MOZAMBIQUE imports close to 90% of its meat requirements in urban areas from other countries, an enigmatic fact considering that Mozambique is, as I will argue here, a cattle country. The ‘solution’ advocated by many experts is industrialized cattle production and high yield (non-traditional African) breeds. Such ideas and plans lack basic ecological and historical understanding of the thriving cattle production that does exist in many parts of Mozambique today. Traditional cattle keeping is in many ways ecologically well suited to meet the environmental constraints of episodic disease and droughts. It is also an enterprise that is low in imposing environmental costs. The cattle usually roam freely over large distances and grazing is low intensity and crucial for landscape openness and biodiversity.

A long-term history of cattle illustrates the intricate relationship between people, cattle and landscapes and the ecological skills of farmers and herders. This stands in contrast to the generally poor reputation of African swidden farmers and herders in the literature on development and ecology, automatically and with scant critical analysis associated with the process of environmental degradation. I believe that one reason for this association is simply that there is a general lack of knowledge of long-term environmental history which also has serious implications for landscape management and conservation.

 

Existing traditional African cattle breeds are hybridized ones with traits that strongly favour resistance to disease and periodic droughts. They are now in danger of becoming extinct through substitution of higher yielding, but less resistant, breeds. The historical ecology of domestic cattle in Africa began c. 10,000 years back. As reviewed by Boivin et al., it is now believed that cattle (Bosafricanus) were first domesticated in North Africa and then spread south of the Sahara. The indigenous species were later interbred with taurine cattle (Bostaurinus) from Southwest Asia. Through the Indian Ocean trade, African breeds have also been intermixed with Indian breeds of humped Zebu cattle (Bosindicus), possibly by the early second millennium of the Common Era (CE).

One reason for the present low market sale of cattle from rural areas in Mozambique must be sought within the social fabric of cattle keeping in the country. Though farming communities have been quick to respond to new demand from both Indian Ocean trade merchants (including both Arab and later Indian traders) and also European markets, written sources point to great difficulties in obtaining provisions. Cattle were often imported from the islands of Comores and Madagascar to the Portuguese trading stations utilizing existing trade networks between India, Persia and the East African coast. These imports should not be seen as an indication that indigenous cattle were actually in short supply, but rather that there was unwillingness among farmers to use cattle for market sale.

 

To understand why, we need to look more closely at the long-term history of cattle keeping. The Mozambique landscape is dominated by savannas, which are marked by high rainfall variability and episodic droughts. Throughout history, and particularly in comparison to Europe and Asia, Mozambique, as other parts of Africa, has had a relatively low population. The introduction of cattle took place c. 2000 years back and with this followed a gradual change in the social fabric within and between communities living in southern Africa. In farming villages, cattle enclosures (kraals) were placed at the centre of the settlements, and living quarters, storage bins and ceremonial areas were arranged around the kraals. The layout of settlements reflected a society where descent was counted on the male side, with bride wealth and a social organization based on lineage. The build-up of cattle herds by certain individuals also marked the beginning of accumulation of wealth, accompanied by alliances and trade with the Indian Ocean.¹

 

Near the Shashi-Limpopo confluence there is a sequence of sites showing increasing centralization and political control. Around 1050 AD, there was a spatial reorganization and the cattle kraal was shifted from the centre of the settlements. This reorganization was linked to a change from communal ownership of cattle to an individualized one, interlinked to an increasing social and political control by cattle owning individuals. From this time on cattle also came to symbolize and manifest power, as displayed in Mapungubwe and also later centres such as Great Zimbabwe on the Zimbabwe plateau, where a strong division exists between elites and commoners.²

Written sources from the 16th century give us a better understanding of the social fabric of society. At the household level, cattle constituted bride wealth and as such served to symbolize contractual alliances between families. Thus the head of the family who controlled the cattle also controlled the future of his sons, and thereby the lineage. Only a son with many cattle could start his own village and found a lineage. Since women were the farmers, a man with many wives was considered rich. Cattle, meanwhile, were the domain of men. Villages were arranged as chiefdoms under a lineage head, and these chiefdoms were typically small. The larger and more powerful polities amalgamated smaller political entities through marriage alliances and cattle, and payment of tribute involving agricultural produce or labour. For families and individual men with no networks or social alliances, the logic of affiliating with a strong ruler was thus tied to the access of cattle and bride wealth.

