Zambia: The Land and Its People
Author: Godfrey Mwakikagile
Paperback: 196 pages
Publisher: Continental Press (31 May 2010)
ISBN-10: 9987932258
ISBN-13: 9789987932252
Part One:
Zambia:
General Background
ZAMBIA is located in southern Africa, although it's sometimes considered to be a part of East Africa. The name “Zambia” is derived from the Zambezi River.
Almost an entire half of the country is geographically a part of what is considered to be the eastern region of Africa.
But most of the time, Zambia is considered to be a part of southern Africa. And historically, it has always been considered to be a part of southern Africa because of its colonial heritage which links it to what is now Zimbabwe. During British colonial rule, Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia. And what is Zimbabwe today was called Southern Rhodesia.
The area that is now known as Zambia was once inhabited by the members of the Khoisan groups. They moved from place to place, hunting and gathering fruits, roots and other edible items for their survival. And they lived in this area for centuries.
Then during the first centuries A.D., members of other tribes moved into the region. They came from what is now Congo and from some parts of the Great Lakes region of East Africa. But they came mostly from the Congo region.
They were of Bantu stock and had, centuries earlier, migrated from West Africa, especially in the region which is now eastern Nigeria and Cameroon.
The members of Bantu tribes were mostly farmers. When they entered the area that is now Zambia, they encountered the Khoisan whom they overpowered. The Khoisan gradually left and sought new homelands in the southern part of Africa.
But some members of the Khoisan groups stayed and gradually became a part of the Bantu communities. They intermarried with them and lost their identity because they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers and by the dominant Bantu cultures.
The migration of Bantus into the region continued through the centuries and reached its peak in the 1300s A.D.
Members of the Tonga tribe are believed to be the first Bantu group to settle in what is now Zambia. They migrated into the region from the east and are believed to have left their home in the Great Lakes region.
The Great Lakes region is known as the continent's main lake region. The three largest lakes in Africa are in this region. They are Lake Victoria, the largest on the continent and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world after Lake Superior in North America; Lake Nyasa; and Lake Tanganyika which is the second-deepest lake in the world after Lake Baikal in Russia.
Other groups which migrated into what is now Zambia came from the Luba and Lunda tribes. The Luba and the Lunda are the largest ethnic groups in the southern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Some of them also live in northern Angola.
There was another wave of immigrants which entered the area. These were the Ngoni and the Sotho who migrated from South Africa in the 1800s, contributing to the ethnic and cultural diversity of what is now Zambia.
As the 1800s came to an end, the demographic landscape of the area had already been shaped, with each of the ethnic groups having established a homeland. The areas are still the homelands of the tribes in Zambia today, each having a clear ethnic and cultural identity.
But they were soon to lose their freedom and independence to imperial rulers. The pioneer of this imperial conquest was Cecil Rhodes. He was the leader of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) and entered the region in search of minerals but also with territorial ambitions to establish a British colony.
The first success he had was when he convinced King Lewanika of the Lozi – also known as Baratose – to sign a treaty in 1890 giving him mineral rights in the land of these indigenous people in the western part of the country. This eventually led to the establishment of a colonial territory that later came to be known as North-Western Rhodesia. The colonial entity was established in 1891 under the charter of the British South Africa Company.
The British South Africa Company also established control in the eastern part of the country. The eastern part was inhabited by the members of the Ngoni tribe who had migrated to region from Natal in South Africa.
The Ngoni tried to resist this imperial incursion and put up a stiff defence under their leader, Mpezeni, but they lost. The British South Africa Company went on to seize this territory and named it North-Eastern Rhodesia.
For a period, the two colonial territories were administer as separate entities. But they were both British imperial possessions under the same leadership.
The two territories were merged in 1911 to form one colony. The merger was facilitated by the British South Africa Company and the new colony was named Northern Rhodesia.
Kalomo, a town in the southern part of the country, became the first administrative centre – or capital – of the colony of Northern Rhodesia.
The capital was moved to Livingstone between 1907 and 1911. Livingstone is also in the southern part of the country and was named in honour of the missionary-doctor-explorer David Livingstone.
In 1923, the British South Africa Company lost control of Northern Rhodesia when the British Government refused to extend the company's mandate. It revoked the company's charter.
It was also in the same year, 1923, that Southern Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe – which was also administered by the British South Africa Company, became a self-governing territory, giving substantial powers to the white minority settlers over the black majority in that country.
