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brown, save for a few green lungs.
In the wet season, a wedge of surprisingly varied vegetation sustains a wealth of wildlife, nourished by chattering streams and frothing rivers bursting out of escarpments and highlands, where waterfalls subsequently spill over cliffs.
With an array of dramatic peaks and hillocks draped in lush green forest, a kaleidoscope of bird and animal species flit and frolic across acacia, the savannah grasslands, the riverbanks, the palm groves, the valleys and all over.
People, driven by the inescapable ancient rhythm of life to survive, till the land and expect a bumper harvest.
Life is good and this is the time of plenty.
But things change in the dry season, where the greenery disappears and the fluffy grass heads ripple across the plains in a russet halo.
This time around, harvesting is in progress and thereafter non-irrigating farmers rest and await the subsequent rainy season.
A month or so before the anticipated rains, trees shed their leaves, the grass is brown and punk dry and here, there are sporadic outbreaks of veldfires that decimate the country and destroy everything they come across, animals and human beings alike.
With a change of attitude, this country could save a lot by making its citizenry desist from starting veldfires.
The village soothsayer, this ageless fountain of wisdom from the land of milk and honey and dust, or Guruve, says this time around Environment and Natural Resources Minister Francis Nhema has a tough task.
The lion-hearted Minister, apparently from the same predatory totem, according to the soothsayer, will have to whip villagers into line quickly because there is too much long grass, thanks to the benevolence of the ancestors who milked the skies of enough rains.
The village soothsayer himself, says he lost his mother in a rampaging veldfire and does not take kindly those who start the fires.
The sorry story is that the old woman, who had kept the soothsayer’s cash in trust, ran home from a village beer drinking binge one afternoon after realising that a raging veldfire – apparently started by a man digging for mice – had its flames licking the roof of her hut.
Her mud, pole and grass-thatched hut caught fire and she had kept the money somewhere in a calabash inside the hut.
Villagers who gathered in awe, advised her to wet a blanket and cover herself up, then enter the hut and pick up the calabash.
She took heed, wetted the blanket and covered her herself, entered the flamed hut and lost her way. She unfortunately breathed her last!
The hut collapsed on her and her charred body was recovered after the fire had subsided.
“Had it not been for the small mouse, my mother could probably be still alive,” laments the soothsayer.
There is a plethora of such stories that this villager could spit his ink on but Yours Truly, is aware that every living Zimbabwean has his version of the veldfire story.
Does anyone remember the 20 elephants that were burnt to death near Bulawayo last year? If those huge grey mounds of flesh – about two tonnes or so each – could succumb to veldfires, what about you and me? This villager has memories of the gory pictures of burnt elephants.
Anti-veldfire campaigns are not enough without a serious enforcement of the fireguards, controlled burning and dealing with smokers who throw away cigarette stubs.
This country is too beautiful and we need to change our attitude. We can do better, in managing the fires.
Chiefs and the entire traditional leadership must be constructively engaged and must be sensitised to enable them to effect deterrent punishment to offenders in their chiefdoms.
Stories of people burning entire forests to catch a hare, or burning a whole valley to clear land for mice digging must be condemned with the contempt they deserve.
Year in, year out, veldfires have become a national nuisance transcending across the political, business and social divides.
More than 20 people were killed last year, several others injured and property worth billions of dollars was destroyed.
This time around let us start preparing ourselves before the fires start.
We all have a role to play!
This villager thinks there is still time to put our house in order and rope in the judiciary to come up with deterrent sentences.
Let us approach this matter with zero tolerance.
Zimbabwe is good.
Zimbabwe is great and Zimbabwe can only be saved by all of us.
The village soothsayer, contends that no one should take this matter lightly, for the ancestors of this land shall bestow a curse upon all those who will not take their time to avert veldfires.
It could be you, it could be this villager, it could be anyone.
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