by BERNARD CHIKETO
THE Vumba is fair. All of it.
Its weather—those misty highland mornings that burn off into gold. Its wildlife—the samango monkeys that observe from the tree line with the seriousness of judges. Its cuisine—the cakes that emerge from Tony’s oven, and fridge, with a regularity that suggests divine talent. Its people—who, like the mountains themselves, reveal their warmth slowly. Its culture—even its culture of meeting and interacting—is fair.
And this Saturday, from 0900 hours to 1700 hours, the annual Vumba Fair returns to prove the proposition once more.
It will do so at Tony’s Coffee Shop, the establishment that makes the fairest cakes in the Eastern Highlands, and which, for one day, becomes the home and heart of something larger than itself.
The proposition is simple.
For US$5—US$2 for children, US$3 for pensioners—one purchases not merely admission but access.
Access to crafts that carry the memory of hands. Access to art that sees what the mist obscures. Access to fresh produce that tastes of Vumba’s volcanic soil. Access to jewellery that catches light the way the mountains catch cloud. Access to plants that, like the fair itself, return each year.
And access, too, to the less tangible: the sound of live music curling through the garden. Tthis year’s programme features Wa Charie, Cuthbert, Elson Indico, I_Simba, Massey and Cyber Kings and Queen.
The sight of children on pony rides, their faces painted, their attention briefly captured by storytelling.
The experience of community—Vumba’s reclusive residents emerging from their forest retreats, visitors arriving from Mutare and beyond, all mixing in the highland air.
The fair is a fundraiser, organised by the Friends of the Vumba Trust.
This is not incidental.
The Trust employs trained scouts who patrol against poaching and illegal logging, often working alongside Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority rangers.
They spearhead environmental education, rabies awareness, clean-up campaigns and fire protection. They protect the biodiversity that makes Vumba Vumba.
The fair, in other words, is not merely a day out.
It is the visible expression of an invisible infrastructure—a mechanism by which tourism sustains conservation, and conservation sustains tourism.
This year’s edition places a stronger spotlight on the environment through a partnership between Friends of the Vumba and Mutare Tales, under the theme “Let’s Go Green Creatively”. Competitions will reward the best hat created around the green theme, the most environmentally friendly stand, and the best innovative product.
One suspects Tony—who has been baking for over twenty years, whose handwritten menus list over fifty varieties of tea, whose establishment has collected TripAdvisor awards—would approve.
The fair has been running for years now. It has grown into one of the biggest tourism events in the Eastern Highlands. It serves as a timely build-up to the Sanganai/Hlanganani/Kumbanayi World Tourism Expo, which is being hosted by Masvingo in a fortnight but is set to prominently market worldclass tourism destinations like Vumba.
It is, in the words of Sue Fenwick, chairperson of the Friends of the Vumba, “a tradition that continues to grow each year”.
But traditions, in Vumba, are not merely repeated. They are earned. The mist that rolls through the Bunga Forest each morning does not repeat—it arrives anew. The birds that birders travel from afar to observe do not perform—they simply are.
And the fair, too, arrives each year not as a rehearsal but as an event: contingent, particular, requiring attendance.
So come. Bring the family.
Leave the cooler boxes at home—they are not allowed.
Bring instead an appetite for cakes that have achieved legendary status, for coffee that is bottomless, for tea that arrives in fifty varieties. Bring curiosity. Bring the willingness to be charmed by a place that, in its misty fastness, has perfected the art of being fair.
And since there would be a Best Hat competition with a prize each for the Best Children’s Hat and one for the Best Adult’s Hat get your creative groove on and bring that environmentally fun hat!
The Vumba is fair. All of it. This Saturday, Tony’s Coffee Shop will prove it again.
Do you have a story to share? Email bchiketo@gmail.com.