Indigenous Climate Information and Modern Meteorological Records in Sinazongwe District, Southern Province, Zambia

Abstract

Abstract In 2007, we conducted field research in Sinazongwe District in Southern Province, Zambia, focusing on collecting indigenous information concerning the local climate, which was often embodied in proverbs involving weather forecasts. The indigenous information was compared with recently col-lected meteorological records and a relationship between popular folk knowledge, local climate, and global climate factors such as ENSO (El Nino and the Southern Oscillation) was suggested. Proverbs related to agriculture and climate were categorized into four types of indicators used to forecast rain: the emergence of butterflies; tree characteristics (producing shoots, flowering, and dropping water); wind direction, wind speed, and temperature; and wind sound. The first two types are based on sea-sonal changes in life forms, and the latter two use wind variations produced by synoptic pattern changes. Discipline: Agro-meteorology Additional key words: agriculture in Zambia, indigenous proverbs, meteorological observation, re -silience, weather forecastingThis paper reports the results obtained in the research project ‘Vulnerability and Resilience of Social-Ecological Systems’ from 2006 to 2011, sponsored by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN). *Corresponding author: e-mail kanno@affrc.go.jpReceived 3 March 2012; accepted 15 August 2012.