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Understanding indigenous coping strategies of the Basubiya on the flooded plains of the Zambezi River
(University of Namibia Press, 2015) Mbukusa, Nchindo R.
The Basubiya – or Bekuhane as they are also known – are often described as a riverine group of people (BNA, n.d.; Gibbons, 1904; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911; Shamukuni, 1972; Mainga, 1973; Mubitana, 1975; Tlou & Campbell, 1984; Likando, 1989; Masule, 1995; Larson, 2001; Gumbo, 2002; Ramsay, 2002; Manning, 2011; Ndana, 2011; Mabuta, Masule, & Tembwe, 2013). It is no wonder that Chief Kisco Liswani III warned that they would rather perish in the water than find themselves wandering in the drier areas away from the rivers and all that they would offer them. The Basubiya of the flooded plains of the Zambezi Region liken themselves to hippos and other amphibious animals. They feel that staying away from river waters ‘deculturalizes’ them. It is difficult to imagine the Basubiya outside this environment (Shamukuni, 1972; Masule, 1995; Gumbo, 2002; Samunzala, 2003; Ndana, 2011). In the face of possible relocation at times when water volumes increase, they might remark rhetorically, ‘ho zwisa inswi mu meenzi mpohonachi ihala?’ – ‘If you take a fish out of water, can it survive?’ From history immemorial, the Bekuhane (used interchangeably with Basubiya in this chapter) have lived along the Upper Zambezi River and its Chobe–Linyanti tributaries in southern Africa.