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The Gwembe Tonga Research Project
Lots of text here about what this longitudinal project is.

Tonga Timeline Seminar, June 2008
On 25-27 June 2008, there was a scholarly seminar organized by Drs. Lisa Cliggett and Virginia Bond, hosted by the University of Zambia (UNZA) entitled: "Tonga Timeline: Appraising 60 years of multidisciplinary research in Southern Province, Zambia".

Conference Abstracts
THURSDAY JUNE 26 – DAY 1

Opening Session: Archaeological Background of the Tonga

Title: Iron Age Studies in Southern Province, Zambia, and their Contribution to the Understanding of the Tonga Author: Francis B. Musonda Affiliations: UNZA, Department of History

No Abstract

Session I: The Impact of Disease

PAPER 1 Title: Tuberculosis: An Additional Tipping Stress on Poor Households in Zambia Authors: Mutale Chileshe1, Virginia Bond1, 2 Affiliations: 1 ZAMBART Project, Ridgeway Campus, P.O.Box 50697, Lusaka, Zambia; 2Health Policy Unit, Dept of Public Health and Policy, LSHTM, UK

ABSTRACT Background: Addressing the emergent phenomena of rural tuberculosis and the advanced HIV epidemic, this 18 month anthropological study explored issues of economic crisis, food security and emotional burden from the perspective of rural people affected by TB and HIV/AIDS. The research is based on fieldwork conducted in Pemba/Batoka in the Southern part of Zambia between September 2006 and July 2007.

Methods: The core approach of fieldwork was case studies of nine people (four women and five men) who were suffering from TB, and their households; and a comparative sample of seven households that did not have a TB patient. The methods included observations, semi-structured interviews, anthropometric measures of children., timelines, seasonal calendars and social mapping.

Findings: From their experiences, it was reported that no TB patient households were in receipt of food aid. None of the TB households was ever visited by home-based care or received any material assistance from organizations or government. The care of TB patients fell on women kin – mainly mothers - with limited assistance from the extended family and neighbors.

Due to illness, a drop in agricultural production was recorded in 6 out of 8 TB patient households (2006/7 compared to 2005/6 farming season) while all except one of the non-affected households recorded an increase. Both TB medication and ART are thought to increase the ‘hunger’ of TB patients and should, it is believed, be taken with food. Consequently, TB patient households spent more money on food, while comparative families spent more on farm implements like seed and fertilizer. Most TB patient households did piecework in other people’s fields, sold livestock and clothes, borrowed money and food and, sometimes, begged, to cope with illness costs. At the end of treatment, many debts were not yet settled and assets were not recovered. Households where TB patients had died (n=2) were particularly impoverished.

Findings also show that access to care in rural areas can be very costly. Accessing ART in the rural area involved repeated visits to the hospital and substantial costs. Due to these accumulated costs, some participants and their households became poorer.

In addition, TB threw households into emotional turmoil - precipitating divorce, splitting up households and straining key family relationships, especially a few months into treatment. Enacted TB/HIV stigma was evident – particularly devaluation and exclusion. A contraction of space during illness, experienced by the patient and by the primary caregiver, also undermined household social and economic networks.

ART, combined with completion of TB treatment, mostly helped people regain their social and physical well being. It is hard to know if this is sustained over time.

Conclusion: In the context of rural poverty in Zambia and in the absence of external welfare assistance, TB tips households into deeper poverty, particularly if the TB patient dies.

PAPER 2 Title: Epilepsy and Associated Stigma; their effects as experienced in a rural population in the Southern Province of Zambia Authors: Alan Haworth1,4, Gretchen Birbeck 2, Elwyn Choba3, Masharip Atadzhanov3, Edward Mbewe4 Affiliations: 	1 Lusaka, Zambia 2 Michigan State University 3 University of Zambia 4 Chainama College Hospital

ABSTRACT Epilepsy has long been recognized as a seriously stigmatizing condition. The very nature of the condition which may involve an abrupt loss of control of one's bodily functions and senses, sometimes in a manner which appears violent to observers, results in fear and discrimination against people with epilepsy. Although epilepsy associated stigma as a phenomenon has been described in publications to almost every corner of the world the burden appears to be particularly heavy for persons with epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa, especially rural regions. Health related stigma, characterized by a “spoiled identity” is probably not equally distributed across all regions in a society. Stigma is a social phenomenon, influenced by power differentials based upon cultural circumstances of birth gender resources etc.. As such, one might imagine that the burden of epilepsy associated stigma is likely to be the greatest for traditionally disempowered groups.

Over the last few years we have conducted a series of studies in Lusaka, and in two rural areas in the southern province of Zambia. We have used survey methods directed at persons providing services for persons with epilepsy or having some influence in communities on attitudes to epilepsy, such as health workers or teachers and we have also conducted focus group discussions with patients and in the case of children with their parents. In addition we conducted a survey of the socio-economic impact of epilepsy (as compared with selected chronic medical conditions) in adults and children. The results of this work have already been published in a series of articles in medical journals and although we have made comparisons sometimes between the rural and urban populations we have not so far focused upon the Tonga as a group.. However, in preparing our presentation it will be possible to utilize data from the two rural areas but we may also use some comparative material from our urban sample.. We will cover the following topics: epilepsy in women, epilepsy and children, and the socio-economic impact upon adults and upon those families where a child is suffering from epilepsy, and we will also present data on the role of traditional healers versus that of cosmopolitan health providers

Since we are just about to embark upon a further phase of the project in which we will be working within communities in applying lessons learnt from our earlier studies. We will present a summary of plans for this phase in anticipation of useful comments from participants.

