Cory Wanless
Development Education and Community Project (Zambia)
In early May I set off for Mufulira, Zambia to spend three and a half months working with a small locally based land rights organization called Development Education and Community Project, or DECOP for short. And in many ways, my summer couldn’t have been much worse. I got malaria; someone broke into my house in the middle of the night and tried to steal my laptop; I was arrested, charged and found guilty of being in the country illegally and just last week I went to the travel clinic to see whether or not the lingering stomach problems I have been having might just be caused by a parasite. On the work side of things, the NGO I was working with lost their funding just prior to my arrival which meant that instead of an office staffed by 15 people, the coordinator and I worked alone and without an office. I was called upon to provide things like fuel and office supplies. I was lonely when I was there and bitter and depressed when I got back. And the cockroaches were everywhere. The fridge, my rice, my bed. Everywhere.
I spent much of my time there worrying that I had not made a good choice; I was especially concerned that I could be doing more elsewhere. But things happen slowly. In small steps. And in hindsight, the summer was a success.
Things didn’t come together until the last couple of weeks. For the first few months I spent a lot of time in community meetings; a lot of time learning; and a lot of time trying to get the ineffectual and inefficient side of DECOP in order.
Then two weeks before I left, two things happened that made everything else, even the cockroaches, worthwhile. They were a meeting and the writing of a report.
The report was a document I wrote about the eviction of two thousand farmers from their traditional land in a community called Kazungula. Early in July, I had been sent along with a Zambian volunteer (who, it turns out, was just along for the ride), to investigate allegations of an illegal land transfer that had stripped these farmers of their land rights. So we conducted interviews and tried to get maps; we went to see where the surveyors had been; we held meetings with the community. And when we had enough information, I went back to Mufulira, got my copies of Zambian land law and wrote a report on why the land transfer that is resulting in the evictions is illegal and administratively inappropriate. And then I sent it to the Ministry of Land- the only body that really has the ability to do anything to rectify the situation.
Unfortunately, the current Zambian elections have put the situation on hold for now- the minister won’t be able to do anything about the report until the new government is formed. But I got an email from the coordinator of DECOP the other day stating that the report scared the local council that was evicting farmers and that the evictions have, for the present, stopped. We await the response from the new government.
The meeting was a meeting held between us and Mopani Mines- a partially Canadian owned mine that had been evicting squatters from its land in violation of the OECD guidelines. For much of the summer, we had been conducting meetings with various affected communities on the problems they face and potential solutions. We used this information to hold a meeting with the mine which outlined questionable mining practices and suggested a way forward based on cooperation. Much to our surprise, the mine seemed genuinely interested in working with DECOP. I have just heard that meetings continue, and progress is being made.
So, despite the thief, the parasites (blood and bowel), the arrest, and the cockroaches, I had a good summer. Challenging, lonely and difficult, but good.