Cont takes city to rural Lupane

By Peter Matika

Cont Mhlanga may have taken a lag from the arts industry (as he would like us to believe) but he sure has not been holding back on turning his personal fantasies into reality.

A year since he retraced his footprints to his rural home in Lupane in Matabeleland North province and “called it a day” from the arts, Cont has been working on many cultural and arts concepts, which will likely turn his rural home of Lupane into a colossus income generating arts hub, given its historical significance in the structuring of the country.

Not focusing on his contributions to Zimbabwean and perhaps the world arts but more on his personal life, he opens up to Sunday Life about who he is and his upbringing.

The revered arts guru admitted he seldom gives interviews on his personal life and said this was most probably his first ever article to be published, where he opens up more about himself.

“I have never opened up to the media concerning my personal life. You’re really a lucky guy, I never talk about myself, nor do I entertain personal questions. Maybe it’s because I am at peace at my home or because you found me in a good mood,” he says.

This was over a fortnight ago when Sunday Life visited the larger than life arts veteran at his rural home, which one can easily mistake for a lodge undergoing renovations.

His home situated along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway is a typical urban home set up in a rural area. Driving along the highway, you can never miss Cont’s homestead, which even Government ministers envy, as it is clearly marked with a banner, which reads KoCont.

Upon entering the fenced and gated homestead, one is quickly greeted by the sweet, alluring and cool scents of the exotic flora planted in his homestead.

“The driveway is still work in progress as cars can get stuck in the sand. As you enter you can see the plants that are planted along the driveway, which consist of various exotic and indigenous plants such as lawn, strawberries, mint, water gourds and other fruit trees.

“It is not something that I gloat about but it is something that I am fond of. I love plants and you can see that there are many plants in my homestead, many of which are of important significance, such as fruit trees. They are all planted strategically around the homestead,” he said.

For the techno geeks, who are constantly on their technological devices such as cellphones and laptops, Cont has Wi-Fi, which has a steady 100-metre radius from its point of location.

It is in almost every suburbanite’s stereotypical upbringing to never consider living in a rural setup, far away from the so-called “luxurious urban lights”. But a visit to Cont’s home in Lupane your mind will surely be blown away.

At the driveway he is working on building a pond that will hold 5 000 fish of different species.

He structured the buildings of his homestead in the same typical rural set up only with an urban flair.

At face value, one would easily assume that the homestead is just but one of those that has undergone a facelift, done by a child living in Egoli or in the diaspora, typically paying homage to a parent living back home. But on the contrary, it is the home of a man trying to show the world that both worlds can be fused.

His homestead boasts of an open plan kitchen, which uses natural energy for cooking. But if you pay close attention to the details you will notice that the kitchen has hot water running faucets, something that is not a common feat in rural areas.

Unlike other conventional rural homes, Cont’s has a fully functional lavatory and bathroom with running water.

“It’s nothing amazing really; it is just a feature I want my home to have. I don’t want to have to be walking long distances to fetch water, nor to have relatives dreading visiting,” he said modestly.

Walking around his homestead, where he is working on many projects such as goat rearing, coffee, okra and chicken farming, he pointed out to arrears on his land, where he wanted to develop.

“As you can see I planted coffee and okra plants, which I either sell or supply or even use for my own consumption, as this is a self-reliant home. The coffee is the best and no other coffee beats Lupane coffee. I have a goat pen where I rear goats for meat and milk. On the other end there are chickens, which also double up as a delicacy. There we don’t just consume the chickens but also let those lay eggs, which we eat for breakfast. As you noticed when you got here there are edible plants and there is a huge pit, which I am turning into a fish pond,” he said.

Cont’s vision of bringing urban to rural life doesn’t just end there as he said he has plans of building his children a luxurious house at the same homestead before the end of the year.

“It doesn’t end there; you can see that already there are plans to build a house for my children. It will have its own driveway and its own ablution facilities,” he said.

Cont also has plans of building a swimming pool at his homestead, as he has already dug up an area for the positioning of the pool.

“This is where the pool will be,” he said, pointing to the dug up area, while also showing that his home had running water with taps at convenient points.

To show that his plans are not just a dream but a dream being turned into reality, Cont was able to plant and nurture lawn on sandy grounds, which are not viable for such plants.

Today, with the greater number of the population, the youth in particular, being so much accustomed to the fast-paced and ever evolving urban life, waking up to different melodious sounds of farm animals, fresh morning scent of the pastures and cow dung is somewhat a privileged experience.

With his sights set on button-holing the perception that rural folk are the backbenchers of evolution, Cont has managed to develop a homestead, where no urbanite would dare venture, even in their wildest dreams. The homestead resembles a luxurious house situated in any of Zimbabwe’s affluent suburbs. Sunday News