Life as a Hunt

The "extensive wilderness" of Zambia’s central Luangwa Valley is the homeland of the Valley Bisa whose cultural practices have enriched this environment for centuries. Beginning with the intrusions of warlords and later British colonials, successive generations have experienced the callousness and challenges of colonialism. Their homeland, a slender corridor surrounded by three national parks and an escarpment, is a microcosm of the political, economic and cultural battlefields surrounding most African protected areas today. The story of the Valley Bisa diverges from the myths that conservationists, administrators, and philanthropists, tell about Africa’s environmental and wildlife crises.

Stuart Marks was Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Sciences at St. Andrews College, Laurinburg, N.C (1970-1983). He has worked as an independent scholar as well as a consultant to governments, international donor agencies and conservation NGOs.  His other books on Zambia include Large Mammals and a Brave People (1976); The Imperial Lion (1984); and Discordant Village Voices (2014).  He also wrote Southern Hunting in Black and White: Nature, History and Rituals in a Carolina Community (1991), an award-winning volume on his US Southern homeland.