 

But how did domestic cattle affect the physical landscape? It has been speculated that the grassland-forest mosaic found in the coastal lowlands of southern Africa today was a result of the initial clearings made by the first farmers. However, pollen analysis from both the coast of northern South Africa (Natal) and southern Mozambique suggest a mosaic of forests, grasslands and savannas before the onset of farming. My own studies around the archaeological site of Chibuene in the Vilankulos region show that despite evidence of the use of fire and presence of both cattle and cereal, there are no causal links to a decline in forest cover. A reduction of forests did indeed take place sometime between 1200 and 1400 CE, but this coincided with several prolonged drought events as a result of global cooling of the Little Ice Age. The drivers of change were the larger shifts in climate patterns, not resource abuse or use by cattle keepers.³ The decline of forests can also be seen in the Natal coast in South Africa. Neuman et al. prefer to trace this phenomenon to the intensification of cattle herding associated with the formation of the Nguni ethnic group and a specialization in herding.

 

Whatever the reasons for the decline of the forest, the processes of climate crises and specialization in cattle herding may well have been interlinked, as cattle provide economic security against climatic vulnerability. In the interior low rainfall regions, herders are likely to have settled along the permanent rivers. The presence of possible cereal grain, charcoal and dung fungi in a pollen diagram from lower Limpopo valley, shows that farmers were living here from c. 800 CE. Though the riverine forest vegetation was highly variable over time, it seems to have responded more to climate/hydrological variability than to densities of herbivory or changes in fire intensity.

It is likely that early herders utilized the existing mosaic landscapes for grazing cattle and for opening fields. Thus, there is no reason for us to expect a dramatic conversion of landscapes with the onset of pastoralism. Late Stone Age communities probably used fire as a tool to create good grazing areas for wild animals, a practice that was continued by the emerging farming communities. Fire and grazing by both wild and domestic animals contributed to keep grazing areas open in the landscape, important for the ecology of the landscape as discussed. Thus, domestic cattle filled similar ecological niches as wild cattle, as did other herbivores with similar food patterns.

The centres of political power that were emerging in the early second millennium were aggregating not just people but also large cattle herds. Mapungubwe is believed to have supported close to 5000 inhabitants at its peak, and Great Zimbabwe 10,000 inhabitants or more. The geographical location of these power centres tended to shift on a centennial scale, but even so the allocation of land for fields, grazing, collection of wood and for wild animals and spirits must have been a matter of continuous negotiation. It has been speculated that both these centres were abandoned due to environmental crises and/or degradation. Unfortunately, in the absence of detailed vegetation histories for these centres, it is impossible to confirm or refute this hypothesis. However, it has also been suggested that cattle was grazed in the larger regions around these political centres and that herds may also have been allocated to smaller allied centres.

 

The droughts associated with the Little Ice Age were particularly severe in the 18th and 19th century. The period was also marked by social and political turmoil with military campaigns and resulting migrations associated with the expansion of Nguni armies in the whole of southern and eastern Africa. Cattle raiding, which is frequently mentioned in the written sources, as also wholesale killing of cattle, was used as a political tool. In the early 19th century the Nguni chief, Shoshongane, established the Gaza state in southern Mozambique, resulting in a superstructure of Nguni aristocracy being imposed on the former political units. But the Gaza state experienced several disputes over succession. This resulted in internal wars and local farmers and smaller chiefdoms being raided for cattle. By the end of the 19th century, cattle herds in southern Mozambique were severely diminished due to a combination of centuries of political unrest, repeated cattle raids and killing of cattle and recurring droughts.

