Overview and Phiri S Book of Life

Overview and Phiri’s Book of Life

Dr. K.B. Wilson

On the Occasion of his Life Time Achievement Award

August 24th, 2010

Why are we here today at the University of Zimbabwe?

We are here because it is fitting that a University should concern itself with remarkable innovation and practical research by ordinary citizens as well as by its own staff and to seek to understand and document what has been achieved, and to disseminate these learnings to wider society.

And one such person is Mr. Zephaniah Phiri Maseko.

For there is no Research Institute or University Farm in this region that has developed and tested over forty years such an innovative, productive, sustainable, resilient and cost-effective system of cropping for the semi-arid sandveld and kopje region that characterizes so much of the Communal Areas of this country. At its heart is PLANTING WATER, because in these hot dry environments water arrives rapidly and leaves rapidly. And it doesn’t leave alone. According to VaPhiri, one job of the farmer is to prevent water and soil eloping and running off together. Instead he wants them to settle down together on his farm and raise a proper family with him.

VaPhiri’s system is characterized by:

• Intensive capture, management and tight re-cycling of water and nutrients,with ponds, trenches, trap dams, canals, wells and more.

• A creative deployment of indigenous knowledge, combined freely with ideas gleaned from other farmers, extension agents, formal scientific research and the Permaculture movement;

• Extraordinarily bold but careful experimentation to enable adaptation to his unique landscape, responding to and transforming the mosaic of soil types and hydrological regimes that characterize landscape, and doing so sustainably and over decades;

• Long term thinking; a system that yields in wet and dry years, and yields more every year…

• Reliance not on donors or financial and technical investments but on what the family can achieve with its own labor and local and cheap materials;

• Diverse farming systems: substantially perennialized, intercropped and rotated with an extraordinary number of legumes, organically fertilized, biologically controlled for pests; in 2009-2010 season there were 55 crops planted on the farm, not including indigenous fruit trees or indigenous semi-cultivars, or counting varieties…

• This is based on LIVING SOIL and sustained biomass and biodiversity. It is extraordinary how much life there is on his land. And it is increasing. At his old homestead on the edge of the ruware, which is just 52m x 80m at its widest point we assessed woody plant diversity in 1999 and then again in 2010.

1999: 149 trees of 41spp, both indigenous and exotic

2010: 175 trees of 55 spp of which 24 are fruit trees

A 25% increase in 11 years. Dr David Cooper hosted your visit to the OxfordUniversity farm 25 years ago. Now he is running a division of the Convention on Biological Diversity. He sends greetings and will kubururuka when he hears this information. You may remember how surprised he was by the interest you gave to the oak trees that the university allowed to remain in the wheat fields, when Agritex insisted that all trees be removed from fields at home.

When seeking to replicate photos that I took on VaPhiri’s land over the last 30 years to show all this change I could barely get to some of the places the vegetation is now so thick and many of the photos just show a wall of green.

Mr Phiri seeks to RHYME WITH NATURE in his methods. There is so much life on his land that nowadays his neighbors refer to “shiri dzevaPhiri” when their crops are damaged.

• As such VaPhiri is doing something terribly rare: achieving intensive use while BUILDING natural capital.

• As Godfrey Nyakanyanga from Mutoko said back in June 1997: “God is going to bless you for your ideas of managing nature’s systems”.

Who is it who is saying that VaPhiri’s approach is remarkable? It is now the whole world. The man who paid the colonial government fines because they said he was destroying the land earned the Buffett Foundation award for Leadership in African Conservation in 2006. Mr. Howard Buffett sends greetings: he is Sudan and is sorry he could not make it today.

The man with primary education has become recognized as a RESEARCHER by specialists from all over Zimbabwe’s university, research and agricultural institutions, as well as international agencies such as ICRISAT, FAO, IFAD etc. Let me quote you some people from his visitor’s book:

• G. Gumbozvanda (ICRISAT) “This is an eye opener. Extend this to higher institutions of learning and colleges for indigenous soil and water conservation”

• W. Shoshore (Agritex) “We need to learn more from the innovative researcher”

• Miriam Mhunduru (VSO) “An excellent display of indigenous knowledge”

• M. Muvondori (MasvingoProvince) “Very helpful to my theoretical concepts”

• Lovemore Mufumhe (DDF Water Division) “The place is like a training institute”

• W. Chivisa (ICRISAT) “Inspirational. Advanced agriculture in dry areas. Against the odds.”

• Christos Sibanda (then of Institute of Water and Sanitation Development) “Mr. Z Phiri’s site is even better than last time. The water he planted is ready for harvest”

From UZ Agriculture we have comments like “very impressed” from Z Mugwira, while

Chipo Mususa said “magnificent” and Florence Mtanganengwe “excellent”. Brian Mudzodzi from MSU said “this place is unbelievable”, and Dr. Mtaita from AfricaUniversity said it was “perfect” (since when VaPhiri implemented 100 improvements).

