Zimbabwe Absurdity

I took a drive up to Mutare this weekend to visit Gary and June and hopefully get in a bit of paragliding as the weather was certainly looking good. It had been some time since I drove the Mutare road so I was also curious to see how much agriculture I could see. As it turned out, very little was happening or had happened in the past season. To be fair it does not pass through very good soils, most are granite derived sands which are mainly suitable for tobacco or cattle farming. There was precious little signs of either. The bush was looking good though and the grass long which does not bide well for the fire season though.

On Saturday we took a drive up into the Vumba Mountains and they are as scenic as ever.  Mostly too steep for productive agriculture the farms there have not escaped the land grab and remnants of protea lands were still just visible over the invading grass.

We never did get to fly as the wind was not co-operating at either site we went to but the views were great.

As I write this a farmer on the road into town is fighting off a “jambanja” (land grab) attempt on his farm. It is not coincidence that he has lands full of cabbages, potatoes and maize all ready to harvest.