By Sunday Chilufya Chanda
The Case of UPND “BOYCOTT” of Africa Freedom Day Commemoration
INTRODUCTION
As the title of Nelson Mandela’s book “Long walk to freedom” suggests, the struggle for the political emancipation of Africa and Zambia was a long one. Because of the significance of the day in relation to the heading, this article is also longer than usual.
A BACKGROUND TO AFRICA FREEDOM DAY
On 15 April 1958, at a time when most of Africa was under colonial rule, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the Prime Minister of the newly Independent state of Ghana convened and hosted the first ever congress of Independent African States.
The gathering also showcased the progress of liberation movements on the African continent in addition to symbolising the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.
It is at this conference that the concept of commemorating an “Africa Freedom Day” was born.
The day was mooted in order to “…mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolise the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.”[4]
A few years later, on 25 May 1963, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, a country that has never been colonised, hosted in Addis Ababa the representatives of 30 African nations. By then more than two-thirds of the continent had achieved independence, mostly from imperial European states.
It is at this meeting that the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was founded, with the initial objective of galvanising the decolonisation of Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The OAU pledged to support the liberation efforts of freedom fighters in the respective colonies, and remove military access to colonial nations.
Zambia after attaining independence from Britain in 1964 under the leadership of Dr Kenneth Kaunda played a pivotal role in the liberation of neighbours Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique and our people also paid the ultimate price with their lives to liberate our brothers and sisters in South Africa from the shackles of Apartheid.
Fast forward to 2002, our nation during the tenure of the Second President Dr Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba hosted an OAU summit, and it was at this meeting that the continental body was transformed from OAU to the African Union (AU).
In spite of the changed appellation of the continental body, Africa Day continues to be widely celebrated on 25 May by Africans across the globe, in the motherland and in Zambia by everybody…well almost everybody except Mr Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND!
TRIBALISM; AN ARCH-ENEMY OF NATIONALISM & PAN AFRICANISM
The UPND under Mr Hichilema has for over a decade consistently absconded official commemorations of Africa Freedom Day ostensibly because he does not want to observe this day or even his own country’s Independence day until he can do so as Head of State. He has an entrenched “It’s either my way or no way” mentality that blinds him from celebrating others (even freedom fighters).
BLINDED BY THEIR OWN EGO AND TRIBALISM; UPND SNUBS CELEBRATING AFRICA
Mr Hichilema’s narcissism and self-centeredness is at the core of his unpatriotic attitude. His self-centeredness has gone to the extreme and it has produced in him tribal inclinations that override everything that celebrates national and Pan- African causes. His very introduction on the political scene was unpatriotic and perverted; it was an orgy celebrating Tribalism.
As Guy Scott the former Vice President of Zambia recounts in his recently released book “Zambian Politics: a Story in Black and White”:
_”When Anderson Mazoka the founding President died, a convention was held of the UPND (then as now, the United Party for National Development was the leading opposition party) featuring Tonga warriors with spears and friction drums, galloping around the convention and threatening anyone who would oppose the election of another Tonga to the presidency. The winner in these circumstances was the wealthy privatisation expert, the wealthy Hakainde Hichilema. There was an exodus of non-Tonga leaders…”_
With the systematic hostile ejection of non-Tongas from the time Hichilema took over UPND, its tribal stature has consistently dwarfed its national identity. Tribalism is by its very nature inimical to the concept of Nationalism and Pan-Africanism.
Samora Moisés Machel one of Africa’s greatest revolutionaries and first President of Mozambique once famously said:
_“For the nation to live, the tribe must die”._
From 2006 when Hichilema usurped leadership of UPND he expected all Southerners and Bantu Botatwe to automatically support him. UPND ethos since then has been a perverted form of Machels’ mantra: _“The nation must die and the tribe must dominate that I must become President”._ He is neither Nationalist nor Pan-Africanist, that is why Africa Freedom Day and Independence Day celebrations mean nothing to him!
Hichilema’s tribalism is NOT representative of the people of Southern Province and Bantu Botatwe. Hichilema and his UPND have betrayed the spirit of many of our founding national fathers and gallant freedom fighters who’s roots were in Southern Province. Together with their compatriots from other regions of our nation , they joined forces to overcome the shackles of colonialism to build the nation of Zambia where a common National identity eclipsed tribal character.
