Chibale, Zambia: modernity and tradition

Chibale, Zambia: the theme modernity and tradition. Adapting one’s life based on local experiences and knowledge, or on those of external others, is a major theme in Chibale. This has manifested itself in various way over the past seventy years. Generally, people are less interested in contrasting modernity with tradition than they are in finding an effective blend of the two.

Definition of modernity and tradition

In Chibale, town life, commercial farming, and, to a lesser extent, life in other countries are sources for the concept of modernity. A description of the concept of modernity used in Chibale could be: What can be learned from others who lead a less traditional, and in certain respects, apparently more successful life than we do. Some will emphasise the successfulness and intend to adopt aspects of behaviour and concepts. Others emphasise the apparentness and intend to see through the trappings of modernity. In both cases, modernity relates to the ideas about the successfulness of others in a certain period. Furthermore, success is a salient issue in Chibale.

It would be a mistake to think people exclusively pursue modernity or only tradition. An extremely modern attitude could lead to trouble; for instance, an accusation of witchcraft. An extremely traditional attitude would evoke less resistance but will be seen by most people as ineffective and, in some periods, as backward. A description of the Chibale concept of traditionality is: What is right to do given what we have done before. At times, the concept is used in a rather static interpretation: These are our customs. And sometimes in a more dynamic interpretation: In the present time, we can learn and adopt the useful things from the past.

Major influences and expressions of the theme

Chibale, Zambia: modernity and tradition. What have been the major influences and expressions of this theme in the last 70 years? Migrant labour, the return of people who have stayed in town for extended periods¹In the 1980s, the average duration of the stay in town for the population over fourteen years of age was no less than ten years for men and five and a half years for women. In the 2000s, this was halved., the rise, decline and subsequent resurgence of christian cult groups, the rise and decline of spirit possession cults, the persistent need for ‘traditional’ medicine and ways of solving problems, the use of adolescents’ popular music (kalindula) at beer parties, the ‘Chibalisation’ of external cultural influences, the rise and fall of the idea that towns offered better opportunities for a good life, the pitfalls of commercial farming, the emergence of a cultural heritage perspective on certain own cultural products, the disappearance and return of girls’ initiation, and the arrival of portable and especially mobile media.
Influence from other countries, except for some from Congo and to a minor degree Zimbabwe, was small up to 2006. Then, the first portable DVD players with displays arrived. In 2013, the electricity supply built up to Chibale village began providing power to those who could afford it along the road from Mulilima to Chibale.

Examples

People might describe a part of Chibale as ‘town-like’ because residents live relatively close to each other, making it easier to socialise or engage in trade. Conversely, ‘town-like’ can also imply increased rudeness and fighting at beer parties. BanaNshimbi, the healer, referred to towns as mishi ya bushilu, villages of madness.
A second example. Many perceived a connection running from witchcraft to jealousy, then to competition, and finally to development. However, linking this progression to traditionality versus modernity was neither nonsensical nor entirely accurate. In other words, people who were more inclined towards modernity could still be firm believers in witchcraft, while those who valued tradition might be on a path of slow development. This illustrates the importance of avoiding an extraneous definition of modernity, such as ‘orientation towards development’.

Elaboration G: Cash cropping and living in nkutu

During the 1960s and 1970s, the government and NGOs promoted hybrid maize as the pre-eminent cash crop. They ‘regrouped’ the villages, forcing all people to live near one of the few large sand roads in Chibale.²Seur (1992: 117). The cultivation of hybrid maize required buying seeds and fertilisers, making people dependent on the government and banks. On the other hand, it was one of the only ways to earn money in Chibale. During this period of increased maize cultivation, a diminishing number of people continued swidden cultivation in the bush, staying there in temporary houses (nkutu). They were viewed by others as ‘backward’.

Bags race and nkutu

In the 1980s, people introduced the term bags race to refer to and comment on the modern attitude of trying to cultivate as much maize as possible. This involved taking out loans, working very hard, and hiring people to help at low wages. The attitude towards the preference for maize cultivation and the backwardness of other forms of cultivation began to change due to developments such as the forced village regrouping, the sudden rise in the price of fertilisers, and the late delivery of seeds, fertilisers, or bags by the government in certain years. While an increasing number of people became involved in the bags race, other people consciously chose nkutu. Their houses near the sand roads were merely to satisfy government regulations. They would come for some cultivation (maize hoeing) and then return to nkutu.
There, they also cultivated gardens apart from fields. They lived ‘village lives’ in nkutu with relatively good houses. The ‘village’ had to be of a certain size, as it was dangerous to live there with only a nuclear family. Living in nkutu was a choice: being on their own and being independent of government uncertainties. It gradually also became an economic choice: due to the sole dependence on maize cultivation, millet had become scarce and expensive. It was needed for making cipumu beer. Thus, nkutu farmers could well make more money than their maize-farming colleagues, without the problems of loans, prices, fertilisers, hired help, etc. They had fewer difficulties obtaining relish as they had their gardens. And they trapped a lot, making them less dependent on licenses for bullets and the rising price of bullets.

Modern traditionality

The way of life of the ‘nkutu people’ was more traditional than that of their maize-cultivating colleagues. However, in their own eyes, it was better adapted to the situation in Chibale in the 1980s. The new nkutu people were not the same as those who continued this practice it in the 1960s/1970s when the rest began with maize cultivation. They worked harder, cultivated a wider range of crops, and somehow possessed a sound commercial intention, directed towards getting by and hopefully a little more. They sold a portion of their millet, went to Serenje Town with the money to buy clothing, soap, and salt, returned, and had enough for the rest of the year. Their music was more traditional because their circumstances were more traditional. They had Bwalwa, Sandauni, Cibombe, and Imbile there. None of them would ‘come to the roads’ for Sandauni, but they did come for Cililo and Ipupo.
Gradually, the dual track of maize cultivation near the passable roads and nkutu cultivation became the dominant agricultural strategy in Chibale. More forms of cultivation are involved, for which see Long (1995): Figure 4.1.

Modern traditionality. A similar reversal can be seen in how people who returned from town were viewed.

In town there is unemployment, but here there is self-employment. In the past, money was only found in town and town dwellers used to laugh at villagers.
Harriet Lupalo ∵ in Seur (1992: 305).

Those townies used to laugh at those who had remained here, because they were poor. But today no one laughs at a farmer anymore, because now farming is the only way to make money, to take care of your children.
Langson Mupishi ∵ in Seur (1992: 160).

This concludes the series on social themes. Continue to the article about Chibale history.