​The extended family system has broken down. Everyone was for themselves and the micro-family. The extended family was a social media one of mere observers. No longer was it offering the needed social security to the poor, widows, orphans, physically and mentally challenged people and childless people. Very few of the elite and high net worth descendants in the urban areas and diaspora have close bonds to their ancestral rural land. They are very much aware of the underdevelopment of their Nyalugwe chiefdom. However, like many people whose parents long left the ancestral homes, they have no close bonds to their land. They talk more about helping ending poverty there, but lack action. Even those that act, their contributions are very negligible in ending poverty in their chiefdom. For example, Mrs. Leke Mwale, a widow of the Nyalugwe HQ village, narrated to me how she was struggling alone to look for food and firewood.

​The Nyalugwe chiefdom is in the Nyimba district of the Eastern province of Zambia. It is about 300 Km from Lusaka, the capital. It has the usual characteristics of underdevelopment. Bad road networks, low calibre public education system, high unemployment, inadequate health facilities, no electricity grid, early age marriages and lack of telecommunication infrastructures. It is partly located in the Luangwa basin. The Muchinga escarpment is running beside the Luangwa River. It is rich in flora and fauna, mineral and precious stones’ deposits. If the leaders were patriotic and practiced the spirit of Ubuntu, the chiefdom would be very much economically developed. Intermarriages during the precolonial, colonial and post-colonial eras made the chiefdom a tapestry of ethnic groups. The original inhabitants were bush men. The Bantu ethnic groups migrated from West-Central Africa some 4–5000 years ago and filled Sub-Saharan Africa. The Chewa and Bisa displaced the bushmen in the current chiefdom. The current rulers have less than 200 years in the Luangwa basin.

​Mrs. Leke Mwale’s mentally ill son was not receiving any medical care. Her home was once the marvel of the village during colonial time. It was the first palace built by the British administration for the chief. The plaster of cement was peeling off to leave the reddish clay bricks. The streams of reddish sand starting from the wall near the house and its rusty metal sheets showed that nature was gaining lost ground. Her remaining family members were surviving on throw aways of the maize grinding mill in Nyalugwe Hq village. She had to go to the mill and gather gaga (by product of maize milling that is used for stock feed) to cook nshima for her family. Relatives and neighbours were unable to assist them as they had no food. Most of the villagers had a poor harvest during the 2023/24 farming season. The effect of Al Nino was very visible. Southern Africa has been ravaged by a severe drought. Most of the people I met lamented that they are going to die this year if they do not receive food assistance. The required help is for this year up to the end of the 2024/25 farming season. God willing there shall be good rains in the 2024/25 farming season and better harvests.

​Reeling from the adverse effects of the Corona pandemic, the drought has thrust itself to become the newest major factor in the devastation of the social and economic sectors of Southern African countries. Many people in the region depend on subsistence farming. Many of their crops failed to grow and not just maize. Exposed is bad economic planning and management on the individual and national level. Exposed is the folly of ignoring Indigenous knowledge. Drought is not a new phenomenal.

​The ancestral farming and food preservations methods enabled Indigenous communities to withstand the impacts of climate change. However, modern agriculture with its dependency on rain fed farming and daily shopping of food has failed to respond to need of people during current droughts. The agriculture extension services offered by the government have been exposed as weak. The donor funded agriculture projects and programmes evaluations have also been found wanting.

A close observation of climate change’s effects on the village of Nyalugwe showed that apart from obtaining urgent supplies of food, there are other developmental challenges that have been exposed by the drought and corona pandemic that the local population, businesses, government and non-governmental organisations with interests in the area need to urgently tackle. The corona virus pandemic had forced the shutdown of the foreign tourist dependent tourism industry in the chiefdom. Climate change has knocked out the remaining livelihood of farming and fishing.

​Most villagers have no alternative source of income. The women have stopped making clay cooking utensils. They also abandoned their bead making and clay pot making industries. The men also no longer engage in iron foundry and making of spears, knives, hoes and other household items, and reed baskets and mats. They no longer make reed mats for sale. There are cheaper and better imports.