In August 1953, the British colonial settlers established the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. It comprised Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland which was renamed Malawi after independence. The union was also known as the Central African Federation.
Many Africans, especially the nationalists, in all the three countries – of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland – were opposed to the establishment of the federation. Like their counterparts in East Africa – Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika – who were also strongly opposed to the establishment of an East African federation by the British rulers, they felt that the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland would consolidate white domination.
But the white settlers ignored them. They intended to declare independence one day, excluding the black majority.
The federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved in December 1963 under sustained opposition by black African nationalists. It was the dawn of a new era which finally led to independence in the territories involved.
Formation of another federation, on terms stipulated by Africans, was proposed years later by Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda when he said Zambia and the newly independent Zimbabwe should unite under one federal government. According to a report, “Zambia, Zimbabwe Federation Can Defeat Western Influence,” in The Herald, Harare, Zimbabwe:
“In April 1980, Zambia’s founding president Dr Kenneth Kaunda made a stunning proposal on strengthening the economic power of Zambia and Zimbabwe following the latter’s attainment of political independence on April 18 of that year.
Dr Kaunda proposed a federation of Zambia and Zimbabwe. This was stunning because Dr Kaunda had, as a matter of fact, proposed to be the federal foreign minister with President Mugabe as president.
This was unprecedented in Africa and would by today have countered the west’s attempted siege on Zimbabwe.
Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi were from 1953 to 1963 a federation with the capital at Salisbury, now Harare with Great Britain pulling the strings from Lancaster House.
The Federation’s resources were channelled to Salisbury and London to be enjoyed by the white minority.
When Independent Zambia and Malawi broke the back of the federation, Ian Douglas Smith then Rhodesian prime minister made his Unilateral Declaration of Independence on November 11 1965, isolating his minority regime from Britain and to an extent the rest of the world, save for apartheid South Africa.
In revisiting Dr Kaunda’s proposal during an interview with a foreign correspondent in Lusaka, one must look at the history and the current situation existing in the sub-region vis-à-vis western powers, particularly the USA and Britain.
The cause of the current problems in Zimbabwe is that the Government of Zimbabwe under Zanu-PF and President Mugabe reclaimed, without compensation, land from the descendants of Rhodesian settlers who had, in the 18th century kicked out indigenous Zimbabweans from prime land and kept it for themselves and their descendants
On the eve of Zimbabwe’s independence, the stakeholders in the then Zimbabwe-Rhodesia including the liberation movements, Zanla and Zipra, held discussions mediated by Britain at Lancaster House agreeing, among other things, that Britain would compensate white commercial farmers once time came to empower indigenous Zimbabweans.
In November 1997, November 5 to be specific, Britain abrogated its promises and President Mugabe had to act to fulfil his pledge to give people the land so many had died for, and as soon as that happened the British government of Tony Blair joined by their American cousins ran amok accusing President Mugabe of human rights abuses and initiated sanctions that have been choking Zimbabwe.
Suffice to say the Zimbabwean opposition backed by some western governments and economic refugees in the Diaspora have created an untenable international situation for the survival of Zimbabwe.
There is need to revisit Dr Kaunda’s foresight into today’s political and economic situation.
When it comes to wisdom, even though I have an advanced western education, I am a Kaundaist at heart and will never apologise to anyone.
Dr Kaunda, at the inception of Zimbabwe’s independence foresaw the loss of many qualified exiles that had become Zambian residents from journalists, nurses, security personnel to doctors and civil servants who left a big vacuum in Zambia as they trekked back to rebuild Zimbabwe. Had anyone then decided to take that challenging proposal, I doubt if at all the prevailing economic situation would have been as it is today. I might add too that a federated Zambia and Zimbabwe would have been a power block to reckon with because:
There would have been a continuity of a well-groomed civil service in both countries.
There would have been enough land to go between the native peoples and the descendants of white settlers. A lot of whites who lost their land in Zimbabwe have settled in the Zambian Mkushi farming block.
There would have been a very healthy and competitive political spirit in the federation, judging by the good parliamentary democracy existing in both countries today.
The points above would have negated the hostility exhibited by big brother Britain and United States.
In numbers we have strength and that is what the federation would have brought and can still bring. Vast natural resources exist in Zambia and Zimbabwe that would satisfy all the citizens without recourse to big brothers.
