95 village heads without formal approval from the chief and the local authorities. The population steadily increased from the late 1990s and the early 2000s despite challenges in 1999. In November 1999, the reigning Chief Charumbira successfully got an eviction order against the settlement dwellers from the courts. The settlers claimed that he evicted them because he wanted to set up an irrigation scheme. Police officers followed the instructions on the court order and burnt the homesteads and forcibly moved everyone residing in the settlement area.
However, with the advent of the fast track land reform in the year 2000, Chief Charumbira received land from the former Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA) farm which lies about five kilometres from the settlement12 and the village heads, facing pressure from residents who had given them money to settle initially, encouraged the settlers to resettle again.
The 1990s period and the concomitant economic and political challenges in the country also coincided with the disintegration of formal governance structures, and problems in the Natural Resources Board and local authorities. In this context, traditional authorities (including headmen) saw an opportunity of undermining the position of the Rural District Councils.
Concomitant with the disintegration of formal governance structures was the increased autonomy of traditional leaders through the revised Traditional Leaders Act, 1998, and amendments of 1999. Traditional leaders, in Chivanhu Settlement, took advantage of these developing processes and expanded the settlement into areas that were not previously designated for habitation, including those formerly gazetted as grazing lands. There are no clear-cut boundaries due to these factors.
96 Table 7: Average length of stay and origin of Chivanhu residents
Place of
Origin Distance from
Settlement in kilometres(k m)
Number Length of stay in settlement
Place of
Origin Distance from Settlement
Number Length of stay in settleme nt
ARDA Farm 5km 3 0 - 4 Mashava
Mine 65km 1 10+
Banga 10km 9 5 - 9 Masvingo
Urban 20km 11 5 - 9
Mugabe 15km 2 0 - 4 Mhene 15km 2 10+
Beitbridge 313km 7 5 - 9 Muchakat
a 15km 4 5 - 9
Bikita 150km 5 5 - 9 Munazuv
a 15km 1 10+
Bulawayo 305km 3 5 - 9 Murinye 20km 15 5 - 9
Charumbira 15km 11 5 - 9 Mushandi
ke 35km 6 0 - 4
Chegutu 358km 1 10+ Mushawa
sha 35km 2 0 - 4
Chikarudzo 15km 12 10+ Mutare 317km 3 5 - 9
Chinhengeni 15km 1 5 - 9 Zimunya 310km 1 0 - 4
Chihota 386km 1 0 - 4 Mwenezi 85km 4 10+
Chirumanzu 145km 9 5 - 9 Nemanwa 4km 36 10+
Chivi 85km 10 5 - 9 Nhikita 5km 6 0 - 4
Gokwe 395km 7 5 - 9 Nyajena 25km 7 5 - 9
Gunikuni 10km 1 0 - 4 Panganai
Zaka 145km 6 5 - 9
Guruve 417km 1 10+ Rusape 389km 1 10+
Gutu 110km 13 10+ Sani 4km 2 10+
Gweni 10km 1 10+ Shumba 4km 1 0 - 4
Harare 317km 4 5 - 9 Sikato
Farm 5km 1 5 - 9
Kadoma 323km 1 5 - 9 Togarepi 4km 1 5 - 9
Kwekwe 251km 1 0 - 4 Triangle 155km 6 0 - 4
Machitenda 15km 9 0 - 4 Zaka 121km 7 5 - 9
Mapanzure 25km 5 0 - 4 Zimuto 25km 3 10+
Marisa 15km 4 10+ Zvishavan
e 122km 1 0 - 4
Forty five households (18%) had stayed in the settlement for a period between 0-4 years, 122 households (49%) had stayed in the settlement for a period ranging from 5-9 years and 82 households (33%) had stayed for more than 10 years. The 33% of households included the earlier settlers and those who settled during the late 1990s. The household and community structures in Chivanhu are dissimilar to other (more established) rural areas in Zimbabwe
97 where households have descended from the local area, have resided in the area for several generations and hence have long-established kinship networks. Chivanhu households’ origins are varied and diverse, and the settlement has a short and problematic history of relocations and resettlements. This has serious implications for any sense of community and for support networks with respect to the absorption of the impacts of HIV and AIDS across several households.