​Fishing and hunting were the ancestral livelihood. However, they now need licenses. Not many can afford them. Due to overfishing, the fish catch is also low. They are no longer able to freely gather forest products for sale. Most of the virgin forest land with abundant forest products around the village is currently owned by foreigners.

​Climate change has seen the mushrooming of enterprises that pitch helping Indigenous people to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. In Nyimba district, there is the Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO). It initially organised villagers into cooperatives to sell agro-products for its factory. It pitched elevating the standard of living for cooperative members and helping them with modern farming methods to beat climate change. However, that did not happen. Members still use traditional methods and inefficient tools to farm. They are now 

​Community game ranches are being introduced. A neo-biocolonialism is emerging in the climate change mitigation ventures. Unknowledgeable communities in modern business are being preyed on by sophisticated enterprises and non-governmental organisations. This goes on despite government institutions and local chambers of agriculture, commerce and industries that should protect them being aware.

​Most of the members of these communities are not aware of hectares declared and the amount of money that COMACO is realising from their land. COMACO has not been conducting the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) process well. It has purportedly been just promising nice things to signatories of its beneficiaries’ agreements without specifying what these nice things are. ' REDD+ (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) schemes are all legally based on proper FPIC of participating communities being carried out.

​This is contrary to their presentation of their REDD+ approach and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Due to weaknesses of royal establishments, COMACO is able to get away with excessive exploitation of Indigenous peoples. Traditions of not asking royal establishments to be transparent and account for moneys realised from dealings with investors on behalf of the people have also not helped commoners benefit from their ancestral lands. The names of communities keep on being used in transactions that only benefit a few. National commerce, industry, forest, and fisheries policies are not helpful to most Indigenous people. There are mostly poor. Therefore, they help perpetuate the colonial and neocolonial exploitation of locals by external investors.

​COMACO is acquiring large areas of land in contrast to what chiefs are giving to locals. This will in the end reduce the amount of land for residences, farming, and developments of the locals in future. For example, the upgrading of a rural health centre in the Mvuwa – Chamilala area into a hospital will lead to major social and economic developments in the area. The 7 to 10 Km behind the hospital to the border will be needed by the community and newcomers in the area for residences, shops, offices and entertainment. However, it won’t be available if it is held by COMACO. The royal establishment and civic managers should be able to see this as a seed for future civil conflicts between the community and company. The youth may begin to resent what their royal establishments, elders and civic managers are doing. Giving away land in return for menial jobs, small amounts of cash, cell phones, motor bikes and used vehicles.

​COMACO’s virtual board shows how huge the Indigenous land being used without Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of local inhabitants to sell carbon credits to polluters abroad is. They openly describe their carbon strategy. However, it is also not explaining to communities or communities do not understand the restrictions on future usage by local people that is intrinsic to the REDD. If it is difficult for most literate people with even access to internet to understand what REDD and climate change issues are about, what about Indigenous communities that have challenges in general education and having access to information?

​The local politicians and traditional leaders, and top government official are aware of the concerns of the villagers on COMACO’s purported purchase of a large tract of land from the Luangwa bridge to Kacholola. COMACO’s activities in the area disregard the objections of the local community and their chant of COMACO NO! COMACO is making efforts to even expand its presences in the area. It is disregarding this communal objection and approaching individuals to sell land to it. This is starting conflicts between family members fearing a loss of their heritage and those that want easy money.

​The Catholic church's Commission for Justice, Peace and Development, a much powerful ally of the poor, had during a meeting with the Headmen and journalists in December 2022 at the St. Joseph Mission volunteered to investigate, remedy these shortcomings, and sensitise people on FPIC. However, later the Lay Priest in Charge, Mr Lungu, had revealed that the matter was an important issue requiring national and not village organs to investigate and facilitate change.

