The ManicaPost
Professor Augustine Deke and Wiseman Matsapa
AFRICAN names are not mare rhetoric, but they are believed to convey deep intrinsic significance for the location or bearer.
The community as well uses naming as part of the indigenous knowledge systems.
Interestingly, African names evaluate nature, essence as well as provide a string of historical reminders.
Though African names function thus much, the environmental oversight given by political, and development proponents have continued to vitrify their context, nature and continuum.
Ironically, this has exposed the vulnerable indigenous communities to a direct conflict with nature and environmental science at large.
This presentation seeks to explore the impact of names which were ignored in the Rusitu Valley-Chimanimani where Cyclone Idai destroyed communities.
Cyclone Idai struck in Chimanimani on March 15, 2019, bringing high winds and torrential rains that caused extensive flooding.
The cyclone caused deaths in the district, and extensive damage to crops, houses, and infrastructure.
Many factors have been advanced on the resultant calamity which ruthlessly destroyed the Rusitu Valley.
A closer look at Kopa Growth Point which was swept by the floods shows that there are two major rivers, Nyahode and Rusitu which runs through the valley.
The residential area of Kopa called Madhomeni was swept away by the cyclone. Madhomeni means (agriculture extension officers).
These officers were the first to be resettled by Government on this part of Rusitu Valley.
The new settlers overlooked the significance of a name.
Interestingly, the original names given to this part of the valley by the indigenous inhabitants suggest that the place was not suitable for human habitations.
The damage caused by Cyclone Idai could have been significantly minimised had locals paid attention to their traditional knowledge systems.
Before the disaster occurred, chiefs and headmen prosecuted those who wantonly cut down trees, cause environmental degradation, and settle in areas regarded to be sacred.
People were not allowed to settle in areas like Chirambadota, Chirikati and Masonga by local chiefs due to experience, and the dangers they pause to human settlement.
The names are self-explanatory, and warn of natural hazards.
Chirambadota (place where no fire will ever burn), Chirikati and Masonga (dangerous place to settle).
Names such as Nyamhepo, Chimbiya, Pene, Gwenene, Mukadzi Andiroorwi, Nyakwaa and Hadange (sacred places) pause a strong warning to the unsuspecting communities of Rusitu Valley.
The current deforestation, and environmental degradation taking place around some of the above-mentioned places are cocktails for disaster.
Another disaster is looming in Rusitu Valley when nature calls. African concept of names don’t just give names for the sake of naming.
Names are not just signs, but are also regarded as symbols that evaluate nature, characteristics, functions, and orientation of an object or person.
Names have roles they play in the sight and understandings of the one who gives the name.
In other words, names encapsulate the totality of humanity and nature.
On the one hand, they depict intimate relationship between the named and the namer.
Whatever views advanced by different schools of thought on the development agenda of Rusitu Valley, and Africa at large, indigenous names given to nature by locals are enough evidence and guarantee for human security.
Apart from that, names preserve memories of historical events just as they represent current community, family or personal reality.
They replay the circumstances once experienced by a community or particular society.
Names act as a reminder.
However, the ethical demand of historical names, especially the negative ones is to help the community to prevent a reoccurrence of the unspeakable circumstances that would have been experienced.
The ethical dilemma therefore is to place on the community template “the responsibility to create a new social, political or economic order in which everyone can survive without infringing laws of environmental science.
African worldview on environmental science: Worldview determines the basic or core understanding of the social, material, physical and supernatural factors of a given culture.
Worldview establishes what is possible, probable, actual, desirable, and acceptable in each of the spheres of the material, social, physical and supernatural.
In this regard, African communities have a way of interpreting environmental science.
Some names have been given in order to preserve nature and not for security warning.
While elements of nature such as rivers, mountains or dams sustain human life in African societies, the activities of these communities concerning the care or neglect of nature proffer serious implications.
Consequences of human neglect of the elements of nature manifest clearly in calamity including cyclones, floods and draught.
This happens to be the challenge faced in Rusitu Valley.
The Rusitu Valley disaster was a result of created discord between the locals, and their environment.
Locals and the leadership chose to ignore the traditional knowledge base of the affected communities.
The cyclone exploited the vulnerability and environmental exposure which the Rusitu Valley has been subjected to.
As more exploitation continues in the Rusitu Valley, the traditional names will return to haunt the inhabitants some other day even if new development is ushered in the valley.
The writers can be contacted at: Professor Augustine Deke ([email protected]); Wiseman Matsapa PhD candidate (Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies). ([email protected])
