One of the problems that attracted my attention during my stay in Nangweshi in the months of May and June 2003, was the severe lack of food for the local people.  Nangweshi is located on the Western Bank of the Zambezi River.  In that town, only maize can be bought from the local population.  Fruits, vegetable, meat and fish have to be brought from Livingstone or Mongu.  Nangweshi is located about 5 hours by road from Livingstone and about 4 hours journey from Mongu using a four-wheel drive vehicle.

This reflection has been motivated by my observation and questioning about poverty in and around Nangweshi (Sioma village and Nangweshi town).  The idea of writing down my experiences has been deepened by my own reading and by the concern of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) about poverty eradication in Zambia

Most observers mentioned that, on their own, poor Zambian people have little hope of living a life free of the deprivations that they suffer.  Some say, "Zambians have a poor self-image, lack confidence in themselves," while others  think  that  Zambians must fight for economic independence.  These observations have much in common, but do not point out the primary cause of Zambian poverty.

I would like to focus my reflection on what I believe to be the primary cause of poverty that needs solution if there is to be durable development.  What is the situation of poverty of Zambians in the Western Province?  What is the cause of that poverty and what can be done about it?

My reflection will be presented in three steps.  Firstly, I will talk of the general social and economic life of people in the Western Province.  Secondly, I will analyze the causes of the phenomenon of poverty.  Thirdly, I will suggest some solution to the problem.

CONTEXT

The poorest people in Zambi live in the Western Province.  Results of a scientific research done in 1998 showed that 75.8% of male headed and 85.2 of female headed households in the Western Province were living in poverty.  Yet nothing seems to have been done about that situation.

The Zambian people in Western Province suffer from hunger, lack of soap and clothes.  The main food they can afford is maize meal.  Vegetables, meat and fish are rare.  People do not have gardens in which to grow vegetables and they do not exploit fully the gift of the Zambezi River for irrigation.

Several causes of this situation could be pointed out.  Some causes had been analyzed by scientists and theologians working in Zambia, namely helplessness, drunkenness, laziness and so forth.  These are secondary causes that result from one major cause, the lack of education.

CAUSES OF POVERTY

The major cause of poverty I identified in the Western province is the lack of human resource.  In other words, people are less educated than in other parts of the country.  It is not easy to think of development without educated men and women.

Poor education: In the modern world the human resource is the key factor of all economic improvement.  With their mind people are capable of "initiatives, invention, and constructive activities."  The human resource is the heart of progress in developing countries. In the Western Province, particularly in the region  located  between Sesheke and Mongu, most young people have studied only a few years in secondary school.  For this reason, one could also say that the lack of education contributes to mental poverty.  People do not have the capacity of imagination.

A Franciscan Sister told me: "My driver caused the death of a baby in the womb of her mother just because on his way to Senanga, he got a break down and did not ask any help from other drivers to bring the pregnant woman to Senanga hospital for surgery.  The first mistake he committed is that he spent more than one hour trying to fix the vehicle instead of asking for help. The second mistake was that when he arrived late at the pontoon, he did not ask that his problem be dealt with as priority, instead he queued like others ".

It is unbelievable that people cannot imagine that in a case of emergency they have a right to ask for help even from their enemy.  The man did not exhibit proper judgment.  In such situations, education can provide capacity of imagination and judgment.   Lack   of  education  is not the only cause of poverty in the area.  Fear of witchcraft also prevents people from doing better than they should.

Fear of witchcraft: Young people cannot cultivate large fields or possess a big number of cattle for their subsistence and for their future.  Young people believe that if they succeed in money generating activities, that situation would arouse jealousy among their neighbours who could use witchcraft to kill them.

I was told that one young businessman used witchcraft on a fellow businessman who was selling in the market with him.  Since the witchcraft did not succeed in compelling his friend to close his shop, the jealous businessman went to purchase a gun and killed his partner.  Because of such situations, young men prefer to live poor as long as possible by not accumulating wealth.

The idea of self-protection or of fighting for dignity need to arise among most of the people as well as the sense of dignity that appears to have been diminished by their fear of witchcraft.  How could change be brought about?  What could be done to empower the people achieve social and economic development?

SUGGESTIONS

The first suggestion that could be offered is to know that development depends primarily on the people affected by poverty.