Partly because of a lack of cattle, young men in southern Mozambique trekked to South Africa to save money for bride wealth. There was also a switch from cattle to other sources of bride wealth, which led to severe inflation. An 18th century source reports that bride wealth was 5-10 cows and today, as personally observed in Limpopo National Park (PNL), bride wealth is closer to 10 cows.⁴ Thus cattle value seems to have been rather stable over the centuries despite large variations in its availability. The ethnographer Junod quotes informants that in the period 1840-1870, bride wealth had begun to be paid in iron hoes, the price increasing steadily from 10 to 50 hoes. After migrant labour began, bride price was also paid in pound sterling. Whereas one pound was initially equivalent to ten hoes, prices soon rose so that ten hoes were equivalent to £18-20. And though lineage chiefs attempted to stabilize bride wealth prices, agreeing on a set price of £8 for 10 hoes, they were ultimately unsuccessful.⁵

 

Cattle owners in Africa must have a good ecological knowledge not just of the specifics of their breeds but also about the ecology of its natural enemies as has been summarized by Spinage. The 16th century Portuguese written sources report sudden and inexplicable death of cattle and horses, but did not at that time relate these to animal disease. Tse-tse (carrier of the organisms that causes sleeping sickness disease which affects vertebrate animals, including humans) and related diseases are first mentioned by name in 19th century sources when infected areas were also mapped. But, the boundaries of these areas shifted over time. Travellers also pointed out that local herders and hunters knew how to stay clear of infested areas and to protect livestock from disease. This in part had to do with the resistance of local cattle breeds, but also a good knowledge of the ecology of tse-tse.

 

It was a rule to keep the savanna landscape open through fire and to avoid shrub encroachments on grazing lands and abandoned fields. For instance, when Umzila, Shoshongane’s son and successor, moved his capital from south to central Mozambique in 1861, he also brought along his cattle (many of which had been confiscated from the south). The area had been depopulated due to political unrest, and Umzila found that shrub had encroached on former grazing lands that were now infested. He, therefore, ordered a massive clearing and killing of wildlife to eradicate the tse-tse.⁶

Another example of the delicate ecology of animal disease is the spread of the rinderpest epidemic (a viral plague that also affected both wild and domesticated cattle) in 1896. The combination of the wholesale decline of cattle in many areas and large reduction of wildlife that had taken place in the 18th and 19th century, mostly as a result of sport and professional hunting for the market, had caused an encroachment of the bush that in turn facilitated the spread of the rinderpest with disastrous effects on both cattle and wildlife.

The history of animal disease teaches us that there is a fine balance between bush encroachment, wildlife, animal disease, drought and cattle – all of which affect each other. This balance has a bearing on both landscape management and conservation today. Even though recent research challenges or nuances degradation narratives, African landscapes, and by association traditional practices that have produced them, continue to be uncritically classified as environmentally degraded. This is shown, not the least, in the discourse around CDM or REDD forests where plantations are introduced and farmers dislocated on the basis that the area is degraded, often without any prior environmental assessment.⁷ Similarly, and related to this issue, conservation areas have experienced an enduring conflict with cattle herders because of a fear of disease spreading between wild and domestic animals. But, the history of animal disease also shows the vital importance of herders and farmer’s management of the landscape to mitigate its spread. This is particularly important in conservation areas where animal densities are too low to keep the landscape open.

 

The history of cattle indicates that despite variations in numbers due to disease, drought and confiscation of cattle, farmers have managed to replenish their herds relatively quickly, assisted partly by long distance and trans-oceanic trade in cattle. Still, even in very rich cattle countries, there is no official market for selling cattle. The stability of cattle prices in relation to other currencies of bride wealth suggests that the ‘cattle economy’ is governed by an entirely different logic. The social role of cattle may be one reason. But, cattle are also the most important source of security and investment opportunity for farmers.

In livelihood surveys carried out by my colleagues and me in Limpopo National Park, most households reported that they kept cattle for security and for marriage. Other surveys, also conducted in Limpopo National Park, viz. by Milgroom, show that sale of livestock was the preferred solution in times of scarcity. Most households, when asked, replied that they preferred to invest surplus money in cattle. In fact, the economic assets of many households today, when counting numbers and prices of cattle, are much higher than reported in official statistics.

 

However, the problem of many households is that cattle are ‘dead capital’, to use the phrase of the economist Hernando De Soto. There are no/few official markets; grazing rights are typically afforded through customary rights not legal ownership of land, and banks do not permit cattle as security for loans (also few households have accounts).⁸ Paradoxically, this fact may account for the stability of cattle prices, even as the potential of farmers’ skills of rearing cattle in Mozambique and of the strength of local economies and enterprise goes unrealized.

