The Sunday News
Tendai Rupapa, Harare Bureau
YOUTHS from the Doma community in Kanyemba last week attended First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba programme, as her efforts to integrate the previously marginalised community with the rest of the country continue.
Amai Mnangagwa urged the youths to respect their rich culture.
The programme, which has gained global acclaim, promotes cultural norms and values, and helps curb child marriages, domestic violence, drug abuse and loss of morals among youths.
The First Lady has been walking gently with the Doma community and helping them switch from lives centred on hunting and gathering.
She has helped establish and mobilise resources for schools and clinics in the area, and set up income-generating projects for the community.
Expecting mothers queue to receive baby preparation kits and toys from First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa through her Angel of Hope Foundation during a male engagement forum in Kanyemba last week
The Doma community used to build a raised temporary structure or just perch their bedroom hut high up a tree, but Amai Mnangagwa introduced them to modern life, and they are now getting used to modern-day settlements.
The future of the community now looks bright, thanks to the First Lady’s initiatives through her charity arm, Angel of Hope Foundation, and its partners, which is assisting villagers with resources to improve their well-being.
The Nhanga/Gota/Ixhiba programme taken to Kanyemba by the First Lady was a masterstroke, as youths in the community were, like their peers countrywide, now abusing drugs and engaging in early and unplanned marriages.
Amai Mnangagwa took the girls through life lessons in the nhanga with the help of elderly women in the community, while the boys were in the gota with Chief Chapoto and other elderly men.
“Grandmothers, today we have come to teach the children our norms and values so that they appreciate that their bodies are important. I want you to teach these children in line with your values here, as they also ask where they do not understand,” the First Lady said.
“I have come for a discussion with my children so that we can speak openly. My aim is to protect them from getting into zvinhu zvinokanganisa remangwana ravo.
“Our daughters are leaving school midway because of early marriages, but we have come to say education first. If you fall pregnant and drop out of school, your life is ruined.”
An elderly lady said she grew up being counselled that moral values were a pillar of strength for the girl-child.
“During our time, we were taught that good morals build the girl-child. Girls have their own way of sitting down while cross-legged, but nowadays they cannot sit properly. They sit with their legs astride in front of men, including their fathers, which is disrespectful,” she said.
“Here among the Doma people, we encourage our children to consume indigenous dishes, which have health benefits, and we are happy that they embrace our traditional foods. “Consuming traditional foods keeps you healthy and fit. We also teach our children to use their hands to make pottery and we have ready markets in Mozambique and Zambia.
Iyasa drama and dance group perform a drama on the effects of gender-based violence during a male engagement forum organised by First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa in Kanyemba last week
“We do not want them to look for freebies from men but show them that they can work and get their money and buy all they want. “We thank you, Amai, because we see you going around the country encouraging consumption of traditional dishes and urging women to use their hands,” she added.
Another elderly woman decried the surge in loose morals among girls nowadays.
“Our children nowadays behave like wild fruits on the market, as they are fondled by boys who rub their breasts and buttocks as the girl giggles. We feared men during our time and we would literally run away until the time was ripe. I entered marriage in a respectable manner and my parents were honoured with a beast because I was a virgin,” she said.
Dr Mnangagwa said she hoped the girls were listening to the accounts.
It was her wish, she said, for girls to regularly visit the elderly for training.
“Grandmothers and mothers, it is my humble request that you befriend these girls and continue teaching them so that they do not get lost. Ivai nehushamwari nevanasikana venyu nevazukuru so that havatye kukuvhunzai zvavanoda kudzidza,” she said.
The girls posed many questions, which the First Lady and the elderly women responded to.
They were also taught about menstrual hygiene.
Boys in the gota showcased various household chores expected of them like carpentry and chopping firewood for domestic use.
On the other hand, girls prepared traditional foods, which included manyanya, which are the roots of a tree called munhenga.