Foreign contribution to poverty reduction: International NGOs which are working in Zambia and elsewhere in Africa in providing health care, food and water should start by giving classes or seminars for training people concerning responsibility for their own lives. 

Governments should have told them that education is the strongest tool for the well being of every human being.  Food distribution is a very temporary solution to poverty.  The temporality of food distribution can be explained in two ways.

Firstly, food distribution, be it a humanitarian initiative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) or of some other agency, has a temporary mandate.  The UNHCR workers are supposed to train rural people to take care of their future.

Only through education can people discover that quality food leads to quality life or good health.

International NGOs should "teach people how to fish instead of giving them fish."  Since they live near the river, and with the presence of livestock, young women and men need skills training so that they would know the usefulness of fish and meat both for home consumption and income generation.  In that sense their creativity would stimulate employment creation.

Secondly, through education, people would come to realize that international NGOs are foreign humanitarian organisations sponsoring both food and water distribution.  As a result, with the process of food distribution in a country without war, people deify UNHCR and become helpless themselves.  They remain unable to use their mind and reason to aim at a life similar to those from whom they have received everything.

How would it be possible to change the mentality of dependency in Zambia over the long term?  The answer will be given at two levels and fundamentally focused on local contributions, namely, that of the Zambian government and of the civil society (the Church and other interest groups).

Local solution to poverty: First, the Zambian government has to recognize that the Western Province and indeed other parts of the Zambia is poor and people need help for their wellbeing.  The people of Western Province have to be treated as if they were facing a threat of catastrophic proportions.  Being well treated is their right as it is their right to enjoy equality in wealth distribution. The Zambian Parliament should constantly remind government ministers to carry out projects that could allow the people of Western Province to live in dignity.

The creation of third level colleges of agriculture, whose curriculum would include cattle rearing and fishing, would be more helpful than simply asking the UN World Food Programme  (WFP) for food for distribution.  If the government cannot provide human resources, it could ask for volunteers who could work with civil society.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CHURCH

The "Church", including both Catholics and Protestants, should not restrict their education to philosophy and theology.  The Catholic Church, for instance, has to form seminarians in various scientific disciplines.  That kind of education will open clergy's perspective to the challenge of the society.

Having been educated in different sciences, technologies and skills, priests, brothers and sisters, through their pastoral work, will be able to empower the population to improve their life.  Catholic and Protestant Churches have also to create Christian universities where seminarians, pastors and lay people can study and learn different skills in agriculture, management, marketing, business, computers, and social sciences, technology, etc.

This could be another way through which they can preach about the God of the Bible who is acting for and with the poor.  How can the Church effectively serve the people of Western Province if in one of their Catholic hospitals there is only one nurse, a Zambian Franciscan Sister who is in charge of all the services such as consultation, logistics, project planning, managing, monitoring, etc? 

The Church should form human resources in that area.  The Church is bound by the ethics of responsibility taught by the Magisterium and should prepare people capable of working for others instead of taking the side of the opposition and only criticizing what is not well done by the government.  The formation of pastors in a variety of sciences would strengthen the confidence of lay people who are working in different interest groups.

By "different interest groups" I mean NGOs, businessmen and women, owners of multinational factories, local economic organisations and political parties.  These interest groups have a mandate from their professional backgrounds and are supposed to possess technical knowledge in dealing with certain problems.  They could work in partnership for the good of the local people.

Any interest group could be included if it has a project that would have a real socioeconomic impact on the local population.  Local wealthy people could be reminded that the real security and development of the country depends on their local economic responsibility. 

Zambian interest groups have to be involved in rural and urban socioeconomic development so that most basic needs could be provided by local economic enterprises rather than relying on foreign assistance.  Creation of income generating activities could be one of the criteria for parliamentary candidates who wish to be elected as a representative of the population to the government.

CONCLUSION

To conclude this reflection is not easy.  First the matter of poverty is so wide that it cannot be treated exhaustively in few words.  The case of poverty in the West Province (and other parts) of Zambia is both a problem of justice and a social phenomenon.  The poverty of the people of Western Province has reached a higher level.

The presence of the Church and international NGOs shows the necessity of paying attention to God's human creation living in that region.  The people of Western Province, like any other, deserve to be accorded a measure of human dignity. For that reason, many people of good will should be mobilized to provide assistance.

Oswald Masengo, S.J.
Hekima College
Nairobi