Session II: Population Dynamics

PAPER 1 Title: The Future of Polygynous Marriage among Gwembe Tonga Migrants Author: Angela Martin Beck Affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, USA

ABSTRACT In the early 1980s, the Zambian government attempted to compensate Gwembe Tonga who had been impacted by forced resettlement two decades earlier when the Zambezi River was dammed to create Lake Kariba. The government opened land in a former Game Management Area (GMA) along the southeastern border of the Kafue National Park to any Tonga who were facing deteriorating soils and overcrowding in the Gwembe Valley. Many families decided to leave their homes in the valley behind, and voluntarily shifted to this new frontier area in hopes of bigger and better farmland. Migrants to the Kafue Plateau area are adapting to new methods of land distribution, labor shortages, and to the lack of kinship networks in the receiving community. The children of these initial migrants are now beginning their own families and forming independent homesteads. This paper is based on anthropological research conducted in 2006 among two generations of Gwembe Tonga migrants now living in 14 villages in the Nkandanzovu area.

57 men and 123 women in polygynous, as well as monogamous, marriage were surveyed, while others participated with more in-depth interviews throughout the course of the project. The objectives were to determine:

57 men and 123 women in polygynous, as well as monogamous, marriage were surveyed, while others participated with more in depth interviews throughout the course of the project. The objectives were to determine: 1.	the role of co-wife cooperation in polygynous households; 2.	intergenerational differences in co-wife relationships; 3.	the role and consequences of implicit contracts between co-wives; and 4.	husband and wife views on polygyny today and in the future.

The data illustrate the relationship between each wife and her husband, and also the complicated relationships between co-wives. Daily household and agricultural tasks performed individually by wives; those tasks which wives cooperate together in order to complete; causes of conflict between co-wives; and views on the advantages and disadvantages of polygynous unions are discussed.

The nuanced relationships between co-wives are analyzed through the concept of implicit contracts. These contracts can be explained as the implied duties or expectations of husbands and wives upon marriage. Furthermore, I argue that co-wives must agree to implicit contracts with each other—in addition to those forged with their husbands—in order for the polygynous household to function harmoniously and to avoid the threat of divorce. For example, when one wife is ill or has just given birth, she expects her co-wife(s) will care for her and her children until she recovers. But what are the consequences of a co‐wife breaking the contract and treating another unkindly? When is it a learning experience in the household, and when is it a deal-breaker (i.e. divorce)? Young wives today are running away from their polygynous homesteads and retreating to their parents at an alarmingly high rate, and these confrontations are more often than not resulting in divorce. There is evidence to suggest a breakdown in traditional hierarchical authority among co-wives, as young wives are having difficulty following the “marriage rules” of their parent’s generation, including the authority which is usually afforded to the first wife.

Within the context of cooperation and conflict, intergenerational change, and hierarchical authority, this study looks at polygynous marriage among Tonga migrants and their adult children in Nkandanzovu to better understand the future of polygynous marriage.

PAPER 2 Title: Marriage Customs, Patterns and Practices and Sexual Networks among the Tonga of Southern Province of Zambia in the Era of HIV and AIDS Author: Jacob R.S. Malungo Affiliation: University of Zambia

ABSTRACT The sociological argument for examining marriage customs, patterns, and practices in relation to HIV is that socially prescribed sexual behaviour within defined societies can virtually everywhere be understood in relation to prevailing marriage forms within those societies (Radcliffe-Brown and Forde, 1950, Fox, 1967; Parkin and Nyamwaya, 1987). The constellation of marriage customs, patterns, and practices among the Ba-Tonga of Southern Province, using both quantitative and qualitative data systematically obtained from a 1998 study in Southern Province, may shed some light on how patterns of sexual behaviours and networks that promote multiple sexual partners, extranuptial sexual relations and multiple concurrent partnerships that increase the risk of HIV-infection are constructed. This paper, therefore, discusses the intertwine relationships of these practices and spread of HIV. For instance, while the study discovered that sexual liaisons and marriages among cross-cousins or remoter cousins on the mother’s side could be contracted, it was also revealed that in the distant past, probably before 1900, a daughter of the mother’s brother (mweeni nyoko) was considered to be a good marriage. That is, cilatondwa (it was not encouraged) to marry such close relatives, but not malweza (forbidden or misfortune). A father’s brother’s daughter, like a mother’s sister’s daughter, was not, however normally considered for marriage as she was viewed as a mwana okwanu (sibling).

The notable high-risk marriage customs and practices among the Ba-Tonga include maali (polygamous unions), kusalazya (sexual cleansing), kulya zyina (inheritance of a name to the deceased) and associated kunjilila mung’anda (levirate marriage), and kutizya (eloping). To Mair (1969:ix), the main distinguishing features of “African Marriage”, as compared with “European Marriage” is the tolerance, and even the approval, accorded to polygyny. Informants, however, argued that due to fear of contracting HIV polygyny is most likely to decline.

The study further found out that in the distant past, probably before 1930s, parents used to choose spouses for their children without the latter even knowing the suitor. This reduced contact between marriage suitors and prevented pre-marital sexual acts. It was also argued that such arrangements minimised cases of eloping, which practice can result in polygamy or/and extranuptial sexual relations.

In addressing the high-risk practices a number of measures need to be taken including women (including widows) empowerment, promoting premarital HIV-counselling and testing, and educating, especially men, on the dangers of such practices.