The preparation of the roots involves the use of home-made ‘‘soda’’ drawn from soil on the riverbed.
They said manyanya are healthy and medicinal.
The Doma people pound sorghum, soak it and grind it on stone and eat it raw.
They call this meal muperera.
They also prepared sisito (dried sweet potato leaves) which they served with sadza made from sorghum.
Teaching the boys in the gota, Elder Guy Peterson from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (USA), a partner of the Angel of Hope Foundation, spoke against the burning of forests and lighting of uncontrolled fires.
Instead, he said, fire should be lit in pits to avoid spreading uncontrollably.
“If you start a fire in the forest for whatever reason, it will spread and destroy a lot of things and can also lead to loss of lives. What the elders told you today helps you keep fire in the fire pit, but if you don’t keep it in the fire pit and do not follow the elders’ counsel, it will be disastrous. It will destroy you, your family and it will destroy this entire community. So follow the elders’ counsel,” he said.
In her main address to the community, the First Lady acknowledged the presence of Angel of Hope partners from the United States of America, who also took part in the programme.
“I am happy to be here in Mashonaland Central Province where I was born. It is not a favour to be here but a way of ensuring that my home area does not lag behind. I have brought teachings for our adolescents because there is a lot that is affecting our children. This behaviour is now everywhere as children have killed themselves. They take illicit brews like tumbwa and mutoriro, which I heard originated from this province. Some parents are selling these drugs; were you not pained by the nine months that you now want to kill these children?” she said.
“Today I have brought the Nhanga/Gota/Ixhiba programme so that we can correct our children. As parents, we are troubled by naughty children. We are an African country, Zimbabweans, and therefore we have our cultural norms and values that we follow. As parents, we are troubled by children who, after taking drugs, spend a week unconscious. As health ambassador, I decided that this cannot go unchecked because some have developed mental health challenges.
A man shares his view about the causes of gender-based violence in families during a male engagement forum organised by First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa in Kanyemba last week
“When drunk, they become rowdy and even beat up their parents. There is no home built by drunkards, neither is there a country led by drunks.
There are lots of pregnancies here involving young children. There is a challenge in marrying off young children. Why don’t we treasure children’s education because education is life, and it is your first husband as a girl-child? My Foundation partnered with the Zimbabwe Open University and is offering short courses. I urge you to be part of this programme because we are not leaving anyone and any place behind,” she said.
The First Lady educated the community on family planning before inviting teen mothers and former ladies of the night to form a group so that she can initiate a project for them.
Ms Moline Besu, the wife to acting Chief Chapoto, expressed gratitude to the First Lady for rolling out the educative programme for the benefit of her community.
“We are happy Amai has come here to teach us Nhanga and Gota. Our main challenge here is that children are being married at a tender age. This Nhanga and Gota will assist us immensely here in Kanyemba. We shall continue encouraging this programme even after the First Lady has left. We shall plan with the wives of headmen to hold Gota and Nhanga sessions every month.
“This will help us inculcate good morals in children. This place is far from Harare and we thank Amai for coming here,” she said.
Acting Chief Chapoto, Mr Enoch Chapoto, said the educative programme had a lot of lessons for both the elderly and the young.
“We want to thank the First Lady for coming with her Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba programme, which is reviving some things we as chiefs and other elders had forgotten about. I can see that we were lost and we sat down and discussed in the Gota, as elders taught us that our cultural norms and values that define us,” he said.
“Respect comes from the Gota and without these, we lack respect. Morality is cultivated in the Gota, even self-restraint. I am seeing the way our children are growing up these days. “They are taking a lot of drugs and consuming illicit brews. Children are marrying each other at tender ages because of lack of guidance from the Gota and Nhanga.
I am thankful and promise to embrace the teachings that have been brought by our mother through this programme, which we shall stick to as communities. It will help us restore our culture and morals. We want to do this programme monthly for the benefit of our children and communities before we lose a whole generation.”
