Growth without Capital: A Renascent Fishery in Zambia and Katanga, 1960s to Recent Times ^*

Abstract

Journal of Southern African StudiesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:

Managing inequality: the political ecology of a small-scale fishery, Mweru-Luapula, Zambia

“…At the same time it uncovers an ambiguous relationship between enforcement of fisheries legislation and local compliance. Within the Northern Rhodesian administration, this duality was expressed by the linking together of unpopular conservation measures and development projects (Gordon 2005). Regarding fisheries commercialization, such development projects actually stimulated the formation of African capitalized entrepreneurs above simply ensuring compliance.…”

“…Its gradual depletion increased competition -between subsistence fishers and with the recently installed European-driven commercial fishing economy -and forced many households to migrate out of Mweru-Luapula. This pattern of out-migration was further driven by growing industrialization and urbanization in Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo, which incited rural-urban patterns of labor migration, meaning households became attracted by more profitable employment opportunities in other economic sectors (Annear 2010;Ferguson 1999;Gordon 2005).…”

“…During British and Belgian colonial rule, European -mostly Greek -fishermen and fish traders were encouraged to start their economic activities on and around Lake Mweru (Gordon 2005). The context of their presence -situated historically at the beginning of the twentieth century and especially the 1920s and 1930s -has to be understood through the efforts to industrialize and commercialize the fishing economy in MweruLuapula (Musambachime, 1995).…”

“…Catches of pale and other commercial species had also diminished. While from a government perspective this was presumably caused by harmful fishing techniques, the reality of a succession of droughts affecting breeding and spawning possibilities, seemsregarding Lake Mweru's allotrophic nature -a more plausible explanation for the decrease in fish levels (Gordon 2005). …”

“…The context of their presence -situated historically at the beginning of the twentieth century and especially the 1920s and 1930s -has to be understood through the efforts to industrialize and commercialize the fishing economy in MweruLuapula (Musambachime, 1995). Urban markets in the Zambian Copperbelt but especially in Elisabethvillenear the booming copper mines controlled by Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK) -demanded a stable supply of fish (Annear 2010;Gordon 2005;Malasha 2003). This encouraged expatriate merchants and fishermen who owned sufficient capital to start commercial activities in Mweru-Luapula (Jul-Larsen and Van Zwieten 2002).…”