​Unemployed young men beg for alms or money for a drink. There is a high rate of alcohol abuse among the youth. Unemployment is very high. Oddly, though some villagers were lamenting expressing fear that they shall die if relief food is not sent there, maize grain is still being used by some to brew illicit gin in 200 litre metal drums. The concentration by mainly males in the high consumption of alcohol retards their villages’ developmental progress. It also exacerbates their personal social, health and financial challenges. The habitual abuse of alcohol among Indigenous communities is a global challenge that is usually ignored.

There are a lot of early marriages and divorces. The teenage girls are physically, educationally, financially, and socially disadvantaged as they have to cope with motherhood at a very early age. The youths need a lot of sensitising and mentoring to turn their lives around.

​Guided by Aliyele Daka the Coxswain, we first crossed the Luangwa River by a leaking banana boat to Nyamwalika village on the west side of Nyalugwe Hq village. Aliyele informed us that the boat is owned by the Nyimba District Council. The council has been notified that the fibre is cracking but has not repaired it or bought a new one. It is meant to help mainly school children and pregnant mothers to easily cross the river. During the rainy season when the Luangwa bursts its banks, it is very difficult for the children and those seeking to access the clinic to be rowed across it. As we scoop out the water from the boat, we notice that the sand that settles at its bottom is glittery. Aliyele, caution us to beware of the vicious crocodiles larking in the murky brown water of the river. They are the protectors of the river and the reason none of the villagers try to pan for gold and other minerals in the river.

​We did not see crocodiles or other animals or any tourists around the river. Though we had heard two small planes flying east of the river. We assumed tourism was still to recover from the effects of the corona pandemic and that crocodiles were hiding in the coffee-coloured river. The safari camps on the Luangwa River are mostly owned by foreigners.

​Women in villages near the murky and crocodile infested Luangwa River fetch water from it. Interventions by the government and non-governmental organisations that sink boreholes in the villages have failed to help them get safe clean water. In Tiopa and Nyalugwe HQ villages we saw that the water pumps had broken down. Broken down Indian hand pumps for water are a common sight in rural areas. There are no local mechanics to repair them. After sinking the boreholes, the donors do not help maintain them. The village development committees have no budgets to repair them.

​Specialist medical treatment is not accessible to villagers. A father showed us in Nyamwalika his son of about 6-8 years whose body had swelled up massively. He was having a liver problem. The Nyalugwe HQ’s village clinic was not able to help. He needed to be evacuated to a bigger medical facility. The father lamented that he could not afford transport and medical expenses.

​I observed that in the Nyalugwe HQ and at Tiopa Mukamwa village, they had mental health patients. There could be more cases as I have not visited a large number of villages in the chiefdom. The ones noted are younger men and seemingly their illness and plight were either underestimated or ignored. The man called Chimwene (thought to have come from Malawi) walks between Nyalugwe HQ to St Joseph Mission (24 km) preaching to no one in particular. There is a mental health hospital in Lusaka, Chainama Hospital.

​The terrains are harsh, and our vehicle suffered the loss of the spider bearing of the left CV joint during the drive to Tiopa village from Nyalugwe HQ. The vehicle limped to the nearest mechanic about a 100 Kms from Nyalugwe Hq in Nyimba.

​We also had to walk sometimes long distances in hilly terrains in the Luangwa basin where my Toyota Regius could not manage. There were no roads to some of the settlements. Being habitually desk bound and from an urban area, it was physically very challenging. Those that want to walk along the Luangwa River to be in sync with nature or reduce weigh would have found the walks very beneficial. Why don’t the villagers not think of coming up with local village tourism and walks along the river and hills?

​The four goats slowly headed toward the gazebo. The old woman, moving just as slowly, started to stand up in her gazebo. Her gazebo served as a kitchen as well as the meeting and eating place. She held her traditional wrapper, the chitenge, with both hands tightly around her neck and chest. The chitenge was faded and earthen coloured. It would have long been torn or rotten if it had been woven of cotton; it had withstood multiple usage. Bare footed she stepped out to meet them. It was a bony left limb that had lifted up the chitenge and displayed ribs devoid of much flesh. Her flesh was wrinkled much more around her tummy. The tummy was almost touching her spine. The skin was tight around her head and the deep lobs around her mouth gave her a perpetual unhappy look. Her unplaited crinkly and kinky hair was wholly white. No comb seemed to have touched the hair for a long while. She had not worn the traditional head-ker-chief.

