Why Chadereka folk will not budge

Ironically, with all its beauty, the area is not the best place to live in.
Due to its location in the lowest parts of the Zambezi Valley, from which it derived the name Chadereka, the area is prone to floods, drought and outbreaks of malaria making it a battleground in the perennial conflict between humans and nature and, at times, between humans and wildlife.

Yet for thousands of villagers, this is the only home they know and few are willing to vacate.
“We were born and bred here and some of our relatives died and were buried here,” said a villager who identified himself as Petros, vowing to resist any suggestions to relocate to a safer area.

“There is no way we are going to desert them. The idea of moving us to an area that is not susceptible to floods was noble but there is a strong bond between us and this area that is unbreakable.”
Petros and his family grow maize and sweet potatoes on a small patch of land. Often their harvest does not last to the next rainy season.
Like his fellow villager, Mike Kabhubhu, says moving from his ancestral home to a better place, was akin to abandoning his roots — the next thing to sacrilege.
“This is our life and this is how we survive and we live this place only through death because leaving this place means the end of our history as a people,” Kabhubhu said.

“There will be no place for us in the history, so do not blame us for not leaving this place when we were offered the opportunity to do so.”
In addition to its location at the bed of the valley and flanked by two rivers, the area is far away from most service centres with the nearest town more than 200 kilometres away making it difficult to engage in economic activities. As a result, the majority of the families live in poverty, often scrounging for the barest meal.

School dropouts are common as some families end up marrying off under-age daughters to older men seen as better off while boys are forced to leave school midway to join their peers doing menial work such as cattle and goat herding to help their struggling parents keep hunger at bay. Some have left their prized homesteads and were relocated in an adjacent area on higher altitudes but their livelihoods have not improved.

The living conditions for the resettled villagers have only discouraged those who were not sure whether they want to leave their ancestral homes and bolstered the resolve of those resisting relocation.
“The Government has moved us to this place but the school and the clinic is on the other side of the river,” Munyaradzi Tikiti, whose family was moved from

Chadereka some years ago, said, complaining about their new home area of Magarakata.
“When it rains, children are forced to cross the flooded river using the foot bridge and that risks their lives. They usually spend days without going to school because teachers will not allow them to come to school when it is raining.”

When the river is in flood, the resettled villagers are also cut off from facilities such as the local clinic.
As a result some have died from curable diseases.
“Many lives have been lost to as result of malaria when they failed to cross to the other side of the river where our only clinic is situated,” Stella Mandionerepi lamented.

“Pregnant mothers end up giving birth at home and risk suffering from complications or even dying because they can’t cross the river to get to the clinic.”
Some, like Zivai Mukurungwa, who earns a living from tilling a plot in the wetlands on the bed of Nzoumvunda River, fear that they may starve if they are resettled in Magarakata, a drier area.

“The Government with the help of non-governmental organisations once evacuated us and resettled some people from here in an area called Magarakata (highland) but some of us have refused to take the offer.
“This is the only place that will sustain our livelihoods through practising subsistence farming on this flood plain. If we leave this place and go to Magarakata there is a very high probability of us dying of hunger.”

Patricia Mutandagai, who is among those who have remained in Chadereka, fears for food shortages because of scarce rain this year.
“We always realise good harvest when floods occur but this year there is going to be a drought because the area was not flooded hence the lack of moisture to sustain crops,” said the mother of two.

“So bad is the situation that we are going to rely on food handouts for survival.”