Present situation in Zambia worse off than during colonial era – Senior Citizen

1. “I was never there during the colonial era but what I am witnessing in our country Zambia is worse than that era.”

   Awful starting point. Otherwise the author’s opinion and reasons for being disgruntled, along with personal biases are well expressed. Would have loved to hear that the author did a little more research in to colonial life by speaking to the older generation. Some will agree. Others probably know that it wasn’t all the milk and honey of the nice little inter racial school kids shot above and those houses, roads, pools and society were not being built for the benefit of all :)

2. Rumbling, oh, old rumbler, rumble on!

3. More money in there pockets.

   • You meant to say/write THEIR instead of THERE.Yaba,poor Zambian!

4. what is this? colonial era better than present day??? if you didn’t wake up well, don’t just write what comes to your mind. your views are misplaced an shallow

   • Ugandan,what is wrong with you.Just because we beat you in football does not mean that you should lose your head too

5. Foolish article by some disgruntled MMD failure. You never saw the wrongs when you were part of the most corrupt GOVT in the world, your comments are based on hatred and envy whose intentions are to mislead and distract. *****

6. he was not there and he wants to comment, what type of a shi.tzen is this one? iwe we have pajeros, lexus, prados and mansions and all you want is to remember the whips our fathers went thru? thats why they got independence so that useless chaps like you can appreciate what they did not to remind them of old wounds. you are even hiding in the term senior yet you were not even close to independence, atase

7. The advice well and clear and to the point, i hope our politicians,the judiciary and M’embe and the Post will learn something and take hind.

8. True!

9. Its no wonder our country has gone to the dogs when bloggers cant even see that the picture of kitwe in 1955 ius much better than present day kitwe. everywhere our country is collapsing and fools think we are doing better

   1

   • Spot on! That Kitwe picture tells all, towns were spotlessly clean compared to now when town centers are littered with body waste and urine stained walls.

10. In trying to heal, we spoilt a generation and didn’t want them to have to work as hard and get more. We produced people who were used to getting things that worked and didn’t encourage the ethic of building, maintaining and having a sense of pride. Work on that. It can be changed. You don’t need a whip and to be called kaffir to become more effective. Pictures aside, how do you think it worked back then? You got the cr*p beat out of you to build beautiful places that gave people the kind of life they NEVER experienced where they came from even if they pretended they did. Get that straight.

    • @ Phiri, I think he is suggesting that pe ople get beaten out of their wits for deliverables…… Because, he is looking at that pic and thinking yeah, Zambia should be developed like this by Politicians. Politicians will come and go, we will employ and fire them for their own failures and our own, as long as we have somebody to blame. In order to make Kitwe like that picture, we need to change our mind set and work extremely hard, because there is so much laziness pa Zedi such that even if the colonia masters were brought back, I don’t think they would manage to get any deliverables even after beating the crap out of everybody lol. Its a lazy generation….. People need to work and respect their jobs, not just surfing the net on company time!!

    • :) we need not be afraid to start initiatives to reclaim our streets and public spaces. Involve the kids, the youth, volunteers and use the spirit of the pioneer (which I respect more than the settler without morals) and instead of 1955, we should tap into online networks for later images and put out a reminder that even 20 years ago, Zambians had the self respect to maintain shared space. Waiting on politicians who should be on the ball will not improve us. We have to be part of the journey to clear our own surrounding. I appreciate the explanation you have provided!

    • @Phiri, Spot on… Pioneer or volunteer is the MAGIC word. Here where I have come to school, if you have not done volunteer work, its difficult to get hired. Volunteer work is drilled in children at the tender age, pupils at high school have to do their volunteer work to earn their high school credits. But kumwesu, when one sees filth, one will go and throw more filth, instead of organising the community to clear it, we are waiting for the government even to sweep our own yard….You are right that we should take up initiative to promote the good cause involving everybody, coupled with hard work and the spirit of serving, things will starting falling in place. You have summerised the solution very well. Good job…

11. There is a degree of truth to what the writer is saying. From the social economic indicators such as GDP, health services, condition of infrastructure, education  etc the colonial era as well as the first decade after after the colonial was certainly much better than now. One did not have to live in the colonial period to see that things have gone bad. Just go to any government school which was inherited at independence from the British government and see its  sorry state. The same applies to all other infrastructure which was inherited at independence. It is dilapidated and broken down.Our GDP is 2/3 of what it was at independence. The Colonialists left us a thriving economy and wealth which we have squandered through bad policies and poor management. 

