Human–crocodile interactions in the western Solomon Islands: the importance of local data for reducing attacks on people
- Authors: Shankar, Aswani , Matanzima, Joshua
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/439922 , vital:73720 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S003060532300176X"
- Description: Interactions between people and the saltwater crocodile Crocodylus porosus frequently occur on islands and in coastal regions. Saltwater crocodiles impact people's lives and livelihoods by attacking them, resulting in minor or serious injuries, and by interfering in people's foraging activities. Retaliation may include killing the crocodiles involved. To reduce such human–crocodile interactions, data about the occurrence of incidents are required. We present data on encounters with crocodiles and attacks on people in the Roviana Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Data includes time of incident, gender, age and activity of the victim, water conditions and what happened to the crocodile after the incident. We used a questionnaire to capture the details of incidents that occurred during 2000–2020 in the villages of Dunde, Baraulu, Nusa Hope and Kozou. Most incidents were in the evening, mostly involving women, and most victims were aged 20–39 years or ≥ 60 years. In all cases people were attacked while gleaning for shellfish in the mangroves. Attacks occurred irrespective of whether the water was clear or murky, and in all cases the crocodiles were not killed. Such site-specific data will facilitate the formulation of strategies for reducing negative interactions between people and crocodiles in this particular location. Although the saltwater crocodile is categorized as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, research such as this provides data that can be used for promoting coexistence with and conservation of this species.
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- Date Issued: 2024
Stereotyping, Exploitation, and Appropriation of African Traditional Religious Beliefs: The Case of Nyaminyami, Water Spirit, among the Batonga People of Northwestern Zimbabwe, 1860s–1960s
- Authors: Matanzima, Joshua
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426543 , vital:72361 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.10.1.0072"
- Description: This article examines the forms of knowledge that existed between Africans and Europeans regarding local indigenous religious beliefs, focusing particularly on the case of Nyaminyami, a water spirit that is part of the belief systems prevalent among some BaTonga people of northwestern Zimbabwe. The article briefly outlines the “traditional” BaTonga beliefs and practices relating to Nyaminyami, which were diametrically opposed to those of the Europeans. It then scrutinizes the ways the beliefs have been exploited and appropriated by different interest groups and races from the 1860s to the 1960s. The BaTonga people, who held strong beliefs in Nyaminyami, and European colonists used the idea of Nyaminyami for different social, political, and environmental agendas prior to, during, and after resettlement. Nyaminyami played changing sociocultural and economic functions for the BaTonga people over time. They revered Nyaminyami as their river god in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; they also appropriated the beliefs by rallying behind the river god for protection from their displacement in 1958 following the construction of the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River. Nyaminyami was also appropriated by European interest groups who used the idea of Nyaminyami to cast Africa as the “dark continent” and to stereotype the BaTonga people as primitive. This article relies on data obtained through a reading of European explorers' texts and by gathering oral traditions among the BaTonga and Shangwe.
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- Date Issued: 2022
Changes and continuities over time in the cultural significance of the Nyaminyami water spirit among the BaTonga people of northwestern Zimbabwe
- Authors: Matanzima, Joshua
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Water spirits -- Zimbabwe , Tsonga (African people) -- Zimbabwe , Tsonga (African people) -- Zimbabwe -- Religion , Tsonga (African people) -- Zimbabwe -- Rites and ceremonies , Tsonga (African people) -- Zimbabwe -- Social life and customs , Mythology, Tsonga , Mythology, Zimbabwean , Nyaminyami (Spirit)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/94189 , vital:31015
- Description: Research attests that beliefs in water spirits are an integral part of cultures of many indigenous communities across the globe. These water spirits play significant political, religious and socio-economic roles for the people concerned. However, the functions of water spirits are not constant, but change over time, especially when the people believing in water spirits undergo drastic socio- economic processes of change. It is in this context that this thesis traces the cultural significance over time, of the Nyaminyami water spirit, among some BaTonga people, living in the immediate vicinity of the Kariba gorge area, in north-western Zimbabwe. While previous studies document the existence of beliefs in Nyaminyami, none of these has systematically traced the historical significance of Nyaminyami, in terms of changes and continuities over time. Thus, this thesis makes a valuable contribution to knowledge with regards to the history and religion of the BaTonga people. The thesis argues that Nyaminyami‘s cultural significance or functions evolved over time, due to numerous socio- economic and political processes of change. The major changes that significantly influenced the practices relating to Nyaminyami include colonialism, Kariba dam construction and resettlement, the migration after resettlement in the 1960s and 1970s, the independence of Zimbabwe, and the alienation of the Kariba waterscape from the BaTonga. To be able to arrive at specific findings and conclusions, the thesis is underpinned by theories about resettlement, approaches to water divinities, and theories of religion and social change. The thesis has five ethnographic chapters that focus on specific time periods, illustrating the major socio- economic changes of each epoch, and showing how these changes impacted upon practices and beliefs relating to Nyaminyami. The thesis also documents how Nyaminyami beliefs are variedly distributed along different social variables that include gender, age, income and geographical location. In order to achieve the findings presented, the thesis utilized ethnographic evidence obtained from semi- structured interviews, participant observation, anthropology of extraordinary experience, document review and archival research.
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- Date Issued: 2019