Tonga Timeline: Appraising Sixty Years of Multidisciplinary Research in Zambia and Zimbabwe

XI. Agricultural Change and the Tonga Tafadzwa Chevo

CHAPTER XI Agricultural Change and the Tonga Tafadzwa Chevo1 Introduction In the present day, the soils of the Zambezi are sodic and of low fertility, alluvial soils are limited and heavy clay soils are widespread. In winter they dry out and become hard; ploughing 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 region. Wild animals such as buffalo and elephant cause much damage to fields, sometimes destroying families’ entire crops. Prior to the establishment of the Kariba Dam the Tonga had ways of circumventing these challenges. This paper is a brief survey of Tonga agricultural practices in the Southern Province of Zambia from prior to the establishment of Kariba Dam through to the present day. It examines colonial legislation, implications of the dam’s construction, and describes the immense challenges to their agricultural system in the post-construction years since the late 1950s. 1. Tafadzwa Chevo is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe. Email: tafadzwachevo@hotmail.com or tchevo@sociol.uz.ac.zw. Pre-Construction Tonga Agriculture Reynolds and Cousins (1993) (on the Zimbabwe side) and Scudder(1962)(ontheZambianside)describeTongaagriculture in the region around the Zambezi River and its tributaries before the construction of Lake Kariba. The Zambezi came down in flood annually, leaving a layer of fertile soil on its banks. After the floodwaters receded, people made two kinds of fields or gardens near the river. Jelele were riverbank gardens that could be cultivated during the dry season after the peak flood in March and April had passed. The Tonga would interplant an early-maturing variety of maize, beans, cowpeas, cucumbers, melons and Turkish tobacco in fields along the riverbank. There were also kuti gardens made on the flat and fertile alluvial floodplains just above the riverbanks, which could be cropped twice a year. Maize, beans, cowpeas, cucurbit cropslikepumpkins,melonsandcucumbers,andsmallamounts of okra and sesame were planted during the rainy season. These cropswereharvestedtowardstheendoftherainsandreplanted again immediately after the cresting of the floodwaters. Both jelele and kuti gardens could be replanted year after year without resting periods and without crop yields falling. Further back from the river sat unda gardens that were not permanently farmed. They were made on alluvial soils that hardly ever flooded or on sandier soils. These depended entirely on rainfall and so were planted for some years and then left to fallow and regain their fertility. In the 1940s the population along the river became so large that there wasn’t enough land for everyone, so people began to develop a new type of field, temwa, much further inland. These were often separated from unda by areas of uncultivated bush; they were slash-and-burn fields that were fallowed once yields began to drop. By the 1950s the temwa had become the most important garden for some communities along the river. 268 tafadzwa chevo The great variety of crops grown in the different types of gardens helped to reduce risk of famine – if one crop or garden type failed completely, it was likely that another would succeed. The main agricultural implements used by people were axes and short-handled hoes, mainly for clearing bush. Most households cultivated about one acre per family member. Livestock were also important in the farming system. Where the tsetse fly was absent cattle were kept, as well as goats, sheep, chickens and doves. A few people kept donkeys and pigs. On the Zambian side of the river, the number of cattle in the Zambezi Valley increased from less than one thousand in 1914 to over twenty-one thousand by 1956. People brought ploughs, allowing more land to be cultivated. Apart from ploughing, cattle were valued for milk, as capital investment that could be easily converted into cash should the need arise, and as means whereby social obligations to relatives and others could be met. Goats and sheep were also sold to meet cash needs. Besides growing crops, people gathered wild plants, fished and hunted: activities especially important in drought years or when disasters like floods or pest outbreaks destroyed crops. Men also worked in jobs away from the Zambezi Valley, providing money not just for taxes, but also for buying cattle, hoes, blankets, clothing and even for purchasing food in years of poor harvests. Taken together, Tonga agriculture was a multifaceted system that required great skill...