Identity: Roots or Routes

Renowned academia Stuart Hall is famous for his utterance that, “identity is less about roots and more about routes.”

Whilst one is less defined by their past history but more with the path of life they have taken, both the past and present are useful in the equation of defining oneself. In a similar manner, a country is defined by its territorial boundaries and what lies within it, its history and routes to the present day. Zimbabwe has a rich territorial history of beautiful forests from which the wars of liberation were won. Such rich forests that once defined our territorial boundaries have been lost, to give a new definition of that carries overtones of deforestation.

Formerly harvested non- timber products have declined as trees are lost to negligent human behavior such as veld fires. Others have been crucified on the altars of development, cut down for agricultural purposes, building of infrastructure, furniture business, re-settlements, amongst others.

Though such activities are central to human life, trees have unfortunately been cut with little effort to replace them. It took ambassadors of the environment, the Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe Trust to depict the cancer that is growing and tainting the true identity of Zimbabwe to provide a cure to it. Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe Trust has the zeal and drive to restore indigenous trees unique to Zimbabwean forests and giving back the country its identity. Such efforts were witnessed at Parirerwa Primary School where Environmental Buddies Zimbabwe Trust with the help of students and staff members planted seventy (70) trees at the school.

The Headman of the area Headman Mamvura of Mashayamombe Village who attended the tree planting event encouraged all present to make tree planting a lifestyle so as to secure a better future for future generations.

The organization went a step further by conducting an awareness campaign at the school on the importance of preserving trees and other forest resources.