Zambia's Independence

Zambia’s Independence In thy cozy loamy soils deeply flowed mine young blood/ In thy sun- scotched patches birth-ed thee a patriotic lad/ How this thought of hilarity mine psyche partly flood/ Thy progeny in hope mine entrails thou maketh glad/ Thy black visage daily mine heart gladly beholdeth/ For thine good, whence mine desire dryly flourisheth/ Oh Zambia, kind Mother to me thou may be more/ Oh land, thy toil, the oil that boileth our common soul! BRIEF INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the author relives the memories of Zambia’s 19th independence celebrations as a child at Mibenge Primary School in Mibenge’s village in Samfya- Mansa district of Luapula Province. It introduces the major theme of independence, the founding fathers of the independent Republic of Zambia, and the promise of a prosperous, democratic and free nation. MAJOR THEME: Independence ≈ History ≈ Politics ≈ §1.1 Mibenge was born on the ninth Christmas after Zambia became independent. My mother told me that she almost named me Mary had I been a girl, but for the second born who was already called by that name in the family. I was born Charles Chushi Zachariah Mwewa to Zachariah I 1 Kalubeya Mwewa and Justina Kunda of Mibenge village in Samfya-Mansa district in the Luapula Province of Zambia.2 I am positioned seventh in an eight-member family of only two girls: John Mwewa, Mary Kalaba, Gilbert Ng’andwe, George (also called Charles Chibwe), Joseph Ng’andwe, Jeremiah Chushi, and Anne Mwewa. When I was born, it was perhaps not a family secret that I was unexpected. My parents could have been attempting to have another girl following a gang of four boys after Mary. Twice I had to prove myself worthy of belonging to my family; once I escaped death; and twice my mother apologized, albeit, in a diplomatic way. As a child, my mother remarked, “You have always been so kind, so helpful. At more than one occasions you offered me help when none of your brothers did.” At another time, probably between the ages of four and six, doctors wrote me off and discharged me from hospital to “go home and die.” Miraculously, I lived. Then, a bang, after one-of-its-kind wedding ceremony, which most commentators said could as well have featured as “wedding of the year,” on July 1 Mibenge village is situated between Mansa, the province’s headquarters, and Samfya, an archaeological site on the western shore of Lake Bangweulu where grinding grooves are found on flat rock surfaces. The grooves are believed to have been from the Stone Age era. 1 2 It is interesting that Peter Kalumba Chishala has sung of Luapula and Mwewa in his song Kwesu Kawaliwamisha (literally, Luapula is the best) as the place where the Mpende (Redbreast Tilapia) fishes breed. Page 12th, 2003, in Lusaka, my mother remarked, “The one I never expected has brought me more honor”! My father had briefly immigrated to the former Zaire perhaps to seek employment in the striving Katanga Province. Due to illness, he returned to Mibenge where he later died in October 1983. My father and I traveled regularly. I missed my Grade One enrolment twice in a row due to our constant travels to and from the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. In January 1983, my father finally enlisted me at Mibenge Primary School. I was puzzled when my father registered me at Mibenge Primary School in Grade One as Zachariah Chuchi, omitting my first and last names. Perhaps he knew he would not be living too long and wanted me to inherit his names. I later resorted to my first and last names when I transferred to Luano Primary School in Grade Two in Chingola.3 Mibenge comprised several smaller villages each headed and called by the name of the headman. Within Mibenge there was also a village by the same name, which was headed by Chief Mibenge himself. In addition, Chief Mibenge presided over several group of villages including Kombaniya, Kolwe, Kafula, Chilema, Sendapu, Mwanda, Shitini, and many others. My father was born at Chilema village to Kalubeya Mwewa4 and Rosaliya Chibesa. My father belonged to the Bena-Ngulube (or the Warthog-clan). My mother, on the other hand, was born at Kombaniya village to Chinama Chibwe and Ndaliya Mukomango. My mother’s clan was the Mbeba (or the Mouse-clan). I hurled from Kolwe’s village, about 30 to 40 kilometers from Chief Mibenge’s palace in Mibenge village.5 Mibenge Primary School was situated in the vicinity of Chief Mibenge’s palace. At the time, Mibenge Primary School consisted of only three blocks of about three classrooms each with about two offices. There were also other unfinished classrooms being built. The school, the teachers’ houses, the clinic and the palace were