Managing Natural Resources along the Mozambicaan Shoreline I \ The Role of Myths and Rites 0 24777 ozambique is a country both the sea: fish, mussels and other forms M w | rich in natural resources and of marine life. They are a source of pro- increasingly threatened by the tein and a source of revenue. The im- depletion and degradation of this heri- portance of this bounty to the tage. Years of war, economic pressure, community's very existence has given 4 \ I falling crop prices, urbanization and rise to a complex of rites, myths and climate change have begun to have rituals. These serve both to enshrine drastic effects on the country's re- the sanctity of the environment and to source base. Though 10 percent of the "manage" its communal exploitation. land is kept in forest reserve,large Howtdohese "indigenous" forms of stretches of land have been denuded, management function and how- if at particularly along the borders with all - can they be adapted to master Zimbabwe and South.Africa. Major ar- the new challenges to the natural re- eas of coastline are suffering from pol- source base: population pressure and lution from industrial and agricultural pollution? Local institutions in Mozam- run-off. Population pressure has re- bique are just beginning to come to sulted in the near disappearance of the grips with the issue, but their experi- large wild animals that once inhabited ence is instructive. much of the country. No. 46 Depletion of natural resources is a July 2Q02 national issue, but it is also a local one. As in many developing countries, nu- merous Mo.ambican communitiesde- IK Notes reports periodically on merous Mozambican communities de- Indigenous Knowledge (IK) initiatives pend for their survival on the judicious in Sub-Saharan Africa and occasionally exploitation of their physical environ- on such initiatives outside the Region. ment. Managing them so they remain It is published by the Africa Region's Knowledge and Learning Center as available generation after generation part of an evolving IK partnership is the key challenge. Nowhere is this between the World Bank, communi- tJONAL A felt more acutely than along the ties, NGOs, development institutions country's extensive coastline, which and multilateral organizations. The coun, | stretches extensive 3c000skm.r wihe views expressed in this article are. stretches almost 3,000 km. from the those of tbe authors and should not be Tanzanian border in the north to the attributed to the World Bank Group frontier with South Africa. Communi. or its partners in this initiative. A ties all along this natural barrier rely webpage on IK is available at // www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/ heavily on harvesting the resources of default.htm 2 The mussel farmers of Zimilene Machava, Nharicuma, and Nhabanga - parceled out the re- source and assumed responsibility for the management of Zimilene is a small village situated at the mouth of the the mussel shoals, guided by the guardian spirits of their Limpopo River in the Gaza Province of southern Mozam- clans. Each family assigned guards to watch over the mussel bique, a few hundred kilometers north of Maputo. It is also beds. But family representatives function under the supervi- known by the locals as Kamhula, Inhampurra, or Zongoene. In sion of a higher local authority, the Chief Zimila, a lineal a this region of the Indian Ocean, rock formations have cre- descendant of the first person to have occupied the region, ated the basis for a thriving local economy and the focus for a whose clannic spirit is considered more powerful than those particular spiritual understanding of the relation of people to of the family lineages. The system ensures a source for re- their environment. solving conflicts and allotting usage rights that are accepted The rocks lie close to the surface in areas of water rich in right down to individual community members. phytoplankton, providing a rich milieu for the growth of dense mussel colonies. For years, the villagers have har- vested this resource yearly, using it as a source of protein and The catch of the mussels of revenue. For them, the rocks were placed at that point along the coast by divine intervention and have been there as Mussels are normally harvested during the cold season in long as collective memory can recall. Mozambique, between March and August. In the early The community believes that their ancestors became the months of the year the first signs of mussels appear along the owners and stewards of these rocks when they settled in the shoals, and the colonies start growing. As soon as these signs region. The principal original families to take up residence are detected, the guards of each mussel bed inform family along this part of the coast - the Bunzula, the Palate, chiefs of the event, requesting permission to begin the cleaning of algae and other weeds that enhances mussel growth and eases harvesting. This weeding of the beds re- quires much care, as it is easy to damage the young mussels. Thin sticks and machetes are used for the purpose. Once the OXIK NX o t es tW o "field" is clean, the mussels grow much more abundantly. would be of interest to: Under normal circumstances, villagers are not allowed to begin harvesting until the mussel beds have reached full Name maturation. Special dispensation is allowed, however, in In.titiltion cases of emergency or pronounced need, such as famine or visits from unexpected visitors. This early harvest is carefully regulated and limited by the family and supreme chiefs. A d d re.s Also, the role of the chiefs is to ensure an even distribution of the resource between the villagers. This is also ensured by a local saying - "the mussel is eaten in community." When the mussels are fully mature, the guards blow whistles throughout the community to inform everyone, even those who are not from the village itself, that the catch Letters, comments, and requests for publications is open. Outsiders have traditionally been allowed to harvest should be addressed to: mussels along with local residents as a form of hospitality, Editor: IK Notes Each person collects what their family needs and hundreds of Knowledge and Learning Center people may turn out to harvest the mussels. The work is ar- Africa Region, World Bank duous and can be dangerous as well, due to the possibility of 1818 H Street, N.W., Room J5-055 accidents. For this reason, collection is not carried out ran- Washington, D.C. 20433 E-mail: pmohan@woridbank.org domly and everywhere at once. Rather the work starts at one end of the rock shoals and slowly moves to the other end. This allowvs family and community chiefs to keep control of 3 events and provide immediate care for anyone wounded. The challenge of cross-breeding systems They are also charged with ensuring a fair allocation. The local system of myths, beliefs and rites in Zimilene preserved the mussel shoals for generations, but under the The "spirits" and the rule of