Zephaniah Phiri Maseko

March 14, 2022 Global Earth Repair

Zephaniah Phiri Maseko (1927-2015) was a Sustainable Farmer and Water Conservationist. For over 40 years Zephaniah Phiri Maseko lived, farmed, and raised a family in one of the most arid and resource-poor lands in southern Africa, Zimbabwe’s Zvishavane District. Through his own ingenuity and despite political challenges, he and his family turned a wasteland into an oasis: devised and propagated irrigation practices that enabled subsistence farmers on marginal lands to prosper as they conserve scarce resources and practice sustainable farming.

As a young adult, Phiri was jailed by the Rhodesian government for political activity, then released and blacklisted. Unable to obtain a paid job, he was ultimately forced to support his six childreming.

Beginning in 1966 on a rocky and barren plot of land, he studied rainfall patterns and experimented with terraces and reservoirs, catchments and canals, infiltration pits and fish ponds. His methods retained the scarce rainfall and raised the local water table. He won governmental praise in 1973 in the midst of a severe drought and taught his methods to local farmers. The praise was short-lived, for in 1976 he was detained again for supporting the opposition, tortured and kept in leg irons, and held under house arrest for four years, unable to farm.

When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, Phiri returned to farming, irrigating, and teaching his neighbors, with a spirit and dedication unharmed by political imprisonment. The projects’ goals include educating others about water harvesting and conservation, promoting sustainable farming, and increasing farm income. Phiri spread his knowledge and skills through on-site visits and exchanges with arid-land farming communities throughout southern and eastern Africa.

“You must plant the rain before you plant a seed or tree!”