PAPER 3 Title: Researching the Kariba and the Sardar Sarovar (India) within the IRR Framework Author: Renu Modi Affiliation: University of Mumbai, India

ABSTRACT This research aims to make a comparative study of the impacts of displacement caused by Zambia’s Kariba dam and the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), India, from a gendered perspective. The case studies chosen are distant in terms of time and location. The Kariba case (1950s), when there no World Bank policies/guidelines on involuntary displacement, has been chosen as a reference point against which the quality of resettlement in the case of the SSP (1980s – till date) has been compared. In both the cases those displaced were peoples attached to the land the river and its ecology. The gender assumptions of the resettlement authorities in both the countries led to a patriarchal definition of a family. Men, understood as heads of households, got all the compensation for the loss of land/ property and women lost even their informal usufructory rights over land, and thereby access to it. No legal provisions of land ownership were made for women, major unmarried daughters, deserted, divorced women and widows. Displaced women have been the worst sufferers. In her seminal work on the Tonga displaces, Prof. Elizabeth Colson mentions how the resettlement authorities excluded women from negotiations with the colonial state and took away their informal rights to land/property.

This research contends that despite growing awareness about social justice by the World Bank policy on involuntary displacement in the 1980s, the distributional and gender impacts on the SSP are no better. It argues that policy formulations may be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for alleviating the sufferings of those displaced in general and women in particular.

The main objective of this research is to study the specific impact of displacement on the second generation of displacees, specifically the younger generation of women in the Kariba and the SSP. It aims to:

- Explore the impact of large dams on the lives of displaced men and women. How have women’s lives, livelihoods, coping strategies changed by the inundation caused by the construction of the SSP on the river Narmada and Zambia’s Kariba dam? Have women been compensated for the loss of access to forests, land and other common property resources?

- Research the transformatory potential of these two dams, if any, in the spheres of land tenure, social relations, sexual and reproductive health or access to infrastructure.

- Study the impacts of displacement on those displaced in general and women in particular due to the state policies, World Bank’s concerns, involvement of NGOs at the grass root level or the agency of the displaced women themselves?

Session III: Social Diversification and Political Systems

PAPER 1 Title: A group at risk: The Tonga, Development and Migration in the Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe. Author: V. Dzingirai Affiliation: Centre for Applied Social Sciences, University of Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The Tonga have been a group at risk, all the time. Nearly 50 years ago they lost access to part of their land from colonial developments including the Kariba Dam. In recent years two further forms of threats and risk have emerged. The first, one starting in the late 1980s, has involved invasions from dominant ethnic and land seeking groupings, the Shona  and the Ndebele. These invasions, obviously socially mediated in some sense, have seen the Tonga loosing control of land and the creation of new agrarian relations disadvantaging them.

The second threat has been from a wildlife constituency. The state, private business and well meaning donors, have since the beginning of the 1990s, banded to initiate natural resources management programmes which, while bringing development in the official sense, have largely disenfranchised the Tonga.

For every Tonga these two developments are cause of concern, which is why from time to time individuals and groups have initiated some restorative strategies aimed at recovering at least some of the land and resources that have taken by invaders and developers.

PAPER 2 Title: “There Is No Development Here”: Social Power And The Shaping Of A Southern Zambian Community Author: Christa Herrygers Affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, USA

ABSTRACT Scale and power theory suggests that growth is an elite directed process that differentially benefits those who are already well-off. The present research is designed to explore the limits of scale theory by analyzing the development process in a well-studied region of rural Zambia. Preliminary research conducted among the Gwembe Tonga in the village of Nkandanzovu shows that an individual’s access to or even knowledge of organizations working in a community may be correlated with social power, i.e. social standing, ability to access networks, and wealth. This leads to questions of who can and cannot negotiate with organizations that are working in the area for their own benefit. Also, in what ways does the ability to utilize these organizations or lack thereof impact stratification in a community? That is, are the people who are able to gain access to these programs able to enhance their wealth and/or position in the society?

PAPER 3 Title: Syaacivwule Mwangu1 : NGOs and People Empowerment in Development Discourse in the 1990s-Study from the Gwembe Valley, Any Hope for the Future Author: Lawrence Maumbi Michelo Affiliation: University of Zambia

ABSTRACT This study was a critical analysis of the role of NGOs in development in Africa. It revisited the good governance parlance of the post 1980s in Africa that laid the justification for NGO preference in development funding by international donor agencies over government structures. NGOs were efficient, accountable, and closer to the people. They were able to make the communities own the development process. The state and its bureaucracy was vilified, demonised and condemned as incapable of service delivery to the rural poor.

The key research questions three decades are whether the NGOs have lived up to the expections of the governance debate; have they delivered on the development promises of the 1990s’. Specifically the study addressed three interrelated questions: How has the NGOs’ implemented its development projects in the Gwembe District to ensure community participation, accountability, and ownership of the interventions?; What role does the community play in the day-to-day implementation of the activities to ensure ownership, participation, and meeting changing needs of communities?; Why are NGOs still assisting the communities in Gwembe where there have been operating for close to three decades? Is this an indication of failure or of success in meeting the development needs and aspirations of the people as promised in the 1990s?

To answers these questions a thorough literature on state, ngos and people empowerment in Africa was reviewed. A case of the World Vision International in Gwembe district of Zambia provided practical views of the community and development practitioners. These complimented the perspectives from the literature surveyed.

