- Chatsworth, Zimbabwe
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Chatsworth is a small village in the Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe. It is located about 58 km north of Masvingo on the Masvingo-Gweru railway line. The settlement started in 1911 as a railway station.
Contents
Name
The village was first called Makori, then Makowries and in 1919 renamed Chatsworth. The naming was mainly done by the developers who were mostly white, which is why there is no obvious trace of the original name meanings. They did not speak the local languages and they tried to modify the local place names so they could spell them. The local name, Makaure, is still locally used and is the name of the township and a local primary school. It comes from being the name of the local hill, which sits in the middle of the township to the south, and the more affluent low density residential to the north.[citation needed]
Location
Latitude 19.38S Longitude 030.51E Altitude 1365m /4478 ft (according to peg on railway line). It is located 280 km south of the capital Harare, 70 km North of the regional capital Masvingo by road and about 60 km by rail and 40 km west of the local authority location at Gutu.
Transportation
A railway line passes from Masvingo to Gweru The nearest airport is at Masvingo
Population
The hamlet itself has less than 1000 residents. The areas around are sparsely populated mostly by subsistence farmers and semi-commercial farmers.
Industry
The main industry around is farming. All other activities at Chatsworth are there mainly to support farming. The soil in the area is not good enough for growing crops but is more suitable for cattle ranching.Well paid employees get less than USD$40 per month.
The main employer at Chatsworh is the Police Force. Chatsworth has an unusually large police station for a hamlet that size. The reason for that is the station serves a very wide sparsely populated rural area. Crime is traditionally very low.[citation needed]
Health provision
A well staffed clinic was built at Chatsworth during the late 1980s to provide primary health care to Chatsworth and its surrounding areas. Of late it has suffered the same shortages of medicines as other clinics and hospitals in the country, but it continues to serve its community well. The main cause of death in the area is HIV which has claimed the lives of many during the last decade.
Schools and public entities
- Two primary schools at Chatsworth (Although Chatsworth is too small to have two schools, they were built during the time when blacks and whites were not allowed to mix in schools. Now the two schools serve the new farmers settled round the village)
- Rufaro Mission School (Secondary) about 6 km to the north.
- Serima Mission School about 40 km to the north east
- Makomba Secondary School about 15 km to the south
- Marongere Primary School sharing grounds with Makomba
- St Theresa Primary School about 12 km south west
- St Frances Secondary School about 15 km south-west.
- Chiriga Primary and Secondary School
Residential suburbs
The first residential village to be built at Chatsworth was probably the Railway worker's village. Because of the then segregatory rules between blacks and whites, the village was built in two parts. The pre-fabricated corrugated tin two roomed shacks to the east of the railway line for black workers, and the large houses for white workers to the west of the railway line. The brick houses are still there, and still owned by the railways, but the shacks have been replaced by small two roomed houses, mostly owned by private residents.
Makaure Township: developed as more and more non-railway workers arrived to work in businesses serving the settlement. These included shops, the transport sector, the cattle farming sector, etc. Makaure Township later included the area formally belonging to the black railway workers. All of it comprised small houses, most of which did not have electricity till the early 1980s. They were all which meant for black people during the colonial era.
Chatsworth Suburb, formerly for whites only during colonial times, is situated about a mile out of town and those traveling through Chatsworth can easily miss it. The suburb has much bigger houses and the residents are generally much more affluent than those in Makaure Township.
Commercial entities
- Six small shops
- One bottle store (sells CASTLE lager, Zimbabwe's own brand)
- One petrol station and garage
- One super market which has been shut since 1998
- One farmers' supplies shop
- One bakery
- One general engineering workshop
- One grinding mill for grain milling
- One post office
- Large police station, (the biggest employer)
- One small open market by the bus station
- One children's home under construction since April 2005
Chatsworth has no commercial bank. All banking is done either at the post office or in Masvingo City 70 km to the south or Gutu 30 km to the east
Rainfall
Successive droughts have affected the local habitat and local economy. The area used to be a big producer of fruits such as mangoes, guavas, peaches, and wild fruits. Most of these fruit trees have died during droughts, and have been difficult to replace.
Local Animals and other lively things:
Hare, buck, snakes, monkeys, a wide variety of birds such as (doves, owls, brown eagles, king fishers, swallows, etc.), locusts, and others. Domestic animals are mainly cattle, donkeys, and some sheep. Goats do not thrive.
Transport system
Public buses, train, bicycle, ox-powered carts, but for distances less than 15 km, most people walk.