Can UPND and Hichilema’s unpatriotic nation-dividing agenda be compared to the following Southern Patriarchs?
1. HARRY MWAANGA NKUMBULA (15 JANUARY 1916 – 8 OCTOBER 1983)
Until the late 1950s, Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula was very much the public face of African nationalism in Northern Rhodesia (colonial Zambia).
While at the London School of Economics in the late 1940s, Nkumbula had been drawn into Pan-Africanist circles and worked closely with Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the future President of Malawi, with whom he co-authored ‘Federation in Central Africa’, ‘a point-by-point rebuttal of federationist arguments as well as the first comprehensive statement of political objectives ever made by Nyasas and Rhodesians’.
Upon his return to Northern Rhodesia in 1950, Nkumbula became president of the newly formed Northern Rhodesia’s African National Congress (ANC) and spearheaded the party’s vehement anti-Federation campaign. In early 1955 Nkumbula and Kaunda were imprisoned together (with hard labour) for distributing “subversive” literature that called for independence.
Column space does not allow me to outline the great contribution this great man made to the freedom we enjoy today.
Just prior to Zambia’s independence, Nkumbula chose to form a coalition with UNIP and was given the post of minister of African education. The UNIP/ANC alliance lasted until the pre-independence elections of January 1964, when UNIP won fifty-five seats to the ANC’s ten seats. Nkumbula became leader of the opposition.
When Kaunda moved to convert Zambia into a one-party state, Nkumbula in the interest of keeping the nation together signed a document called the Choma Declaration on 27 June 1973 and announced that he was joining UNIP.
Nkumbula was a nationalist who sacrificed his personal status for the sake of national unity.
Can the same be said of the “only-me-myself-and-I” Hichilema of today?
2. MAINZA MATHIAS CHONA (21 JANUARY 1930 – 11 DECEMBER 2001)
While Nkumbula remained as leader of the ANC when Kaunda broke from the ANC in October 1958 and formed the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC); Mainza Chona had been a member of ANC while in London and he had not made a choice between the two factions. Due to ZANC’s militancy and its unwillingness to compromise on the issue of “independence now”, Kaunda and other leaders of the new party were detained by the colonial authorities, and ZANC was banned in March 1959.
Chona and other nationalists broke away from the ANC and, in October 1959, Chona became the first president of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), the successor to ZANC. However, he did not see himself as the party’s main founder and he stepped down when Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960.
Would Hichilema have done the same?
As Kaunda’s loyal lieutenant, Chona was elected deputy president of UNIP, but he had to leave Northern Rhodesia to avoid a charge of sedition brought by the increasingly rattled CAF authorities.
Yet again column space cannot allow one to highlight in detail the exploits of one of Zambia’s first lawyers who later served as Vice President of Zambia from 1970 to 1973 and Prime Minister on two occasions: from 25 August 1973 to 27 May 1975 and from 20 July 1977 to 15 June 1978 and defacto second in command in the one party state when he served as Secretary General of UNIP, the ruling party, from 1978 to 1981.
The great Nationalist Mainza Chona put Nation above tribe when in the interest of laying the foundation for the nation of “Zambia” he left his tribesmate Nkumbula to join Kaunda.
_One wonders; what would the patriarch Mainza Chona have made of the “Only a Tonga Must rule UPND” campaign that paved Hichilema’s way to the leadership of UPND?_
There are many other examples too numerous to mention of our Southern Province freedom fighter fore-fathers who placed nation building above tribal interests. Hichilema’s UPND is a disgrace to their memory.
3. ELIJAH HAATUAKALI KAIBA MUDENDA (6 JUNE 1927 – 2 NOVEMBER 2008)
A freedom fighter and post-independence cabinet minister and diplomat who among other things played a significant role in negotiating the construction of TAZARA with the Chinese Government when Zambia was surrounded by hostile colonialist states. So significant were his contributions to the emancipation of his country and Africa that he was conferred the Friendship Medal by Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
_What would Elijah Mudenda, Fidel Castro or Che-guevara make of Hichilema?_
4. KEBBY SILILO KAMBU MUSOKOTWANE (5 MAY 1946 – 11 FEBRUARY 1996)
The charismatic and selfless Musokotwane who was one of the closest allies of President Kaunda. Musokotwane served as the 5th Prime Minister of Zambia from 24 April 1985 until 15 March 1989. _How does Hichilema and his UPND compare to Zambia’s fond memory of patriotic “Kebby”?_
5. BALDWIN MWANA KUMABU NKUMBULA (DIED 27 AUGUST 1995)
A son of veteran politician Harry Nkumbula, and Minister of Sport in the Chiluba regime, Baldwin was an astute politician in his own right.
