Cattle have traditionally been an object of accumulation rather than consumption in the Southern Province of Zambia, particularly amongst the Tonga and Ila people who equate the accumulation of cattle in traditional Ila society with the accumulation of capital investments in capitalist societies. The traditional inhabitants of Namwala District are the Ila people whose traditional occupations include cattle herding, subsistence agriculture, hunting, fishing and collecting. The most important activity has always been cattle herding, and Namwala District still has the largest number of traditional cattle in Zambia with approximately 120,106 head recorded in 1997. Cattle remain the mainstay of large numbers of traditional peasant farmers. The prosperity of the cattle economy is based on the cycle of flooding in the Kafue Flats, which provides year-round naturally irrigated pasture. During the floods, cattle are grazed near the villages in the forest margins. When the floods subside (May-June), they are grazed on the plains. During the dry season, they are moved to cattle outposts some distance from the community, under the care of the younger men of the community. The traditional cattle farmers in Namwala rarely slaughter their cattle for food or sell their cattle for commercial gain. However, the number sold is slowly increasing; in 1991 recorded commercial sales were 1,700 outside the district and 205 within the district.
| | The veterinary department was unable to provide more recent records of sales. Some people believe that quite large numbers of cattle are slaughtered for funerals and other ceremonies than what is sold. On average 3-4 animals are slaughtered on these occasions. Cattle, despite their numbers, do not form the major source of protein in the traditional diet, except in the provision of curdled milk. The daily milk yield is around 2.5 litres per animal. Tick-borne diseases are a major killer of cattle in many parts of Zambia with the loss of cattle to disease having a major impact upon the livelihoods of affected farmers and on the local economy The Namwala Livestock Support Programme was conceived as a response to the large number of cattle deaths due to disease. It began with a pilot project in 1994 under what was then the Namwala Cattle Project. This developed into a three-year programme running from September 1994 to September 1997 and was co-financed by the EU and Harvest Help UK. The Namwala Livestock Support Programme (NLSP), which was supported by Hilfswerk Austria, was in effect a second phase of NCP. |
