Fishing Life in the Bangweulu Swamps: A Socio-Ecological Study of the Swamp Fishermen in Zambia

Abstract

The swamp fishermen enter into the Bangweulu swamps from their main village out of the swamps in the dry season when the water level decreases. They aim at selling their catch to the markets in Copperbelt cities. In this paper, fishing methods used by them are described, and the catch by each method are analyzed. The swamp fishermen carry their fishing not only in the daytime, but also engage in night fishing, by which they can get nocturnal fishes effectively. They form the production units called nsanga mainly through their affinity for fishing and selling their catch. The fishing methods selected by them differ from nsanga to nsanga in a fishing camp, accordingly, the fishing period, time and caught species also vary. Such utilization of the swamps can be regarded as a segregation among the swamp fishermen.