Photo 35: with her failed harvest in the background, this old lady dumped in rural Matabeleland
in 2005 recounts the deaths of two children, and the burden of a daughter who has lapsed into
mental illness: while barely surviving, she has no energy to move again. [May 2010]
Update 2010
By 2010, the daughter aged in her fifties had developed a mental illness, which made her
incapable of working for herself. She has moved in with her mother who is now 79 years old.
The old lady was in tears as she narrated the challenges, including that posed by the mentally
ill daughter, who had been a bread winner during the time they were in Killarney. The old
lady had, over the last five years, been forced to walk long distances to search for her
daughter, who due to her instability sometimes ran away from home to a far away place.
The grand children have all dropped out of school, as fees cannot be paid. The overriding
concern is food and how to get enough to stay alive. The old lady has a small field, but is not
able to plough or plant it very effectively. She has managed to build two huts over the last five
years, but only one is thatched, as thatching grass is short in the area.
Poverty within the family is tangible: the old lady narrated how affordable life used to be at
Killarney squatter camp, where she described rich red soils that gave them enough to feed the
family. Fending for the family was said to be easier at Killarney due to the proximity to the
city and suburbs of Bulawayo where they could also ask the Roman Catholics for food. The old
lady was emphatic in emphasizing the incomparability of the two areas. The sandy soils in
Mazibisa were so poor that not more than a 50 kg bag of millet was expected from the current
harvest. Despite the hardships, she is not willing to leave the place to go anywhere, as two of
her children have died and been buried at this homestead over the last five years.
The mentally ill daughter managed a partial interview, in which she accused her neighbours
of having bewitched her, and lamented the fact that she had had to give up her huts which she
had spent much time trying to repair, and that she had not been compensated for this.
The old lady tries to cut thatching grass to swop for food with her neighbours.
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