Tchuma tchato
On the southern shores of the Zambesi River — an isolated part of Mozambique, bounded by Zimbabwe and Zambia —the land is a rich source of raw materials. The inhabitants of this region, however, are very poor. ‘Tchuma tchato‘ means ‘our riches‘ and is the name of a project in which the government stimulates the population to jointly exploit protect the land. It is not an easy task to convince the people of the benefits of this method, which implies, for one, that they can no longer hunt the wild animals in the area. The traditional hunt is an important source of income, and when a hippopotamus gorges all your crops it is hard not to kill him. And the leading spirits, the Lion, the Monkey, the Snake and the Leopard also have to give their permission before the project can succeed.