TAKUDZWA Saruwaka is hoeing weeds in a cowpea field in eastern Zimbabwe one morning in February, trying to beat torrential rains threatening from the grey clouds above.
The 27-year-old has braved the rainy weather to work on this drought-resistant crop grown in the backyard of office premises, converted to a farming field at Matondo Growth Point, a periurban area about 25 kilometres outside the country’s third largest city of Mutare.
“Last year we had a drought that took a toll on our crops. So, this year we decided to grow cowpeas,” says Saruwaka, a member of Mothers Haven Trust, a community organisation supporting Lesbians, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer women (LBTQI) in rural areas outside Mutare.
“It is short-term, meaning it matures in only two months.” Saruwaka is one of the LBTQ members who turned to smart agriculture to build climate resilience in 2022. Having been accused of being ‘involved in acts’ that cause droughts by the community, which is a misconception, these people are demonstrating that climate disasters like droughts and floods are caused by climate change and that climate-smart agriculture helps build resilience.
Last year, the country was hit by a drought attributed to El Niño, a climate phenomenon that can exacerbate drought or storms — weather conditions made more likely by climate change. More than half of the southern African nation’s population of 15,1 million was left food insecure. Zambia, Lesotho, Malawi and Namibia are also struggling with food shortages.
Chihwa Chadambuka, a founder of Mothers Haven Trust, says they were experiencing verbal threats and abuse as people were curious to know what happens behind their locked gates. “We kept our premises locked for personal security reasons.
They became so curious,” says Chadambuka, a transgender man, who established the organisation in Zimbabwe’s second-largest city of Bulawayo in 2015 and moved to Mutare in 2019.
“We had to re-strategise. They saw us as beggars. We concluded we needed to venture into agriculture. We engaged an agronomist who helped us grow vegetables, onions, tomatoes and sweet potatoes.” They started clearing the land in the backyard of their office premises.
Produce from their first harvest was donated to the local community and some were taken home to improve relations. “This created a good relationship with the community. It sparked some conversations between us and them,” says Chadambuka, adding that they also sell some farm produce to the local community while the farmers take some to their families.
Saruwaka says by providing food to their families, it reduces rifts. “Relationships between our members and their families are improving. If you tell them you want to be a she while they see you as a he, they will think you are running away from responsibilities,” they say. “But if you are working, they take you seriously. Behind our sexuality, we also work hard building climate resilience.”
There are 64 countries where homosexuality is criminalised, and nearly half of these are in Africa, according to statistics from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, a worldwide federation of organisations campaigning for LGBTQI rights. In Africa, most countries, like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya, inherited archaic and draconian laws that criminalise homosexuality from the white colonialists who introduced them many years ago.
Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution prohibits same-sex marriage, but is silent on gay relations, while other laws that criminalise homosexuality in the country carry stiff penalties of up to three years in jail for those involved.
The southern African nation is largely dominated by Christians, who account for more than 80 percent of the population. In Zimbabwe, discrimination is worse for LGBTQI members in rural areas because of patriarchy, religion and societal beliefs. Lack of access to opportunities due to discrimination increases the LGBTQI community’s vulnerability to climate change.
“LGBTQI people are at risk from climate change due to the intersection of social, economic, and legal factors that contribute to their marginalisation and vulnerability in crisis environments,” says Matuba Mahlatjie, a communications and media relations manager at Outright International, an organisation that works to strengthen the capacity of the LGBTQI movement around the world.
He says the marginalisation of LGBTQI people is rooted in legal frameworks and normative assumptions that dictate which sexual orientations, gender identities, or sex characteristics are desirable and permissible, leading to experiences of bias, violence, and exclusion. Mahlatjie says the LGBTQI community can be protected from climate shocks by proactively opening space for them and formally bringing LGBTQI organisations into the humanitarian ecosystem through mechanisms such as task forces or working groups. —IPS