Study learned that the celebrated strengths of the NGOs as community focused, participatory, democratic, community oriented, cost effective and better at reaching the poorest are a myth and exist only in literature. The NGOs have not translated the ideas of people owned development process to make real the tenets of participation, accountability, and transparency in the rural interventions. Instead they have focused on getting money from the donors. They are parasite to the poor. They do not care about the causes they champion. They produce low quality returns; they are engulfed in self obfuscation, spin control and outright lying to justify their works. The NGOs are elite driven and are not trusted by the community. They see them as outright thieves and job seekers.

The people of Gwembe have been disempowered by the NGO elites who make all the decision about the programmes without concerns of the community. NGOs in Gwembe seem to believe now that communities are not capable of owning the development process.

For Africa to own the 21st Century, development model predicated on a reformed state and people driven and owned structures at community level is a must. Models that vilify and bypass the state is a sure way of failure as current NGOs attempts at development are breeding more poverty.

Session IV: Ecosystems and Livelihood

PAPER 1 Title: Identity, Self-Agency and Development: The Case of the Zimbabwean Tonga Author: Siambabala Bernard Manyena Affiliation: Northumbria University, UK

ABSTRACT Much ink has been spilt in constructing and (re)presenting the Zambezi Valley Tonga in Zimbabwe using a deficit model of vulnerability to natural and anthropogenic stresses and shocks. Common, but rather demeaning descriptions and labels of the Zimbabwean Tonga include, ‘marginalised’, ‘isolated’, ‘poor’, ‘backward’, ‘minority ‘, ‘primitive’, ‘dangerous’, and ‘two-toed people’. These descriptions have far reaching implications not only on the identity of the Zimbabwean Tonga but also on the development interventions that aim at addressing deprivation in the Zambezi valley. Development interventions tend to adopt a mapenzi or buyumuyumu (problem) approach rather than building on the bukkale bwesu (local systems). Absent in the literature is the Tonga’s resilience and self-agency in negotiating ‘reversals’ to these socially constructed representations which are also manifest in development interventions. Using secondary data as well as ‘lived experience’, this paper explores the Zimbabwean Tonga’s self-agency in enhancing their resilience to socio-economic and environmental challenges. For nearly thirty years since Zimbabwe’s independence, self-agency has been visible around consistent issues: vulnerability reduction to poverty and hunger; recognition of Tonga language as one of the national language; and expansion of the political space of the Tonga.

PAPER 2 Title: Institutional Change, Poverty and Health Risks in the Kafue Flats Authors: Sonja Merten and Tobias Haller Affiliation: University of Basil, Switzerland

ABSTRACT Based on research among agro-pastoralist households in the Zambian Kafue Flats this paper presents an institutional analysis of the processes, which lead to inclusion and exclusion of individuals or groups from access to basic resources that are relevant for income generation and health. We discuss how in the context of recurrent food crises that affected the Kafue Flats unclear jurisdictional boundaries and weak government authorities facilitated re-negotiations of property rights related to natural resources in favor of the more powerful. Consequently, the growing disparities affected also the existing social networks. An interesting example for this process are the fisheries.

Among the Ila, fish used to play an important role for subsistence particularly during the lean season. With an increasing demand for fish in the nearby capitol fishing became interesting on a commercial scale. A massive immigration of seasonal fishers was observed for the first time in the 1970s. Since the mid-1990s, unsustainable fishing methods and an increasing number of immigrant fishermen are affecting the fish population in the area. Even if the floodplain ecosystem is robust some areas close to the settlement areas are seasonally overfished to the extent that fish does no longer allow mitigating seasonal food and income crises during the lean season. As the formal law does not protect the seasonal subsistence needs of the local population, and local people, mainly women, would not apply for a fishing license as they do not perceive themselves primarily as fishers, the commercial fishers are legally backed by the government and can claim the majority of the common pool resource for themselves. This has important implications on several levels. First, the nutritional basis of the indigenous population is directly weakened. Second, the loss of access to a common pool resource that was formerly part of local commercial activities reduces the income opportunities of the poor, particularly of women. Third, the growing wealth and vulnerability differentials—the loss of access to the fisheries being one contributing element out of many—influence the social structure of the population by weakening the social security networks.

It can be observed that the increasing burden on the wealthier community members to support their kin or neighbors reduces their willingness and ability to engage in reciprocal obligations, as they are no longer balanced. Formerly institutionalized social obligations are no longer followed. This in turn increases the readiness of impoverishing local people to engage in risky activities, such as prostitution (fish-for-sex deals), dangerous fishing activities, or illegal hunting. And fourth, the harsh living conditions in the fishing camps in the absence of any formal medical care brings immediate additional health ailments (cholera, HIV, accidents) and ethnically shaped social conflicts into the area. We conclude that national political, economic and legal processes, even with pro-poor intentions, may disfavor the local population through direct as well as through unintended institutional changes. This may be the replacement of local access rights to common pool resources by a formal fishery law favoring commercial interests, or a change of the social fabric and associated social obligations indirectly initiated through the process of property redistribution. If impacts of institutional changes at the local level are not carefully investigated and the interests of the weak are not actively seconded, an interrelated triad of increasing poverty differentials, decreasing social security and riskier behavior will continue to negatively affect population health.

