Traditional Food Crops as a Source of

Community Resilience in Zimbabwe

Soul Shava, Rob O’Donoghue, Cryton Zazu & Mutizwa Mukute

Rhodes University
South Africa
 The Context
Resettled communities neighbouring
Sebakwe Black Rhino Conservancy
Communities reliant on agriculture for
livelihood sustenance
Relatively new environment
Food security vulnerability & risk due to
unreliable weather patterns and lack of
agricultural inputs
 The concept of resilience
 Ability of socio-ecological systems to
withstand external stresses and
disturbances (environmental change)
 Key aspects of resilience:
i) diversity
ii)self-organisation
 Resilience explored in relation to the
interplay between local communities &
agro-biodiversity
Emerging Outcomes from the study
Prominence (re-emergence) of traditional
food crops for food security
Local communities’ capacity for self-
organisation through mobilisation of IK and
traditional agric practices for food
sustenance
 Emerging outcomes (cont.)
1. Diversity of crops within a field
 Emerging outcomes (cont.)
2. Diversity of varieties within a single crop
e.g. maize, finger millet, pumpkin to
ensure harvest despite seasonal
variability, diversity in taste and quality
 Emerging outcomes (cont.)
3. Diversity in choice of growing sites for
different crops
 Emerging outcomes (cont.)
4. Crop processing as means of ensuring
food security
 Emerging outcomes (cont.)
5. Some traditional food crops and plants in
Sebakwe
LOCAL NAME ENGLISH NAME BOTANICAL NAME FOOD TYPE PREPARATION

chiBage, chiBarwe Maize Zea mays** Grain cereal Dry seed grounded into
mealie meal or pounded into
samp and eaten with a relish.
Green mealies roasted or
cooked
muBovora, munhanga Pumpkin, marrow, Curcubita pepo** and C. Leafy vegetable, Leaves, flowers and young
squash maxima** fruit, edible seed. (mangare) cooked in cream
(ruwomba) or mixed with
peanut butter. Ripe Fruit
cooked as a meal. Seed
roasted as a meal.

muChakupuka, ndakupuka Indian or Chinese Brassica juncea** Leafy vegetable Leaves cooked on their own
mustard or mixed with meat. Leaves
also sun-dried for later use.

Chembere dzagumana Rape Brassica napus** Leafy vegetable Leaves cooked on their own
or mixed with meat. Leaves
also sun-dried for later use.

Derere renyenje Corchorus tridens*, C. Leafy vegetable Leaves cooked with hundi
trilocularis* (make from sieving water
through burnt ground husks
of finger millet) or soda into a
slimy relish

Derere resamwenda/e Sesamum angistifolium* Leafy vegetable; Leaves cooked with ‘hundi’
seed (make from sieving water
through burnt and ground
husks of finger millet) or
soda into a slimy relish
 Emerging outcomes (cont.)
6. Threats to traditional food security
systems
 commercialisation of traditional crop
produce (-ve &+ve implications)
 reliance on commercial seed varieties
(usurping of community food
sovereignty)
 limited trans-generational knowledge
transfer interactions
 Conclusion
Resuscitation of role traditional food plants
for food sovereignty in a context of risk &
vulnerability
Need for contextually relevant educational
processes which build upon local
knowledge & expertise