The spirit of unity in Sadc and to a greater extent the African Union that has been shown by men like Presidents Levy Mwanawasa, and Thabo Mbeki to stand by Zimbabwe internationally should any international power try to divide us by refusing to invite President Mugabe to the forthcoming EU-Africa summit, goes a long way in showing how as one common people, Zambians and Zimbabweans can form a perfect union that takes them out of the prevailing economic malaise.
President Mugabe and Zanu-PF, now remain the more serious and mature party politically in an envisaged federal government and thus, the onus remains on them to spearhead the formation of the federation as proposed by Dr Kaunda years ago.
The benefits would be immense and would render big brother’s tactics against Zimbabwe impotent. A new regional power in the mould of South Africa would emerge and there is no telling the growth of opportunity in all areas that would benefit the people and Africa in particular.
Let us take up the challenge and form the Federation of Zambia and Zimbabwe now, posterity will hold us in high esteem!” – (Allan S. Mulenga, “Zambia, Zimbabwe Federation Can Defeat Western Influence,” in The Herald, Harare, Zimbabwe, 16 October 2007).
The dissolution of the white-dominated Central African Federation helped pave the way for the independence of its constituent territories, Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, with the exception of Southern Rhodesia whose liberation came years later in April 1980 after a bloody guerrilla warfare against white minority rule.
In the case of Northern Rhodesia, the country became independent on 24 October 1964 and changed its name to Zambia.
Zambia is a landlocked country. It's bordered by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the north; by Tanzania on the northeast, Malawi on the east, Mozambique on the southeast; by Zimbabwe on the south and southeast; by Botswana on the south, Namibia on the southwest, and by Angola on the west.
The capital of Zambia is Lusaka. It's located in the southeastern part of the country. During the liberation struggle against white minority governments in the countries of southern Africa, Lusaka served as an operational base for the liberation movements, together with Dar es Salaam, the capital of neighbouring Tanzania which was the headquarters of all the liberation movements in Africa during that period.
Zambia had a population of about 13 million in 2009 in an area of 290,587 square miles.
The majority of the people live around Lusaka and in a region known as the Copperbelt which is located in the northwestern part of the country.
The official language of Zambia is English. Other major languages are Nyanja, Bemba, Lunda, Tonga, Lozi, Kaonde and Luvale. They are mostly regional languages, although many people who speak these languages also live in different parts of the country, especially in the towns and cities.
Urbanisation, especially since the 1950s, the decade before independence, has played a big role in this demographic change and reconfiguration.
The transformation has had a profound impact on Zambian national life and culture, compounded by foreign influences which have introduced new values and ideas, as well as life styles unheard of before.
Old tribal ways remain strong even in towns and cities. But they have come increasing pressure from foreign influence.
Even influences from other African countries have had a negative impact on Zambia's cultural life. For example, interest in Congolese music is so widespread that indigenous music now plays a subordinate role among many Zambians especially those who live in towns and cities cross the country.
Interest in foreign culture and material things, especially from the industrialised and “civilised” West, also has had negative consequences. For example, growth in the second-hand clothing industry, known as salaula in Zambia, has had a profound effect on the domestic clothing industry. It has almost destroyed it. The term salaula means “to rummage through a pile.”
The term refers to the bundled used clothing obtained from developed countries, especially those in the West mainly the United States, Britain, Canada and others such as Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and France.
There is genuine demand for clothes. But, also, there is no question that many people prefer to wear, and they want to be seen wearing, Western clothes, because it makes them look more “civilised” than their brethren who don't have or can't afford those kinds of clothes.
It's mental slavery.
Even in matters of language, many educated Zambians prefer English, ignoring their tribal languages which they consider to be beneath them and good only for “illiterates” especially those in the rural areas.
Aware of this threat to their cultural integrity, many Zambians, including government officials encourage their fellow countrymen to be proud of their cultures – tribal customs and traditions – and their African way of life.
The government has even launched initiatives to preserve, protect and promote tribal cultures which collectively constitute the nation's cultural diversity. For example, the kuomboka traditional ceremony of the Lozi people of western Zambia is one of the practices which has been accorded attention by the government as a cultural institution worth of preservation.
