Patrolling Kariba's Waters: State Authority, Fishing and the Border Economy

Abstract

In 2001, as Zimbabwe's crisis deepened, the long-established conservationist regime governing Lake Kariba was increasingly incapacitated and sidelined. At the same time, unregulated economic activities were burgeoning in this marginal frontier, clustered around the productivity of the water and state border. This article examines the reconfiguration of state power and informalisation of livelihoods, as they are revealed in the activities and perspectives of Tonga fishermen in Binga District, whose fishing ‘patrols’ circumvented the lake's rules and whose knowledge of the waters provided opportunities for a stake in other more lucrative trades. These Tonga fishers were the descendants of those displaced by the Kariba Dam and defended their activities in terms of the economics of survival and their identity as ‘river people’ with historic rights to the lake, as they had borne the costs of its creation. Their ability to etch out new informal economic spaces in a time of austerity and inflation was not about the emergence of spaces outside state power, but indicated a re-crafting of the role and nature of the state. Although fishermen's accounts of their everyday life cast state agents as simply one relatively minor component of a network of adversaries that also included poachers, thieves and wildlife, state power was thoroughly implicated in the configuration of risk on the lake and structured the violence and lack of protection intrinsic to illegal activity. The mythologised figure of the crocodile, which featured so prominently in fishermen's stories of the dangers of the water, thus could stand as a metaphor for the state itself, embodying past conservationist priorities and Tonga fishers' marginality, enmeshed with older ideas about power.

Notes

¹ This longer history is explored in J. McGregor, Crossing the Zambezi: The Politics of Landscape on a Central African Frontier (Oxford, James Currey, forthcoming 2009).

² Elizabeth Colson and Thayer Scudder's classic studies of the displacement and its aftermath focus on the very different dispensation north of the border, where the Tonga were not an ethnic minority. E. Colson, The Social Consequences of Resettlement: The Impact of the Kariba Resettlement upon the Gwembe Tonga (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1975); T. Scudder and E. Colson, ‘Long Term Research in Gwembe Valley, Zambia’, in R.V. Kember and A.P. Royce (eds), Chronicling Cultures: Longterm Field Research in Anthropology (New York, Altamira Press, 2002), pp. 197–238.

³ D. Hughes, ‘From Industrial Wasteland to Wilderness: How Zimbabwean Conservationists Redeemed Lake Kariba’, Journal of Southern African Studies [JSAS], 32, 4 (2006), pp. 807–22.

⁴ M.F.C. Bourdillon, A.P. Cheater, M.W. Murphree, Studies of Fishing on Lake Kariba (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1985); J. Jackson, ‘The Artisanal Fishery of Lake Kariba (Eastern Basin): A Sociological Input into Lakeshore Planning and Fisheries Management’ (Harare, Centre for Applied Social Studies, 1985).

⁵ J. McGregor, ‘Living with the River: Landscape and Memory in the Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe’, in W. Beinart and J. McGregor (eds), Social History and African Environments (Oxford, James Currey, 2003).

⁶ See also, J. Alexander, The Unsettled Land: Land and Politics in Zimbabwe (Oxford, James Currey, 2006), p. 180.

⁷ J. Roitman, ‘The Ethics of Illegality in the Chad Basin’, in J. Comaroff and J. Comaroff (eds), Law and Disorder in the Postcolony (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2006); J. Roitman, ‘Productivity in the Margins: The Reconstitution of State Power in the Chad Basin’, in V. Das and D. Poole (eds), Anthropology in the Margins of the State (Oxford, James Currey, 1994). Following Janet MacGaffey, The Real Economy of Zaire (Philadelphia, PA, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), I find it useful to distinguish between legal goods traded illegally (in this case household commodities such as sugar, and some aspects of the fish trade) and illegal goods traded illegally (such as drugs or gems), and do not consider the latter.

⁸ Roitman, ‘The Ethics’, p. 248.

⁹ V. Das and D. Poole ‘State and its Margins: Comparative Ethnographies’, in Das and Poole Anthropology in the Margins of the State, p. 9.

¹⁰ Roitman, ‘Productivity in the Margins’, p. 193–4.

¹¹ Roitman, ‘Productivity in the Margins’, p. 194; see also p. 222.

¹² D. Gordon, Nachituti's Gift: Economy, Society and Environment in Central Africa (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).

¹³ Colson, Social Consequences; McGregor, ‘Living with the River’.

¹⁴ See S. Nakayama, ‘“City Lights Emblaze Village Fishing Grounds”: The Re-Imaginings of Waterscape by Lake Malawi Fishers’, in this Special Issue of JSAS, pp. .

