Re-GENE-rating Kumusha in Buhera
Author: Daud (Shumba) Taranhike
Kumusha is the Shona term for the rural homestead, where people are connected with the soil and their livelihoods primarily depend on the soil and hence, they call themselves “vana vevhu” meaning the children of the soil. Vana vevhu was a term that was used to motivate the Black people to fight for liberation against the colonial regime, with the main objective of reclaiming the land from the white settlers.
Kumusha is where the majority of Black Zimbabweans stay and are buried when they die, they live on the soil when alive and continue to live under the soil when they die. The soil is the Black people’s key inheritance and heritage. However, this understanding of the soil and kumusha seem to be fading away and hence people living kumusha are now being considered the poor, uneducated, backward and are often marginalised. Therefore, the need for the re-GENE-ration of kumusha is so important in the whole process of re-GENE-rating Zimbabwe yet the government is so preoccupied with external investment and export markets at the expense of developing self-sufficiency through the integral kumusha approach. The integral then positions kumusha, also, in a global context: hence local-global with a view to newly global Nhakanomics to come, thereafter revisiting the kumusha global.
The re-GENE-ration of kumusha is fundamental as it helps in uncovering and rediscovering people’s way of life and thereby restoring their identity as we seek to preserve, enhance and create Nhaka for future generations. Institutionally, kumusha constitutes a key phenomenon for the African people in the way they conduct their life. In this quest, my Buhera community and my three business enterprises have integrated to form a new conceived entity which is tentatively referred to as Vakamusha. This is a new and unique development which is seminal in the re-GENE-ration of the global south and the entire globe. Arguably then, kumusha is local (Grounded origination), the integral kumusha is local-global (Emergent foundation), nhakanomics is newly global (emancipatory Navigation) and vakamusha is global local (transformative effect) while unhu/Ubuntu provides the centering/integration.
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