Session V: History of Cropping/Agriculture

PAPER 1 Title: A Bitter Welcoming: The Rise and Fall of Tonga Commercial Cultivators Author: Toby Moorsom Affiliation: Queens University, Canada

ABSTRACT In the 1950s the colonial administration introduced resettlement programs that targeted “dynamic” Tonga farmers as part of an experiment in creating an indigenous capitalist farming class. This was continued post-independence with the provision of finances, infrastructure and extension services. The work of Baylies (1979), Vickery (1977,1978,1985), Momba (1982) and Chipungu (1988) explores various aspects of the development of Tonga capitalist agriculture. My own work examines the ways knowledge of the environment and the ideology of conservation played a role in this process. I then examine how this class has been impacted by neo-liberal policies and what effect the increasing penetration of international capital has had. I examine whether these agriculturalists played any role in the return to multi-party elections and whether they stood to benefit. Most farmers suffered heavily in the aftermath of liberalizations in 1991, but it is not clear whether its affect has varied. Significant evidence shows that Southern Province is no longer the most productive agricultural area as it once was. Yet, there are also examples of very successful Tonga farmers, often producing in areas outside of Southern Province that seem to be more integrated into the changing geography of capital within Zambia. I examine the material basis of these successful farmers, considering where inputs come from, which markets crops are destined for and what their relationship is to the rest of the peasantry and the political elite.

PAPER 2 Title: Lessons from Agricultural Extension and Marketing Services in Southern Zambia, 1936- 1980. Author: Ackson M.Kanduza, Affiliation: Department of History, University of Botswana Email: kandiuza@mopipi.ub.bw.

ABSTRACT My paper will examine spread of agricultural extension services and marketing practices from Southern Zambia to some parts of the country. Provision of agricultural extension and marketing services in Southern Zambia from the time more systematic state intervention began in the 1930s to the time the state radically revised marketing arrangements in  about 1980 is an important review of social and economic studies of Zambia. The studies of Coulson and Vickery on relationship between labour migration and farming in Southern province pointed to prevelance among the Tonga of  critical local knowledge about agriculture. This gave the Tonga confidence in manipulating labour migration and the colonial economy in order to sustain local production. Dixon – Fyle’s work brought out the role of the SDA Church in promoting better agricultural practices. Chipungu’s evaluation of the role of technology pointed to an important aspect in service provision in agriculture. This diverse engagement with agriculture in Southern Zambia by local communities, state and church has no comparable experience in Zambia. What lessons did Zambia learn? What is the significance of production and marketing knowledge in development based on experiences in southern Zambia? These are some of the issues I intend to examine. Part of my interest in this work was stimulated by my interest to study Tonga farmers who settled in parts of Chipata district. In my discussion with a few of them, I was interested in how they transferred experiences from Southern Province to other parts of the country. A few of them indicated that they were welcome in traditional land in Chipata because of a history of serious farming in Tongaland.

PAPER 3 Title: Social Justice, Agricultural Trends and the Tonga Author: Tafadzwa Chevo Affiliation: University of Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The overall goal of this seminar is to appraise multi-displinary research conducted in the Southern Province of Zambia over the last sixty years. Under this overall objective, this paper will explore the agricultural trends of the Tonga in the Southern Province of Zambia mainly during the periods of before the establishment of the Kariba Dam as well as during and after its construction. In her book Reynolds (1993) highlights that the soils of the Zambezi are sodic and of low fertility, the alluvial soils are limited and the heavy clay soils are more widespread but in winter they dry out and become hard. She further notes that plowing the heavy soils with oxen would be easier but the presence of the tsetse fly makes it impossible to keep cattle in many parts of the Zambezi. Another problem is that the large numbers of wild animals  found in the Zambezi, the Buffalo and Elephant in particular, cause much damage to the fields, sometimes destroying families’ entire crops.

Prior to the establishment of the dam the Tonga had ways of circumventing these challenges. However, it is important in this presentation to indicate that from a conflict perspective interests are the basic ingredients of social life which make it necessary for inducement and force to be used to ensure social life .Therefore, division, opposition and hostility are generated by social life .This manifests itself in structured conflict based on sectional interests, resolution of which involves the use of power.

Britain had large areas of influence in Africa in post –World War II, including Southern Africa. Rather than implementing separate development agendas for its territories, Britain proposed a federal structure for the territories north of the Limpopo River. A key requirement for the development agenda in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was the availability of bulk energy. The obvious choice of bulk electrical energy at that time was hydroelectric power and the prime candidates for this purpose where three large rivers, the Shire River in Malawi, the Kafue in Zambia and the Zambezi River. However the espoused ideals of human rights, social justice and equity in relation to the Tonga have remained secondary concerns to policy makers.

The involuntary resettlement of the Tonga who lived in Zambezi valley to give way to the construction of the dam has made the past of inequality remain present in the realities the Tongan today. While the establishment of Lake Kariba brought about various opportunities in the inland fishery industry and tourism. For the Tonga this meant disruption of land use and tenure as well as involuntary resettlement. The translocation of the Tonga, with no acclimatization programme in their new habitat had a variety of sociological as well as environmental impacts. Colson’s work in (1971) alludes to the social disruption it caused, in certain instances resulting in suicide among young women as a result of the collapse of peer support system. Ecological disruption and economic alienation are matters which this paper will also attempt to examine, unearthing how forced relocation of indigenous communities can lead to long-lasting, trans-generational social traumas thereby affecting the agricultural trends and/or food production among the Tonga. Various lessons are also highlighted which pertain to weak communities whose land is compulsorily y acquired for what is seen as an overriding national interest for development.

