Nyahunda

The New Reserves were created around 1975 as a resettlement of families that were moved after the creation of Siya Dam.^{[citation needed]} Their fields were going to be submerged in water so the then Rhodesia Settler Government bought 4 communal farms to resettle the families in the area that we now call Nyahunda New Reserves. New reserves boundary run from Nyarunwe Hill to Moza bus stop along the main dust road that goes from Nyika growth point to Mashoko Mission.From Moza bus stop, the boundary runs down along the edge of the farms, starting with Mawire farm 23, all the way past Chembazvi Hill to Mujiche river next to Chitiga farm 30. The boundary goes up from Chitiga farm up Mujiche river to kraal head Ziweye where it will turn westwards past Njaravani Primary School to come the hills in Mupenyu Village back to Nyarunwe Hill. The New reserves are made up of 6 Villages namely Mupenyu, Chikuwa, Munyikwa, Mazivorwenyu, Mukavhi, Ziweye. The headmen submit to sub-chief Nyahunda who submits to Chief Mazungunye.^{[citation needed]}

The total population of the Nyahunda New Reserves is estimated to be around 3,000 people and the families are majority communal farmers who rely on subsistence agriculture for a living.^{[citation needed]} The households have family members employed locally by the government as teachers, nurses and agricultural extension officers. Some families have fathers and children working in urban areas of Zimbabwe mainly Harare, the capital city, Bulawayo and Masvingo, the provincial capital. Families also receive income from government and NGO grants and from family members living and working in diaspora, majority of them being in South Africa. Nyahunda New Reserves has significant agricultural production, each family owns a herd of at least 6 cattle, 10 acres of arable land and large numbers of goats and fowl. families there cultivate the land and sell produce including maize, cotton, groundnuts, sweet potatoes and garden vegetables. The area benefited from the government's rural electrification program with power lines running through the reserves down towards the farms. A number of homesteads have since connected to power supply.^{[citation needed]}

The prominent families in the area include the Makambure clan, also called Muvavarirwa or Parunofira who are of the Musikavanhu descendents whose forefathers migrated from Mlambo or Musikavanhu chieftainship in Chipinge to settle among the Duma people under Chief Mazungunye and intermarried with the locals resulting in them permanently settling in the area around 1905.^{[citation needed]} One of the surviving Muvavarirwa fathers is a long time headmaster at Nyahunda Primary School.^{[citation needed]}

These are communal farms that cover an area running from the border with new reserves and Siya Dam in the north, stretching between Turwi river in the west and Mujiche river in the east.^{[citation needed]} The farm area goes down sandwiched between the two rivers down to their confluence near Mujiji primary school 25 km south of Nyarunwe Hills where the farms start. The farms start from Chikwavira Farm 5 after the first farms were converted to resettlement areas of New reserves and run along the hills bordering Siya Dam namely Marirangwe, Chinhendere and Gandauta. Farms bordering the hills include Gono farm 9, Maravanyika farm 10, Masunungure Farm 11, Manzunzu and Ruka 13 and 14 respectively next to Turwi river and Siya Dam wall. The Nyahunda West Farms border runs down along Turwi River past Bingudza farm 15, the border follows Turwi River as it flows past zaka Irrigation schemes A, B, C, D, and E in the far south. Turwi river turns eastwards near Makura Shopping centre and joins Mujiche River near Mujiji Primary School. The border then goes up northwards along Mujiche River past Tagona Secondary School to reach Chitiga Farm 30. There the border turns westwards towards Moza bus stop, then goes northwards again along the main Nyika-mashoko dust road to Nyarunwe hill. The farms are sparsely populated with less than 10 people per square kilometer. There is a lot of agricultural activity in these farms including small-scale cattle ranching, maize, millet and sorghum cropping, cotton, fowl and other livestock. There is upcoming sugar irrigation plantations in the south western area of the farms around Mutongi farm area. Nyahunda west farms are in ward 29

There are also farms in Nyahunda East which are bordered to the west by Mujiche river, to the north by Ziki communal lands and Devuli Ranch to the east going south. There are two primary schools in Nyahunda East that is Chibvuure and Checheni^{[citation needed]}