The word kuomboka, in the Lozi language, literally means “to get out of water.” In my Nyakyusa language spoken mostly in southwestern Tanzania and by many Nyakyusas in the Cooperbelt Province and elsewhere in Zambia, the term for that is kuloboka which literally means “to cross.” This striking similarity is typical of Bantu languages because of their common origin.
The term kuomboka among the Lozi is used to describe a cultural event which takes place at the end of the rain season when the waters of the upper Zambezi River cover the plains of the Western Province of Zambia in a big flood, making it very difficult and sometimes almost impossible for people to move freely.
The event is a traditional ceremony which involves royal movement. The king of the Lozi, who is known as the Litunga, literally moves from his royal compound at Lealui in the Barotse Floodplain of the Zambezi River to Limulunga, his second royal residence which is on higher and safer ground away from the flood.
This cultural event involves a lot of drumming which takes place before the king relocates. The drumming takes place around the royal residence the day before the ceremony and is intended to announce the coming of kuomboka the next day.
The litunga is carried on a barge called Nalikwanda. The barge bears the official seal of Zambia: coat of arms with black and white colours.
The barge also carries a large figure of a black elephant whose ears can be manipulated by the people on the barge. The barge also has a fire which is highly symbolic in the culture of the Lozi. Its significance is also directly related to the institution of the monarchy.
The smoke from the fire is intended to signify something very important to the Lozi as a cultural and ethnic entity. It also tells the people that their king, the litunga, is still in full control and in good health.
The king's barge is accompanied by another one for his his wife. The wife's barge carries a very large cattle egret called Nalwange. The egret also elephant features. Its wings can be easily manipulated to move up and down like the ears of an elephant.
These are some of the most prominent symbols of the kuomboka ceremony.
Kuomboka is one of the most important traditional ceremonies in Zambia intended to preserve customs and traditions, and the traditional way of life, among the people across the country.
The promotion and preservation of tribal languages is another area of concern.
Zambia has a number of major tribal languages. But they are not necessarily representative of the country's ethnic composition.
There are at least 75 different ethnic groups in Zambia but only seven major tribal languages. These languages are also identified with particular ethnic groups which are regionally entrenched.
The large number of ethnic groups in Zambia is one of the most remarkable features of this country.
It's a land of remarkable contrasts in terms of geography, culture, life, social and political institutions, social and economic conditions as well as history and demographic composition. As Scott D. Taylor states in his book, Culture and Customs of Zambia:
“The country is also one of the most urbanized in sub-Saharan Africa, a phenomenon that began with the colonial era gravitation toward the central mining regions of Zambia's Copperbelt.
As a result of this urban influx, Zambia's diverse ethnolinguistic groups interact regularly. Moreover, many contemporary Zambian households, especially those in cities, are also exposed to the media, technology, and influences of Western urbanized cultures....
In other words, notions of tradition and modernity conflict and combine in interesting ways in contemporary Zambia.
Not surprisingly, for all these reasons, scholars from a variety of disciplines have been fascinated by Zambia's political, economic, and social-development experiences, and the challenges thereto, because the country offers unique insights as well as important lessons for the rest of Africa.” - Scott D. Taylor, Culture and Customs of Zambia, Santa Barbara, California, USA: Greenwood Press, 2006, p. ix).
While Zambia's unique characteristics provide insights into the country's unique experiences, they equally serve to illuminate themes in other Africa contexts whose relevance is continental in scope because of the striking similarities which are shared by most countries across the continent.
Yet there is a limit to which such similarities can be used as analytical tools in different national contexts because of the differences which exist among these countries.
In the case of Zambia, there is no question that history and geography have interacted in a unique way to produce a nation that exists today but which is also seen as a model for other countries in many areas of national life.
One of those areas is culture where cultural fusion has taken place, cutting across ethno-linguistic boundaries. But there are also situations in which tribal customs are maintained by different groups.
There are also customs which are shared by people of different ethnic groups.
However, in many cases, ethno-linguistic and cultural boundaries are blurred in urban areas which are cosmopolitan in outlook and where loyalty to one's tribe is not as strong as it is in the more conservative rural areas:
“The urban environment has produced an amalgam of traditional and modern where different groups mix socially, linguistically, and in any variety of professional and personal contexts. Thus, the customs in Zambia's urban zones have become increasingly homogenized....
A variety of geographical, historical, and political influences impact culture and customs in Zambia. Interestingly, culture and customs both are undergoing profound changes and revealing important continuities at the same time.
