-laws and this meant that the girl was a virgin and they would rejoice.
“But today many relationships are shortlived because all this is not being observed.
“The majority of your modern-day women have lost their morals and are lost themselves.
“They are following Western culture and mores at the expense of their own traditional ways.
“When we grew up we knew that a woman had to tend the fields, but this is not the case with your women today.
“A good wife is one who was brought up well by her parents aand who knew how to submit herself before her husband and in-laws,” she said.
She said her parents once gave her away to a man who was not of her choice but she ran away to stay with another man who was later to become her future husband with whom she gave birth to 10 children.
“I didn’t have any feelings for that man but my parents forced me to go and stay with him because they wanted him to provide our family with food.
“However, I stood by what I believed in and ran away to marry another man who became my future husband.
“We had a white wedding in church after we had stayed together for some years and given birth to a number of children,” she said with a smile.
To the younger generation that was born after Independence in 1980 she said: “What we saw in the war was nothing but untold suffering and massacre of our own people by the colonial soldiers.
“You should cherish this history and remember that this country was liberated as a result of this struggle,” she said.
She said they assisted guerrillas in fighting the enemy in Hwedza.
The greatest fully authenticated age to which any human has ever lived is 122 years 164 days by Jeanne Louise Calment of France who was born on February 21, 1875 to
Nicolas (1837 — 1931) and Marguerite (Gilles 1838 — 1924), Jeanne died at a nursing home in Arles, southern France on August 4, 1997.
Online Reporter