Migration Following Resettlement of the Gwembe Tonga of Zambia: The Consequences for Children's Growth

Abstract

In 1958, 57,000 Gwembe Tonga people were forcibly relocated by a large-scale hydroelectric development project. The land on which they were resettled was insufficient to sustain their livelihoods, and many later chose to migrate to a frontier zone north and west of the Gwembe Valley to secure additional land for farming. Guided by human adaptability theory, we use child growth as a measure of success of the migration strategy, and find that in 2004, migrant children were growing better than pre-resettlement (1957/58) and post-resettlement (1993) Gwembe Tonga children. In addition, fewer migrant children were stunted and underweight than their earlier counterparts in the Gwembe Valley.

KEYWORDS:

• human adaptability
• child growth
• nutrition
• migration
• livelihoods
• Kariba Dam

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (BCS 0236933 to Lisa Cliggett and Jon D. Unruh, and BCS 0517878 to Deborah L. Crooks and Lisa Cliggett), and by a major research grant from the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Kentucky. We also acknowledge the assistance of graduate students in the 2004 NSF-sponsored Summer Field Training in Methods of Data Collection for Cultural Anthropology (BCS 0353137 to Ricardo Godoy and Lisa Cliggett); they are Nicole Hayes, Rebecca Witter and Brooke Wyssmann. We also acknowledge independent graduate student researchers Angela Martin and Emily Frank, who pitched in during “measuring days”, and who allowed Crooks to accompany them on interviews. We thank Elizabeth Colson for her always astute reading of our manuscript and for her suggestions which provide clarity to our background. We thank all our Zambian research assistants, especially those who helped in the school anthropometric project, Florence Moyo, Oswell Mwanankopa, Phinias Ndeke, and Dalton Zellemwemwe. We are truly indebted to the people in Chikanta among whom we live and with whom we work, and to our Zambian family, the Mwanankopas, for putting up with our constant intrusions and for ensuring our safety and well-being in the field.

Notes

¹The idea is that better-off children are likely to be growing closer to their genetic potential than lesser-off children. Gillett-Netting felt it was important to establish that the lack of improvement in growth after two generations was not the result of reaching genetic potential. The results of her analysis indicated this was not the case. She further argued that the urban/Choma Tonga children were not likely reaching genetic potential either, since their better-off status was only relative to Valley Tonga, not well-off urban peers. See Gillett-Netting 2007 for a more complete argument concerning genetic potential.

²In fact, some areas had been inhabited until the early 1950s, but attempts to control human trypanosomiasis led to relocation of populations out of the areas.

³However, all do not make this claim. In the 2005 field season, two second-generation migrant farmers told us they have never experienced hunger since establishing their homesteads.

⁴One reviewer suggested that tuberculosis must also be a major health issue in the area. We concur. But while the presence of TB is assumed, we could not find documentation of TB in the area. Being an extremely rural area settled only 20 years ago, no medical statistics are available for the region.

⁵We were able to test ages 7, 8 and 9; other ages were untestable because of extremely low Ns or because NCHS does not calculate WHZ above age 10 for girls and age 11.5 for boys.

⁶That is, except for 11+ year old girls. Gillett-Netting attributes the nutritional improvement of 11+ year old girls to preferential feeding of pre-pubertal/pubertal girls, and suggests increased weight may increase their marriageability and thus bridewealth in this matrilineal society. Our interviews over the last two field seasons suggest that bridewealth is far more expensive today than in the past, with some people telling us that bridewealth has become “a business.” If this change was underway in 1993, when Gillett-Netting was working in the Gwembe Valley, this could account for the lower percentage of underweight girls in the 11+ year age category. On the other hand, Elizabeth Colson in a personal communication cautioned us that a woman's interest in having grandchildren by her daughter may be leading to preferential feeding patterns. She states that women “may have less reason to be interested in bridewealth and more interest in increasing likelihood of the girl's fertility since she continues their lineage.”