12. Indeed, good letter. Lets face it our people have failed us in so many ways and the few good ones with vision cant even get close. Its a sad situation. And am just sick and tired of being called one from the list developed country:((

13. what a misguided fo0l!

14. can some one post manda hill, 1955 and manda hill arcades 2012 pics so we can compare which is better

    • That’s all you know chikala

15. And what was the population? 

    • The population does not matter so long as the government and everybody involved have planned properly. There is what you call a national development plan which looks into the future. What is the population of China? Since you want to look at it in those terms. What is the population of India, Brazil? Need I go on and look at their economies and compare with ours!

    • the population was below 5 million in the colonial times. we’ve grown three times more than that population. if you compare us with Brazil, India and China, then you are just being idealistic. these countries already have huge infrastructure for development and have enough personel in most of the fields of development. you, Mulondwe, have not even built a pit latrine for your village and you want to compare this country with big economies? wake up. Zambia is still far.

    • Zambezi, the way you think is the way most Zambians think thats why Zambia hasnt developed- Please i am not having a go at you but thats a fact. Zambians a full of excuses when you ask a Zambia why isnt Zambia doing so well they say the population has made it difficult for the country to develop. When you ask why is Boyswana doing well they say its because they have a small population, and whn you ask why does Nigeria seem to be doing well, they say because they have a big population. When you say then it means Zambia has the perfect population it not big and its not small they say no Botswana has diamonds and if you say what about Nigeria they say they have oil but doesnt Zambia have copper? Zambia has problems of management. However the PF government seems to be doing a good job like LPM

16. The old photos speak volumes in themselves of how clean the city was kept. Go to our cities today and see the gabbage  scattered all over, the potholes. We can’t even manage to put up street lights. Of course the colonial era had negatives as well most notably the discrimination based on race but you  have to agree that even the colonial government took better care of the indigenous people compared to the indigenous governments that followed. The situation happening in South Africa is the same. The apartheid government took better care of black South Africans than the ANC government. The townships had running water and all the basic social services. Nowadays the poverty among black South Africans seems to be rising. The only ones enjoying are those connected to the government.

17. This article and pictures is food for thought since i was not there… With 2 white girls and 1 black girl in a black dominated population… more blacks on bicycles (the rest in the village)… Suppose most if not all the cars in the picture were owned by whites… Ehmmm.

18. I’ll just tire myself out :) Kitwe 1985 looked better than 1955 and it still worked. You don’t need to go back to colonial times to see that the mining towns were still maintained until more recent history. I am wary of giving too much credit to those illegal immigrants who were forced to hand the land back. Zambians (of all colours) are capable of improving so find a post colonial example of something that worked and get a little pride in your own abilities.

19. If this OAP had lived in the late late 70’s, his rumblings would have carried some truth. The roads were tarred, clean, and had street lights, medicines were available at all clinics, rubbish collection was on weekly basis. Of course, people had no color TVs, no ipods,!!! Given a choice of living in big mansions infested with cockroaches, with garbage in the backyard, cholera in the neighborhood, and literally sh*t all over, it is not difficult to make a choice…..

20. Poorly written piece ! a complete waste of ink

21. There are a lot of factors – some external, some of our own making. I mean, what used to be a rail line from Luanshya to Ndola is now a dirt path (slippers vandalized, looted and whatever else)! Street lights are now a subject of Central government prerogative when it should be a local government (and local government means TOWN or CITY) function … there are so many things that we have destroyed without even going to colonial times. By the way, I was never there, and never want to be there! That was another useless era in the development of colonized humankind…

    • its a sorry site my brother. imagine causing derailments just for a piece of rail to use as an anvil for making shomekas

22. This story is a product of lubanje in tonga.this freedom of smoking dagga and posting rubbish is a product of indipendence

23. @ 13 Zero Option do not be myopic in your views. Development is not about putting up malls . Talking about Manda hill how many ordinary Zambians can afford to go and shop there? Mind you more than half the population of Lusaka lives in densely populated townships and shanty compounds. The only people going to shop at Manda Hill are a few hundred government top cats, diplomats, foreigners and that class of people living in Kabulonga, Olympia park, Rhodes park etc etc. To make matters worse most of the shops/companies and even goods being sold are foreign mostly South African meaning they are siphoning out the money. 

