The people in Mwinilunga district belong to the Lunda ethnic group, encompassing an area across the borders of Zaire and Angola. Culturally, and to some extent also economically, borders are of little significance. The Lunda frequently arrange marriages and establish social bonds with people across the borders, and also regularly launch fishing and hunting “expeditions” into Angola, since little game remain on the Zambian side of the border.
The traditional division of labour among the Lundas is that the man goes out on hunting and fishing expeditions, returning home frequently to provide supplies of dried meat and fish. Women manage the cassava fields. Men's role in farming is confined to land preparation -- new land is cleared and burrowed at the end of the dry season. Subsistence farming is based on the migratory pattern of cassava cultivation. Every year a piece of virgin land is taken up, while another piece is taken over by the forest.
Today the Lunda are in the throes of profound social change. Not only have they become increasingly sedentary in order to be able to reap benefits from modern social service such as schools and clinics; the economic base of their existence is also changing, with the introduction of new crops for cash, and modern cultivation methods that call for active men's involvement. For the majority, cassava is still the main staple food. Rotation periods, during which the forest can recover have however become shorter as a result of more permanent homesteads, population increases and male migration to urban centres for labour. Fields are recultivated after only a short recovery and walking distances to the fields have increased. In spite of this, however, in most areas land is still considered to be in ample supply. The prevailing shifting cultivation system is labour-intensive, using a low-production technology of hoes and axes. There is little scope for improvements within the system, as the amount of land taken up is limited by available labour. No inputs are purchased in this system.
It is men who have been most affected by the change that began just one or two generations back, in which sedentary agriculture has established itself. Culturally and psychologically, men are still hunters and fishermen. Game and fish, however, are exhausted nearby, and will become increasingly difficult to obtain outside as well. In any case, there is not enough game for everybody. Honey collection is one of the few remaining men's activities of significance. Increasingly, the foundation for men's traditional role has changed, with a widespread under-utilization of men's labour during certain times of the year.
New crops (and cash crops), have to some extent replaced hunting and fishing. Cash crops are a male domain. As for women, the introduction of cash crops has reinforced their traditional role as cultivators and increased their workload.
The most common household unit is the extended family centred on an elderly male household head with one or more wives (polygamy is widespread). One or more sons may live in the same place with their wives and children. Often, a younger brother or an old mother is also part of the household. An extended family may encompass as many as 30 people. The spatial reference for the extended family is the village which consequently
Fields are, in general, cultivated separately by the different wives, although the benefits including the food are shared by everybody. Returns from cash crops are in principle at the disposal of the cultivator and his family, but not entirely so. It is shared among other people in the village according to established norms of reciprocity and interdependence. Such a system ensures rations for everybody in times of scarcity, but is also social constraint to individual incentives and entrepreneurship.
The difficulty in organizing co-operatives because of the distrust and envy among the people has been emphasized more than once. The practice of witchcraft is widespread as also the belief in it. It ensures that people do not move away from established social norms.