Mr. Phiri’s work is cited in a dozen books and journals, including one of the UNISA Text Books.

It is for these kinds of reasons that Ezekiel Makunike tells us that the 22 person group from Environment Africa that visited his home on Sept 8th, 2004 argued unanimously he “deserves an honorary doctorate degree in agriculture by the country’s universities”.

G. Tobaiwa from CARE suggested in 1998 “We urge this centre to be developed as a conservation college. This is great ideas!”

Countless international researchers from around the world have acknowledged his influence, and many sent messages of congratulations and gratitude to him today.

Professor Ian Scoones of IDS in Sussex said that Mr Phiri was the Professor at “MhototiUniversity” where he first learned about all the issues of his career, and the person that he most admired in the world. But we have messages from people as diverse as Prof Sam Jackson, Dr. Michael Drinkwater, Bryn Higgs, Professor JoAnn McGregor is here today, and many others send good wishes, including Professor Terry Ranger, who has also written about him and his ability to listen to the land. The Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galapagos of Ecuador has sent a message of congratulations today.

Mr. Phiri also has a solid place in the history of the global water harvesting movement. Brad Lancaster from Arizona in the USA, one of its recognized leaders and author of its main handbooks, has always said that it was VaPhiri who showed him the way and he has sent a message of thanks and congratulations today that will bring tears to your eyes.

Education and Outreach

Mr. Phiri is however much more than an innovative researcher who eats rather than publishes the findings of his research. He is an educator and a motivator. As Kuda Murwira once noted in the farm Visitor’s Book: “what a training center”.

His knowledge is written into the land. His humor gives it voice.

People have been visiting him for decades and are never turned away. It was ORAP and Sithembiso Nyoni (now the Honorable Minister for Medium and Small Scale Enterprises) who got this started after independence, and introduced me to his work. Parts of his Visitor’s Book have survived for the period 1997 to 2010. I have extracted 2,027 names from that book, or about 25-30 visitors a month. Taking into account that fewer people were visiting until 1990 that still suggests he has had 8,000 visitors – not including those who never signed the book!

In this book are people from every government dept, university, district and type of thinking in Zimbabwe. In this book are people from 14 African countries (sometimes whole delegations), and 9 other countries in Asia, Europe and North and South America. In this book are the names of 30 NGOs working here in the region. Most important perhaps, in this book are the names of hundreds of farmers who came by themselves or with local NGOs, AREX officers and other local government officials.

Here are some of the kinds of comments left by these visitors:

• Esther Kasalu Coffin (IFAD-Rome) “This is brilliant. Please keep it up and share the knowledge”

• Dr Justice Nyamangara (UZ and Africare – now CYMMYT) “Very impressed with what I saw. I wish every farmer could copy these brilliant innovations”

• J. Manyame (CARE, Masvingo, 1998) “This is good. I shall bring some farmers from Chivi”

• Mr Dube, from neighboring LwangaSchool area in Zvishavane: “I have been asked by farmers at our place to come and see your water harvesting Mr Phiri. They want you [to] come and help them.”

• C Chikomba (CARE Masvingo) “This is incredible. A lot of farmers should have the chance to learn about the techniques”

• Owen Shumba (SAFIRE) “Please let’s work together from now on”

• Mr. A Paulo (AGRITEX Gwanda) “Ideal techniques for dry areas! MORE: we shall duplicate them”

• Collins Chibvamushure (Farmer) “I learned a lot from you Mr. Phiri. I will do the same when I go back”

• Pastor Andrew Maphimidze “The Eden Project is a Gift from God”

• Tim Forster (Brazil) “V. interesting initiative with many examples of appropriate low cost technologies. Let’s promote the ideas’

• Kevin Lowther (CARE, US) “This is the beacon of light for the region. I learned much.”

• Lovemore Bayayi (PLAN Mutare) “Your work is cost effective and does not require any donor”

And it was true that many of the thousands of farmers who visited him went back and experimented with the approach in their home areas. A few of them are able to be with us today and we shall hear their stories, but across the country you will find this work happening now – moving among farmers, promoted by local and international NGOs.

Also here are the voices of school children and young people:

• UtongeniSecondary School in his home area of Msipane “V. educative. The project has a lot of intelligence and there is need for school pupils [to be] exposed to this project in order to encourage self reliance”

• Mrs Leratang Monare (EDA Trust in KwaZulu Natal) “We the youth, we thank you and wish you all the best”.

Some visitors to Mr. Phiri’s land saw him as a creator of new technologies that should just be exported and copied – silver bullets in development just like all the others. But that is not what VaPhiri taught. He taught the need to listen to the land, to study and experiment with one’s own landscape. He taught that every farmer should be responsible for understanding his own land, and not just relying on technologies developed for other pieces of land – by VaPhiri or anyone else. He taught the value of real science, real indigenous knowledge, and of hard work and responsibility. Of a culture of land stewardship that the planet now needs desperately.

