Lifescapes & governance: The Régulo system in Central Mozambique

Abstract

In many subsistence economies, local people rely on forest resources to provide varying levels of goods (Byron, 1997) and continued access to these resources allows basic needs to be fulfilled (Sen, 1981). The link between local communities and forest resources is emphasised by Howorth (1999:17), who argues that it is local people who create landscapes, they produce nature and it is the people/people relationship in a local place that is the critical variable. People and places are thus intimately interconnected. In Central Mozambique, régulos (chiefs) play a pivotal role in the relationship between people and place. The régulomediates the relationship between the material world and the spirit world, the present and the past, and works alongside the curandeiros (traditional healers) to provide healing and protection from witchcraft. Respect for the primacy of the régulo is based on people's belief in the ancestors, and in the legitimacy of the régulo as both’ intermediary between the community and ancestral spirits, and at the same time as judge’ (Serra, 2001:13).

Notes

1. My gratitude is extended to ETC UK and Debra Howell for allowing me to use data collected aspart of the GERFFA project to write this paper.

2. The GERFFA (Gestão dos Recursos Florestais e Faunisticos) project was identified in March 1992and designed in February 1993 by the Investment Centre Division of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO/UN) at the request of the Moçambican Government and the African Development Bank (ADB). The five-year project (1997-2002), based in Sofala Province, central Mozambique, was conceived to contribute to sustainable forestry and wildlife management, conservation of biological diversity, soil conservation and community focused forestry activities (social forestry), focusing on Gorongosa National Park and the Beira Corridor.

3. Overall, 56% of the questionnaires were completed by men, 35% by women and 9% by men andwomen together.

4. The oldest kingdom in South East Africa (and builders of Great Zimbabwe), which at its highpoint in the sixteenth century, was probably the largest and most powerful state across Central and Southern Africa

5. Régulos could be existing lineage chiefs, existing lineage chiefs whose territory was expanded over other chiefs and villages, other individuals from the ruling family or individuals with no clear lineage connection to the people over which they presided. Some lineage chiefs resisted colonial rule, some aligned themselves with the colonial state (Harrison, 2002:110).

6. The buffer zone is a designated area that surrounds the entire park, extending between 10 and 20km in diameter. There are approximately 6,000 people living in the buffer zone, and communities are subject to specific rules and regulations in terms of resource use.

7. The majority ethnic group in Zimbabwe, their homeland spreads from the south-easternZimbabwe highlands across an area just south of the Beira Corridor to the coastal region.

8. Homesteads typically comprised a series of buildings made of bamboo walls, sometimescovered with mud, with grass thatched roofs. There was usually one central area (sometimes only a thatched roof without solid walls) where the family congregated and where food was cooked on an open fire. Other buildings/structures included duck/chicken co-ops, grain stores and the latrine (Howell & Convery, 1997).

9. This term is used to refer to all officials associated with the régulo system. It is, however, fully accepted that the use of the term traditional in this context is problematic.

10. If, for example, a woman has a personal problem with her husband, she will seek help first fromher family. If the wife's family cannot resolve the problem, it will be referred to the régulo in the wife's community.

11. Very strong spirit made from sugar.

12. Under the new Land Laws, communities have certain tenure privileges, but as Negrão (2000)indicates, it is not clear yet whether the new Land Law will allow communities to establish legal tenure.

13. Meneses (2003), writes that good health in Mozambique necessitates an internal balance. Formany, the concept of health is very broad, ‘to have a good life’ are words which best summarise what is meant by being in good health. A good life translates into having a well-built house, enough food, money for clothing, for soap, for the children to go to school, for the hospital. Health in Mozambique is thus not a discrete entity, but rather it is an integral part of everyday life.

14. For example, Kambizi & Afolayan (2001) state that herbal medicine is well established in manycultures and traditions of Africans, and is still a way of life of almost 80% of the people in Africa (see also Jager et al. (1996).

15. Methanol extracts from both these species were also found to inhibit the growth of Gram-positive as well as Gram-negative bacteria. In addition, acetone extracts of the two species inhibited all Gram-positive and most of the Gram-negative bacteria. However, traditional preparation processes would not be able to extract the compounds responsible for action in the methanol and acetone extracts (Kambizi & Afolayan, 2001).

16. The shared view of male ‘blood problems’ is interesting as the Macua have a matrilineal kinshipsystem group whilst the Sena are patrilineal.

17. The use of Murumanhama by the Nhambita curandeiro also alludes to a link between infertility and STDs, a relationship explicit in the work of Gerrits (1997).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Convery

Ian Convery, National School of Foresty, University of Central Lancashire; [email protected]