Abstract

I employ Oliver Mtukudzi—the late Zimbabwean musician’s Murimi munhu lyrical composition—to highlight the coloniality embedded in “small scale” subsistence farmers in Zimbabwe. Arguing from a decolonial perspective; this chapter seeks to achieve two things. Firstly, in deploying the decolonial theory, attention here is focused on confronting the negative stereotypes and marginalising practices that are systematically expressed and practiced against “small scale” subsistence farmers in rural “reserve” Zimbabwe. By their very nature, dehumanising stereotypes and exclusionary practices are not only a negation of African communal values, but also perpetuate and entrench coloniality. Secondly, by addressing coloniality as the basis of dehumanising tendencies towards small scale subsistence farmers, the chapter endeavours to conceptually restore the humanity of subsistence farmers in rural Zimbabwe. Therefore, the central argument here is that decoloniality is imperative to countervail dehumanising practices and orientations as highlighted in the Murimi munhu song.