Mr W L Astle worked for the Northern Rhodesian and Zambian governments from
1959 to 1973. Originally an Agricultural Officer, he transferred in 1965 to the
(then) Department of Game and Fisheries as a Biologist and spent the next six years in
the Luangwa Valley. For his last two years in government service he was Chief Wildlife
Research Officer at the department's headquarters. He returned to the Valley during
1986-92 as a University Research Fellow.
The text of some 60,000 words comprises 11 sections plus 22 pages of notes and
maps. Early explorations in the Valley, notably by the Portuguese, are described,
followed by accounts of Chartered Company administration and the early days of the
Protectorate. After a description of the limited activities recorded during World War
Two, and the period of consolidation which followed, come four sections that examine
historical trends in conservation practices, tourism, administration, legislation,
management, research and land use in relation to wildlife. Sections nine and ten consider
events during the nine years following the author's government service in Zambia;
section 11 gives an historical perspective. The final notes concern a miscellany of topics
including Pitman's 1931-32 faunal survey of Northern Rhodesia and more recent animal
censuses in the Luangwa. Although the book's focus is on the Valley, the author
digresses where appropriate to consider events and influences at departmental, national
and international levels.
Several major themes are discussed; two are worth mentioning here. First, the book
presents well-documented evidence that colonial policy, contrary to received wisdom,
was to manage wildlife for the benefit of indigenous peoples. Public perceptions,
however, appear to have been confused by some departmental officers, whose
vehemently expressed views were out of step with mainstream policies. Second, the
author reviews the work of the ecologist Dr F Fraser Darling, who visited Northern
Rhodesia, including the Luangwa Valley, during 1957. His visit was made under the
auspices of the Department, after which he wrote a book--Wildlife in an African
Territory. Darling has been eulogised by the editor of his African diaries (J M Boyd's
Fraser Darling in Africa) but Astle is unimpressed. Darling, he submits, was ready to
believe anything departmental officers told him and wrote nothing original. He was
widely perceived as being manipulated by doctrinaire elements in the Department,
consequently he had little influence on government policy--a view endorsed by several
senior officers who continued service after Independence. Your reviewer, who met
Darling, recalls a kindly, courteous man but remembers him today chiefly for his
recommendation that professional officers be withdrawn from administrative duties--a
retrograde step that led to several years of inadequate non-professionals occupying key
middle management positions.
The book is written in good, clear English, mercifully free from jargon. Twenty-nine
pages of references testify to the considerable research that went into it. There is a
wealth of detail. Dates and names abound, extracts from numerous official reports are
quoted and there are generous helpings of statistics. Twenty-five photographs adorn front
and back covers. Internal layout would have been clearer had each of the 11 sections
begun on a fresh page with its title printed in a distinctive font; disconcertingly the title
heading for Section 4 has become 'widowed' at the foot of page 40. Being little more
than half a page, that section might more comfortably have been incorporated in the one
that follows.
A blurb on the back cover deems the book a valuable resource for university
coursework and a sound base for further detailed study. You reviewer agrees: it gives a
detailed and enlightened historical account of relationships between people and wildlife
in an evolving, real world situation. It ought to become a useful source of reference for
officers of the newly established Zambia Wildlife Authority. This book will also give
pleasure to those who worked in the Luangwa Valley, especially between 1945 and
1975. Drawing on their memories, they will be able to flesh out the named protagonists,
remember their endeavours and, with a smile, recall their eccentricities and
whimsicalities.
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