OPEN Society Foundation (OSF) has called on investigative wings to reprimand media houses perpetuating tribal sentiments in the country for the sake of Zambia’s continued stability. OSF executive director Sunday Chanda said today in a statement released to the media that lawmakers are also called upon to act with speed and criminalize tribal talk considering that it has the greatest potential to incite Zambians to rise against each other.
Below is the full statement
MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
POLICE SHOULD REPRIMAND MEDIA HOUSES INCITING TRIBALISM
Open Society Foundation (OSF) is calling on investigative wings to reprimand media houses perpetuating tribal sentiments in the country for the sake of Zambia’s continued stability. Lawmakers are also called upon to act with speed and criminalize tribal talk considering that it has the greatest potential to incite Zambians to rise against other Zambians. Zambia does not need to wait until it has become another Kenya or indeed Rwanda to criminalize tribal talk. There is a plethora of examples from countries where this evil has led to the loss of thousands and thousands of innocent lives, including defenseless children.
[pullquote]No one called it tribalism when Kabwata MP Hon. Given Lubinda was mistreated or indeed when Kasama MP GBM was suspended. It was not tribalism then and it is not tribalism now.[/pullquote]
OSF is calling on political players not to fall prey to machinations aimed at creating enmity among Zambian tribes. Zambia must take serious lessons from Kenya which experienced post-election violence predominantly fought along tribal lines. It is an open secret that the Kenyan violence was fought along ethnic lines, which took place mainly in the Rift Valley. This violence saw the Kalenjin youths, supporting the Luo candidate Raila Odinga, turned against the Kikuyus, who are Mwai Kibaki’s tribesmen. The wave of violence that hit the country took everyone by surprise, as Kenya had been seen until then as one of the most successful democracies in East Africa since its transition to a multi-party system in 2002. Along with neighbouring Tanzania, it was the only country in the region not to have experienced a civil conflict. Yet the violence lasted from December 2007 to February 2008; over a thousand people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands became displaced. If Zambia does not take drastic steps to stop the tribal talk being championed by some elements within our society, the country will one day treat itself to a rude awakening.
Lastly, it is our held view that there was nothing tribal about President Michael Sata’s firing of former Justice Minister and former PF Secretary General Wynter Kabimba. No one called it tribalism when Kabwata MP Hon. Given Lubinda was mistreated or indeed when Kasama MP GBM was suspended. It was not tribalism then and it is not tribalism now. Mr. Kabimba’s firing was celebrated by Zambians across tribe and political affiliation, an aspect which should prove to his image builders that no tribalism was involved in his firing. It is a fact that he mismanaged the constitution-making process and his arrogance on this matter, among others, became repulsive to many Zambians. Zambians have not forgotten how he behaved before the Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) after being summoned. Politically, he became bigger than himself and the opposite of President Sata, the man he called his mentor. There has never been a Minister in the history of Zambia whose firing has been celebrated as a victory for the people across tribe and politics. Those who claim to love Mr. Kabimba to the point of almost pontiffying him into a Political Saint, must become candid with him by urging that he reflects on why he became Zambia’s most despised politician. There is something deeply wrong which only Mr. Kabimba can change about himself if he is to become more relevant in serving a country he loves.
Issued By:
Sunday Chilufya Chanda, Executive Director, OSF
No. Let us talk about tribalism; specifically PF or Bemba tribalism. The PF has been at the forefront of accusing non-Bembas as tribalists. But we have seen how the country has been turned into a Bemba empire in the cabinet, civil service, foreign service and parastatal sector etc. Every public organisation has a Bemba Board and a Bemba management. This should be talked about daily until Sata and his tribal PF start acting in the interests of All Zambians instead of his tribal grouping.
Why all of sudden there is a talk of anti-tribalism talk after Kabimba’s demise.pf and mmd have always been at the forefront of labeling UPND as tribal.So what has changed?pf was,is and will always be tribal period because it is full of Northerners.
