SWAMPY TALES

This post is a continuation of where we ended in 2019, giving you highlights of life in the Bangweulu Swamps, and Lunga in particular. We started talking about fishing, the mainstay of the people in the area and we resume to continue discussing some of the methods employed to earn a living. Let’s talk about the seine net. A seine net is of historical importance in the business of commercial fishing. It is said to be the fishing method employed by the fishermen that later turned fishers of men during the time of Jesus Christ. It is one of the mass-catch methods of old that is also used in the Bangweulu Swamps today. “Seines hold a special honor in the Bible. Of all the nets mentioned in the Bible, the seine is mentioned more than any other, a total of nine times. In the Old Testament, written in Hebrew, the word for seine was "Herem" while in the New Testament, written in Greek, the word was "Sagene" from which we probably get the English word seine .”

Would you tell the origins and character of a man by the piece of cloth he hangs around his neck? Nor would you, by the way he polishes his boot?    Not until you get him to talk about himself. Otherwise, you will be judging a book by its cover. In this post, I digress from telling you about the how to of fishing, just to break the monotony. I present to you a bite of my true story having grown up in two spheres of one Bangweulu Swamps. It’s a portion of hardships, probably not so different from any other Unga and Bisa child brought up in a poor rural setting. Ng’ungwa lies at the very edge of the Bangweulu Swamps in the east and is famous for hosting coveys of black lechwes, sitatungas and the famous shoebill stork. It forms a boundary between the Bu-Bisa main land of Chief Chiunda Ponde and the Ba-Unga swamps of Chief Bwalya Mponda. It is home to Chikuni, a Ramsar Site , recognized as a Wetland of   international importance;   and also as an Important Bird Area