Climate change and culture: the influence of traditional cultural beliefs and modern religious values on adaptive capacity to climate change in Bolero, Malawi.

Abstract

The study aimed at determining the influence of traditional cultural beliefs and modern religious values on adaptive capacity to climate change in Bolero. Specifically, the study mapped out traditional cultural practices and modern religious values and demonstrated their influence on adaptive capacity to climate change. The research drew on participant observation, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, survey questionnaire, document reviews and key informant interviews to collect data where key themes emerged inductively and open coding was employed to analyzing the data. The results revealed that in adapting to climate variability and change, the respondents applied both modern religious values and traditional cultural beliefs and practices though with varied magnitude. However, traditional cultural practices and beliefs regarding wife inheritance, production and consumption, hygiene, birth and death rituals and taboos were found to have negative influence on entitlement rights, livelihood decisions and moral capital of particularly women and widows in Bolero. Conspicuously noted also was intergenerational gaps between the elderly and the youths, which created tensions in validating, accepting and applying modern religious values and traditional cultural belief systems. The researcher strongly suggests transformative community engagements between the elders, traditional and religious leaders, witch doctors on the one hand and, development partners on the other hand as an alternative approach in promoting both structural and attitudinal changes necessary to uproot the locally perceived bad traditional cultural beliefs, practices, taboos and modern religious values in the area. With the extra layer of burden exerted by climate variability and change on livelihoods and socioeconomic systems in the area, continued persistence and future relevance of traditional cultural practices will so much depend on one, how much structural and attitudinal transformation is achieved, two how useful the traditional cultural practices and modern religious values will continue to be in enhancing adaptive capacity to climate change and three, how intergenerational frictions in value placement, perception and application of the traditional cultural beliefs and religious values will actually be negotiated.