Cutting down trees: Gender, nutrition, and agricultural change in the Northern Province of Zambia, 1890-1990 (Social history of Africa)

In part this book is a reconstruction of an African agricultural system over one hundred years; in part it is an examination of the construction of knowledge about a rural African people. The first half of the book focuses on the "chitemene" agricultural system of the Bemba known as "slash and burn". The authors show that "chitemene" involves a great deal more than the cutting and burning of trees. The second half addresses the question of labour migration and its effects on the agricultural production of the area, re-visiting the colonial debate with new evidence.