built from modern bricks and tin- roof. The majority of the houses and huts in the villages had thatched roofs.6 Although I was nine at the time, I was so small physically that most pupils7 in my Grade One class looked bigger. At the end of my first year in primary school, I came out number two in the whole school. Chilufya Jameson who came out first was a taller, bigger boy so all the attention fell on me. I had instantly become popular at Mibenge Primary School that year. th §1.2 October 24 , 1983 It was here at Mibenge that I first heard about Zambia’s Independence Day. It was October 24th, 1983. The school had set up a large round thatched arena. Several goats were slaughtered. There were dancing and feasting. All I could remember was that everyone who made a speech 3 Luano is also the name of one of the smaller ethnic subdivisions of Zambia. The Luano people live in Lusaka Province east of Lusaka City. 4 Kalubeya Mwewa was from the Lion’s clan or the Bena-Nkalamo 5 Kolwe was not a village per se; it was a stream. However, because Kombaniya and Chilema where my mother and father were born, respectively, were along the banks of the Kolwe Stream, all the villages adjacent became known collectively as Kolwe’s village. 6 There were other individuals who were richer than Chief Mibenge, like Sendapu and his brother Mulonga, who owned large farms and had vehicles and several workers. Mulonga’s mansion was elegant with most of the features of modern building facilities. 7 Dictionary.com defines a pupil as a person, usually young, who is learning under the close supervision of a teacher at school, a 2 private tutor, or the like. In Zambia, students in primary schools are still referred to as pupils. In North America, the term student is used. Page talked about Bamwisa.8 I later came to learn that the term referred to foreigners, and in particular, the colonialists. In Zambia, all White foreigners are collectively referred to as Abasungu (singular: Musungu), which is a transliteration of the Swahili, Wazungu, which literally means, “People who move around.”9 Children sang and danced.10 In their songs and dances they were talking about the rigor and saga of the person they called foreigner. He had yoked them like animals, they said. He had taken away their humanity. He had subjected them to slavery conditions in their own land. He had called them “ka-boys”11 when they were supposed to be grown-up men and women. He had reduced them to second-class citizens. He had spoiled their will to exist as free and independent people. Now he was gone. They were finally free. They sang. They danced. They ululated! These songs, and particularly the message they oozed, would impact me for many years to come. I still remember them so vividly. I can see children dancing in the dust without shoes on them. Some of these kids were wearing the school khaki uniforms, torn and dirty. But they were happy. They had a reason to celebrate. They were free. As they sang, they repeatedly praised Kenneth David Kaunda12 (known as “KK” by the people of Zambia), Mathew Mainza Chona,13 Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula,14 Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe,15 Reuben Kamanga,16 Alexander Grey Zulu,17 and so many others. I already knew 8 In Aushi language, a Bemba dialect spoken in Luapula Province of Zambia, this term loosely refers to economic plunderers, as in when the British imperialists colonized Northern Rhodesia, for so Zambia was called, they also plundered Zambia economically. 9 Peter Firstbrook, The Obamas (New York: Crown Publishers, 2010), p. 84 10 Dancing and singing was not peculiar to Mibenge. Children danced away with girls in the evenings to Nsale-nsale chinkamba. Children did even more; they played all day to “Game and Touch,” to “Eagle and Rounders,” to Sojo and Digo, to Kalambe, to Kankuluwale, to Chidunu and to Tela! 11 Colonial masters called Zambian men working for them as servants, boys. The prefix “ka” in Bemba language denotes a belittling epithet associated with people of the lowest rank. 12 Kenneth Kaunda was Zambia’s first Republican president. He ruled Zambia for over 27 years before he was defeated in an election in 1991 by Frederick Chiluba. 13 Mathew Mainza Chona was born in Monze town in Southern Province of Zambia in 1930. His brilliance as a young student awarded him a scholarship to Munali Secondary School. He later got a scholarship from the British colonial government to study law at Gray’s Inn in England. He was the first Zambian to qualify as a barrister in 1958. He became President of UNIP in 1959, the party that paved the way to Zambia’s independence.

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