_Would Baldwin have approved of Hichilema’s “Tongalisation” of UPND?_ _Would Baldwin have approved of Hichilema’s indefinite tenure and Life Presidency of UPND?_
6. VERNON JOHNSON MWAANGA (BORN 1939)
How does Hichilema’s narrow tribal agenda compare to the Nationalistic outlook of the versatile living legend Dr Vernon Johnson Mwaanga, freedom fighter, politician and diplomat par excellence who played a key role in championing China’s admission to the UN? How does Hichilema’s UPND’s Sinophobia compare and contrast?
There is really very little (if any) that Hichilema’s style has in common with the pragmatic approach of “VJ”. This is sadly underscored by how UPND cadres brutally assaulted Dr Mwaanga when as Chief Government Spokesperson of MMD Government of late President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, at the time; he went to deliver a special message of condolences at the funeral house of UPND founder Anderson Mazoka. In a well-documented incident, his UPND assailants physically and verbally abused him for “being a traitor” i.e. being a Southerner and “not supporting a Tonga Party”.
CONCLUSION
Whereas our forefathers fought to raise national character above tribal identity, there are some that are working overtime to undo what our forefathers worked so hard to build.
Hichilema even spat on the recent National Dialogue Forum’s efforts which includes the honouring Freedom Fighters!
While Africans across the globe celebrate Africa Freedom day, there are some among us who are not celebrating because they are agents of international capital and are being used to provoke regime change for the benefit of their neo-colonial masters. They are but puppets and mouthpieces of capital!
They do not value it, so they will not celebrate it!
On our part, the Patriotic Front Government led by President Edgar Chagwa Lungu values and celebrates the efforts of our forefathers and we are now building on their foundation with our fight for economic emancipation and creating a better life for ALL.
The Author is Patriotic Front Media Director
What a loser this Chanda. Get a real job man you are a disgrace
@Sunday Chanda, what you should know about HH is that he is a married man, an elder in SDA, and he is NOT GAY. Why do you Sunday have wet dreams on HH? PF shouldn’t be allowing homos in public media, they are a disgrace as per Rev. Sumaili’s morals.
Seriously man, this is not how media director should operate, your employers must be foools to keep you and pay you for your sexx affections of a fellow man. African Freedom day should be a serious day to honor heroes not PF zeros.
Even Chanda Chimba (MHSRIP) was more professional by making a TV program on Sata, not these graffiti of love letters to HH.
Truly Sunday go get a job, ask KCM liquidators if they need someone to do laundry for them, that will be a noble job for you.
A normal person cannot celebrate Africa freedom day in Zambia. The oppression our founding fathers fought is today practiced by the PF. Oppressing and killing fellow citizens and denying them their freedom of expression and assembly. You are even the ones practising regionalism and tribalism openly. We know you are trying to divert attention from your failure to manage the country but that won’t work. The hunger pains people are experiencing cannot be stopped by propaganda.
Which Freedom in the current PF GRZ when individuals are incarcerated on st upidy little things and yet, Chitotela is still roaming the streets of Lusaka whilst his pay master is sat in his favourite corner enjoying what looks like what the neighbours have been talking lately. And who is that staggering from a regiment/GRZ car? Oh no! It’s that Kaloba lady again at it. She even forgot where her office is and ended up at the main gates of the yellow bricks building for the sugar, sugar.
Chanda, get a life! This country belongs to the Zambians.
God bless Zambia.
2021 please come fast and rescue us from people who think from their bottoms,what is there to celebrate when even OP operatives have been reduced to telephone operators busy spying on their citizens to protect this hopeless lot,people cant even peacefully go to church, the *****s want a permit for that,forget about having rallies it is the preserve of PF,all this whilst they sink us into unimaginable poverty and arrest those who complain about their incompetence.