Please Mr.Chanda(Bemba chap) can you break down the cabinet posts,Permanent secretaries heads of parastatal companies and all those in the diplomatic services region by region.
I have to agree with you.
I have said it before. The North, these country-mates of the Congo diaspora, are the most tribal hegemonistic group.
The editor of the infamous bwinjimfumu paper is also from Ituli forest of the Congo. He is as tribal as one can get so much that he made a pack with Sata to oust Banda, whatever the failing of the former president were.
That son of wickedness even called the South, a Bantustan, akin to the Boer Apartheid supremacists who rubbished blacks.
I will always remember some ladies including elderly ones at the last polls who determinedly said, ‘…twalichivotela pantu chipuba chesu…’ referring to the now indisposed occupant of Nkwazi house. And then even a young educated workmate is reported to have said, ‘…..ine teti votele…
Monday, sorry Sunday, i think the Police police should be asked to arrest those that have been making tribal appointments to all govt positions and also to those that accept these positions. PF is tribal and this is a fact
Mr Chanda we dare you arrest as for calling a spade a spade.we shall be intimdated .Were there is injustice we should speak.We shall fight for our rights to the bitter endjust like our fore fathers fought for independence.
Chanda, you seem to be disillusioned. What explains the level of one tribe dominating senior govt position through bias appointments? That is what you should be fighting and not the media house highlighting the issue being done by your un.cle.
Can Someone tell me how many seats PF won in Southern and Western provinces. If you people complaining now did not give Sata MPs where else do you expect him to pick ministers? Lozis want the president to honour his promises, but wait a minute, how do you expect him to do that when you all rejected him. In the entire western province pf only has 2 seats and southern province Pf only has 1 so who is practicing tribalism? You won’t force him to pick you if you rejected him. I would be the last person to call HH a tribalist if luapula and Northern provinces reject him and he in turn fails to appoint anyone from these regions to his cabinet or any other government position. Lets criticize pf on their failed policies and promises and not tribe because you are all culprits.
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Mr. Sunday Chanda, my former fellow Kabulonga Boys debate team friend, is it tribalism when it is directed at UPND and HH? You see, Bemba’s started all this talk about tribalism. They first attack Lozi’s. Then they started attacking Tonga’s calling them tribal. Why did you not speak out then. Could it be that you being Bemba also blinded you to this vice? I want to say also that I am proud of the way Tonga’s have pushed back on this tribal tag. Today no Bemba can get away with calling Tongas tribal without hearing it from the masses. This must continue. If Bemba’s want to cease fire, Tongas will unclinch their fists and great them with love. It is as simple as that!!! You are free to condemn UPND in whatever style you choose, but never use tribal tags to demonize your fellow Zambians.
Tats the Point.!
There has ever only been one political grouping in Zambia that has openly declared tribal leaning pertaining to its leadership succession, and this is documented. What documentary evidence, aside from blogging, do you have of those that started the tribal talk? It would be nice to discuss it from that angle, Sir/Madam…
You’re indeed building fellow countryman as Bricklayer. This statement from my esteemed Mr Chanda should have come two years ago. While many bloggers mentioned this about the Post being the sycophants of the tribal tag against HH and his heritage, no one asked the media to be investigated or play maturity to unify our country. It’s easy to call a Tonga tribal but the other NOT in Mr Chanda’s eyes. While I agree that there is no room for tribal bashing, this should not be a preserve of one region or tribe, it should be for ALL sections/regions/tribes of Zambia. Yes, let’s stop the rot and never call HH or anyone tribal again, instead let’s criticize each on fundamentals and progressive ideas is at there any in PF.
The Post by Fred Mmembe. Every time his interests are threatened, he cries ‘tribal’, corruption and ‘criminals’. When everything is going great for him, everything is cool, even though he’s failing to pay his taxes. Isn’t failure to pay taxes the biggest corruption and crime?
