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- Title
RINDERPEST AND FAMINE IN THE EASTERN BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE: THE CASE OF THE BANGWATO RESERVE.
- Authors
MOLOSIWA, Phuthego Phuthego
- Abstract
During the late nineteenth century, a pandemic of rinderpest exterminated large numbers of cattle in Southern Africa. Although in the Bechuanaland Protectorate the disease killed cattle only for two years--between 1896 and 1897, its effects were to last until the very end of the century. The loss of cattle disrupted subsistence production, disintegrated the social fabric and caused famines. I examine the subsistence crisis caused by the loss of cattle and the multiple coping mechanisms that people employed to negotiate the ensuing famine. Despite being thrown into a state of desperation, I argue, rural communities in the Bangwato Reserve appropriated and reconstituted certain features of their cultural and social life to negotiate the ecological shocks, particularly to protect subsistence.
- Subjects
BOTSWANA; RINDERPEST; FAMINES; PROTECTORATES; HISTORY of epidemics; RURAL sociology; NINETEENTH century
- Publication
Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 2014, Vol 2, Issue 2, p113
- ISSN
2343-6530
- Publication type
Case Study