47
Conversations with Nature Spirits
These connections are celebrated through the embodied performance of rituals that have
dynamically responded to changes over time and generation. Just perhaps, we ponder, in the search
for engaged social relationships in these fragile environments, a new syncretism with agroecology
is emerging: one that blends the spiritual importance of small grains with their drought tolerance
and nutritional benefts; sees climate change narratives as one with the disruption of complex ecosystems, complete with sacred pools and coppices; and seeks to rebuilt trust and failing community structures by respecting and upholding principles of equity and social justice. While perhaps
naïve to suggest that anywhere will be free of power reproduction and the structures it perpetuates,
it does hold the potential to reinvigorate a sense of effcacy and optimism to effect, albeit cautious,
change.
Here, we ponder the value of social farming in re-forging relationships through which social–
ecological change may be negotiated and alternative sources of agency and identity may be cultivated to transcend these deeply entrenched patterns of division and (self-)destruction. Moments of
renewal are an important articulation of a deeply held dissatisfaction with an equilibrium that holds
poverty and marginalisation in place. Yet this comes with a recognition that these same calls to
tradition risk co-option by the very forces that beneft from that equilibrium.
I see spirituality as one – it’s the source. You talked about re-imagining and revaluing – it’s like
connecting the dots. We’re lucky that we still have dots to connect. But only just, they are disappearing before our eyes. Just look where we are George – we could be the richest people!
Somewhere between the destructive power of cyclones and the popular anger that resulted in the
destruction of ‘freedom farming’ as a popular refex against coercive power is the collective will
to help the landscape and its hosts to regenerate – building bridges, fguratively and literally, that
reconnect peoples across landscapes to mobilise knowledge and build new alliances.
Perhaps what joins our conversation is a drive for a socially engaged and authentic, yet quiet and
non-confrontational, form of activism. The boundaries here are not always clear and, we agree, have
yet to unfold. Where activists tend to rush in, action generated through connections to spirit requires
room to breathe and accumulate. Our motivations converge under the increasingly urgent need to
recover lost knowledge, to open up and explore different pathways.
Where historical memory is thought to have been washed away by the cyclone, people are
more exposed than ever to coercion, be it political or religious, in pursuit of power and infuence.
Reconstructing our world in new ways requires the recovery of memory. Ritual practice can play an
important role in this critical reconnection. Critical, because this is surely not about tightly reconstructing the past, but fnding new ways in which the past can better explain the present and inform
the future. Critical, because this requires open dialogues about what is retained, what is left behind,
what is dynamically co-constructed and by whom.
Ultimately, we are creative creatures, and we have been recreating and redesigning our traditions for millennia.
As ever-more extreme weather events are projected globally and predictions of the worst drought
on record since 1992 for Zimbabwe’s coming 2020 farming season (Manatsa, 2020), we both wonder whether this small community will fnd the energy to artfully challenge patterns of degradation,
and to collectively re-imagine the long-broken social contract to turn the tide.
Crises are nothing if not traumatic yet magical moments that inspire human refection, in concert with our rich knowledge ecologies, and call on our creative powers to re-imagine our world
afresh.
One of us is reminded of the words of an esteemed agricultural extension specialist that ‘nothing
worthwhile has ever been achieved without an element of coercion’. 7 Yet one could equally argue
that nothing at all effective or durable has ever been achieved with coercion. Historically, the uptake
7 Informal conversation with national university professor, 28 November 2019.
Conversations with Nature Spirits
These connections are celebrated through the embodied performance of rituals that have
dynamically responded to changes over time and generation. Just perhaps, we ponder, in the search
for engaged social relationships in these fragile environments, a new syncretism with agroecology
is emerging: one that blends the spiritual importance of small grains with their drought tolerance
and nutritional benefts; sees climate change narratives as one with the disruption of complex ecosystems, complete with sacred pools and coppices; and seeks to rebuilt trust and failing community structures by respecting and upholding principles of equity and social justice. While perhaps
naïve to suggest that anywhere will be free of power reproduction and the structures it perpetuates,
it does hold the potential to reinvigorate a sense of effcacy and optimism to effect, albeit cautious,
change.
Here, we ponder the value of social farming in re-forging relationships through which social–
ecological change may be negotiated and alternative sources of agency and identity may be cultivated to transcend these deeply entrenched patterns of division and (self-)destruction. Moments of
renewal are an important articulation of a deeply held dissatisfaction with an equilibrium that holds
poverty and marginalisation in place. Yet this comes with a recognition that these same calls to
tradition risk co-option by the very forces that beneft from that equilibrium.
I see spirituality as one – it’s the source. You talked about re-imagining and revaluing – it’s like
connecting the dots. We’re lucky that we still have dots to connect. But only just, they are disappearing before our eyes. Just look where we are George – we could be the richest people!
Somewhere between the destructive power of cyclones and the popular anger that resulted in the
destruction of ‘freedom farming’ as a popular refex against coercive power is the collective will
to help the landscape and its hosts to regenerate – building bridges, fguratively and literally, that
reconnect peoples across landscapes to mobilise knowledge and build new alliances.
Perhaps what joins our conversation is a drive for a socially engaged and authentic, yet quiet and
non-confrontational, form of activism. The boundaries here are not always clear and, we agree, have
yet to unfold. Where activists tend to rush in, action generated through connections to spirit requires
room to breathe and accumulate. Our motivations converge under the increasingly urgent need to
recover lost knowledge, to open up and explore different pathways.
Where historical memory is thought to have been washed away by the cyclone, people are
more exposed than ever to coercion, be it political or religious, in pursuit of power and infuence.
Reconstructing our world in new ways requires the recovery of memory. Ritual practice can play an
important role in this critical reconnection. Critical, because this is surely not about tightly reconstructing the past, but fnding new ways in which the past can better explain the present and inform
the future. Critical, because this requires open dialogues about what is retained, what is left behind,
what is dynamically co-constructed and by whom.
Ultimately, we are creative creatures, and we have been recreating and redesigning our traditions for millennia.
As ever-more extreme weather events are projected globally and predictions of the worst drought
on record since 1992 for Zimbabwe’s coming 2020 farming season (Manatsa, 2020), we both wonder whether this small community will fnd the energy to artfully challenge patterns of degradation,
and to collectively re-imagine the long-broken social contract to turn the tide.
Crises are nothing if not traumatic yet magical moments that inspire human refection, in concert with our rich knowledge ecologies, and call on our creative powers to re-imagine our world
afresh.
One of us is reminded of the words of an esteemed agricultural extension specialist that ‘nothing
worthwhile has ever been achieved without an element of coercion’. 7 Yet one could equally argue
that nothing at all effective or durable has ever been achieved with coercion. Historically, the uptake
7 Informal conversation with national university professor, 28 November 2019.