VaPhiri doesn’t think much of most of what is called development. He will have been very happy to see what S. Marimira of the Mutoko Project wrote in his book many years ago: “Emphasis should be stressed to farmers that development can happen without or with minimal donor funds – emphasis on locally available resources.”

Zvishavane Water Project

But we are here today because his work did not stop at research and then educating people at his home. He also established one of the earliest indigenous NGOs in the country in the mid-1980s, an attempt to do something beyond the usual-usual of development. This NGO was started with nothing apart from will and belief, and a participatory research methodology that came out of the University of Mhototi, and his colleagues like the late Mr. Mathou Chakavanda, and Dr. B.B. Mukamuri and Abraham Mawere who we are with today. It didn’t have legal registration, governance, vehicle, staff, office, funding, etc., at the beginning. It received its first type writer as a gift from an English researcher, Sam Jackson. You will see in the Book of Life that its first proposals were hand written, and then later typed on an old Amstrad for him in the UK!

Over the last 25 years it has grown and changed, survived and thrived.

Mr. Phiri retired in 1996, granting ZWP the use of a portion of his land as an income generating and demonstration plot.

Former and current staff are with us today, or sent messages like Charles Hungwe now in UK, its first administrator. We shall hear more about ZWP from its wonderful Director, Irene Dube.

Harvest Time

Mostly we are here today because it is time for the harvest.

It is time that we recognize this old man. This fellow that E.P. Chiuswa from Zvishavane once characterized as “a wise brainy black man who becomes a water harvester”. This is a man who has inspired people everywhere, including through the wonderful book of his own words put together by Mary Witoshynsky. There is even an urban youth group in Texas that is called the Zephaniah Phiri Community Development Corporation.

This is the man that Gilbert Kimanzi from Kampala described with his “fantastic creativity and humorous explanation”. Who S Bhebhe from Oxfam-UK called “a very gentle unassuming wise man with a lot of knowledge and wisdom”.

Mr Phiri, the farmer from Beitbridge, Charles Nyakutombwa, who wrote “You are the Wallmark of Zimbabwe” was not wrong.

We need to pause and mention your father, VaPhiri. Amon Phiri of Dadaya Mission, close friend of Grace and Garfield Todd, one of the most powerful of the Church of Christ Preachers – this is not just folk memory – I went through the entire Dadaya Mission papers when I was a PhD student in the 1980s. He was known as BVUMA, and played a prominent role in the Mission, especially after its “Africanization” in 1938. A man who died too young, but whose powerful spirit protected you through many terrible times, especially during your detention and torture during the liberation war. A man who, like his son, loved creation. Who knew to pray for rain in the “rambo temwa” sacred forests – a man who knew that God was in the land as well as in the Book. Bambo Mdhara Phiri: zikomo bambo kwambili kuti mnafika kuno kuZimbabwe, kuchokela ku Malawi. Tinovuchira eShoko. Zikomo that you shared with us this your son and protected him to grace this land yeZimbabwe. Judith Todd sends her greetings to you. She has known you nearly all your life and was very much hoping to be with us today.

Mr. Phiri we join Willie Makomba of CRS who has said “Every visit is inspiring – more, more years!”

One way we are harvesting, Mr Phiri is with this BOOK OF LIFE. It was Mary Witoshynsky who said we should call it that. In this book I have tried to put every article published about you, old photos, testimonies and many other things. Like everything to do with you it is living – still growing. Something gets added every day. In it are articles published all over the world. Dr. Robin Palmer has helped locate documents from the Oxfam archives. Professor Scoones found a couple of hundred pages of your field notes from the wells, dams, and vlei projects of 1987 which I have typed up and included. Weaver Press found old newspaper articles about you. You are all over the web.

This Book of Life is to make “history heard”, as vaChigovo of Oxfam-Zvishavane once wrote of a visit to your land.

When Kurauone Mukamuri, the youngest born at the MhototiUniversity where we all worked together 25 years ago saw the dictionary of Fr. Hannan he said “that is not a book – it is a small suitcase”. VaPhiri it needs a quite large suitcase to share with you your life!

Friends we have many testimonies in here. You can read them in the Books that are going round. I am going to quote just a little from them.

You have a letter of congratulations from the assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, Mr. Achim Steiner. He says that “clearly [your] journey and accomplishments demonstrate the ‘power of one’ to make a difference”. He also writes: “More than 20 years ago Ken Wilson who had been working with Mr. Phiri in Zvishavane wrote to me asking if I knew of any financial support that could be made available to Mr Phiri in his endeavors to explore new approaches to agricultural development in his community. The amount needed was $2000 to $3000 dollars – a grant so small that most aid organizations could not really process such a request. Through a small unbureaucratic fund we – a small group of graduates from the German Development Institute – had set up in 1986 we quickly agreed to support Mr Phiri and transferred the requested amount with the help of Ken”.