6. Geo-Anthropomorphism

This to me, this looks like the gathering of the elders, engaged in serious conversation over grave matters. Please visit the The Arts in Focus to obtain information about our 2014 Matopos Calendar -  an initiative supporting rhino conservation in Zimbabwe. If I could be like Matobo As an enthusiastic student I was frequently warned against it, the greatest sin a zoologist could commit - anthropomorphism. Describing animals and their behavior in terms of human characteristics was taboo. In those days animals were not supposed to behave in human ways or show emotions. Not sure if this is also a sin in Geography, but its the only way I can describe Matobo and the influence it exerts on us as we travel through it. If I could be like Matobo - bold and generous, gentle and fertile, grandiose but true to it, larger than life itself, but still sincere - what a life that would be? To handle life with all its challenges, droughts and floods, eons of climate change, frosty winter mornings and sweltering summer days, bathing in showers and lit up by lightning while listening to the distant music of thunder… Imagine harboring rhinos and sheltering sable and eagles and have enough delicate space for mosses and lichens! And to be able to do all of this with grace and confidence the way Matobo holds itself together with broad granitic shoulders and boulders and fertile wetlands and grassy meadows. If I could be like Matobo - bold and generous, gentle and fertile, grandiose but true to it, larger than life itself, but still sincere - what a life that would be? To handle life with all its challenges, droughts and floods, eons of climate change, frosty winter mornings and sweltering summer days, bathing in showers and lit up by lightning while listening to the distant music of thunder… Imagine harboring rhinos and sheltering sable and eagles and have enough delicate space for mosses and lichens! And to be able to do all of this with grace and confidence the way Matobo holds itself together with broad granitic shoulders and boulders and fertile wetlands and grassy meadows. Complex geomorphology, and diverse plants. I love the way some plants grow high in these hills, there cant be much soil there - but this land is  generous and accommodating. The mother and child - how long has she cared for the children of Matobo? Have you noticed how proud those hills can be? Rich in character, with the years showing in their faces and postures alike, but still proud, still going about their daily chores with focussed diligence, without fail. Whether they are draped in generous layers of moss and lichens, standing tall amongst great botanical diversity in the national park, or bare in the desolate over-grazed communal landscape, these hills are never stripped of their pride and dignity. Those in the communal areas, accustomed to human presence and attention often reveal so much more of themselves. Unashamedly they invite you in, like the local inhabitants will invite you into the rich cool atmosphere of their huts and share a meagre meal of maize on the cob and sweetened tea.  Matobo could be an old man, graciously allowing the world to build paths and schools and lives while nurturing a thousand fields and producing grazing for a nation’s cattle, providing stones for generations of catapults and logs for kraals and mud for humble huts. Even, allowing Rhodes to carve into it an empire and a grave. Yielding abundant golden fields of grass, turned into bundles of thatch by women with dextrous sickles. As their clear voices sing lonely tunes, I can clearly imagine him, Old Matobo, lying back content for what he gives. And then there is the feminine side of this place, the ability to spawn new generations of everything within her, and within her reach… trees, the thatching grass, the grazing and even the human spirit, our values and the goodness of the veldt. She will allow the water to run from her noble shoulders and accumulate in streams and rivers, channeling it to places in need, where thirsty cattle will congregate to drink and settle to rest and ruminate… allowing this place to strengthen them, mold them and sustain them - like we all should. What better place can there be, to stimulate the heart and soul of a thinking being? Can there be a better place to grow into the person you ought to be? Matobo changes you, shapes and builds you. It prepares you for the rest of your life, like it prepared the proud Ndebele nation for what was to lie ahead in their history. Matobo spawned important people, proud kings and distinctive leaders, to this day. There is no other way, if you, or a nation submit to this place and accepts its influence, you can only emerge as a finer being or greater nation on the other side. I am staying a little longer, if I may.