So, when the tribal sentiments are used on a Bemba dominated party suddenly the likes of Sunday Chanda find something wrong with that and come out daggers drawn baying for the blood of anyone that dares call us Tribal, well, you must understand that Zambian now know how we have played off people from one region against each other in quest for political domination with which we have done no good with, am sorry But the presidency of my clansmen has not and never has resulted in welfare improvement for any Zambian other than the politicians and their families and its hight time we all rose above such petty things and learn to look for quality leadership, even if that may be Lozi, Tonga , Kaonde, Luvale , Kalunda or Namwanga. Zambia is bigger than any tribal egos
Thank you and God bless you for speaking the truth.
How many political parties are led by Bembas in Zambia? If they were tribal they would have belonged to PF. (Chipimo, Mumba, Mumba, Mulongoti, Mpombo)
I agree. Sunday’s tribal talk is misplaced and should be condemned. However in a democracy where one person one vote is the rule in addition to ‘first past the post’, it could take more than a century before groups other than Bemba and ‘Ngoni’ have a chance at national leadership! Demographics as they are now unfortunately favour Bemba for good or bad reasons.
I would go for a vote based on province or district with major ethnic groups in those boundaries factored in. In that case each province gets only a vote making it possible for beneficial alliances to take effect. This may appear like a pipe dream now but once done well can work wonders for Zambia.
Great point! As usual, if we break down the so-called tribes, we will just realize that actually BEMBA presidency has not happened yet. The ubiquitous nature of the LANGUAGE has deceived many to think that the Bemba tribal grouping is very large when in fact not. But if you want to equate regionalism to tribalism, then, yes, we seem to have had people from the North (including the North-east) incidentally dominating the presidency. The question we should ask is ‘Why?’ On the whole, if you insult an electorate and then ask them to vote, they will work very hard to look another way. Hate speech works counter to expectation ALWAYS.
@Kalok,
If you choose to take the route of ‘nature of language ..’ you will find that technically Bembas are indeed tiny and may only be ba shilubemba or other hard cores from Chinsali! I know of Bemba apologetics who argue this way. Your principle can then equally apply to any other grouping in Zambia.
Many peripherals are however happy to be called Bembas and I suppose that is all that matters in the quest for national resources. Kalok, can you clarify the difference between tribal talk and hate speech in terms of … lets say chicken and egg analogy or any other for that matter?
PF is tribal right to the born and this is what must be condemned and not people observing and raising attention to PF tribalism. Kabimba who was shielding your party against tribalism sentiments is gone now face your music.
Nothing more to add. The responses are self explanatory and Mr. Chanda must surely reflect on the comments and observations of the bloggers here.
Mr. Njalamimba Musonda, Mulogoti and Mpombo are not Bemba imwe, Mpombo is from the copperbelt – Lambas and Mulogoti is from the central province.
We do not need Police to check tribal sentiment. What we need is a national conversation on hate speech. Most of what is happening especially on blogospheres and online media is hate speech, not tribal talk. Whenever it is suitable, the ENTIRE northern region of Zambia (sometimes including part of the East) becomes BEMBA because of a shallowness to investigate. Yes, lets look at appointments, qualification, capacity, function, performance, etc. This paintbrush that is being used to discuss tribe is so wide that it is literally painting outside of the lines that it is supposed to stick to. Lets have a conversation about hate speech and tribe. After that, escalate it to lawmakers like advanced nations have done.
Even the nonsense of labeling the entire Southern Province as TONGA is equally absurd. Zambia is one of the most urbanized countries on the continent and the mix that has happened in a short space of 50 years is such that rushing back to the dustbin of tribal hegemony in history and trying to bring it back in the 21st Century is just sheer folly. Remember that intermarriages in Rwanda became a toss-up when this hate speech flared up into full scale conflict. Let’s have a CLEAR conversation, I say. We are too enlightened to get stuck in hate speech under the guise of tribal talk. It is just too cheap to avoid going below the surface of this conversation.
This is stone age talk. Don’t you see that there is tribalism painted everywhere within PF? Are you denying the existence of tribalism in Zambia? Then you must be mentally sick and schizophrenic.