Two of the adult goats leaped away. The two kids mehed at her as they lazily eyed the skeleton in front of them. She shouted at them, and they leaped off to join their parents. After shooing them, she went back into her gazebo.

​She tightened the thin chitenge covering her body as she sat down on the bare cold floor. She then looked forlornly at the thick dark porridge in her small aluminum pot and boiled pumpkin leaves on her small plastic plate. They were leftovers from her meal yesterday. The national staple food is maize - gaga. The thick porridge cooked using maize flour was called nshima. The dried pumpkin leaves were usually cooked in times of scarcity of relish. The ancient ones used to dry foods in times of plenty. However, not many people do this anymore. The dry pumpkin leaves are usually cooked with a seasoning of salt and additional ingredients of tomatoes, onions and cooking oil. Apart from coarse salt, she had no additional ingredients. 

​She faced the goats and waved threateningly at them. The nearby chickens and sparrows instinctively jumped and screeched away. However, the goats eyeing her pots with hungry eyes remained motionless. When there was no grass in the bush around the village, livestock were usually fed on by-products of maize milling and left overs from meals. In times of abundance, gaga was fed to livestock. However, it was their gaga that she had used to cook the nshima.

​She muttered as she looked around on the earthen floor for something to throw at them. The centre of the gazebo where the cold ashes were had no stones. She had no energy to fetch firewood from the forest. She had no child or dependent to help her fetch water from the river and free forest products from the forest. The villagers had to circumvent for many kilometres the nearby foreign owned safari camps to be able to have access to free forest products.

​She sighed as she held her wrapper tightly around her willow body. The sun was lazy that morning. She called out a name. There was no response. She picked up the utensils and walked over to a rondavel. She again called out a name. A male voice boomed angrily behind the door.

​“Food! Here is food for you my son,” she quietly responded.

A lanky man came around the door. He held his belt less pair of trousers by its front and eyed her blankly. A tattered shirt covered his bony upper. She greeted and proffered the pot to him.  He grabbed the pot without a word and quickly sat down. 

​The doorway showed that no broom had ever touched the floor of the building. The grey clay was peeling off the hut. Reeds weaved around the wooden poles were being attacked by termites and moths. in some parts. He forked the nshima with his dirty hands and shoved it into his bearded mouth. Earth and body oil had turned his hair and beard into dry mats. They had coated his body thickly. Water was a stranger to his body. 

​“You shall choke! Eat slowly. And there is relish here,” she said quietly to him as she placed the plastic plate in front of him.

​He looked at it with disdain. Snorted deeply, picked up the plate and threw it away. The goats scrambled for the vegie. 

​The old woman covered her face and u-turned. The goats got closer to her son. Some rubbed themselves on the rondavel’s wall while keeping an eye on the eating man. 

​“Hmmm, she has a job. He has finished her pots and cups,” said a bystander to no one in particular.

​Her son was renowned for breaking utensil in rage when he was not happy with his mother’s provisions.

​The old woman glanced at the speaker and thrust her chin up and her tightened lips putted up. She muttered as she heard the thump of a drum in the distance. It competed with the blare of gospel music from the speakers of the newly opened church.

​“Psalm seven verses to nine says…”

​Instantly a small aluminium pot came flying in the air and he ducked. It narrowly missed him, but he continued speaking. 

“Hmmm, it’s early in the morning and they have started dancing and drinking,” the bystander remarked to no one in particular.