¹⁵ Criticisms of these policies in relation to Kariba (discussed below) echo those developed in a broader literature: K. Geheb and M.-T. Sarch, Africa's Inland Fisheries: The Management Challenge (Kampala, Uganda, Fountain Publishers, 2003); I. Tveten, ‘“If You Don't Fish, You Are Not a Caprivian”: Freshwater Fisheries in Caprivi, Namibia’, JSAS, 28, 2 (2002), 421–41; Gordon, Nachituti's Gift; D. Mosse, The Rule of Water: Statecraft, Ecology and Collective Action (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2003); F. Cleaver ‘Reinventing Institutions: Bricolage and the Social Embeddedness of Natural Resource Management’, in T.A. Benjaminsen and C. Lund (eds), Securing Land Rights in Africa (London, Frank Cass, 2003).

¹⁶ J. Kolding, B. Musando and N. Songore, ‘Inshore Fisheries and Fish Population Changes in Lake Kariba’, in E. Jul-Larsen, J. Kolding, R. Overå, J.R. Raajaer Nielsen, P. van Zwieten (eds), Management, Co-Management or No Management? Major Dilemmas in Southern African Freshwater Fisheries, FAO Fisheries Technical Papers 426/2 (Rome, FAO, 2003).

¹⁷ Kolding et al., ‘Inshore Fisheries and Fish Population Changes’, p. 4.

¹⁸ Mesh restrictions were relaxed in the 1960s when research suggesting small meshes did not adversely affect the reproduction of commercially important fish species. I. Malasha, ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Fisheries Regulations: The Cases of Zambia and Zimbabwe’ (Rome, FAO, n.d.) http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5056e/y5056e13.htm [accessed 15 August 2006]. On persistent differences in net regulations see Kolding et al., ‘Inshore Fisheries and Fish Population Changes’.

¹⁹ Kolding et al., ‘Inshore Fisheries and Fish Population Changes’ argue this position.

²⁰ The five camps were: Simambo, Malala, Masumu, Kalulwe and Mujere. As the fishermen were assured anonymity, I have not used individuals' names.

²¹ The diarists were paid at levels that compared favourably with the income from a week's fishing in legal waters. The diaries were mostly written in Tonga, and were read out to me by a Tonga translator in the author's presence, and followed up with questions. As gillnet fishing is an exclusively male activity, so too are the diarists (women in the camps are either fish traders or fishermen's wives, visiting when there is no agricultural work at home).

²² On these expulsions, see J. McGregor, ‘The Politics of Disruption: War Veterans and the Local State in Zimbabwe’, African Affairs, 101, 402 (2002), pp. 9–38.

²³ On kapenta, see K. Nyikahadzoi, ‘Contesting Inequalities in Access Rights to Lake Kariba's Kapenta Fisheries: An Analysis of the Politics of Natural Resource Management’, in Geheb and Sarch, Africa's Inland Fisheries. Jackson, ‘The artisanal fishery’, notes ‘the vast majority of the benefits of white fish production continue to accumulate as “value-added” to two companies that appear to control 85–88% of the frozen white fish trade beyond the lake shore’, p. 3.

²⁴ Bourdillon et al., Studies of Fishing; Jackson, ‘The Artisanal Fishery’.

²⁵ K. Nyikahadzoi, ‘Multi-User Conflicts in Lake Kariba’, http://www.fao.org/fi/alcom/an21muc.htm [accessed 15 August 2006].

²⁶ R. Duffy, Killing for Conservation: Wildlife Policy in Zimbabwe (Oxford, James Currey, 2000), p. 49. The majority of the 170 poachers shot between 1987 and 1993 were Zambians.

²⁷ T. Scudder, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Kariba Lake Fisheries: The Tonga Response (1959–1970) (unpublished ms, n.d., available from Binga library). M. Murphree, ‘The Binga Inshore Fishery’, in Bourdillon et al., Studies of Fishing.

²⁸ Lusumpuko Plan, 11 December 1981. Copy held in Binga Rural District Council.

²⁹ Based on a review of Binga Rural District Council Minutes, 1980–2001. On punishment, see also ‘Binga District Report on National Parks Anti-Poaching’, March 1985. Fishing/national parks files, Binga DA's office. See also Jackson, ‘The Artisanal Fishery’, p. 2.

³⁰ Kalulwe compound chairman, 3 April 2001.

³¹ Interview, Peter Mukuli, Kalulwe, 3 April 2001.