That is exactly the short-circuited diagnostics that I am referring to. Out of your inability to rally consensus you decide to dole out the verdict of mental sickness and schizophrenia. God forbid if you are actually in the medical profession.
@Kalok: I pit you if you are in the medical profession yourself. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that even though mental illness, schizophrenia included, is as ancient as this world, misdiagnosis of it is still prevalent? I am ready to give you findings in studies conducted by Harvard, Stanford etc., where the rate of misdiagnosis has been found to be as much as 40%.
As for tribalism in Zambia, please give me your proper justification for it, now 50 years after we attained independence from Great Britain? Don’t you see how neighboring Tanzania, Ghana and Botswana, to mention but a few, are doing so much better, for having abhorred it? Please “dole out the verdict of” your justification for tribalism in Zambia, if indeed you are as educated as you purport to be?
@Mei Matunga – Ok, ok, you pitY me, that is fine. Unless you are a medical professional (which, from your write up you clearly are not) I will not belabor myself to discuss medical matters with you at this point. You have no idea about Tanzania (you heard of the Chagas, the Heyas, the Pares???) – don’t be fooled by the Swahili language, it is only that they have avoided hate speech up there!! Botswana has the Kalangas, the Hereros, Basarwas, Tswanas – and they are grappling with their own brand of ‘discrimination’; however, in Botswana you get PROSECUTED for tribal talk which has been clearly defined in terms of what goes within the bounds, and what is HATE speech. Ghana, I have no information at all but I know there are problems there that are harnessed by LEGISLATION.
I have not offered up any verdict, thank you. YOU decided what schizophrenia and mental illness is. I still put it to you that what Zambia needs is legislation against HATE speech, NOT Policemen deciding who is being TRIBAL…
@Kalok: You seem to cleverly evade a direct and clear response to the concern against tribalism in Zambia. Your pre-occupation is for :”legislation against HATE speech.” Implicitly, it doesn’t bother you as to why there is “HATE speech.” But if you are truly a medical person as you seemed to imply in your posting above, then should have expected you to realize that “CAUSE’ and not “SYMPTOM” is the basis for effective cure.
Legislation “against HATE speech,” as you have put it, is an effort in futility. It is still there in countries where such legislation was passed some 200 years ago.. HATE speech is only a symptom. If you are an honest person, you will admit this. Tribalism vis-Ã -vis racism is the spider. Let Zambia pass legislation against tribalism instead.
The writing is clear on the wall. Only names of certain origin are considered for top jobs in this country. And really that is the basis for the troubles being manifested on social media.
You must be a hypocrite to talk against “tribal sentiment” today. Tribal sentiment has always been at the center of Zambian politics. Bembas in particular are yet to demonstrate a readiness to be led by someone from another tribe. Check the record. The Bemba vote has always been tribal since 1964. Check also the political appointments within the current PF government.
If you were indeed civilized enough, you would be looking at how to eliminate the cause, and not the symptom. In Zambia, tribalism is entrenched. It is a government policy. Why should people and media houses be disallowed to talk or write against it?
Let us confront this demon of tribalism. What is it that makes the North only give HH/UPND less than 1% (ONE percent) of the their vote when Southern Province gave Sata more than 16% and the late Chiluba more than 90%? Today Sata/PF are a third or even 40% of the South vote and yet the North cannot even pass the ONE percent they previously gave UPND. Tribalistic hegemonistic Congo forest diaspora group.
Bembas or should I just say the North inhabitants from Congo, come out clean on this very your tribal nature and manipulation.
Sunday Chanda comments would make sense if they were spoken in honesty and with national interest at heart. Where was Chanda when Sata accused Mwanawasa of tribalism even when there was none? Chanda should be speaking with the head of state and asking him to consider appointing other people from other parts of the country into senior government position. We as Zambians should not bury our heads in sand. It’s very clear that PF and its leadership are not for all Zambians but only for bemba speaking Zambians. I am from Mporokoso but I am ashamed with the president’s behavior. Even development is following the same path, Muchinga first, then Northern then Luapula then the rest of Zambia. This is not right and Sunday should be condemning this and not trying to fix their friend at the Post!