​The old woman walked over from the gazebo and picked up the pot. She muttered as she looked up at the man facing her son’s door. As she walked back, she looked towards the local gin distillery as the throbbing of a bass drum rose up. Her voice was low but filled with anger as she spoke to no one in particular,

​“No, no, no, no! You cannot play such sacred music at a drinking hut. That is mocking the ancestral spirits! How can they stop being angry with us if we continue behaving badly. I swear upon the graves of my children, this world is going to end one day badly!”  

​Another drum joined the first drum. Her heart started thumping when the lead drum sounded. Its throbbing soprano vibration made even her son come out of his hut and look towards the bush. She recognised the beat of the call to ancestral spirits. She hurriedly sat down. There was a baboon’s bark and sounds of rattles. The usher merged from the bush followed by dancers of the male secret society, nyau.  The society was banned in colonial times as its rituals and dances were considered demonic by Christian missionaries. In the days when traditions were adhered to, they only appeared from the graveyard when there was a fool moon. They would enter the village for the masquerade dance celebrating life.

​“We shall all die of hunger this year,” sung the lead nyau.

​Such scenes are not unusual in the unfolding adverse impacts of climate change in rural Zambia. The drought had worsened food scarcity and poverty. Many of the villagers talked of past droughts in the decade cycles of drought. They consider the last rainy season as the worst in history. I visited Nyalugwe HQ, Kautukilo, Nyamwalika, Mvuwa, Tiopa Mukamwa and Kacholola’s Elina villages in the Nyalugwe chiefdom and Tangulani village in chief Ndake’s chiefdom. Both are chiefdoms of the Nsenga ethnic group of Nyimba district. It is one of the rural areas in Zambia dependent on farming and mostly adversely affected by drought. The wondered how they will survive until the next harvest in March-April 2025. They requested for urgent help from the government, urban relatives, and well-wishers. They may not have been aware that the government had already declared the 2023/24 farming season a disaster and was making efforts to supply relief food to vulnerable communities.

​Though the residents of Kautukilo also had a poor farming season, they had a bumper harvest of indigenous rice. It is grown in small quantities along the Chilinga stream north of their village. Elephants and other herbivories seem no longer to reach the villagers’ gardens. The chiefdom does not have chigayo (milling equipment) to mill rice. It has several for maize milling. It’s the Portuguese that had brought maize to the chiefdom. The indigenous people found maize easier to grow than their indigenous rice, rye, sorghum and millet. Some of the villagers argued that if they had continued growing sorghum and millet, they would have a better yield even during the drought. They also explained that they used to survive on usala and usika (white roots that are carrot like), wild vegetables and wild fruits in time of a drought. The masau berry grows widely along the Luangwa River. It is loved by humans and herbivores. The masau trees are fruiting and their fruits will ripen in June-July. The villagers hope to gather and sell them in urban areas.

Gratitude on data collection assistance on climate change in the Luangwa valley
There is not much data on the effects of climate change and economics of climate change in Zambia or the rest of Africa. I have been using my own resources to start studying and filming the effects of climate change in the Luangwa basin. I am grateful to receive a pledge of support from EvalIndigenous to support my efforts. This has been made possible through its receipt of a 2024 grant from the Ford Foundation.   

We have conducted the Mijikenda Study at the Kenyan Coast and we are back in the Capital. I was with the same Research Assistant with whom we worked the last time on this, Grace Wanjiru Murigo. We were supposed to have conducted research in the remaining 7 Kayas of the Mijikenda, but given the logistical challenges and cost implications, given the rise in cost of everything in Kenya, we decided to visit 4 of the 7 Kayas.

However, we increased the number of Informants from 2 per Kaya to 3, which included: Kaya Elder (Man), Kaya Elder (Woman) and a Youth for each Kaya. So in total, we were supposed to conduct 12 Interviews. On the final day of fieldwork, it rained heavily and the roads became impassable, which made us spend substantial time getting our car back to the road. This therefore meant that we arrived late and instead of doing three interviews, we managed only 2 and then sent the Questionnaire to the third person to fill and share back with us. So in total, we still had 12 interviews, but only 11 Video clips.