³² In Mbila camp, where the council had cleared gillnetters in favour of kapenta operators, the gillnetters’ chairman felt: ‘gillnet fishers are looked down upon by the kapentas, they tell us, “no we bought this place from the council, you can go away”’. Interview, Mbila, 4 April 2001.

³³ Kariba Lakeshore Combination Masterplan Preparation Authority, ‘Kariba Lakeshore Combination Masterplan’ (Final Draft, 1998).

³⁴ I. Malasha, ‘Fishing in a Bathtub: A Comprehension of the Conflicts in the Lake Kariba Inshore Fishery (Zimbabwe)’ (Harare, Centre for Applied Social Studies, 2002)’, pp. 14–15.

³⁵ Interviews, Masumu and Simambo camps, 29 and 28 March 2001.

³⁶ Malasha, ‘Fishing in a Bathtub’.

³⁷ The situation may be different in some of the more formal co-operatives, such as those established by (non-Tonga) former contract workers working in former Irvin and Johnson concession areas, outside Binga district.

³⁸ Jackson, ‘The Artisanal Fishery’, Kolding et al., ‘Inshore Fisheries’.

³⁹ Some of the old ‘sacred’ places of the submerged landscape are still partly visible above the waters, but are considered powerless, such as a tree on a tiny island once associated with a malende shrine close to Mujere. Kalulwe fishermen described introducing new technologies to their ancestors to avoid disasters on the lake, by making their first trip in new boats in the company of elders. The lakeside in many camps is also now used for baptisms by some Christian churches, and Mujere camp has a separate ‘Christian section’ in which ‘born again’ fishermen live apart from their non-believing colleagues.

⁴⁰ Diaries, Masumu and Kalulwe, March 2001.

⁴¹ This figure is higher than the monthly averages calculated by Lake Kariba Fisheries Research Institute (LKFRI) for the period 1973–1988. Jackson, ‘The Artisanal Fishery’, p. 10.

⁴² Kalulwe, Diary, March 2001. My understanding of the LKFRI data is that it does not include ‘hookers’. Yet there are considerable numbers, including many outside the camps: it is a weekend activity for many families in Binga administrative centre; workers for various tourist ventures along the lake explained their acceptance of low wages in terms of the advantages of living in workers' compounds close to the lake shore, the possibilities of supplementing them through hooking, and if electricity was provided, the potential for renting fridge space to fishermen, or buying fish themselves for trade.

⁴³ Diary, Masumu, April 2001.

⁴⁴ In some places, fishermen had erected temporary shelters.

⁴⁵ Diary, Kalulwe, March 2001.

⁴⁶ Wildlife was a particular problem in Mujere and Kalulwe, as the latter cannot be reached on foot after dark due to elephants from Kavira forest, while the former is located within Sijarira safari area and elephants cause havoc in the camps looking for food, destroying granaries and entering homes. Efforts to spread the benefits from crocodile farming to local communities by paying the council for crocodile eggs did not benefit fishing communities. In 1992, a pilot programme removed ‘nuisance crocodiles’ from one heavily fished area, but was not generalised or extended. I. Games and J. Moreau ‘The Feeding Ecology of Two Nile Populations in the Zambezi Valley’, J. Moreau (ed.), Advances in the Ecology of Lake Kariba (Harare, Zimbabwe, University of Zimbabwe Publications, 1977). On hostility to Campfire within the district more generally, see Zambezi Valley Consultants, ‘Report on a Study on Land Use and Wildlife Management in Binga District’ (Harare, USAID/WWF Maps Project, April 2000).

⁴⁷ Interview, Mujere, 7 April 2001.

⁴⁸ For further detail on the history of crocodile conservation see. McGregor, ‘Crocodile Crimes’.

⁴⁹ J.P. Loveridge, A Review of Crocodile Management in Zimbabwe (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe 1996); Games and Moreau, ‘The Feeding Ecology’; B. Child, ‘The Management of Crocodiles in Zimbabwe’, in G.J.W. Webb, S.C. Manolis, P.J. Whitehead (eds), Wildlife Management: Crocodiles and Alligators (Chipping Norton, Australia, Surrey Beatty and Sons, 1987).

⁵⁰ In other African contexts, the introduction of gillnet fishing had a destructive effect on crocodile populations (Jon Hutton, personal communication).

⁵¹ Games and Moreau, ‘The Feeding Ecology’.

⁵² In the August/September diaries, crocodile damage to nets were much lower, with only nine out of 25 fishermen recording such damage.

⁵³ Diary, Simambo, March 2001.

⁵⁴ Diary, Kalulwe, March 2001.

