By Varaidzo Dongozi
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AlertNet) - Seventy-six-year-old Tenge Musasa is flummoxed by the changing climate around her.
A Zimbabwean farmer living in rural Nemamwa, a village 300 km (187 miles) from the capital of Harare, she struggles to understand why the rains, which she once knew so well, have changed so much in the past few years, bringing more and more dry spells.
Unaware about the process of climate change, she attributes these seemingly inexplicable weather changes to supernatural powers, and performs religious rituals in an attempt to pacify what she sees as uneasy spirits.
"We don't know much about climate change and as Africans we resort to explanations we are familiar with," she admitted.
Many farmers in rural Zimbabwe still have little or no knowledge about climate change, widely seen as a complicated and foreign topic. The government, facing other challenges, has only recently made it a higher priority, and the issue has received relatively light treatment in Zimbabwe's media.
Aid and educational organizations, however, are working to change that, and lay the groundwork for better adaptation to the growing problem.
One way is by asking popular arts and culture figures in the country to lend their voice. Under the British Council's Climate Change Icons programme, popular local musician Alexio Kawara and renowned poet Albert Nyathi are now appearing before school and community groups to help spread awareness of climate change and sensitize people to the challenges it can bring.
"I am convinced that if the message is spread, we can make a lot of positive changes together," Kawara said at the launch of his latest album, titled Sango, in Harare.
The Zimbabwean government, through its national climate change office, has also begun to try to raise awareness. But climate experts in the country say the message still needs to reach farms and remote villages, where it will be crucial in helping communities adapt to the changing weather.
Zimbabwe is widely expected to become drier in coming decades, putting at risk the country's broad reliance on growing rain-fed maize as a staple crop.
OTHER PRIORITIES
An expert with one government environment agency said that while climate change was becoming a government priority, other problems that Zimbabwe has been struggling with Â? including widespread poverty and a broad HIV/AIDS epidemic Â? were consuming the majority of the government's available financial resources.
"There is so much poverty here that climate change remains in the periphery of planning and budgeting," said the official, who asked not to be named.
Zimbabwe's largely state-run media also haven't focused much on climate change issues. An official at the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, a media representative body, conceded that the country's press was disseminating very little information about climate change.
"Most journalists shy away from writing on climate change, perceiving it as a complicated subject," said the representative, who asked not to be named.
It is an increasingly crucial one, however, experts say. According to farmers, changing weather patterns have contributed to decreased agricultural yields over past six years, and crops have often been destroyed by lack of rainfall.
Varaidzo Dongozi is a freelance writer based in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