The intricacies of what I would term the ‘ecology of cattle’ must be better understood before embarking on far-reaching recommendations of how cattle production is to be designed in the future. This knowledge is important not just for policymakers, development planners, and landscape managers but also for local farmers, both for biodiversity and conservation, as discussed above, but also for development planning.

 

States and development organizations alike tend to have a paternalistic attitude towards local farmers, which sometimes effectively blocks local initiatives. The historical ecology of cattle shows that local farmers have the capacity to respond to new demands on the basis of their own needs and wants. Thus, any new initiative in cattle production must be driven and organized by local enterprise.

 

Footnotes:

* Anneli Ekblom is presently writing about the historical ecology of Limpopo National Park, and is engaged in issues of landscape, heritage management and conservation.

1. Glass beads from the Indian Ocean trade began to appear in the entire region of southern Africa from the 8th century CE.

2. These centres are Shroda (c. AD 900-1020), K2 (c. AD1020-1220) and Mapungubwe (AD 1220-1300). Great Zimbabwe (1050-1450 AD) rose to power as Mapungubwe was abandoned. See T.N. Huffman, 2008.

3. The onset of this climatic period in southern Africa is debatable, but it lasted until c. 1850 AD.

4. André Fernandes (1560) describes the Lobola value for a wife as being worth that of a cow (in G.M. Theal 1964, vol II, p. 143) and a later account from a Mr Penwell (undated but probably 18th century, in Theal 1964, vol II, p. 460ff) states how marriages are carried out as barter, sometimes with the price of 5, 10 or more cows.

5. Junod 1927, vol I, 275-6.

6. Swynnerton 1921, in Spinage 2012. p. 897.

7. CDM stands for Clean Development Mechanism and REDD Reducing Deforestation and Forest Degradation. These programmes are part of the Kyoto protocol. Governments in the northern hemisphere or private organizations companies allocate, as part of the carbon offset programmes, money to governments, businesses, and landowners in the southern hemisphere to reduce the carbon emissions associated with deforestation or environmental degradation. This money can either go to the preservation of native forests or to plant forests of fast growing trees such as eucalyptus, the latter being most common in Africa.

8. Other problems that cattle herders in rural areas face today are poor infrastructure for inoculations, which means that farmers are not allowed to sell cattle on official markets, the inaccessibility of markets and cattle theft, a serious problem for farmers living in populous areas. (Personal communication with informants living in Limpopo National Park.)

 

References:

N. Boivin, A. Crowther, R. Helm and D.Q. Fuller, ‘East Africa and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean World’, Journal of World Prehistory 26, 2013, pp. 213-281.

A. Ekblom, Changing Landscapes: An Environmental History of Chibuene, Southern Mozambique, c AD 400-present. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, African and Comparative Archaeology, Uppsala, 2004.

A. Ekblom, L. Gillson, K. Holmgren, J. Risberg, Z. Chidoub, ‘Rainfall Variability and Vegetation Dynamics of the Lower Limpopo Valley, Southern Africa, 500 AD to the Present’, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 363-634, 2012, pp. 69-78.

A. Ekblom, B. Eichorn, P. Sinclair, S. Badenhorst, A. Berger, ‘Landuse History and Resource Utilisation 400 AD to the Present, at Chibuene, Southern Mozambique’, Vegetation History and Archeobotany 23, 2014, pp.15-32.

T.N. Huffman, ‘Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: The Origin and Spread of Social Complexity in Southern Africa’, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28, 2009, pp. 37-54.

J. Milgroom, Elephants of Democracy: An Unfolding Process of Resettlement in the Limpopo National Park, 2012.

F.H. Neumann, L. Scott, C.B. Bousman, L. van As, ‘A Holocene Sequence of Vegetation Change at Lake Eteza, Coastal KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 162, 2008, pp. 39-53.

M. Newitt, A History of Mozambique. Hurst, London, 1995.

C. Spinage, African Ecology: Benchmarks and Historical Perspectives. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2012.

G.M. Theal, Basuleland Records, 1883. Facsimile reprint. Cape Town, 1964.