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Understanding rural Zambia today: the relevance of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Jan Kees van Donge
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Extract

In the colonial period Zambia, then Northern Rhodesia, was a field for brilliant social research. The social scientists who worked at the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute (hereafter abbreviated to RLI) in Lusaka produced studies which can be found in libraries throughout the world. Yet the relevance of this literature for understanding present-day Zambia may not be immediately obvious. Our knowledge of society turns into historical knowledge, especially when great social changes such as decolonization take place. Social scientists inevitably capture one particular historical moment. The work of those connected with the RLI can therefore be treated as part of history; Kuper (1973) has characterised its role in the development of British anthropological thought as a part of the history of ideas, and Brown (1973, 1979) has written evocative accounts of the involvement of its members in the country as an example of the white man's presence in Africa.

Résumé

Compréhension de la Zambie rurale contemporaine: la pertinence du Rhodes-Livingstone Institute

Cet article démontre que la littérature produite à l'époque coloniale par le Rhodes-Livingstone Institute est pertinente à la compréhension de la Zambie rurale de nos jours. Il démontre que les travaux de l'Institut mettent en rapport la vie sociale avec le système économique et que sa connaissance est primordiale à toute personne intéressée par une analyse néo-marxiste de la région. Contrastant avec plusieurs analyses récentes, ses travaux indiquent une variété de réponses a la pénétration du capitalisme au lieu d'adopter un déterminisme rigide. Une telle perspective peut être utile pour interpréter les différents essorts dans la commodité de production qui ont eu lieu en Zambie rurale. Il serait érroné de ne considérer cette région que comme une simple réserve de main-d'oeuvre. Une lecture de cette littérature est importante pour comprendre la formation des classes en Zambie rurale. L'influence des formations sociales pré-capitalistes a été traité de façon trop superficielle. La sécurité du système de parenté a été romancée, et le contrôle sur les rendements essentiels du fermage, de la main d'oeuvre et de la terre ne peuvent être compris qu'à la lueur d'une référence à la parenté. Dans cette littérature la parenté est soulignée comme étant un ensemble très flexible de critères et non pas comme un système de village fermé non troublé par le changement social. Dans cette littérature la Zambie rurale est décrite comme étant intégrée dans l'état colonial au travers d'un rapport artificiel au code traditionnel. La situation a changé depuis l'indépendance. Il est nécessaire de considérer ces changements dans le domaine légal. Les perspectives du Rhodes-Livingstone Institute devraient être appliquées pour comprendre l'indétermination des normes légates et la fragmentation des arènes légates dans la Zambie rurale contemporaine. Cette thèse est illustrée par certains aperçus acquis au cours de recherches à Mwase Lundazi dans la Province de l'Est en 1977–78.

Type
Rural Zambia revisited
Information
Africa , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 60 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1985

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