For the past 10 years, I've had the privilege of having a home on an island in the Zambezi. This has been the base for my independent, self-funded research projects in southern Zambia, including sustainable harvesting of mongongo nuts and devil's claw tuberous roots. Informally, I've been documenting the medicinal use of plants in my neighbourhood. My latest project is to investigate the present-day ethnobotanical knowledge and wild plant utilisation of the Gwembe Tonga, who were resettled in the late 1950s immediately before the construction of Kariba Dam. I've been offered a place on the MSc Ethnobotany programme at the University of Kent, where I'll enroll in September if I can find sufficient funding.
