Cultural Heritage - people or wildlife?

In the mid-twentieth century Zambia was one of the first African nations to recognise the urgent need to conserve its wealth of wild animals to preserve them from extinction.

National Parks were gradually established, including those of the South and North Luangwa valley. The aim was laudable and the execution relatively successful, the area now boasting one of the best populations of big game in Africa (except rhino, now extinct but being reintroduced in the northern park).

The country is internationally recognised for the quantity and diversity of its big game and for its pioneering walking safaris, but its cultural heritage is largely unknown and is now under threat.

The main village in South Luangwa – Mfuwe - has a wildlife education centre, anti-poaching squads and wildlife-related charities, but, as yet, nothing comparable for the humans who live there.

Today, the cultural heritage of the valley’s people is vanishing as plastic containers replace pots, as plastic bags and tins replace baskets, as synthetic fibres recycled from the west replace bark cloth and local cotton.

It is nearly too late, but if we act now we are in time to save the Valley’s heritage for future generations.

A success in the Luangwa Valley would, we hope, be replicable elsewhere in this vast country with its 70-plus tribes, each of which is rapidly losing the material evidence of its rich cultural heritage.

The various Zambian authorities who have a role in the area, especially the Zambian Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZAWA), the National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC), and the local Kunda tribal leader, Chief Kakumbi, have expressed their enthusiasm and support for Liverpool University to develop further multidisciplinary research in the valley and the Centre would act as a focal point and provide facilities for that research.