FRIDAY JUNE 27-DAY 2

Session VI: Meaning, Symbolism, Proverbs, Poetry

PAPER 1 Title: Demonizing the Migrant Labor System Author: John B Siakavuba Affiliation: University of Zambia

ABSTRACT Most societies respond to socio-economic change or forces through the popular arts, especially song and music. The binary set of song and music are known to be frivolous, dynamic and hence prolific. This is mainly so because song – the major aggregate in the mixture – moves with times and is composed as social comment on issues. Usually accompanied by instruments and dance, songs are performed both by individuals in their privacy or in public and groups at public occasions. However, less endured – seasonal or one off – issues end up in song while those with wider long term impact graduate to the narrative sphere of the popular arts.

The migrant labour system which was rife especially in the colonial period was one such system that affected all and lasted for a long time with long term effects. During research conducted in January/February 1989, two narratives (folktales) depicting the practice of arranged marriages among the Valley Tonga of Chief Mweemba’s area were captured. On the surface the folktales could pass as a mere reflection of how arranged marriages worked yet a deeper examination of the tales reveals a people’s critical analysis of and protest against a practice which was induced by the locals’ desire for exotic materials. This was later reinforced by the need for money for hut tax. The practice – labour migration – wherever it was experienced had negative effects on some fundamental aspects of the peoples’ life.

This paper will analyse the two narratives for content and form. In discussing content, we shall rely on what history and other social sciences have documented about the migrant labour system. Form will consider aesthetic and structural realisation of the folktale performance as well as determine whether it is content or narrator or both that influence the performance.

Many works of history and other social sciences have provided sufficient data justifying our claim that migrant labour was a recognised despicable system in the colonial era in the history of Zambia. The system has been globally condemned because of its disruption of production, social structures, political structures and subsequently the whole value system of the affected peoples.

Although the one detailed study among the people of Mweemba chieftaincy – the performing society of the selected folktales, exonerates labour migration from contributing directly to food shortage in the area, it does confirm in fact that “ … labour migration had kept many young and middle aged men away ….” This is enough for us to work comfortably under the belief that indeed, labour migration affected marriages because the involved segment of the society were the active category in maintaining homes.

There have been various ways of responding to effects of the absence of men in villages due to labour migration. Songs have been composed and sung but these relate to how an individual took the scourge. For example, Mbaita Liwoyo Siakavuba refers to popular songs in the mukanda camps among the Mbunda that mock at young men who kept away from WENELA just to ensure that they were not separated from their wives. Also Peter Tsosi Juma a local musician composed and sung a song “Mafiga” which alludes to how women whose husbands are away to kalale endured torment from admirers.

In our paper, we shall demonstrate that the people of Mweemba took labour migration as a community problem not an individual’s. This was by way of looking at what solutions are presented as the suggested way forward in the folktales. In one story, it takes the whole community to mitigate in the matter by killing the monster. In the other it takes the innocent to persuade the run away wife to come down symbolising that it is future generations to combine forces in the fight against the system.

The paper presents an approach to aesthetics that spreads focus to both the art and its didactic role. In addition, since the art is public property, narrator skill presents the variation in how each tale comes out. The respondents who narrated the tales in 1989 have already been contacted to re narrate. This too will add another dimension to our work as it will show whether, indeed, time and perhaps changes in experience influence narration. However, using the same narrators is essential because of the rich texts that they had provided then, which unfortunately have been lost due to archaic technology at that time – nearly 20 years ago!

PAPER 2 Title: Cattle Names and the Naming System Among the Tonga of Zambia Author: Mildred Wakumelo Nkolola Affiliation: Department of African Languages and Literature, University of Botswana,

ABSTRACT The paper looks at the origins, meanings and significance of names of cattle among the Tongas of Zambia. The study of names is part of a sociolinguistic branch called onomastics. By exploring on the origins, meanings and significance of names, whether they are names of people, cattle, animals, rivers, possessions or business, one would be struck by the wealth of information which certain names provide about the society that gives them and the economic and social environment people live in. In the paper it is shown that names of cattle are not just chosen anyhow. A lot of thought goes into the choice of a cattle names taking into consideration prevailing trends as dictated by the social, cultural and economic set up of a community.

Without discarding the purely linguistic approach, the paper defines cattle names generally and determines their collective meaning as an expression of the distinct social and economic culture of the Tonga people. In particular the paper shows that cattle names reveal the nature of the immediate social and economic environment of the people inasmuch as they translate some aspects of the beliefs and customs of the people.

The paper uses a thematic approach to explore the social function of the cattle names and their meanings and significance in the reconstruction of the culture, social and economic environment of the people and their view of the world and the value they attach to cattle. Most names are meaningful labels which taken as a whole constitute a statement on the culture of the people who invent them.

In our analysis the relative social value attached to each category of names is assumed to be proportionate to the number of distinct names it comprises such that the higher the number of times certain types of names appear, the greater value they express. Multiplicity of names in a given category will thus signal a subject matter of great relative social importance to the Tonga community.

Session VII: Linguistics and Communication

PAPER 1 Title: Gender, Culture, HIV and AIDS in Contemporary Southern Zambia Author: Anne Sikwibele, PhD Affiliation: University of Botswana, Faculty of Education, Address: 	Department of Educational Foundations Private Bag UB 00702 Gaborone. Botswana Email: annesikwibele@yahoo.com; sikwibele@mopipi.ub.bw

ABSTRACT Tongaland is rich in culture and its strong cultural heritage makes it unique in Zambia. Tongaland has also not been spared from the adverse consequences of HIV and AIDS. The paper interrogates the intersections between gender, culture and HIV and AIDS. It tries to answer questions related to whether some Tonga cultural beliefs and practices could be risk factors in the spread of HIV and AIDS in Southern Province. It highlights the gender dimensions of some cultural practices that are found in most communities of the area. Among the engrained cultural practices that are discussed are polygamy (maali), sexual cleansing (kusalazya), night dances (malindo), extra marital affairs (bumambe), and initiation ceremonies (Nkolola). While the justifications for these and other similar strong practices are provided, the paper also examines the risk factors that could arise due to these contexts in this era of HIV and AIDS. The gender relations that emerge out of these practices are also discussed as well as implications for gender empowerment.