    • @ Mulondwe Muzungu – hiya.

      I’m not sure he/she is being myopic. The image above is of a street in a commercial district. How many of the people in 1955 would have been able to shop there? Aside from the fact that they were required to use a hole in the back of the shop and barred by colour from entry hence the development of ‘second class’ trading areas – those shops in the pics would have been reserved for those earning handsomely from the mine, not so?

    • …and filled with foreign goods too. And yep – siphoning money was the order of the day too :)

    • In my humble opinion, I think people working for mines on the Copperbelt had a better standard of living compared to average Zambians at that time. Many were employed unlike now were unemployment is more than 50% so I would suppose a good number could afford to shop there.

    • Ten shillings and 8 pence per shift – this was the era of the mining strikes and the start of attempts to break the colour bar. So I would state again that the hole in the back of the building may well have taken their money but miners did better post independence than they did in the colonial era so comparing current times to back then is skipping an inconvenient truth.

24. He was not there in the colonial era and still calls himself a senior citizen ? Why compare with with an era you were not part of ? This is crap.

25. Wow under colonisim we were much better.
    Much cleaner.
    who one looks to emjoy life as before

26. This is a misdirected personal view borne of frustration…..it is like those that say “it used to be nice in the olden days” just because life is tough for them….Well, I know that there so many good things like the improvement in communication through cell phones, internet, transport etc we have these things that were not available then but it is clear your frustrations are political because you have not cited particular examples of the things that were good in the colonial era in comparison to now…if you wanted to write a scholarly article wabwelapofye…sorry. This is not say all things were bad in the colonial era but tell us what that is!

27. A table for white girls and a table for black girls. Black girls where given longest brushes, black girls where not allowed to where uniforms with collars.
    Wrong to call them “girls”, because there is Inonge Wina and Charlotte Scott in picture.

    • And their children got to all experience a better life than colonial era policies allowed. Not sure why the author dwells on the comparison of pre independence. The kids born in to freedom do not have a clue what to do with it. That’s our problem. We are free to clean up our cities. Nope. Instead we want to talk about how clean it all was when someone else did it.

28. “I was never there during the colonial era but what I am witnessing in our country Zambia is worse than that era” This sentence ba mr has no logic. You are contradicting urself.
    What u have written is true but full of illogical. You had some good points but poorly organised. 

29. Life could have been well only in as far as the white man was concerned. The white man ensured utmost cleanilness. Unfortunately the black man never enjoyed these things. Here in Chigola for instance, black people could not be allowed to use certian roads. One thing we can never dispute is that the towns and roads were kept with exceptional cleaniliness and which thing we can do as well.

30. No old person ever thinks the past is better than the future because in their experience the future is always smaller and far fetched than the present and past … combined

31. The so called senior citizen does not sound so senior to me for rumbling on complaints without specifying exactly what he or she is disgruntled with. He goes to talk about people who are not selected on merit and ont aht you have donors, the church and NGOs!! Who selects donors and NGOs??? This senuior citizen to me just sounds like some cadre from bitter brand who do not see anything positive since September 20th elections. Unfortunately, for this new category of cadres, there is very little, if any that we can do except to attempt some civic education and the principle of universal suffrage!!!! The country is headed for a boom from where I stand and I see a lot of ositive developments on the horizon and certainly I will not compare it with the colonial times, with any nostalgia, poor

32. I was in Livingstone recently and saw some street lights and some newly planted trees in town. I don’t care whether this is becuase of the Tourism thing coming but I was happy and such things must continue. The only challenge was seeing people trading in corridors. Livingstone must also have an inter city bus rank outside of the main town. Cab and minus drivers will make a bit of buck by bringing people into town. Buildings must also be painted by the propriators otherwise their trading licences must not be renewed.

33. city roads appear to have been in a better state than now!!

34. You wouldn’t be using internet if we didn’t get our independance.Pls do not mislead people if you were never there in colonial time. Even the picture you have shown should have been post independence cos there were no blacks in white schools.Pls say something better.