No time to read this thief Chanda. Let your clan suffer in perpetual hell. To hell with your type of africa day where my children are not able to go to school for lack of school fee, my mother dying of cancer and no medicine, no proper treatment at Kitwe General Hospital, no money to evacuate her to south africa (that is reserved for your type of thugs, a fashion to go to south africa or india and die in exile, brought back to bury at state expense).
Go to hell chanda, africa day is meaningless without food shelter and clothing for my family. Hell with you and your tinpot dictator. He shall die a miserable death and your children shall suffer as have mine and many in Zambia.
Oh my Lord, take this Zombie Lungu to hell.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Let his clan be named and shamed.
Amen!
Sunday Fooking Chanda article…its just bumbe jumble in in the article to suit his political agenda of division. I looked at those names he has highlighted of great African sons of yesterday in the same article he includes names like Edgar Lungu and Hakainde…just know that the boy is writing nonsense. And this is just speed reading in 10 seconds.
Your hate for HH, your preoccupation and your view of it as a horror movie confuses you so much that you can claim Chiluba was hosting African Union meetings In 2002 when Levy Mwanawasa was already in power. OAU last meeting was in 2001 in Lusaka. By 2002 the meeting convened elsewhere under the new AU umbrella. But because you are young and dull I will forgive you for being wishy washy.
Don’t blackmail HH, no one cares about you guys anymore. You should learn by making your experience and analogue on the fall of the MMD and you simpleton Chanda ought to recall that pain more easily unless you are even simpler than a simpleton
Oh my Lord, take this Zombie Lungu to hell.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Let his clan be named and shamed.
Amen!
Am sure u wake up in the middle of the night shouting Hakainde Hakainde Hakainde oooooh yaaa it ws just a dream oooh we stl v a few more years oooh Hakainde u make us hv sleepless nights.
What is there to celebrate about Africa freedom Day when you oppress fellow Africans in the same way as the white oppressors. No one in his right mind can celebrate Africa freedom day in Zambia.
Painting HH and Tonga’s as tribal will not hide your failures. Zambia is worse off today because of PF failed leadership not because of HH and Tonga’s.
Chanda boys must be weeded out
Am a non partisan political consultant
Hiw does a responsible govt allow such propaganda on Africa freedom day.
Let’s just bring whites or chinese to colonize us. We have lamentably failed.
The president of PF must read these articles berfore this boy throws in public domain because they may just be his views
Learn from chanda chimba
Sunday Chanda should try taking off his specs. I’m beginning to think they are tinted. Maybe then he’d see the damage that’s been caused by his useless party.
We heard lots of hates programs against sata now is Saint. Sunday Chanda just GBM said will make sure no Tonga or lozi goes to state house you have said nothing are you not tribal. A person sees he is you see tribalism every where in UPND yet you have not said anything people losing jobs on tribal line in pf govt. This is hate speech will destroy Zambian one. You lost even shame and integrity.
Why should hh celebrate an event which has been politicised by bootlickers such as this faggot chanda. I would ,just like hh, rather spend my time productively fighting for the Zambian people who are facing hardships under the incompetent corrupt pf. Let me warn you chanda that just like the mmd you will answer to the Zambian people one day. Don’t think lungu will be president forever.if I were u I would have an exit strategy because you have a lot of skeletons my friend.
What motivates this man? If Hichilema becomes President this moment, Sunday Chanda will be amongst the first persons to congratulate him but he will even go further and write loads of articles in praise of the man. Is there medicine for poverty of the mind?
We know the Back ground to African Freedom day better than the writter.Zambians what to hear why the kwacha is the second worst performing currency in the World day? Goverment cant pay various workers? Retirees can not get their money?suppliers ca not be paid? Zambians are subjected to numerous taxes? Zesco tarrifs are higher? Un employment levels are out of propotion?Cost of living is un bearable? Why Political violance is treated with kidgloves?Nepotism is real? Corruption has been taken to the high level? Nkwame Nkruma was against the above vices. Zambians need to hear real issues not old songs which people know as politicaly motivated.We are fed up with political massaging.Life is worse than before Independence.
Changwe
You forgot to mention that whilst they tax us to death they are stealing the same money we pay whilst we suffer.
