Bishimi and Social Studies: The Production of Knowledge in a Zambian Village

In: African affairs: the journal of the Royal African Society, Volume 84, Issue 334, p. 89-110

Abstract

Observations of illiterate Kaonde villagers in northeast Zambia show that they face subsistence problems. Although becoming literate enhances success, it is unfeasible because of lost productivity-time costs. Capitalism's challenge to the villagers' oral culture is felt as anxieties over whether to market occasional surplus for individual profit rather than to share the surplus with kin in order to obligate them in hard times, as advised in old bishimi (folktales). The politics & ideology of local school officials, a returned factory worker, & a community-selected health representative are examined for the likelihood that a unified sense of this culture will survive in the wider society. G. Schubert