law pressure of the changes afoot in Mozambique they have be- come more than a local resource. In recent years the popula- The authority of the chiefs to regulate the mussel harvest is tion of nearby cities like Xai-Xai has had increasingly easy anchored in the firm belief that the spirits of the ancestors access to the Zimilene shoals, and at the same time the pres- watch over the shoals. The guards posted by each family sures of poverty and population density have pushed them to leave the rocks at sunset and the spiritual guardians from exploit the mussel beds in ways inconsistent with traditional each lineage are considered to take over the role of protec- management and with survival of the resource. tor until sunrise. That spiritual patronage is celebrated in The families of Zimilene appealed to administrative au- rite and myth. thorities to help solve the problem and save the mussels. "We talk to the spirits embodied in our curandeiros (tradi- After consultation, it was decided to put in place a Mussel tional priests) or called by them," explains the chief of the Rocks Management Committee, composed of the traditional Banzula lineage. "The spirits teach us how to preserve the leaders and and one or more representatives of the adminis- rocks. It is to keep the spirits happy that we do our ceremo- trative authority. The regional chief supervises selection of nies, so that they will protect the rocks and the mussels." delegates from the family lineages responsible for each Ceremonies are in fact held at two levels; within each lin- stretch of shoals. On the administrative side the head of the eage or family and for the community as a whole. The chief administrative post of Chilaulene, which encompasses of each of the families takes charge of ceremonies for the Zimilene, either serves on the committee or picks someone --portion of shoals-under-hislineage's-responsibility;-The-com- to represent him. - munity-wide ceremony is presided by the Chief Zimila him- The committee serves both to give wider sanction to the self and includes all families in the region. Before organizing rites, ceremonies and regulations of Zimilene and to deal the large ceremony, the paramount chief consults with all Nvith violations, particularly by urban dwellers and other out- the family chiefs in a meeting of the council of elders. Family siders who are increasingly drawn to the mussel beds. In fact, chiefs are responsible for catering the event.. "violators" are principally outsiders because, while str(, .~- All members of the community are expected to participate beliefs prevent most local people from poaching on the bCLI., in the large event as well as to contribute goods for catering city-dwellers typically do not have the same belief system. the ceremony. The contributions are remitted to the family The committee therefore has the authority to recommend a chiefs who in turn hands them over to Chief Zimila. One cer- variety of administrative or even penal sanctions for those emony is held before the catch is open to ask for a good who violate the usage rules of the mussel beds. mussel harvest, and another when it is over to give thanks for Consequently, in the initial operations of the committee, the bounty received. the traditional and spiritually sanctioned management sys- The spirits are believed to have an important role in sanc- tem was simply placed side-by-side with a more "modern" tioning those who violate the rules. As one family chief puts and administrative one. The first applied to local people, the it, "During the day each family has a guard who controls ac- second to outsiders. cess to the rocks. At night the spirits of each family guard the But this "split personality" solution also has its weak- rocks until sunrise. Everyone knows they cannot take this nesses. For one thing, outsiders may be able to more easily lightheartedly. Violators risk being thrown into the sea [by evade administrative sanction than insiders feel they can the spirits] or being unable to leave the collection area, evade the wTath of the spirits. For another, increasing out- never finding their way back home. The path to their houses side pressure on the resource base would likely result in the becomes deeply dark." administrative apparatus and system of penal sanctions taking Stolen mussels are also believed to be poor fare. "Once in the on increasing importance and the traditional and spiritual one cooking pot," the chief says, "the mussels can be boiled for a shrinking in scope until it was only a folkloric remnant. full day without ever becoming cooked. No one who knows these rules wants to risk (the sanctions of the spirits)." 4 The challenge facing the committee is therefore how to The traditional mechanisms show that rural communities "cross-breed" the two systems how to infuse what must be have their own ways to explain the world and to protect their a more widely administered regulation system with some of own resources. Such examples can be found in various re- the essence of traditional management, with its reverence gions of the country, where resources such as forests, land for natural resource and internally-driven compliance. and fish and seafood are protected through these mecha- Two directions have opened up, but it is not yet sure nisms. They allowed for these resources to be used by gen- whether either, both or yet another will be principally erations of people without endangering their availability. adopted. One solution involves expanding the role of family Yet the use of such myths and rites cannot easily be gener- guardians both logistically and spiritually by assisting them alized, because they are closely tied to place and historical in ensuring twenty-four-hour monitoring of the shoals as the experience, and are sanctioned by a particular set of ances- embodiment of ancestral concern for the sanctity of the en- tors. Other Mozambicans do not share the same history and tire nation's resource base. Another, perhaps a complemen- "cosmogony" as the population of Zimilene. But they do tary but longer-term one entails using some of the share, to some extent, a common fate, as a community, a curanderios to teach ecological responsibility in schools and common risk of resource depletion and alienation from their campaigning for a new region-wide ethos of respect for the physical milieu. The challenge of the mussel shoals, repeated environment. in many sites around the country these days; is how to blend traditional systems of regulation, myth, and ritual with a neces- sary administrative armature to build new communally shared meanings and a new culture of natural resource management. This article was written by Fernando Dava, Zuber Ahmed, and Peter Easton. Fernando Dava is Director of ARPAC - Arquivo do Patrimonio Cultural, Mozamtbique; Zuber Ahmed is an independent consultant in Maputo, Mozambique; and Peter Easton is Associate Professor, Graduate Studies in Adult Education, Florida State University.