Abstract

For the Shona people of Zimbabwe, social caring and responsibility is a virtue, a moral calling which is inherently instilled in one’s social schooling. Social schooling involves both practical and theoretical teaching and learning, the emphasis though being on enthroning humanising interactions. Some humanising perceptions were to be reflected in agricultural activities. The activities were culminated in a community welfare in which the less privileged received assistance. Through the ‘Zunde raMambo’ (King’s granary), Shona communities ensured that food security, poverty and hunger were reduced, good health and social well-being strengthened. At the same time ethical values such as communal responsibility, sharing and caring, communing and common good ensued thereof. The informal safety nets that ‘Zunde raMambo’ provides reveal the African conception of community development which contemporary society ought to learn from especially the formation of a mental attitude of collaborative work for the good of the community. I argue that this is achievable through an educational system that reflects African ethos and training that encourage African values that humanise interactions that promote communal care and livelihood.