BY MICHELINA ANDREUCCI
When I was growing up, I would often hear some of my indigenous colleagues discuss having headaches from certain teas and how many of them were addicted to tea and how tea has become part of our social graces.
Is tea drinking in Zimbabwe a colonisation of the palette?
Camelis sinensis, the leathery toothed-leaved plant with white fragrant flowers that produces tea is an evergreen small shrub, native to tropical and sub-tropical Asia; from the botanical family theaceae. The dry shredded leaves of the shrub are used to make a beverage by infusion in boiling water known as tea; a refreshing drink to most people.
To the layman, tea is simply a pleasant tasting beverage, enjoyed by preference with or without the addition of milk, sugar or lemon, and drunk with or without ceremony. To the expert, however, the tea bush is a thing of beauty and much of its cycle and growth pattern is still not fully understood.
The tea bush is planted, watered and, if it survives, achieves its first “flush” of pickable shoots within 6 to 18 months of planting; and in its ninth year of growth it reaches maximum production. In order to ensure the good quality of the processed tea, pickers only plucked/picked “two leaves and a bud” at theend of every twig off every tea bush.
Whilst tea drinking is often erroneously associated with the Englishman and colonialism, African people, particularly in Zimbabwe, had a history of tea drinking from archaic times. Apart from having developed our own brands of indigenous herbal teas such as Zumbani, Makoni, Rufandichimuka the resurrection tea, drunk as remedy for cold and Moringa tea etc. Zimbabweans were historically very familiar with the tea making process of infusion of dried leaves.
The history of tea drinking in Zimbabwe was more closely associated with our cultural foods than imported colonial brands imported from India, Ceylon, via the trade with Munhumutapa. There was also the green tea from China – thus tea first came into Zimbabwe via trade. By tracing the trade of tea, we not only see the colonial footsteps, but how an addictive taste was imposed on indigenous societies to create a market demand.
Zimbabwe has various indigenous varieties of herbal teas that are prepared in a similar fashion – infusion in boiling water, as a refreshing beverage, however, many indigenous teas have added nutritional value, such as Zumbani, which has a high concentration of vitamin ‘C’, is a cure for coughs and colds and is a natural diuretic without the after effects of tannin, a derivative of gallic acid, and caffeine found in ordinary tea.
The earliest record of tea growing in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was at Mount Selinda Mission around 1900, when a few Assam-type tea seeds were planted. Tea bushes are now grown from cuttings, which are first grown in nurseries and then transplanted in the fields.
However, tea was first grown commercially in this country in 1925 by Arthur Ward and Grafton Phillips two tea planters from Assam who started a tea estate in the Chipinge District.
Tea estates were soon established throughout the Chipinge and Mount Selinda areas in the valleys of the Pungwe and Honde Rivers to the south and east of Inyanga, including in the Holdenby Tribal Trust Land where tea was grown by the indigenous growers.
Modern tea production in Zimbabwe was concentrated on two compact areas: East of Nyanga and around Chipinge area. The Eastern Highlands were already known to be of good tea-producing potential and was the area selected for the earliest projects in the 1950s.
Fed by the Tanganda River with its source in the mountains south-east of Melsetter,(Chipinge) the river flow south-westwards to join the Sabi River below Birchenough Bridge. The Tanganda River supplies the irrigation water for the New Year’s Drift Tea Estate, where tea growing began in 1924, through which it is canalised.
Nestled at the foot of Mount Nyangani, Zimbabwe’s highest mountain range 700 metres above sea level, is the lush, fertile plains of the expansive Honde Valley. The fertile abundance of the valley stems from the abundant waters flowing from the Honde, Pungwe, Nyakombe and Ruwere Rivers.
Given Tea requires constantly hot, moist conditions, the high rainfall areas of the Eastern districts are suitable for tea growing.The low-lying hot area is a rich tea and coffee growing area. The well known Katiyo, Aberfoyle, Rumbizi and Chiwira Tea Estates are among those situated in the Honde valley.
The steady exodus of young people from the area, to larger centres of the country was one of the main reasons for the under-development of the area. In early 1969, to stem this migration and simultaneously develop its considerable agricultural potential, a survey was undertaken in the possibilities of also growing tea in the area. As a result the Katiyo project was begun in 1969, with access roads being built through the valley, tea lands surveyed, virgin bush cut and cleared; and an efficient over- head irrigation system installed; which even in the high-rainfall Honde Valley irrigation was needed in the dry season to keep the tea in perfect condition.
By 1986 a total of 59% of tea growing area in Zimbabwe was under irrigation with the remainder relying on adequate rainfall. This resulted in high yields that increased the annual yield per hectare by up to 400kg per hectare.By the end of the 1972-1973 season 95 hectares of land was producing green leaf; by the middle of the 1976-77 season this increased to 300 hectares, producing high quality green leaf.
A modern tea factory was established on the estate in February, 1975, at a cost of (Rhod)$140 000; In addition, processing plants and ancillary installations were established. By the end of July that year it processed its first crop 110 000kg of made tea; by 1976 increased to 330 000kg of made tea and eventually turned out over 1 million kg of made tea annually.Currently, there are also many small scale and subsistence farmers in the Valley.
At independence in 1980, tea yields increased from 2 000 per hectares to over 3 000 tonnes by 1986.In Nyanga where tea production began earlier, expansion was rapid so that by 1986, the total annual production stood at 15 000 tonnes, with national consumption averaging 4 000 tonnes, leaving ample excess for export. By 1987 Zimbabwe’s annual tea production accounted for 1.5% of world exports, which was in those days it was an efficient and productive industry by international standards.
One of the constant concerns with tea production was to contain production costs against rising inputs price inflation; however, increased exports buoyed national tea price and good yields helped place the tea industry in Zimbabwe on a more viable footing, providing many potential growth points for the future.
Given that tea has had such a long history in Zimbabwe, more efforts should be made to educate agronomist and agriculturalists to expand their palette and more indigenous farmers should grow more teas, especially indigenous herbal teas and various other exclusive tropical blends that have a ready market at home and abroad.
Our geography, especially soil geography should be an important study of the historical partitioning of our land. Understanding the commercial and agricultural value of different terrains, that were forcibly colonised and the soils and different varieties of cash crops that can be grown on them, will empower Zimbabwean agriculture.
Tea has always been brewed for two!
Dr.Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher. She is a published author in her field. For Comments E-mail: linamanucci@gmail.com
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