Lake Mutirikwe (formerly Kyle) islocated near the huge ruins of Great Zimbabwe, south-east of Masvingo. The lake was dammed in 1960 to irrigate the sugar cane fields near Triangle, 200 km to the south. The village is not located directly on the lake, but makes use of its abundance of fish when the water level is high enough. The water for drinking and use comes from a groundwater well and is collected there in buckets by women and children.
The village itself consists of several scattered groups of huts. One such place includes a communal kitchen, a few huts, granaries for onions and corn built on short stilts, an underground cellar for grain covered with clay and a toilet building at the edge of the living area. Chickens cluck everywhere and a few dogs run around. Rabbits are kept in a small loft and a hen broods her eggs in the corner of a bedroom. The huts are built from dried mud bricks and have thatched roofs. The mud bricks are made by the women themselves. The clay, which is common, is filled wet into a wooden mold and then turned upside down to dry. The bricks made in this way are then piled up to form a kind of oven with a firebox in the middle. The stones are then "baked" for 24 hours with a wood fire and then used to build the house. Today, this original construction method is ecologically controversial because it requires a lot of wood to be burnt, which, depending on the circumstances, is not available for daily food preparation and often has to be laboriously hauled from far away. The tall grass for the roofs is collected in the dry season, bundled and stored on a rack. The fields are tilled shortly before the rainy season. The primitive plow - often made from a few iron rods - is pulled across the field by a cow. Afterwards, manure or other fertilizer is placed in small hollows. When the rain comes, the seeds or cuttings previously planted near a stream or a water hole are sown. Fertilizer is distributed by the state, but only after the planting season as a supply for the following year. This is probably done so that the farmers can collect their own manure throughout the year. Weeding, watering and harvesting is then hard manual work. The produce is then sold at markets. The proceeds must then be enough to cover school fees, medicine and items that the farmers cannot produce themselves.
The kitchen is also the family's common room. They cook on an open fire in the middle. The women sit on one side of the fire on the floor with their small children, while the men use a stone bench on the other side. Sadza (porridge made from white maize flour) and muriwo (spinach) are almost always cooked. Depending on the season or the occasion, there are also mushrooms, fruit, fish and very rarely chicken or other meat.
As there is no electricity, stories are told and sewing, knitting or handicrafts are made during the long evenings.
Life in these rural villages still follows the old traditions and is fundamentally different from modern life in the cities. Although the women do practically all the work, the men head the families. They usually contribute very little to the livelihood, unless they find paid work somewhere, e.g. in tourism or transportation. Strict patriarchy still prevails. The head of the family can "own" (literally) several women, marry off girls or young women for good money or pets and spend money on his own alcohol consumption.
In the absence of school fees, often only boys have access to education and the world of work. PfAH would therefore like to help improve this situation, be it with school fees for girls, be it with further education courses for women or with advice and help for girls and young women affected by illegal child marriage or abuse.