Tribalism is a reality, it is natural and God given. Leaders must just know how to manage it through good national governance. Tell me, which one is the lesser evil, nationalism or tribalism, or are they not the same with family responsiblities?
Devolution of all power to the people at various levels is the panacea!
Even when it is true that PF is running a Bemba government
@kalok, Chanda, and all pro-Bemba sympathisers: it is your tribalism that now sees danger in labeling your Bemba PF as tribal. You never condemned this when Mmembe was directing his venom against UPND and Tongas. What hypocrites you are! Bemba tribalism has been confirmed by Mmembe, one of your own and it pains you. We are not fooled.
Where has this c.h.i.s.u.s.h.i. called SUNDAY CHANDA suddenly started smelling from? Why didn’t it start smelling that time when all the other vi-su-shis came out blasting wind just when kabimba got fired, because by now we would no longer be troubled by a remnant c.h.i.s.u.s.h.i Sunday Chanda. Was he dead and he just woke up? Come on, we are tired of kabimba, kabimba, kabimba kabimba…when he is so gone it doesn’t make any sense talking about him. BESIDES where Sunday Chanda comes from is the actual origin of tribalism. This letter should have been addressed like this:
To ALL MY FELLOW TRIBALISTS BEMBAs
blah…blah…blah…blah…blah…blah.
Okay, let me now go to the toilet.
Yours truly,
S.C.C.
I fail to understand the thinking of Zambians. If we have been looking around, we should be able to see and realize that the rest of the world has eyes and they see. They see what we do, even if we should change to label to something else. Much as we may want to, the world does not respect our tribalism. This they may not tell us directly. They will not even bother to apply any sanctions against Zambia as a demonstration of their displeasure.
Who really cares if we continue deceiving ourselves that there is no tribalism in Zambia? Recently 50 African leaders met with President Obama in Washington DC. So much money was being offered. Ghana has already signed for $478 million of that. Zambia so far – zero dollars. The difference is how the world perceives Ghana.
Is it not nonsensical and utter lunacy for anyone to insinuate the obnoxious notion of deploying the police to hunt for and arrest those who are writing or speaking against tribalism in Zambia? Don’t you see that tribalism is alive and kicking within the ranks of the ruling PF government? What is your idea if speaking against tribalism is outlawed in Zambia? Wont that have the consequence of institutionalizing tribalism repressively?
Clearly, Sunday Chanda is drunk with power. What a shame!
Tribalism has lead to great violence in Africa. Rwanda; hutus and Tutsis killing each other. We cannot lie down while these divisions in Zambia have become apparent to us. Why should the gov’t go after people who are highlighting these new divisions in Zambia? It is a fact that with the advent of ‘multipartism’ in Zambia we have become more tribal in our Political and Economic allegiances.
Also The reinstatement of tribal chiefs and cultural ways has lead to identity divisions in Zambia (although it is good to acknowledge our customs and origins). Political parties entreat allegiance based on tribe. We should not go around whipping citizens and media houses. They have a duty to warn of these. We have become aware, so let’s work together to stop this.
Yes, let us talk about it. My view is that the PF’s coming into power seems to have turned on the gate valves for tribal muslinging. The 2016 elections may be dominated by tribal voting especially in the traditionally historical Northern region (that includes Luapula and Muchinga), with or without Kabimba or HH. It is not as though the two gentlemen are indeed tribalist, HH has been a victim while Winter wanted to harness it for his own political benefit. The way to go is legislation and of course, preceded by its condemnation by the top leadership of the ruling party. The executive wing has been the culprit while the other two wings have fairly remained “undecided”. Well, maybe because they do not have reasons to be. PF must redeem itself.
Police especially Zambia Police dont reprimand. They arrest fullstop