The truth it’s pains !!!
The coming of hh into politics the country is divided!!
Its because HH is a man of vision and knows what he is talking about…why should we celebrate thieves and the rotten economy?The country is shambles at the moment only those like with you misplace loyalty are blind.Who are the majority in Lungu`s cabinet?check the names and tell us who is tribal now!Am Bemba and i ve lived among Tongas…the tribal issue is just a propaganda issue
Meaning tongas should surrender powers to easterners and bemba for the sake of the national unit but bembas and easterners should not surrender powers to another tribals because it is not national unit, what are nosense from this son of davil.
Whoever pays this toad should ask for their money back .The guy is keen on fiction and childish stories .
The Chanda brothers have taken on a hateful and tribal brand.These were apparently christian in their UNZA days but honestly these days these Chanda brothers are even playing an active role in the ethnic cleansing in the public service.They send messages celebrating retirements in national interest to their collaegues who are victims.Along with several other officials these brothers have branded themselves as the chief haters of certain sections of the country.If you wanna argue with HH engage him professionally and objectively.The moment you involve tribe we know you have less things to offer
I blame Nkumbu and chona to work with you, you cocroches who see other tribals as Animals .I can be happy to see this divided each tribal rule themselves but it can be only unfortunately to other tribals that can not raise a ???? they always depends on the same people they insults all the days.chanda be a man anyway I don’t blame you but your leaders who allows to dividing this country anyway you guys you are coming from Congo where war is food in that country.
Lungu find another job for this boy.He is really tarnishing your name.chase this boy away when there is still time…
I agree with everything said about Trib.al Hacks. Actually I thought that, coming from the PF Media Director, this was a reasonably good article until I realised that the whole thing was just a long winded and disguised way of presenting the PF:
“On our part, the Patriotic Front Government led by President Edgar Chagwa Lungu values and celebrates the efforts of our forefathers and we are now building on their foundation with our fight for economic emancipation and creating a better life for ALL.”
Really ba Sunday Chanda? The PF is fighting for a better Zambia when the party consists largely of all hue of chitotelas?
After you write the same. Your are the auth
#14 melly, but what else is there to talk about Trib.al Hacks apart from trib.alism? Has he ever apologised to the nation about how he was chosen to succeed Mazoka on trib.al grounds in 2006? Do you deny that Trib.al Hacks is born of trib.alism and when he is overconfident and unguarded he actually openly demonstrates trib.al traits?
More trash from the Chanda clan……did not even bother reading
Just saw the word
“…..over pan Africanism “
And these are the same thugs who deported the panafricanist professor from is it Kenya or Tanzania because he was going to mention corruption ????
Total drivel from the Chandas
My chanda u are wrong. U should first have seen the bemba log of wood in your eyes.
Go in every corner of government and parastatals and see the case of tribal and regional mess out there
God is fair, and to it He adds time for everything. With the exception of love,Nothing lasts forever.
U will recall my words one day
But who is this sh!t meant to appease??
As far as trib.alism is concerned Trib.al Hacks is simply undefendable. What is it abour Trib.al Hacks that we have not seen with our eyes or not heard with our ears, not observed from his actions? The only thing that is not accurate about him is that he sold the mines, he was appointed by the givernment of the day wasn’t he? Can an individual stand up and aell a mine? However that does not mean that he didnt help himself if an opportunity arose, more like “uubomba mwibala” which trib.als have a field day about and yet it was practised by one of their own!!
hehehehe
All you pillars against HH are one by one being dismantled,
starting with the privatisation thief song…..only to find lungu sold cold storage board
the selling mines…..HH has told you to show evidence and he will buy you a house
now tribalisim ….soon you will be left with no pillar
You authored this you f..l. You stink.
Exactly UPND cadre just what i was saying the moment tribe becomes your main point of argument that’s a clear indication the only thing you can offer is tribal dispensation.If you think about it that is quite backward coz those discussions were the main discourse may be even before man lived in caves.If one sees only tribe when KCM is liquidated,cadres are sharing land like tute here in lusaka,a female student is murdered in her room in a public university,an ZAF is murdered in police cell etc then thats an advanced brand of tribalism.The beauty is that there are actually few people who think and operate at this unfortunate tribal level.This minority group will extinct one day and vast majority of the intelligent Zambian brains will unite together and impact the world on behalf of the…
Or we can end up like Rwanda, Sudan, Burundi, Angola, Nigeria’ Biafra war, etc. They can multiply, some of the comments on this blog show potential. We are asleep as a nation free thought and speech are muzzled in the name of morality and religion. When people can’t express their ignorance ( keyboard worries are born)to people within the society, they keep it in, and it ferments and turns to the waste we see in the comments section.
