Written by Pam Manyasha
It is December 25, a day that has been coming for the past 30 days, with lots of preparation, yard clean up, shopping groceries, and new clothing and for some electricals, radios and batteries. It is generally a festive mood, business is brisk at the local dealer, queues are meandering to buy bread, cooking oil, you name it.
Smiles are broad, liquor stores and the local beerhalls fully stocked and at the home steads some local and traditional brews as well. The livestock chickens, and other kinds of birds like guinea fowl goats, sheep and cows are at risk of being part of the dishes served during this day and some indeed meet their fate.
It a happy and merry season.
Christmas is a very special time for everyone in Zimbabwe. Even the non- religious, those that do not go to church have an equally passionate love for this wonderful day that comes only once in a year. Growing up in the village did not deem the light that the birth of the Messiah brought to a lot of homes. Nonetheless, it was not rosy to everyone. Preparations started as early as summer /falls seasons which are generally characterised by rain fall. The less privileged seized the opportunity and worked in the fields of neighbours who are financially capable to raise money for many different things that came and associated with Christmas such as clothes groceries or even raise the bar a bit and shoot to buy a radio to play for the family and the rest of the neighbourhood on the day or as humble as buying a battery for the neighbour ‘s radio so that turntables / vinyl can be played on the day. Everyone would be busy to making the festive season as enjoyable and memorable as it could be. Houses would be repainted using different colours of mud especially the huts. We would mix different shades to come up will festive colours and do the artwork both inside and outside resembling Christmas trees, deers and snow. As the countdown began, we would go and register for food stuffs at the nearest general dealer as early as three to two months before Christmas.
Families would pay in advance lest you will not get due to high demands because some families would book for 2 dozens or more of bread depending on family size, guests coming and affordability as well. The basics for this occasion were bread, soft drinks, flour, cooking oil and sugar. This was on first come first served basis. It would start getting busier a week before the big day with some family members who had left the village for work in cities trickling back in the village. Mainly those who worked in the manufacturing industry/factories closed early and opened late January of the following year. The elders would make homemade traditional opaque beer commonly known as 7 days, named after the period it takes to mature and be ready to be served. It is made of sorghum and mealie-meal and takes 7 days to complete the fermenting process hence the name 7days. Yards were swept and shaped using old bricks or stones and plant flowers along. Watering them wasn’t an issue because it’s always raining in December.
As kids, we hardly slept on Christmas eve due to traffic, people travelling throughout the night and some already playing loud music. Some people would go as far as taking their sterios outside the house. Everyone played their favourite music, somewhat like a competition of who has the loudest sterio. Those with cars would play from their cars with doors opened to make sure the sound goes far. Some sterios would have been last played the previous Christmas and reserved for the next festive season. This is how upbeat the Christmas period was back then in the villages.
Christmas day mornings were the busiest. We would wake up very early. Women and young girls would sweep the yard, prepare breakfast which was slicing bread, spreading stork margarine and/or sun jam. We also made fatcakes/fatcooks which were my favourite. These were served in a winnowing basket (rusero). Tea was prepared in the biggest pot. This was the day most families ate bread. Usual and regular ‘bread’ through the year was boiled corn (American hush puppies), sweet potatoes or just a 24hr version of 7 days (maheu). Christmas tea was made of real tea leaves/bags, milk and sugar. All was put in a big pot, so basically we all had same tasty tea. Usually our ‘tea’ was made from burnt/caramelised sugar burnt in a big spoon or pot to just give a brown colour. Milk was not a problem we would just milk cows, a chore that would generally be assigned to the male siblings while as girls we did most of the kitchen chores for the day. Tea bags and bread were for the well to do. Men and young boys would be slaughtering livestock depending with families, some would kill a cow, goat, sheep, pigs, ducks and chickens for lunch and days to come. Some families shared the meat and dry it and some take it with them back to cities and freeze for later consumption. After all the preparations, we would go to the nearest river, bath, put on new or special clothes and go to church. The church services were short and we all looked forward to them because we would be showing off our new clothes and also got presents from ‘Santa’. Each would get a box and inside were soft toys, candies and clothes and if one is lucky you would get the right size that fitted. As soon as the church service finished we all rushed home to feast.
There was no rationing on this special day, it was self-service, and you could eat as much as you could. We also would share with neighbours. It didn’t matter if one family already had what was given, it was just a demonstration of togetherness and a sense of community. It was the spirit of the season sharing and caring, everyone suddenly became generous. The less fortunate ones would be more welcome at the homes of those that had the means to take the day a notch higher. Raspberry and cream soda cordials and fatcakes were the young ones’ favourite because it left the tongue and lips coloured. The fatcakes/fatcooks also left oil shimmering on hands and mouth and would be evidence that it’s truly Christmas at home. Lunch was mainly rice and chicken, a rare special dish, that would come once a year for most families if at all it ever came in a given year. This was a special and primary dish and all the other proteins would complement. One of my favourites are offals from the slaughtered beast. Again this was the day most of us had some form of protein ( meat) as part of our meal for the day, a rare occurrence. Generally, the regular protein that we could have on a daily basis was from insects that come with the rains ie termites, ishwa, sambarafuta, makurwe, haruhwa and caterpillars found on trees (magandari/masiriri and harati).
After lunch, the elderly remained in the village drinking their 7 days beer. The lucky ones would be mixing it with strong refined liquors like brandy, whiskey or gin brought from cities by family members. The rest would head off to the nearest shopping centre for the rest of the day. There will be lots of barbecue and drinking. That’s when we would use money we would have saved or worked part-time for used to buy fizzy drinks and creamed biscuits. At times a 330mls fizzy drink bottle will be shared between two people. We also had candies we called niggas, they came in all colours and we loved them, again mostly because of the colours that they leave on our tongues and lips. The chewing/bubble gums were favourites, we never used to spit them out after all the sweetness is gone but would blow and make bubbles. It was all about showing off. Despite that generally happy mood and merry making often the alcoholic beverages took the better of some such that, it wasn’t Christmas if some didn’t break into a fight at the shops. Those holding grudges from as early as January and some love triangles would settle their scores there under the influence or will pretend to be so when infact the motive is to settle long held grudges. Boys and girls danced to music mainly local and famous sungura, dancehall and rhumba music showing off their talents. These created so much drama all around. What could l not give to just relive Christmas one more time.
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Written by Pam Manyasha
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