KWA TERRY: A Fight Against Cultural Oblivion through Traditional Cuisine & Rural Agro-tourism
Africa day celebrates the founding of the Organization of African Unity now the African Union (AU) on the 25th of May 1963. In its incipient stages the day signified empowerment and celebrated decolonization movements across the African continent whilst in the contemporary discourse, it has amongst other things, come to celebrate Africa's rich cultural heritage, common historical narratives and rich natural resources. Neocolonialism reigns supreme on the continent and Africans — mostly millennials and Gen Z have foregone their cultural heritage and hold dearly to cultures from the global North which mostly come in form of entertainment, sensational clickbait, social and mass media.
Cities have become awfully populous, with an unrelenting hustle and bustle where the facade of a sustainable city life eerily hangs by a thread. Some have never been to the rural area and some waved a goodbye at their rural homes decades ago and vowed never to return. Poverty is mainly the supposed push factor. In the grind at the heart of the city, people become less in touch with their heritage as they mingle with an irreverent lot that peeps at rural communities with condescending lenses and high-sounding stereotypes that exude nothing more than striking ignorance. In the process, Western cultures are glorified at the expense of the rich African cultural heritage, a textbook case of cultural oblivion.
Amidst all the noise, the glitz and glamour, and in an era where holding dearly to our rich cultural heritage seems unfashionable, one youth has in unequivocal terms defied the odds, Terence Maphosa affectionately known as Terry hailing from the scenic village of Mhondoro, Zimbabwe. Having attained a degree in Political Science at the University of Zimbabwe, Terry made a conscious decision to head back to the village to pursue poultry farming and has since then transcended traditional confines and established himself as a brand to reckon with in cuisine, agriculture, rural tourism and recreation.
His entrepreneurial ventures span from chicken farming, goat farming, fruit and veg, traditional cereal grains, cattle to supplying road runner meat across Zimbabwe. Kwa Terry is an African restaurant that offers a variety of traditional cuisine notably mopane worms, roadrunner meat, sadza re mhunga, fresh milk, sour milk, beef, oxtail, goat stew, nyevhe, muboora, chimodho, pap and porridge from Africa's traditional cereal grains, traditional vegetables, okra, fish and more. Traditional food has always been famed for its nutritiousness. All these are served in wooden tableware (plates, trays, dishes) to give a natural feeling of the rural and intimacy with nature. The experience extends to traditional and wild fruits such as the snot apple (dohwe or matohwe) of the Southern African woodlands, tsvanzwa, matufu, mafamba, nyii etc.
A GLIMPSE OF KWA TERRY RESTAURANT (images extracted from his social media handles) From rural tourism, to boot camps, movie nights, biking, games, choreography, wild fruit search just to mention a few, Terry is indeed transforming Village 6 into a cultural hub that allows people to reminisce, acquaint and network. The Kwa Terry brand has brought with it value addition to its products with shrewd delicious recipes, branding and packaging which all gives an enriched dining and recreation experience.
To give the rural experience in its fullness, on offer are retro games, dances, drumbeat sessions and a retro musical playlist all which gives visitors and revelers a cultural reminiscence and allow them to become more in touch with their African identities. In essence Terry has shown an unwavering commitment to preserve Zimbabwean or more broadly African heritage. In a country that has seen high numbers in rural to urban migration, the Kwa Terry brand story totally reshapes perceptions and debunks certain stereotypes about rural life. It is a testament to the viability of life in the rurals and; of the fact that Africa's rich and diverse cultural and natural heritage is significant for poverty reduction and sustainable development. It would be best for government, particularly the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development; and the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry to support and tap into such initiatives to enhance rural livelihoods through food production and rural tourism especially in the face of the current El Nino induced drought that has dramatically reduced food access in Southern Africa.
Tapping into, and supporting such ventures as the Kwa Terry initiative, promotes progress towards the implementation of the United Nations 1st and 2nd Sustainable Development Goals that is, Zero Hunger and No Poverty respectively. This brings to fore a salient fact that such indigenous solutions as rural agrotourism and sustainanble agriculture are significant steps toward addressing global questions on food security, climate change and biodiversity conservation.
In an era of social media binge and obsession with vain trends, Terry used social media as a tool by sharing his humble and inspiring story with the world. To this end, Terry developed a strong social network and has since hosted some of the biggest names in the country, amongst them his friend and colleague Tinotenda “Hatiperi” Matayi, Maskiri, Mudiwa Hood, Arthur Marara, Feli Nandi, King Shaddy, Mwenje Mathole, Marvelous Nakamba and quite recently the Zimbabwean Giant Baba Harare just to mention a few. Kwa Terry has also hosted big local football brands such as Dynamos FC, Platinum FC, Caps United, Chicken Inn, MWOS FC to note just a few. To date, with his Village 6 Football Team, Terry has hosted more than 35 football games at Village 6 and has redefined mabhuza along positive social soccer perceptions in the same rural setup.
Maulana Karenga in African Culture and the Ongoing Quest for Excellence puts it profoundly that;
"Our culture provides us with an ethos we must honor in both thought and practice. By ethos, we mean a people's self-understanding as well as its self-presentation in the world through its thought and practice in the other six areas of culture. It is, above all, a cultural challenge. For culture is here defined as the totality of thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates, sustains and develops itself and introduces itself to history and humanity"
In an era of Westernized cultures and apparent identity crises, the brand Kwa Terry presents a stern fight (and stands as a bulwark) against the oblivion of the Zimbabwean and African cultural heritage. It is demonstrative of the fact that there's need to harness the cultural and natural resources of Africa to transform rural communities, livelihoods, transform rural narratives, enrich national education and health systems. Terry has hosted college students from various tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe and amongst them a group of students from the Women's University in Africa. Terry also confirmed through his social media platforms that college students are using his rural agritourism as a case study for their dissertations in their different study areas. This is testament that Kwa Terry is an establishment and investment that potentially strengthens African traditional learning and knowledge systems; and again, bolstering the collective fight against cultural oblivion.
Terry featured at the 2023 United Nations World Food Programme Summit where he took the world through his passionate and dedicated entrepreneurial journey of transforming rural communities and reshaping rural perceptions through traditional cuisine and agrotourism. He also featured on Alpha Media Holdings' "In Conversation with Trevor" a telecast where Trevor Ncube an entrepreneur and a newspaper publisher sits down with various high profile guests and asks questions beyond just the headlines and sensational. Terry has been recognized multiple times throughout his entrepreneurial journey by different brands and organizations. If you ever miss home a little and you are in search of your cultural identity, head out of Harare 150 kilometers down to Village 6 Mhondoro-Ngezi at Kwa Terry for a microcosmic rural and cultural sensation. Then we can collectively fight the dearth of cultural consciousness by preserving our Zimbabwean heritage through strengthening and enriching traditional knowledge systems.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sonny Mncedisi Dube also known as 'The NovemberMan' is a young lawyer and a writer who writes on these and other interesting topics.
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sonnymncedisi@gmail.com
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