The paper is based on research carried out in selected communities of the 11 districts of Southern Province between 2001 and 2005. In each district, 5 schools and 6 villages surrounding the school were selected for the study. The researchers sought to understand community attitudes, behaviors and cultural practices that contribute to the proliferation of HIV and AIDS. The study also wanted to identify community action to address challenges and problems identified.

The study utilized participatory action methods of data collection and relied on focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and in-depth interviews with key informants in the selected communities. At the end of the ten days in each research site, community drama was performed in which researchers engaged some of the key informants, students, teachers, and community members. The performance was meant as a verification process and an opportunity for the community to comment on the theatre, verify if it depicts what is in the community and offer suggestions on how to reduce identified problems. The collected data were transcribed manually in order to identify emerging themes and sub-themes on which data analysis was based.

Several useful lessons emerged in terms of the intersections of gender, culture and HIV and AIDS. Some interventions aimed at sensitization and mobilizations of communities were implemented in the study areas in order to facilitate community action to bring about changes in some of the practices such as those related to sexual cleansing. However, the area of culture is under the custodianship of traditional rulers such as chiefs and herd men and women and therefore it was important for them to play a role in its transformation. Change in cultural practices however takes long to attain and hence the need for continued dialogue on all important aspects of Tonga life.

PAPER 2 Title: Art and the Sacred Practitioner among the Tonga: An Analysis of the Symbolic Interaction Authors: Maxwell Mukova1, 2, Jeremiah Chikovore2 Affiliations:	1Doctoral student Fort Hare University 2College of Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The investigation of interrelationships among religious processes and phenomena is of particular interest in phenomenological studies of religion.Investigational dimensions adopted,phenomena and processes chosen vary.This presentation seeks to explore the extent and implications of the relationship between art and sacred practitioner among the Tonga in Zimbabwe.It explores Tonga sacred practitioners’ utilization of the material and non material cultural artistic forms in their mediational functions.It is  demonstrated that among the Tonga one cannot perceive of  mediations of the sacred practitioner without simultaneously referring to some art forms.The inherent necessity of art in the operations of  the Tonga sacred practitioner is engendered by the symbolism embedded in the various art forms which are highly suggestive of the “ultimate’ among the Tonga.It is the symbolism which makes the sacred practitioner/art relationship logical in Tonga cosmology.

Session VIII: Material Culture

PAPER 1 Title: An illustrative journey into the changing culture of craftsmanship of the Tonga Author: Maiju Tamminen Affiliation: Free University, Berlin, Germany

ABSTRACT My presentation will give an idea of some of the changes that are taking place within Tonga craftsmanship. I will name a number of factors affecting the tradition of Tonga craftsmanship, however putting most emphasis on development, trade and heritage conservation – such as is carried out by Choma Museum Crafts Development Programme. It has an important function in preserving the traditional Tonga craftsmanship and passing on knowledge on crafting techniques. However, it also brings change to the tradition.

Most of today’s Tonga craftsmen make their craft in order to generate an income. This applies equally to basket makers, potters as well as carvers, blacksmiths, drum makers and beadworkers. The potential for selling craft depends on the proximity to urban centres, tourist routes and transportation possibilities. Some craftsmen now supply craft shops or sell on roadside stalls to passing by vehicles. Tonga crafts are no longer circulated locally as part of the traditional barter system. However, the craft trade has high demands and often only the most skillfully made craft items are sold. The remaining items end up at the local market, being often of slightly poorer quality. This puts pressure on the craftsmen to produce crafts of high quality. Also, the traditional crafts are no longer typical household items in a Tonga home. They have become more specialized items of aesthetic, decorative value. Household items are now mainly bought from importers. This is a great change within a culture of craftsmanship, where most of the crafts have been known to be roughly made and functional, unelaborated items of every day use.

The Tonga crafts have gone, and are going through a continuous process of change, whereby the quality of manufacture, styles and sizes of items as well as decorative motifs, colouring and types of items themselves are all variables subject to issues of external demand. In some ways this enables craftsmanship to remain alive as part of the cultural heritage of the Tonga, however giving space to the transformation of the tradition.

I am going to illustrate these issues by showing photos of various modern Tonga crafts and their producers.

PAPER 2 Title: The Practicalities of the Life of the Crafts People and the Effect of their Association to a Development Project in Crafts Making and Livelihood Author: Esnart Mweemba Affiliation: Choma Craft Center

ABSTRACT Not Submitted.

PAPER 3 Title: The Gwembe Tonga Craft World and Development Intervention Author: Gijsbert Witkamp Affiliation:

ABSTRACT The paper is about the effect of four projects on the Gwembe Tonga crafts world during 1980-2000. The author argues that the projects culturally and economically were successful because they built on existing traditions and values. He argues that the three donor funded projects were not successful in the area's of participation of artisans in decision making and governance as the artisans lacked a model in their own society for such participation, or organisational understanding, and as local big shots and bureaucrats were no match for them. The interventions opened up the Gwembe Tonga crafts world by projects which themselves were alien to Gwembe Tonga society, linking artisans to an unknown market in an emerging crafts world lacking stable relationships.