The continued flight to cities, typically in search of employment, for example, has increased citizens' exposure to more Western ideas and influences.
Zambia's recent transition to a more democratic form of government has increased opportunities for social interaction and public expression.
Zambia remains essentially 'Zambian,' however, in the sense that the character of its citizens is unique within the region and within Africa as a whole.
In Zambia today, as in much of Africa, tradition and modernity not only exist side by side, but also what is modern becomes throughly endogenized (sic), and the traditional is altered and adapted as well....
What one sees, then, is a uniquely Zambian combination of elements – in politics, religion, social relations, and so forth.
Culture is inherently fluid, and so it is in Zambia; people adopt new customs and characteristics as a result of exposure to different groups and different customs. Western and other non-Zambian norms are introduced by travel, music, television, and the arts.
Cultural ceremonies die or fade from memory, whereas long-dormant ones are revived and help rekindle a sense of identity, such as the Umutomboko ceremony of the Lunda people.
By the same token, intra-Zambian norms are shared as a result of the inculcation of a thoroughly national identity.
Although this identity was initially imposed artificially through colonialism, a collective sense of so-called Zambianness was later forged out of necessity by President Kaunda and the post-colonial government. Indeed, consider that in precolonial times, the Lozi people had scant knowledge of their Bemba counterparts; today they interact regularly in social, economic and political forums.” (Ibid., pp. ix – x).
The creation of this new identity was very much a product of colonialism, not only in Zambia – what was then Northern Rhodesia – but in other parts of Africa as well.
Before the advent of colonial rule, there was no Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast), Kenya, Nyasaland (now Malawi), Tanganyika (which became Tanzania after uniting with Zanzibar), Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Southern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe, Gambia, or any of the countries on the continent with the exception of Ethiopia and a few others. It was the imperial powers who created those countries.
But although they divided Africans, they also united them. As Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanganyika, later Tanzania, stated in 1960 not long before he led Tanganyika to independence from Britain the following year:
“Africans all over the continent, without a word being spoken either from one individual to another or from one African country to another, looked at the European, looked at one another, and knew that in relation to the European they were one.” - Julius Nyerere, quoted by Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa and The West, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Huntington, New York, 2000, p. 70. See also Arthur Hazlewood, editor, African Integration and Disintegration, London: Oxford University Press, 1967).
Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) was no exception. It was an imperial creation.
And this collective sentiment – of the oneness of Africa and Africans – helped to fuel African nationalism in Northern Rhodesia as much as it did in other parts of Africa. As Kenneth Kaunda, the leader of the independence movement in Northern Rhodesia, stated: “Zambia Shall be Free.” That was also the title of his book, first published in 1963, just before he led his country to independence in 1964.
And when the country emerged from colonial rule, the task of nation building and consolidation began.
One of the main tasks was to unite the people of different ethnic groups into a cohesive bloc. It is a task that continues today.
And the country has had an impressive record through the decades trying to achieve this goal. There has also been significant cultural interaction, and fusion, as a result of external influences, producing a unique Zambian identity. As Scott Taylor states:
“Examples abound of the merging of cultures and customs, both intra-Zambian and between Zambian and Western traditions and practices.
Christianity is pervasive, though it incorporates indigenous traditions in some locales; English is the first language of many middle class urban children; traditional, historically secretive wedding rites are now commonly captured on that most essential of modern devices, video; urban dialects of Nyanja and Bemba language are increasingly sprinkled with English words so as to form altogether new speech patterns; the cultural ceremonies of one ethnic group are adopted, modified, and incorporated into those of another – e.g., such that the marriage ritual amatebeto becomes a Zambian cultural tradition as much as a Bemba one.
In short, these new customs, habits – indeed, traditions – thus become thoroughly embedded, and the culture adapts to accommodate them.
These are the issues that make the study of the culture and customs of Zambia so compelling and dynamic.” - (S. D. Taylor, Culture and Customs of Zambia, op.cit., p. xi).
Equally compelling and inspiring are Zambia's other characteristics including physical and geographical features as well as climate. The country is known for its geographic diversity.
It also has abundant fertile land, unlike many other countries on the continent.
Availability of plenty of arable land is one of the main reasons Zambia has been able to maintain peace and stability through the decades since independence, making it possible almost for every Zambian to get some land without fighting for it.