Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
introduced a bill for more rights to traditional chiefs and President Zuma has supported the
bill. Under the African model of government, the paramount chief also controls the land and
allots where the other chiefs can live with their followers. These chiefs would then give
permission to his followers to where they could build huts and farm small parcels of
subsistence farming land. The cattle often belonged to the paramount chief or king, but
overtime cattle could be acquired by peasant farmers if successful or as a result of “gifts” from
the paramount chief or chiefs. Gifts were brought to the king and in return he would “bongela”
with gifts or favors to his people. In return for taking care of the king's cattle herds, the local
aBantu could milk the cattle for their own protein nutrition. At the king's discretion and
control, hunting of wildlife could be undertaken and similarly permission for mining for iron
and gold could be undertaken on his land. Thus, it should not be surprising that post-colonial
African governments have taken over the land again, such as in Zimbabwe, and the land is then
in turn either “gifted - bongela” back to chiefs or cabinet ministers or leased back to white
farmers. The same approach is dominating the mines and wildlife conservancies. The leasing
of formerly white-owned farms back to white farmers has become the agricultural model in
many countries of East and Southern Africa. As a result, the conservation and restoration of
wildlife has to be conducted within the confines of this model, namely, the local people and
chiefs. It is with the permission of the paramount chief and political elite as to who is involved
in mining the land and production of wildlife that contributes to the welfare of the local
people, including meat, in these protein starved communities.
The Lebombo Plains, on which much of Southern Africa's wildlife is found, and the
Lebombo mountains, that have influenced Southern African politics, start at the St. Lucia
Estuary north of Durban and travel north giving way to the Limpopo River and the Save/ Runde
Rivers. These mountains are remains of Karoo volcanic magma outcrops like those in the
mountain top kingdom of Lesotho and are covered by rhyolite, an extrusive silica rich rock
from volcanoes. The Mwenezi section of the Lebombo range continues on the other side of the
rivers as the Inyanga (witchdoctor) mountains on the eastern border of Zimbabwe.
View towards Inyanga Mountains before Lebombo Chain from Fimbiri
They then meet the mountains on the west side of the African Great Rift Valley. The
Lebombo's dry, hot plain lying in the rain shadow of the Lebombo Mountains to the east and
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