Life after Idai

Good evening! I have just arrived in Chipinge - my new destination for the coming days, and whilst I am writing this blog, the electricity keeps flicking on and off… Welcome to Zimbabwe!

A million words are not enough to describe what an adventure I am going through. The past days in Chimanimani have been incredible and although my first hours in Chipinge have been just as lovely, I am already missing Chims, our homey B[e-38]B, and all the friends I made along the way.

Yesterday was a very special day. Aoife had arranged for me to meet the community chiefs to talk about my research. Since the chiefs and village elders have a lot of authority in their wards and villages, they have a very good understanding of what is going on in their communities. Hidden in the hills of the Chimanimani area, beyond several incredibly rocky and sandy paths full of potholes, was a place very different from what I had seen so far. In isolated Westward Ho!, the rest of the world felt very far away. The village consisted of several little, square huts made of bricks and wood, and a number of round houses with thatched roofs, made of clay. The village reached further than my eyes could look, as many houses were hidden further up the hills. Yet, in the “centre” was a big tree with a wooden bench around it, a school, a little playground where schoolchildren were playing, and a school garden.

I was very nervous for this meeting, as I was aware that I was about to meet some key elites with a lot of power. These people enjoy the respect of many, and in order to conduct research here, I would need their permission. As the community chiefs are very traditional, I had to wear a long skirt and a T-shirt that would cover my collar bones.

Apart from Aoife, I was accompanied by Augustin, a local companion of the Rafiki Network who keeps in close contact with key elites, companion Phil (whose sense of fashion is remarkable, I must say), and Joshua, an employee of the Department of Social Welfare. Because of the importance of this meeting, the latter was obliged to accompany us. Fortunately, it did not feel like we were being “watched”, and I could very easily ask all my questions.

We expected six people at the meeting, but it turned into quite a party, as fourteen community members showed up. The group consisted of several village elders (these are always men), the community chief, the headmaster of the local school, three female health care workers, and an elderly lady who was a childcare worker. We started the meeting by clapping in our hands. This is a gesture that is very common in Zimbabwe and which stands for appreciation. Sadly, Aoife and I forgot that we were not supposes to clap along with the men, who clap first and are then followed by the women. Fortunately, Aoife rescued me the second time from losing face among the local chiefs ;).

Conversations about sensitive topics such as child marriage, are best started by asking questions about something that feels familiar to the interviewees. When I asked if the people at the meeting noticed any changes in weather patterns, they all agreed that rainfall patterns have changed: they experience less rain, and the rain starts later. Interestingly enough, they only started noticing these changes last year, when everyone lost their seeds due to lack of rainfall. These had to be replanted, as the drought made the harvest fail. They also noticed that the winters are now prolonged, and many winter crops fail. Because of the shifting seasons, they do not know when to plant which crops anymore. This leads to disruption of their livelihoods, for the communities in Chimanimani are very agricultural.

Like the young mothers, the community chiefs told me how incredibly damaging cyclone Idai was: rivers eroded, farms, villages and crops were destroyed, and even complete villages were washed away. Many farms that had been there for decades no longer existed. The villages in the area just to get water from the river through pipes, but these were also destroyed during the cyclone. This led to water shortages. Up to this day, communities who live downstream get less water than those upstream, which results in huge conflict. In addition, livestock drowned, and people lost their livelihoods. This meant that parents could no longer pay school fees for their children.

Idai exacerbated poverty, which was already a major issue in Chimanimani before the cyclone hit. As a result, the communities saw a vast increase in child marriages, for parents were using extreme coping mechanisms to survive. The money of lobola that they could get in exchange for their daughters could help them pay for food or the education of their younger children. Girls as young as 15 were married off, often to much older men. This, in turn, led to more gender-based violence. Because child marriage is culturally justified, the community chiefs witnessed a snowball effect: parents saw that others were marrying off their daughters, and started doing the same. Naturally, this had a direct effect on school drop out. When I later met teacher Sarah, who teaches at the local primary school, she told me that some 14 year old girls disappeared after the cyclone, because they entered a union with older men.

Interestingly, the increase in child and early marriages had been witnessed by all of the 14 members who were present. When I asked them if the early marriages were a decision taken by the parents or by the girls themselves, the answer was clear: poverty decided for these families. Whether they want it or not, families had no choice but to let their daughters marry. They had to survive Idai.

Everyone in the community seemed to agree that the new Marriage Act, which was adopted in April 2022 and now officially bans child marriage, will not have any effect. “As long as there is poverty, people will have no choice. Both parents and girls need to accept that,” the chief said. “We have always been poor, but climate change has made things far worse.”

Parents were away of the fact that child marriage is illegal. Yet, in order not to be reported to the authorities, many girls were sent away to other communities after their marriage. Here, they would be hidden from others. Upon reaching age 18, their husbands often dumped them, because they were scared they would now tell the authorities they were forced to marry as children. These young women would end up in prostitution. How many girls got married exactly, is not certain. As it is illegal, parents do not disclose such information. Only three cases were officially reported. However, all people present had heard of far more girls who married after Idai.

Apart from the early marriages, Idai forced young girls to use other coping mechanisms for survival. Girls ran away to gold miners, who are very active in the area, and who offer food for sex. These miners never live long at one place, and left many young girls pregnant with nowhere to go.

Idai was not the first cyclone in the area, and it won’t be the last. But when I pointed out that this area has experienced more climate shocks in the past few years, the community chiefs told me that none of these were as damaging as Idai. Idai stood out to the rest, as the communities could not cope with the losses. Life went on after the other cyclones, but not after Idai. For the people here, life will never be the same again.