This is the second post in which I’m sharing photos from a month-long visit last summer to the southern African country of Zambia. As I described in the initial post, I joined a group of archaeologists and undergraduate students to photographically document their excavation work at a mound at Mwanamaimpa, one of a cluster of mounds that that stretch along the flood plain of the Kafue River in the Southern Province of Zambia. The mounds were formed by many centuries of human habitation, but are now abandoned. For more on that archeological project and our living arrangements see my first post at: bruceread.net/zambia-an-archaeological-trip.
During the course of our month in Zambia Kate de Luna from Georgetown University, one of the lead professors on the project, organized a number of visits to nearby spots of current cultural interest. The photographs in this post are from a day visit to Isamu, a small fishing village that stretches along the edge of a channel of the Kafue River.
The village of Isamu is inundated with flood waters during a few months of the rainy season each year, so the villagers relocate away from their homes here during those times, returning to homes of origin in other parts of the country. As a result, there is little or no infrastructure in the village, which consists of a string of small thatch structures along the slightly elevated rise of land at edge of the river – a low natural levee. Bundles of straw, collected from the surrounding plain, are stacked everywhere – ready for repairs to the walls and roofs of existing structures, or maybe the occasional expansion. The men and older boys fish with nets and large cylindrical fish traps. As we walked along the line of village structures women were cleaning and cooking fish and tending to children, men were repairing their nets, and fish had been set out to dry. The villagers, maybe 100-200, live simply here, with the river on one side and the flood plain on the other side of their long narrow settlement. It has something of the feeling of an encampment, with the inhabitants seeming to enjoy the lives they’ve chosen to live within a beautiful natural environment.
After a long drive across an expansive flood plain from the home compounds where we are staying at Basanga we arrive at a river bank across from a string of Isamu’s thatch structures. Two boys ferry our small group in a series of trips across the river in narrow fishing boats.We stop and visit with this older man, who is drying small fish on a large cloth spread out on the ground. Adrian (not in this photo), who is one of our hosts in Basanga, introduces us and translates.The fisherman is quizzed on the variety of fish spread out before him. Eréndira, one of the archaeologists in our group, is curious – she is creating an inventory of fish species that will be used to identify fish bones dug from the Mwanamaimpa mound excavation. Large cylindrical fish traps are hand-constructed with simple local materials. There is a lot of interest in our small group of visitors, and the people of the village readily pose for photos – here with a woman holding a bowl of freshly cleaned fish.I held my camera high to capture these women and children against the background of the village stretching back along the river. The thatch structures run on a slightly elevated strip of land at the water’s edge.As we make our way down the length of the village another group of women and children stand on a mound to get a view of the scene. This could be an old termite mound – they dot the floodplain.Adrian Shing’gadu, one of our hosts at Basanga, and our guide on this visit to the village, stretches out on a cleverly constructed chair in front of a simple structure typical of the thatch construction in the village. Adrian is the headman for the fishing village, and has family in both the village and Basanga.Adrian’s son, Adrian Jr., 14 years old, has recently moved from his home in Basanga to the fishing village, where he is learning to fish, and where he stays with extended family.Adrian Jr., on the right, along with his extended local family in the fishing village.A young man standing in front of his fish traps. In the distance smoke rises from grass being burned to return nutrients to the soil ahead of the wet season. Small herds of cattle, important measures of wealth and status, are grazed on the flood plain’s grasses.I took a number of photos of this man, some of them with his family and sons. The flood plain is stretching off to the left. Simple thatched structures at the edge of the plain are behind him.Here the man poses with his wife, who is cleaning fish for a meal. Food is cooked on fires made with a few logs arranged on the ground. The buckets and pots and plates in this scene are about as complicated as food equipment gets in the areas we were staying. There are no appliances or electricity. This young man seemed to have something of a bachelor pad. His structure was open to the sky, but the straw for closing up the gap was right at hand. The bike would be useful, but it’s not operational.Men tending to or mending light-weight fishing nets and lines. The thatch on the structure behind them could use some work.Here a young man stands with his fish traps. The supply of bundled light-weight sticks standing behind him at various angles seems to be material for making additional traps.A broader view of the young man’s operation shows an elevated cage for the chickens, and the flood plain beyond, picturesque with its isolated trees.A simple thatch structure against the backdrop of the flood plain grasses.Bundles of grasses are stacked throughout the village – either for repairs to existing structures or for building something new.The door on this structure is a solid wood plank hinged in several spots along its edge with flexible cord of some sort. Roosters and hens are ubiquitous.All the elements in this settlement seemed to be made from local natural materials. In fact, the entire village seems to be a natural expression of man in nature.This structure was more substantial than many in the settlement. The layout of four posts across the front and back, and three posts across the sides, was typical of the more permanent structures in the home compounds we stayed in at Basanga.Two young women from the village pose for a portrait. Termite mounds can be seen poking up in the grassy plain behind.There seemed to be some pride in holding this puppy, as various boys posed with it for several of my photos.Frank, Adrian Jr.’s cousin, is getting ready to ferry the group back across the river channel.Frank, at 15, seems to be in his element in this fishing village.
