How African spiritualism has helped conserve Zambia’s Barotse floodplain

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How African spiritualism has helped conserve Zambia's Barotse floodplain

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When the Lozi people migrated to the Barotse Floodplains in western Zambia about 400 years ago, they heaped soil on platforms and settled in the floodplain without destroying it. The Lozi developed canals they use to access villages and farmlands and instilled African cultural and spiritual beliefs that have been used to protect the fish, water, animals, lagoons, and biodiversity within the floodplains as well as the forests on the higher ground they migrate to annually when the floodplains flood. On this episode,Victor Syatyoka, a conservationist with the National Heritage Conservation Commission in Zambia, expounds more on this cultural and spiritual conservation practice.