⁵⁵ Diary, Kalulwe, March 2001.

⁵⁶ Diary, Simambo, March 2001.

⁵⁹ Diary, Simambo, March 2001.

⁵⁷ Diary, Kalulwe, March 2001; interviews Kalulwe, 3 April 2001.

⁵⁸ Diary, Malala, March 2001.

⁶⁰ Interview, Kalulwe, April 2001; DNPWLM fisheries officer, Binga, personal communication.

⁶¹ Elizabeth Colson describes the ambiguity of bulozi, as it can be used for either good or evil ends. She argues the prosperous and powerful, particularly old men, are all assumed to have access to it: ‘The Father as Witch’, Africa, 70, 3 (2000), pp. 333–58.

⁶² Colson, ‘The Father as Witch’.

⁶³ Diaries, Kalulwe, March 2001; Interview, Kalulwe, April 2001.

⁶⁴ In Binga there is not a significant population of migrant fishermen (unlike the Eastern part of the lake, where conflicts have erupted in fishing camps between Tonga and Korekore fishermen who are the descendants of those displaced by the lake and the non-local fishermen) who came to the lakeshores as workers of white fishing concessionaires, particularly Irvin and Johnson.

⁶⁵ Malala, diary and interviews, August 2001.

⁶⁶ Masumu, March 2001.

⁶⁷ Interview, chairman, Kalulwe, 29 March 2001.

⁶⁸ Interview, Kalulwe, April 2001.

⁶⁹ Interview, Masumu, April 2001.

⁷⁰ Interview, Masumu, April 2001.

⁷¹ In most camps, prices were the same; in a few, they had increased by up to 20 per cent.

⁷² Interview, Kalulwe, April 2001.

⁷³ Diary, Kalulwe, August 2001.

⁷⁵ Diary, Mujere, August 2001.

⁷⁶ Diary, Mujere, August 2001.

⁷⁴ Diary, Mujere, August 2001.

⁷⁷ Binga, 27 March 2001.

⁷⁸ Nyikahadzoi, ‘Lake Kariba: Inshore Fishery Management’, p. 14.

⁷⁹ After the mid 1990s, traders from Gokwe and Harare became increasingly important, where previously Bulawayo traders had predominated, particularly in the eastern parts of Binga lakeshore. The western parts depended more heavily on selling to Victoria Falls and Hwange in addition to Bulawayo.

⁸⁰ Emion Mumpande, Simambo, 28 March 2001.

⁸¹ Interview, Malala, 2 April 2001.

⁸² Diary, Simambo, March 2001.

⁸³ Traders' demand for bream appears to have affected fishing effort on the Zimbabwean shores; Kolding et al. note that bream features less prominently in fishermen's catches in the Zambian fisheries. See ‘Inshore Fisheries and Fish Populations’.

⁸⁴ Interview, Masumu, 4 April 2001.

⁸⁵ Interview, Kalulwe, 29 March 2001.

⁸⁶ Interview, Kalulwe, August 2001.

⁸⁷ Diary, Malala, April 2001.

⁸⁸ Diary, Mujere, April 2001.

⁹⁰ Interview, Mujere, April 2001.

⁸⁹ Diary, Mujere, August 2001.

⁹¹ Murphree, ‘The Binga Inshore Fishery’, in Bourdillon et al., Studies of Fishing, p. 41.

⁹² Diary, Mujere, August 2001.

⁹³ See I. Nyikahadzoi, ‘Inequalities and Rule Conformance in the Management of the Kapenta Fishery at Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe’ (unpublished ms., 2005) and Nyikahadzoi, ‘Contesting Inequalities’.

⁹⁴ I. Malasha, ‘The Outcome of a Co-Managerial Arrangement in an Inland Fishery: The Case of Lake Kariba (Zambia)’, in Geheb and Sarch, Africa's Inland Fisheries, pp. 89–106.

⁹⁶ Interview, Simambo, 28 March 2001.

⁹⁵ Interview, Malala, 2 April 2001.

⁹⁷ Malala diary, March 2001.

⁹⁸ Simatelele, 3 April 2001.

⁹⁹ Malala, diary, March 2001.

¹⁰⁰ Malala, interview, 1 April 2001. Similar points were made in the Simambo diaries, March 2001.

¹⁰¹ Daily News, 8 August and 21 September 2001; Financial Times, 8 November 2001.

¹⁰² Kalulwe, August 2001.

¹⁰³ The fears were about the dangers of being imprisoned without relatives close by to supply food.

¹⁰⁴ On these expulsions, see McGregor, ‘The Politics of Disruption’.