Amen
Oh my Lord, take this Zombie Lungu to hell.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Let his clan be named and shamed.
Amen!
Another Chanda Chimbwi!
What a low life!
My late president Sata never attended Labour Day, Africa freedom day, Independence Day, and many others. I have come to conclude that the largest opposition party, at every given time in Zambia don’t participate in such events. Am not moved to see HH shunning such events for whatever reasons. Everything in Zambia is politicised including small things like commissioning a clinic. God bless Zambia.
Sunday Chanda is a stupid misguided element who doesn’t deserve to be media director for the party in government. He behaves like a stupid busted condom every time he issue a public statement.
Taxi Driver1976. Travis Bickle: All the animals come out at night – whores, skunk puss ies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.
Last time upnd youths tried to commemorate youth day , a young upnd lady was stripped naked by pf thugs, who in his or her right mind would like to be near such barbarical scum.
Brother Director, if you truly believe in Zambia as Christian Nation, read Amos 5:11-12; Amos 6: 3-8.
You deliberately do not write about tribalism in govt where Tongas are discriminated against, fired in national interest.
Chanda is right. HH will do and use anything to enter State House. But it baffles me how naive Zambian are so full of passion to defend a tribalist.
Wechipuba we
Just work on the economy you fools and do the right thing,hatred towards HH wont help you,we need someone to save us and your reaction is just showing your hatred for HH?You a d your incompetent lot have given him 2021 because of your failures, better a competent tribalist than an incompetent non tribalist, at least tukalalya bwino….
Sunday you’re very foolish don’t you know that some of us are married to Tonga’s; and some of us has Tonga nieces and nephews and some of us has friends who are Tonga’s. What does Chanda think of the children who are born from parents, mixed Bemba and Tongas or from other mixed tribes? Chanda you’re a big fool. Stop ranting like a big fool.
In all his examples it was Tongas paving way and puting country first. Mwaanga who is one of the pioneers and inspired KK and appointed him northern province secretary, gave up his stance for independence when he could have sided with the British and delayed independence. He again signed choma deal for peace.
Mainza chona would have simply stayed as unip leader but paved way for KK.The southerners sold hundreds of cattle to sponsor trips for independence talks while the north part of the country was doing their part with cha cha.
Most tribalism in Zambia comes from Bembas and most often attacked tribe are Tongas.
con’t…
But today it is fashionable to blame Tonga of tribalism, it’s cool to hate them and use hate speach against them in public. To retire them in national interest just because they are Tongas.To swear that umutonga teti atuteke. There’s been only 3 serious Tonga politicians at presidential level since the struggle of independence started and they have all been labelled tribalists .But all those that have been in government before have run campaigns against Tongas and have passed on the hate to their children, even in a bus when a tonga speaks in his tonga he’s frowned upon and shown open deslike. In GRZ and many private companies Bembas and Nyanjas names are favourite to get the jobs, in bursaries as well but those who practice tribalism openly with impunity add salt to injury…
A young Upnd lady attended, a youth day and she was stripped Naked by pf carders and no single condamination was made by Chanda and to day you honestly want Upnd to attend African Freedom day.By the way, why telling the people the back ground to African Freedom day.We know it better than Chanda.Tackle the economic mess. Freedom about having one meal in a day,no salary no nothing.
At the UPND convention that saw HH became leader there was a personal friend of M’membe & his favourite candidate who was Sakwiba Sikota. This is why his post newspaper carried the Tonga only headline for a full week and further watering the plant that started with Nkumbula being accused of the same and mazoka suffering the same. Those 2 men who made those unfortunate comments never even saved any role in HH’s UPND.At almost the same time of the UPND convention there’s one which was dubbed Kora something and all the contestants were of the same tribal grouping. The one Nevers Mumba won against another front runner Ben mwila but there were no headlines of tribalism.