The length of stay was correlated to gender, marital status and age of the household head.
Most of the households heads aged between 15-35 years of age had stayed in the area for 10 years or less. Household heads aged above 40 years of age had generally been settled in the area for more than 10 years. Most single female headed households’ average stay was less than 4 years, and most of this category of female headed households had moved into the area after the death of a spouse or because of divorce. Other settlers moved in due to the burden of maintaining an urban household in the context of high unemployment after the ESAP era and the recent economic meltdown in Zimbabwe. Many younger heads of households (15–24 years of age) inherited the homesteads because of the death of the parents due to chronic illness.
This demographic context is critical in understanding HIV susceptibility and AIDS vulnerability of households in the settlement. Unlike other contexts studied by for example Drinkwater (2005), Rugalema (2000) and Makonese (2007), where HIV and AIDS came as stressors and the households (in comparatively stable communities) find ways of coping, households in Chivanhu are already on the margins of survival. Their coping strategies differ from those of more established households and communities. In particular, the origin of household heads is critical in understanding the household coping strategies and the resilience factors within the households in the settlement. Understanding the livelihood dynamics in Chivanhu Settlement is influenced by the fact that household heads originated from all over the country and settled during different periods.
5.3.1 Population characteristics and land ownership
As noted earlier, the average number of households ranged from 238 to 249 households during the three years of conducting the research. During the peak of conducting the research, the breakdown of households by household head was as follows: 168 were male-headed and 81 were female-headed. Of the male–headed households, one head of household was
98 divorced, 2 were widowed and 6 were single. The rest were married. The 6 single male head of households were child-headed households, that is, where the head of household was below the age of 18. Of the female-headed households, 67 females were widows, 10 were divorced or separated and 4 were single. There were movements in and out of the settlement because of selling of commodities and other reasons (such as inheritance after the death of the breadwinner or the head of household), but the numbers remained largely constant. The ages of household heads had the following ranges and frequencies: besides the 6 child-headed households (below 18 years), there were 118 heads of households in the age group 18-30, 58 heads aged 41-50 years, 38 from 51 to 64 years and 27 were aged 65 and above.
There are a high number of single and double orphans in Chivanhu settlement, that is, children who had lost either one or both parents respectively. The following table (Table 8) gives a breakdown of the number of single and double orphans per household in the settlement.
Table 8: Households with single and double orphans in Chivanhu Settlement Single
orphans in household
Number of households reporting that number
Total Double orphans in households
Number of households reporting that number
Total
1 54 54 1 21 21
2 29 58 2 14 14
3 10 30 3 7 21
4 8 32 4 3 12
5 4 20 5 1 5
7 2 14 7 1 7
Total 107 208 Total 47 90
Out of a total of 247 households, 154 households had either single orphans (numbering 208), that is a child who has lost one parent, or double orphans (numbering 90), that is a child who has lost both parents. This means that about 43 percent of households had single orphans and about 16 percent of the households had double orphans. It is important to note that the number of households with two or more orphans was also high for both single and double orphans. In the case of single orphans, 50 percent of households had two or more orphans; in the case of double orphans, the respective figure was over 50 percent. Some households had up to seven orphans. These high numbers of orphans are significant considering that most of the household in Chivanhu Settlement had few resources for their livelihood security and
99 sustainability. Out of those households, 23 had sent orphaned children elsewhere as a way of coping with livelihood insecurity, and 36 households had absorbed households from elsewhere. Of particular importance was that the majority of the orphans originated from the settlement – only 14 percent of the total households with orphans mentioned that the orphans had migrated from elsewhere and only nine percent of the households reported during the course of conducting the research that they had sent orphans to stay elsewhere (other than within the settlement) as a coping strategy.
