Adaptive responses to environmental and sociopolitical change in Southern Zambia

The Gwembe Tonga live in Zambia's Southern Province, a region of climatic extremes including severe multiyear droughts over the past century, coupled with periods of flooding and pest infestation. This, together with political fluctuations over the last 50 years, has significantly influenced their livelihood choices and ecological impacts, and they have learned to anticipate difficulties beyond local control. The building of the Kariba Dam on the Middle Zambezi River in the late 1950s, initiated by the colonial government in conjunction with the World Bank, resulted in the forced and very unwelcome relocation of the Gwembe Tonga. Almost 50 years after this forced resettlement, which virtually overnight undermined the local livelihood system and resource base, and drastically altered their social world, we find the Gwembe Tonga voluntarily colonizing frontier regions in different ecosystems on the plateau above their original Valley home. It is thus possible to examine a long trajectory of adaptation to new ecosystems and look for patterns over time.