Conference Program
The conference program was as follows: ZAMBART House, Ridgeway Campus, UNZA June 25-27, 2008

WEDNESDAY JUNE 25 COCKTAIL RECEPTION – Ndeke Hotel, 18.00 to 19.00 hours All those accommodated for the duration of the workshop are staying at Ndeke Hotel 25-28 June

THURSDAY JUNE 26 – DAY 1 Venue: ZAMBART House, Ridgeway Campus, University of Zambia Opening 9:00-9:30 Welcome Dr. Lisa Cliggett (U. of Kentucky, USA) & Dr Joseph Banda (ZAMBART) Tonga Bibliography – Elizabeth Colson

Opening Session: Archaeological Background of the Tonga Iron Age Studies in Southern Province, Zambia, and their Contribution to the Understanding of the Tonga - Francis B. Musonda (UNZA)

Session I: Impact of Disease 9:30- 10:15 Chair: Dr. Phillimon Ndubani (UNZA)

Tuberculosis: An Additional Tipping Stress on Poor Households in Zambia – Mutale Chileshe (ZAMBART) and Virginia Bond

Epilepsy and Associated Stigma: their effects as experience in a rural population in Southern Province of Zambia – Alan Haworth (Chainama College Hospital), Gretchen Birbeck, Elwyn Choba, Masharip Atadzhanov, Edward Mbewe

Tea Break 10:15-10:30

Session II: Population Dynamics 10:30-11:30 Chair: Dr. Oliver Saasa (UNZA)

The Future of Polygnous Marriage among Gwembe Tonga Migrants – Angela Martin Beck (Indiana University, USA)

Marriage Customs, Patterns and Practices and Sexual Networks among the Tonga of Southern Province of Zambia in the Era of HIV and AIDS – Jacob Malungo (UNZA)

Researching the Kariba and Sardar Sarovar (India) within the IRR framework – Renu Modi (University of Mumbai, India)

Morning Summary / Synthetic Discussion 11:30-12pm

Lunch 12- 1:30

Session III: Social Diversification and Political Systems 1:30- 2:30 Chair: Dr. Mutumba Bull (UNZA)

A group at risk: The Tonga, Development and Migration in the Zambezi Valley Zimbabwe – Dzingirai (University of Zimbabwe)

“There is no development here”: Social Power and the Shaping of a Southern Zambian Community – Christa Herrygers (Washington State University, USA)

Syaacivwule mwangu: NGOs and people empowerment in development discourse in the 1990s study from the Gwembe Valley, any hope for the future – Lawrence Maumbi Michelo (UNZA)

Session IV: Ecosystems and Livelihood 2:30- 3:15 Chair: Dr. JC Momba (UNZA)

Identity, self-agency and development: The case of the Zimbabwean Tonga – Siambabala Bernard Manyena (Northumbria University, UK)

Institutional Change, Poverty and Health Risks in the Kafue Flats - Sonja Merten (University of Basel, Switzerland) and Tobias Haller

3:15-3:30 Tea Break

Discussion / Synthesis of Early Afternoon sessions. 3:30-4:00

Session V: History of Cropping/Agriculture 4:00-4:45 Chair: Dr. Lisa Cliggett (University of Kentucky, USA)

A Bitter Welcoming: The Rise and Fall of Tonga Commercial Cultivators – Toby Moorsom (Queens University, Canada)

Lessons from Agricultural Extension and Marketing Services in Southern Zambia, 1936-1980 – Ackson Kanduza (University of Botswana)

Social Justice, Agricultural Trends and the Tonga – Tafadzwa Chevo (University of Zimbabwe)

5:00 PM END OF DAY 1 (Participants to organise dinner for themselves)

FRIDAY JUNE 27 Session VI: Meaning, Symbolism, Proverbs, Poetry 9:00-10:00 Chair: Dr. Alan Haworth (Chainama Hospital)

Demonising the Migrant Labour System – John B Siakavuba (UNZA)

Cattle Names and Naming System Among the Tonga of Zambia – Mildred Wakumelo Nkolola (University of Botswana)

Session VII: Linguistics and Communication 10-10:45 Chair: Dr. Ginny Bond (ZAMBART)

Gender, culture, HIV and AIDS in contemporary Southern Zambia – A Sikwibele (University of Botswana)

Art and the Sacred Practitioner among the Tonga – Maxwell Mukova (University of Zimbabwe) and Jeremiah Chikovore

Session VII: Material Culture 11.15-12.00 Chair: Dr. Bennett Siamwiza (UNZA)

An illustrative journey into the changing culture of craftsmanship of the Tonga - Maiju Tamminen (Free University, Berlin, Germany)

The practicalities of the life of the crafts people and the effect of their association to a development project in crafts making and livelihood - Esnart Mweemba (Tazimani Craft Shop, Choma; Formerly with Crafts Program, Choma Museum)

The Gwembe Tonga Crafts World and International Development Intervention - Gijsbert Witkamp (Craft Expert, Formerly Director, Choma Museum)

Discussion / Synthesis of morning sessions 12.00 - 12.30

Lunch 12.30-1:30pm

WRAP UP SESSION 1:30-4:00pm Facilitators: Dr. Virginia Bond, Dr. Lisa Cliggett, Dr. Bennett Siamwiza, and Dr. Elizabeth Colson. With full participation of all conference attendees