At least 91 percent of the children aged 5 to 18 are currently attending school. Nine percent of the households are receiving educational assistance from the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM)13 which is being administered by the government through the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. There are two primary schools serving the community; one, called Chirichoga Primary School, is about seven kilometres from the area. The other, Sikato Primary School, is about 4 kilometres from the settlement. The schools cater for Grades 1 up to 7. There is also a day secondary school providing secondary and high school education, which is about 7 kilometres away. However despite the high percentage of children aged 5-18 attending school, an estimated forty percent of the households accounted for the nine percent of children aged between 5-18 years who were not attending school. Children not attending school were found in households that had reported the presence of orphaned children.
In Chivanhu settlement, despite having paid for the land, the residents had limited rights to the land. The tenure security was not very different from the tenure systems in communal areas where villagers have usufruct rights to the land. They cannot sell but they can rent land secretly. Being a descendant of the community, and hence inheritance, was a key criteria for obtaining and possessing land for a male. Females can inherit their husband’s land or access land through their brother or father. Therefore, land use rights can be transferred to the immediate deceased household member’s wife or male adult children. Land can be allocated to females though only on condition that a male guardian is responsible and answers to any issues and queries arising from the possession and use of such land. However, as evidence from this research will show, these forms of inheriting and land possession were overridden in many cases with detrimental effects for certain HIV and AIDS affected households and individuals. Rituals like beer brewing as per a request from the village head and other tokens
13 BEAM is the Basic Education Assistance module which provides educational support to orphaned and vulnerable children.
100 of allegiance to the village head are supposed to be complied with by both men and women in order to retain the land. If a possessor of land fails to utilize the land, the village head has the authority to take away that land and give it to someone else. Land possessors have a right to develop and put in permanent infrastructures like wells.
The majority of the households in Chivanhu Settlement have access to 0.5 to 1 acre of land and, on average, households utilise all the land to which they have access. Households which settled earlier occupy more land compared to those that settled later. Even among the latter occupiers, though, those who have the resources can buy land or seek favours through gifts to the village heads in order to gain more land. According to one village head,
The yearly tax for land is USD3. If someone deserts his home and I pay the tax for two consecutive years on behalf of the household head, in the third year the homestead and the land belongs to me the village head and I can transfer the ownership of the land to someone else. If the roofing was asbestos, I remove those for safekeeping waiting for the owner to come back and claim them back (interview with village head, 2010).
Nearly all of the households cultivate most or some of their allocated land. About 15 percent of the households fail to cultivate their land. For those households which do not cultivate, 41 percent cited being absent from Chivanhu during the time for agricultural activities as the reason for their failure to utilise the land. Another 15 percent mentioned general lack of labour within the household as one of the major reasons. Lack of labour was a particularly critical issue in child-headed households and in households where the breadwinner was chronically ill. Some households (about 26 percent) attributed lack of seeds and other agricultural inputs as the main reasons for their failure to utilise the land. Other households also mentioned lack of fertiliser and the need to maintain the land fallow because the soil fertility was currently very low. Many of these problems, in different ways and to different extents, were experienced by households which cultivate.
Adequate rainfall was a problem highlighted by all households, both those which cultivate and those which do not. Rainfall is critical considering that the settlement relies on rainfall for agricultural purposes. In the 2010/11 agricultural season, most of the crop in the area was written off as a result of the prolonged dry spell in late January and February. During the research, cereal production for the 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11 agricultural seasons was generally low as a result of erratic rainfall patterns. Although Chivanhu Settlement is located in the Lake Mutirikwi catchment area, nearly all households in the settlement reported on
101 several occasions that they did not have access to the dam and only 10 percent of the households had access to irrigated gardens (these were beneficiaries from a CARE International community garden project). Some other households that had gardens had established these in the lake vleis in the Zimbabwe National Park area. There is a svikiro for Nemanwa who is based at the Great Zimbabwe Monuments, where she poses as a traditional healer. The svikiro spirit medium coordinates the annual rainmaking ceremonies, which are conducted at the beginning of every rainy season at the chief’s homestead.