Out 9 provinces 8 voted for HH at the convention, maybe it was out sympathy to the Tongas for mazoka loss or the man…
e.g the two tribes that seem to be the most rivalry or bif: Tongas and Bembas are actually brothers, they both came from Congo with the Tongas being the earliest to arrive in zambia. Have you wondered why their similarities in their languages and a lot of names? e g maano mabi in Tonga amano ayabi in Bemba. Amubike pamoulu uyo in Bemba. Amubike amaulu oyo in Tonga. Leta kokokola naimbi tunwe in Bemba. Leeta kokokola aimbi tunwe in Tonga.Kungaanda kwesu in Tonga. Kunganda kumwesu in Bemba. It goes on and on. What about names? the famous that comes to mind is N’gandu .Bemba call it Ishina ya mushimo. Same name Tongas call it Izina ya muzimo. How strikingly similar. It’s the devil trick when any one acts or thinks tribal. We are one people my dear zambians let not tribe be a curse on us…
Africans as it has been for centuries.
This huge great and rich continent was conquered by tiny European countries because we were devided in small clans, tribes and chiefdoms.They found us fighting tribal wars and fanned it more as they gained foothold before we could realise it our tribal and corrupt chiefs and kings were selling our brothers as slaves and we were latter colonised and treated like animals on our land and our
Labour and resources freely exploited and stolen to develop most European countries. 500 years later we are still suffering the legacy of slavery and colonialism as a race.
Todate these 2 things are still causing our weekness. Tribalism and corruption of our leaders at various positions who are so easily bought with little pieces of silver to sell off…
Sunday you’re very foolish don’t you know that some of us are married to Tonga’s; and some of us has Tonga nieces and nephews and some of us has friends who are Tonga’s. What does Chanda think of the children who are born from parents, mixed Bemba and Tongas or from other mixed tribes? Chanda you’re a big fool. Stop ranting like a big fool.
The bottom line is that the likes of these chanda politicians who are open tribalists lare simply not good.They have failed to govern diversity.The moment tribalism is centre stage accountability and transparency is out of the window.Thats officers are retired in national interest becoz some lazy called a cadre concocts lie.but a minister arrested by acc 9 times and isn’t dismissed.This tribalism makes leaders become cheap and uninspiring.disgraceful
our resources which should be the heritage of generations to come. We appoint leaders at various levels on tribal grounds and not on the basis of competence and capabilities.As a result performance and services delivery is so poor .We are devided and remain week and conquered.Maybe we should just sacrifice our primitive tribal pride and combine the tribes to make one regional language like Swahili as well in SADC .The children born after 50 years will just find one language .
However HH is tired and expired now let him try once more and leave politics. But to say he is a tribalist is a malicious lie. The man is always preaching economic liberation and unity He is the one who argues that we are all related in this country and that these so called tribes are mainly just dialects and I agree with him.Some tribes feeling better than others are just deceiving themselves and laughable except such thinking is an insult on other tribes and is a danger to national unity because just like their thinking so will be their behaviour, they will give everything to their tribesmen and descrimate on others who will be fed up and stand up to fight for their share.
Eish have written too much. But my message is please let’s unite and be strong. If we can’t unite then devide your countries into small tribal independent countries and stop pushing your primitive tribe as being better than the next primitive tribe. spare us that nonsense.
Chanda, so called midea director, must be the last one to accuse people of being tribalists :
Recently, I was discussing with a colleague. Looking at senior jobs in Government, parastatals, Foreign service, local government, cabinet, and so forth; it’s as if Zambia is only made up of people from the North and from the East only. .PF must be so ashamed! They have been the worst tribalists ever, without shame! Very sad indeed.
Thanks ba AM for your insights. It’s a pity that just for having been born a Bemba,Tonga or Lamba one should be stirred with similar rods of narrow mindedness as some of these cheap opportunists and irresolute quacks. In the era of liberalism and ideological diversity one should guard against casting generalized views on their presumed spheres of influence bearing well in mind that there,re many Bembas and Tongas out there who don’t give it a damn. Names like Chipepo, Chibamba, Mumbi etc continue being commonly shared and will remain lasting testimony of our Luba/Lunda originality