THERE are several issues that make Binga District adorable.
First, it is the originality of its people and second, it is regarded as a cultural hub where indigenous traditional knowledge systems are still practised.
The famous ndombonda smoking pipe, bare-breasted women frolicking on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River and fishermen hauling in their nets typify Binga.
Numerous wooden crafts on display along the road to Binga Centre are some of the scenic views that even made the colonial Government declare Binga and the BaTonga people a tourist attraction.
However, it is the BaTonga indigenous community’s ‘low-carbon’ traditional way of life which has over the years contributed to the way they have lived.
This is largely a result of their historic dependence on local biological diversity, ecosystem services and cultural landscapes as a source of sustenance and well-being.
Their very identity is inextricably linked to their lands which are located predominantly at the social-ecological margins of human habitation such as the Zambezi River, state forests, national parks and high-altitude zones.
Here, at these margins, the survival of the BaTonga depends on agriculture, pastoralism, fishing, hunting and gathering, among other activities.
For the BaTonga community, traditional knowledge is the wisdom and practices gained over time through experience. It is orally passed down from generation to generation and has over the years played a significant part in solving problems related to weather changes and variability.
Their lives around natural resources often observe the activities around them and are the first to identify and adapt to any changes.
The appearance of certain birds, mating of certain animals and flowering of certain plants are all important signals of changes in time and seasons that are well-understood in traditional knowledge systems.
The BaTonga have used biodiversity as a buffer against variation, change and catastrophe.
In the face of plague, if one crop fails, another will survive.
In coping with risk due to excessive or low rainfall, drought and crop failure, they grow different crops and varieties with different susceptibility to drought and floods. They supplement these by hunting, fishing and gathering wild food plants.
The diversity of crops such as finger millet, sorghum and other food resources is often matched by a similar diversity in location of fields, as a safety measure to ensure that in the face of extreme weather, some fields will survive to produce harvestable crops.
According to Environment Africa, this community is a potential library of ethno-botanical information and can make invaluable contributions to our conservation policy by sharing taxonomic knowledge and ecosystem management approaches.
Given their intricate knowledge of more than 1 000 herbs and tubers, the BaTonga are in a position to provide much-needed innovation in the fields of biotechnology and modern medicine – information that could perish with certain vulnerable plant species, language or diminishing cultural practices in Zimbabwe.
The BaTonga community, who historically dealt with regular weather disturbances in relatively harsh environments, can also suggest innovative agricultural techniques that can bolster food security.
However, it is argued that by monitoring adaptation strategies among the BaTonga and organising a system to disseminate such information, different cultures could empower one another.
The exchange of sustainable technologies between regions with similar agro-climatic and socio-economic conditions would provide support for farmers coping with similar disturbances.
Indigenous communities, however, are not mere victims of vacillating weather conditions, but with the collective knowledge of the land, sky and water, these people are excellent observers and interpreters of change in the environment.
The ensuing community-based and collectively-held knowledge offers valuable insights, complementing scientific data with chronological and landscape-specific precision and detail that is critical for verifying climate models and evaluating climate change scenarios developed by scientists at much broader spatial and temporal scale.
Moreover, BaTonga indigenous knowledge provides a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation and mitigatory actions that sustain resilience of social-ecological systems at the interconnected local, regional and global scales.
They are tapping into their indigenous knowledge systems to promote the well-being of their community at large and have become less dependent on the Westerners for medicines, agricultural implements and drought mitigation.
This is despite the fact that hordes of non-governmental organisations have tried in vain to change the way the BaTonga live by imposing programmes that do not benefit these people in any way.
The BaTonga have the best medicine men and women who are capable of developing cures for different ailments afflicting their community, but have over the years fallen prey to gullible people who exploited them for years and are busy harvesting their herbs and tubers, developing them into modern medicines and patenting them at their expense.
As victims, they are potential agents of solutions, leadership, wisdom and untapped contributions to modern medicine if only their indigenous knowledge systems are recognised.
Many Zimbabwean communities such as the Shangani, Venda and the San are potential libraries of ethno-botanical information and can make invaluable contributions to conservation policy by sharing taxonomic knowledge and ecosystem management approaches.
Those place-based people, such as the BaTonga who have historically dealt with regular weather disturbances in relatively harsh environments, can also suggest innovative agricultural techniques that can bolster food security.
Monitoring adaptation strategies among the BaTonga people and organising systems to disseminate such information and culture could empower other communities.
The BaTonga values such as respect, sharing, reciprocity and humility characterise systems of traditional ecological management that seem to operate sustainably in many contemporary communities, including the San bushmen.
Generally, Zimbabwean indigenous communities have sustained harmonious relationships with the landscape for many years and by putting into practise ecological knowledge embedded in their culture, they have many times actually increased local biodiversity.
The need to collect and disseminate knowledge of these traditions with proper material and financial compensation for such knowledge is urgent.
Globalisation has prompted the urbanisation of younger Zimbabwean generations and the impending death of elders means critical indigenous knowledge may be lost forever.