Resource Access, Livelihoods and Belonging amongst the Tonga in Mola, Nyaminyami District

Abstract

The Zambezi River – the boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe – was dammed in the 1950s to construct the biggest synthetic lake in Africa at the time – Lake Kariba. On the Zimbabwean side of the lake, colonialists divided the littoral into several protected areas, including a recreational park, safari areas and a national park. A relatively smaller part of the littoral was set aside to allow the displaced people access to the lake mainly for gill-net fishing. The host population (predominantly Tonga people) was then subjected to several alienating natural resource and lake management laws. The restrictive colonial regulations have largely continued in the postcolonial era, putting the livelihoods of Zambezi Valley communities at risk. This chapter discusses the struggle for natural resource access, livelihoods and belonging in Mola, Nyaminyami district. Through micro-ethnography, we analyse a case study of resistance against natural resource enclosure practices by a local rural council and a safari operator – Bulembi Safaris. The chapter argues that Mola, like other Zambezi Valley communities in Zimbabwe, typifies a “marginal frontier”, in which the state and powerful conservation and tourist interests frequently displace and restrict local people’s rights of access to the lake, leading to increased livelihood vulnerability and precarity.