35. Senior Citizen? 
    Surely this can’t be that vile disgruntled chap; if it was him he would have used the same dictionary English from the first word in that very article. Also in the interests of public safety the chap is in a sanatorium being dosed with serious meds as the bitterness got the better of him after the elections and also he could not handle being abandoned by his one and only true master Ala Bee.

36. From the photos its either this pensioner was living the aristocratic life in the Rhodesia days and now he/she is wallowing at a flee market or a council care home somewhere in Blighty. Time you visited Zambia now my dear old friend if you can afford a ticket and get over your nostalgia.
    These are the symptoms of nostalgia description of a sentimental longing for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

37. Was this written by our seasoned Senior Citizen,the most prolific blogger of all times together with MMD CHIEFBOOTLICKER and B.R MUMBA?If it was, then it’s true!
    Now look at you saying ”What about me, I also contribute on LT?”.While fake blogger it’s not about how often you contribute it’s about what you contibute-the contents.

    • What do you contribute yourself apart from kissing a$$?

38. No, colonial??? No naimwe, we were not counted and their dogs were better than us so stop insulting!!!!!!!!!!!

39. Back in ’55 folks were more noble.Folks had respect for hard work unlike now when you have theivery,you joined a party bcoz of its manifesto unlike now when its purely for political opportuinism.Back then folks had respect for rules,for public property and consideration for cleaner environs for others.Back in 1955 folks had respect for traditional values unlike now when we’ve become a man eat man society.

40. My brother, we would rather call you junior citizen. No wonder the Israelites told Moses that it would have been better to go back to Egypt where they were used to eating meat and all sorts of food..Wake-up and do something for your generation.

41. How can you compare to things when you don’t know about the other? Amafuu!

42. Give us proper comparisons. Use parameters for measuring wellbeing of citizens, then and now.

43. #15 Zambezi, the way you think is the way most Zambians think thats why Zambia hasnt developed- Please i am not having a go at you but thats a fact. Zambians a full of excuses when you ask a Zambia why isnt Zambia doing so well they say the population has made it difficult for the country to develop. When you ask why is Boyswana doing well they say its because they have a small population,& when you ask why does Nigeria seem to be doing well, they say because they have a big population. When you say then it means Zambia has the perfect population it not big and its not small they say no Botswana has diamonds & if you say what about Nigeria they say they have oil but doesnt Zambia have copper? Zambia has problems of management. However the PF government seems to be doing a good job like LPM

44. I was disappointed with what GBM said on radio the other day at least from what i read online. That he decided to get into politics just for business, so that he can do his business and make money without restriction (sounds kind of like a corrupt system to me that he was looking for). It means he does not have the passion to move the country forward or having a plan to use his business skills to help develop the country. All he wants is to benefit himself and his family. very sad very very day indeed.

45. The problem with the first photo is that it just shows what was then the very little town center. Move away and go further out,was basically all bush with few areas in Nkana west and east that were white occupied. Almost every other area was a thick forest with wild animals roaming around. And the second photo with a black girl in it, is probably that of some prominent zambian’s child at that time. The majority of the Zambians where still walking without shoes. 

46. The first photo shows what zambia would be like today if we had tamed the growth and spread of retrogressive Bembastan.These folks everything they touch becomes degenerate as we now see the decaying of Lusaka,the death of zambia airways and the divisive non issue politics of insults and the deeper than ever tribalism cooked with glee at plot one.At least Somalia is better since it doesn’t masquerade as “united” like pretentious zambia.

47. LOOK AT THE CITY STREET OF CLEANER THAN THE CURRENT KITWE.

48. In colonial times, most people lived in rural areas, where they were left to their own device, the budget health, education and social service budget for 90% lower than the budget for white people. All being more or less equal now, the national cake has to be shared equally, the mass expansion in terms of health and education sector, entailed less more to maintain swimming pools at former white schools, and less money to focus a few elite in Lusaka city, because the cake remained the same, but more people demanded a fair share of the same cake, therefore, those that used to have bigger share are forced to adjust and get a far reduced share, which in turn makes their life uncomfortable.

49. Let us stop blaming one another, instead, let us be people that are constantly thinking of what can be done to continue developing our nation. One of the things I think should be done,for example is for government(policy makers) to empower graduating students in our universities and colleges with loans that should help them set up projects/companies that are in line with their fields of studies. These graduates should consider themselves as employers instead of waiting to be employees.

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