The Burning Bush

Every dry season -- after the maize harvest -- Zambians set the bush ablaze. Their reasons for burning differ, but just about everyone does it to some degree. In urban areas, they burn grassy areas along the tarmac to keep roadways and walkways clear. Villagers burn just about everything. They burn the areas around their huts to deter snakes from coming too close. They burn the undergrowth in the forests for no real reason. They burn the dambo (wetland) grasses to keep them from growing too thick. And, when the maize has been harvested, they bundle the residues and set fire to their fields.

The burning, in its many forms – but especially in the fields – is very much a cultural thing. Zambians have been doing it forever. Many years ago the practices were more justified. They would burn the forest areas to chase game out to hunters waiting for them on the other side. They would burn the dambos so that they could see where the lions were bedded down. And they would burn their fields to remove pests and neutralize the soil’s acidity. But these days most of the game is gone and there’s not much hunting. The lions are mostly confined to the game parks – although a farmer in a village near ours had 7 goats eaten by lions earlier this month. And the practice of burning the fields exposes the soil to erosion and the harsh sun which diminish the fertility requiring farmers to shift fields every 7 years or so.

Yet in the evenings when the wind is low and the low light makes flames clearly visible, villagers depart for the bush with fire in their braziers. The dry grass catches easily and burns quickly. In the morning, parts of our once familiar surroundings look like a post-apocalyptic wasteland – the ground charred and black, all vegetation dead and gone and down trees covered with white ash, still smoldering. The burning bush leaves a thick coat of smog in the sky.

Watching the sunset these days is bittersweet. The smoke filled sky is set on fire every evening at dusk. The sun turns a deep red as it retreats, but then disappears behind the smog well before it reaches the horizon. Its departure is quickly followed by a few plumes of black smoke rising above the tree canopy. It’s easy for us to see how this antiquated practice has high environmental costs and provides very minor benefits. But living here has provided a better understanding of why they still do it. Rural Zambians live almost entirely outside – in nature with no real escape or departure from it. Burning the bush is just their way of controlling their environment. It’s easy to do – it takes 2 children about an hour to control burn an entire hectare. And if it provides even a miniscule amount of increased security or comfort in their lives and in their environment, then it makes sense to do it. It’s part of our job here to ask questions about the bush burning – I suggest to farmers that they not burn their fields and retain their residues – but when our questions and suggestions get ignored we can't get upset.