Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and tables
- Abbreviations and glossary
- Foreword
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 The place, methodology, and chapter overviews
- 2 Brief history of the central Luangwa Valley
- 3 Munyamadzi Game Management Area and its residents
- 4 The changing nature of rural community lives
- 5 Human welfare and resource status at Nabwalya Central, 1966–2006
- 6 Community Resources Board and community participation
- 7 Perspectives from the Munyamadzi Game Management Area communities
- 8 A conclusion to the 2006 exercise
- 9 A perspective covering eight decades
- 10 Conjuring the Munyamadzi Game Management Area as a frontier
- Appendix A Revised questionnaire, 2006
- Appendix B Major characteristics of village area groups within the Munyamadzi Game Management Area communities, 2006 and 2011
- Appendix C Respondents’ comments on ‘fairness’ of Zambia's wildlife exchange
- Notes
- References
- Index
9 - A perspective covering eight decades
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and tables
- Abbreviations and glossary
- Foreword
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 The place, methodology, and chapter overviews
- 2 Brief history of the central Luangwa Valley
- 3 Munyamadzi Game Management Area and its residents
- 4 The changing nature of rural community lives
- 5 Human welfare and resource status at Nabwalya Central, 1966–2006
- 6 Community Resources Board and community participation
- 7 Perspectives from the Munyamadzi Game Management Area communities
- 8 A conclusion to the 2006 exercise
- 9 A perspective covering eight decades
- 10 Conjuring the Munyamadzi Game Management Area as a frontier
- Appendix A Revised questionnaire, 2006
- Appendix B Major characteristics of village area groups within the Munyamadzi Game Management Area communities, 2006 and 2011
- Appendix C Respondents’ comments on ‘fairness’ of Zambia's wildlife exchange
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Mr Speaker, ZAWA goes into rural areas to cheat the people that the wildlife belongs to the nation and not local people, when, in fact, it is not true. They collect, for example, money through licenses for hunting. They eat even the little portion they allocate for the local people, leaving hopeless people exposed. How will the local people understand the value of the inconvenience they sustain from wildlife that loots their fields? I can rest assure that one of these fine days, they will shut the doors to ZAWA in rural areas so that, maybe, we can deliberately deplete those animals because we do not see economic benefits from the inconvenience of an elephant coming to gore somebody. I have not seen the advantages of keeping lions that are going to eat people and if you kill it, you are going to be hanged. They are using the most primitive methods of torture.
Mr Speaker, the situation that exists on the sharing of portions of revenue generated from wildlife leaves much to be desired. If K 1 billion has been generated, 20 per cent goes to the rural area and 80 per cent remains with ZAWA. ZAWA does not provide any social facilities in the rural areas. They claim that they own the wildlife, people walk in footpaths at risk of snakes, lions, and buffaloes which we are not allowed to kill. When people die, they [ZAWA personnel] do not respond. On the contrary, when an elephant dies, they come in huge numbers. We cannot accept that kind of situation. [Member of Parliament Mr. Nguni (Chama South), Daily Parliamentary Debates, First Session of Ninth Assembly, Thursday, 5 December 2002]
Whereas most changes appear gradual and processional, there are moments when the ground rules affecting people's lives and livelihoods change drastically and even tragically. Such was the case with the character Okonkwo in the novel Things Fall Apart (Achebe 1959). Some disruptive harbingers of change are captured in the statements above attributed to MP Nguni during a Zambian Parliamentary Debate in 2002. The Mipashi team heard many caustic comments about Zambia Wildlife Authority’s (ZAWA) ineffectiveness and corruption from Munyamadzi Game Management Area (GMA) residents in 2006, even from the Chief himself (Figure 3).
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- Information
- Discordant Village VoicesA Zambian 'Community Based' Wildlife Programme, pp. 209 - 235Publisher: University of South AfricaPrint publication year: 2014