Ecology and history: the example of Eastern Zambia

The dual impact of expanding capitalism & colonial administration upon eastern Zambian society after 1895 resulted in a major ecological catastrophe in the area during the first half of this century. By the end of the colonial era, the people dwelling in some of the most fertile & hospitable...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of southern African studies 1977-04, Vol.3 (2), p.129-155
Main Author: Vail, Leroy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African studies
Agricultural land
Annual reports
Business structures
Capitalism/Capitalist/Capitalistic
Colonial/Colonials/Colonialism/ Colonialist
Crops
Destruction
Eastern
Ecology/Ecological/Ecologically/ Ecologist/ Ecologists
Elephants
Epidemiology
Trypanosomiasis
Villages
Wild animals
Zambia/Zambian/Zambians
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Summary:The dual impact of expanding capitalism & colonial administration upon eastern Zambian society after 1895 resulted in a major ecological catastrophe in the area during the first half of this century. By the end of the colonial era, the people dwelling in some of the most fertile & hospitable land were impoverished & disease-ridden. The land had been rendered barren, & the finely balanced relationship between man & his environment that had existed in the area prior to the mid-nineteenth century was undermined, involving it in a process of underdevelopment still unreversed today. Although certain scholars have described the ecological degradation of eastern Zambia for the most part in terms of land policy, they have failed to appreciate the complexity of interactions involved in the unfolding of this process. Exploration of this complexity reveals interactions among many diverse factors. 2 Figures. Modified HA.
ISSN:0305-7070
1465-3893
DOI:10.1080/03057077708707969