Gwembe Valley: a study of local resource mobilisation in Zambia

Abstract

This thesis traces the Gwembe Tonga's socio-economic background in the recorded history. And it also attempts to understand their indigenous agronomic system. It reveals that a change in either of the two variables compels a corresponding adaptation by the other.

A case study on the Lake Kariba Resettlement Programme in Gwembe Valley, in Zambia, is shown to have ignored the local indigenous agronomic systems. Nevertheless, the resettled people are shown to have devised their own ways of adapting their indigenous agronomic system onto the new environment. The limitations arise mainly due to a lack of coordination between the cultivator and the lake regulating agency. A hypothetical paradigm which integrates the local people's use of the new environment with the lake fluctuations is constructed and tested. Indeed, its exploitation is shown to require an appropriate institutional framework.

The existing planning and administrative apparatus in Gwembe Valley and, indeed, even the experiences in rural development in other areas of Zambia, are shown not to be necessarily adequate for Gwembe Valley development. The micro projects promoted by an evangelical mission in Gwembe Valley itself are shown to be much more appropriate in as far as the technological capacity of the Gwembe people is concerned.

The thesis thus concludes that each particular region should be treated on its own merit.