The shops in the Makaure Township are built in a quadrangle, the middle of which serves as the local bus station. 5 minutes walk from that is the local railway station. The bus station also serves as the station for minibuses and lifts. Lifts are part and parcel of Zimbabwean means of travel. If you get a lift from any driver, expect to pay slightly higher than the bus rates. When in Zimbabwe, never, never travel alone in a car. It is not environmentally economic.
Literacy rates
Literacy rates remain high at over 90%. Most people speak at least two languages including English, so that a traveler is never lost. However, because the local language, Shona, is a fast language, people speak English just as fast and that may cause visitors some initial difficulty.
Foods
Local diet consists of a variety of foodstuffs as listed below. The main difference between European food and Zimbabwean rural food is the amount of meat in the diet. Rural Zimbabwe consumes a lot less meat. They also eat more fresh foods and fruit. The main challenge in rural Zimbabwe is food preservation. Most food is produced during one or other season and needs to be preserved so that it is available throughout the year. New and cheap methods of increasing the efficiency of preservation are always welcome to locals.
- Sadza made from maize meal, rapocco meal or sorghum meal is the staple diet
- Vegetables such as can be grown in the garden. You will notice each family grows its own and they pick only when they need.
- Meat such as chicken, beef, lamb, and game. Most families keep their own chickens.
- Fruit: there is a wide variety of fruit such as mangoes, guavas, oranges, lemons, apples, etc., and some wild fruit which, like any other fruit are seasonal.
Water sources
In normal circumstances each rural family has its own well or there is a communal well. These tend to dry up during the frequent droughts that affect Zimbabwe. For Chatsworth itself, the piped water comes from Munyambe Dam a few km east along the Gutu Road. The dam is large enough to supply Chatsworth even during droughts. The water from a well is always the best water and does not require purification. Most wells are covered up so that nothing has access to the water. Recently there has been an effort to encourage people to consider other sources of water.
- storing rainwater in underground tanks: Although this is a good idea, the cost of the system is prohibitive
- Recycling water: This is going to have to be the way forward for many.
Interesting features
- Rubwerumwe: A precariously balanced rock on top of a tall but thin pillar type rock. This is on a hill on the south border of the hamlet and is a pleasant place to loiter with your loved ones and to take photos
- The bottle store: An interesting way of spending one's evenings. In the summer you need mosquito repellant.
- Mr Tauzen's bee hives: This man will show you the art of bee keeping the local way. He boasts over 20 bee hives all kept high up in the trees where he can go up and harvest a large quantity and climb down with it without losing his life or his honey
- Munyambe Dam: This water feature is within walking distance of Chatsworth, and is popular with fishermen from the local area.
References
Most of the information in this article was gathered from local community leaders from different walks of life.
- Headman Musundire: Headman musundire, known in his village as Headman Njiva, has had his headmanship passed onto him from many generations in his family, by inheritance. A headman must be proficient in local oral history. He presides over all aspects of local rural administration down to the detail of giving permission to someone wanting to slaughter his goat for a family party. He knows everything that happens in his village.
- Headman/Councillor Marongere: Apart from being village head, Mr Marongere was also a town councillor, and local lay preacher. He had extensive knowledge of the area. He was also a local businessman, having owned a bookshop, general store, the Bakery at Chatsworth, etc.
- Mai Njodzi Maturure: An elderly lady who was the village midwife till her death in 2005 at over 100 years old. She delivered the majority of all babies born at home from the 1940s to 2004, all without any formal training. She was also well known in the area for her aptitude in local oral history, and was consulted by many.
- H.E.L.P. International: has been working with the school in the area to improve the welfare of the children
- Mrs Mabiza: Is a school head teacher with interest in local affairs.
- Mr Gurajena: businessman at Chatsworth for many years and councillor
- Mr Bern Gondo: is an elderly local farmer whose family has had a farm since the 1940s when they were allocated.
- The staff at Rufaro Mussion: Rufaro Mission was established during the Missionary years of the late 1900 and has served the area since.
- Mr Cain Maturure: was a Master Farmer in the area from the early 1950 to his retirement in the mid 1990s. Chatsworth was first founded when he was 2 years old and was his local town. He was born in 1917 and worked extensively with the agricultural instructor Mr Jaravaza. He died in 2005 aged 88.
- Mr C Muzenda: lived in the area all his life and died in his nineties. He came from a well known family, his father having been the local blacksmith responsible for manufacturing most hand implement used in agriculture during his time. Mr Muzenda Junior worked in the railways for decades and his team was responsible for maintaining more than 40 km of track with Chatsworth in the middle and as their base. The railway workers' village was one of the first to be constructed and it gave Chatsworth its presence. Mr Muzenda was well known for his ability to narrate and to give detailed information.
External links
Categories:- Populated places in Zimbabwe
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