In Kaoma, 130 miles east of Mongu, for the last week of
inputs distribution for the CA project. This is our biggest district; rather
than 900 farmers as is the case in Mongu and Senanga Districts, here we have
1,400 farmers. They are scattered all hell-to-breakfast … unlike the previously
mentioned districts, Kaoma farmers settlement patterns are less dictated by
limited access to decent land, so they are shotgunned randomly about the place.
Let me back up a bit.
Mongu and Senanga Districts are dominated by either a
massive drifts of Kalahari sand (matema)
interlaced as it were with the floodplains of the Zambezi or its tributaries (litapa). Interspersed in the plains are
rises that don’t usually flood (masuzu);
along the edges of the plains is the interface (shishanjo) between the mostly infertile sands and the silt-laden,
relatively far more fertile floodplains. The shishanjo and masuzu areas are
coveted for their fertility and typical safety from the annual floods; hence
the combination of good soil, seasonal grass for grazing fodder, and access to
water (imagine digging a well in beach sand and you’ll realize why they favor
the margins) causes people to cluster along the plain margins.
The western side of Kaoma district is somewhat like this,
but as you approach Kaoma, you start to see termite mounds, which are
conspicuously absent from most of Western due to the sand. Parts along and
north of the road, plus on the eastern side of the district, have a much
shallower sand layer. Consequently, people tend to “hunt” for soil. This is not
a new thing for me … my two years of Peace Corps service were in a village about
150 km northeast of here the next district, Kasempa, and up there people did
the same thing.
Brief aside: part of the reason I started in farming was
that everyone in my village / catchment area would wander off into the hills to
their fields from October to February; with nothing else to do, I did as the
Kaondes did and farmed … albeit closer to the homestead.
Anyway, Kaoma is part of the reason I often wonder if Zambia
doesn’t have too much land. Farmers
go all over creation, find a plot, clear the trees, till it for a couple years
to grow maize (usually without fertilizer), exhaust it, and repeat. Because the
ownership is based on usufruct rights (you own it until it’s obvious you’ve
abandoned it), because fertilizer is so difficult to come by, and because it’s
what’s been the norm forever, it’s really not conducive for people settling
down on a piece of land and improve it.
There’s more to it than that, but topical treatments all you
get for now.
So … Kaoma Boma (remember, British Overseas Military
Administration makes for a very Africa-friendly name for each town) is
something of a boom-town. Since I’ve been in Western, three medium size
sawmills have opened; two are owned by Chinese nationals (referred to as the
Chinese, as if they were all one), the other by a Zimbabwean (I think). Commercial
logging is not new to Western Province ... back in the 1920’s, the British
South Africa Company (BSAC) built the only private railroad line in Africa
between Livingstone and Mulobezi, 85 km north, to mine out the Zambezi Teak (Baikiaea
plurijuga, mulambwe). I say mining because in these sands,
trees don’t grow back very fast … especially when no one replants them. Anyway,
the Z. teak was or is in the top five of wood in terms of price per board foot;
most of the parquet floors in the colonial-era houses in the urban centres of
central and Southern Africa are make from teak, as is a bunch of the furniture.
As far as I know, it’s almost a permanent thing.
Next best, and favorite among the locals is mukwa (African teak, Pterocarpus
angolensis) … it’s
preference stemmed partly from its absolutely lovely color in the heartwood (deep
purple) in contrast to the nearly off-white sapwood. It was also easy to shape
with hand tools, so for carpenters throughout the country, mukwa was tops. It
has also suffered quite a beating, though not as bad as the Zambezi teak. In
truth, I have yet to see a teak board, though a German associate of mine has a
concession on the far side of the Lui River; when he goes to cut, I might take
a day off and photograph them, hopefully find some seeds.
Anyway, the sawmills take mukwa,
but what they are hitting hard is the Zambezi Redwood (muzauli, Guibourtia Coleosperma).
It was never much liked in the past … too hard for the local tools, and too far
away for the Brits. However, it’s a fine, bright red, hard wood that responds
well to power tools; plus, it’s in far greater abundance. For now ... some of
the Chinese outfits have brought in chainsaws to help the locals bring them
down faster, plus if they have petrol leftover, it helps with squaring the logs
(you get $8 a log if it’s squared rather than $5). Anyway, it’s a bit worrying
to see the stacks of lumber all bound for the export market.
It’s
the usual, from what little I’ve read, for Africa. It’s pretty much a hole in
the ground that you dig out copper, coltan (PS3 and cell phone users take
note), rare earth, gold, timber, oil, etc. for as cheap as you can, and replace
it with shit. When people are this poor and the government (at least the local
side) is so broke, you have the perfect situation to exploit man and nature (by
pitting the former against the latter). I keep scratching my head and wonder
where we’re headed as a race if we keep pounding our environment like we do …
the scary thing is, I doubt we’ll ever win that match.
The
logging’s given Kaoma something of the flavor of a boom-town. Sawmills running
the whole day; drunken truckers; bars roaring out a mix of Congolese rhumba,
Celine Dion, and Shakira (and oddly enough, Don Williams). There are some great
handles to the beer joints … “Power Boozing” (which also sells auto spares next
to the Chibuku), “Chocolate City (1 and 2)”, “Cassava Lima Pleasure Resort”,
and the somewhat lyrical “West Point Joint, where friends make sense”. People
are a bit more raw here as well; none of the feigned aristocracy of Mongu or
the sleepy riverside aspect of Senanga. Here, it is in your face,
CHINDELE-MUZUNGU-MUKUWA ringing out constantly, nshima dinners with hefty price
tags, Primus beer (how they get beer from Bukavu to here is way beyond me).
As is always the case … can’t wait to break out
into the field tomorrow.
There was a good depiction of the double-whammy people got last week from Choklit over at the Post newspaper, which was having a frenzy over the sitting government ... they are now full-on over the load shedding, though I am puzzled how government could fix that one (e.g., they would literally have to make rain happen five months early).
