By Fred M’membe President of the Socialist Party

Several times, I have been asked if I will avenge the injustice meted on me by some individuals in this regime. My response has been a categorical No. But the question keeps on coming up. Why? Is there fear of vengeance? From who against who? And for what? To achieve what?
Let me make it very, very, very clear: there’s no place for injustice in the mind of a revolutionary, no place at all. There’s no place for vengeance in the heart of a revolutionary. You can be very firm in the struggle, but you can’t do it out of hatred.

We are teaching our members ideas of justice; otherwise, our struggle for a more just, fair and humane Zambia is going nowhere. It is only upon such ideas that a more just, fair and humane society can be achieved and sustained. This can only be achieved based on principles, ideas and ethics. It’s the only way.

We believe in people, in human beings, in their capacity to forge ethics, a consciousness, in their capacity for great sacrifices.
In the course of history, we have seen people die for honour, for values they can understand. Someone instilled them with these values. Let the best human values of justice, fairness and humane ness be instilled in our people.

And our intellectuals can play a very important role in this today, because only people with a certain intellectual development can instill fear in heads of those who conspire and work against justice, fairness and humane ness.

We are convinced that a fascist-like regime will never be established, in any lasting fashion, in our country because our people have traditions, ethics and values that will prevent this. That is why those who want to impose a tinpot dictator and a third term on our people have to resort to lies.

We consider ourselves fortunate for having understood that hatred and prejudice are not political weapons. We have political weapons and, in addition to this, experience has taught us that principles are the best possible political weapons.

By Field Ruwe EdD

TOP DRAWERS

Hakainde Hichilema – leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND)

Before I got down to pen this article, I took a knee in protest against tribalism in Zambian politics. This was after reading comments made by PF member Davies Chama back in 2015: “If at all they (UPND) will ever be in power, maybe a 100 years from now, not in my generation, maybe a 1000 years from now. They [Tongas] are polygamous by nature, so maybe as they have more children, they can be history and in power.”

The above abusive and prejudicial language is no different from that of racism, neither is the one uttered by Bizwell Mutale: “Zambia is not ready for a Tonga president in 2021 and beyond. It will never happen;” nor the one by Chishimba Kambwili: “Tongas cannot vote for Jesus if he stood in that part of Zambia on the basis of his tribe.” Kambwili was later linked to a statement in social media that alleged he would eliminate Tongas given the opportunity.

Before I proceed, I must state that in writing this article I assume the air of impartiality. I am not here to endorse or disapprove the candidature of Hakainde Hichilema. I am not a member of UPND, and have never met Hichilema. For certain, I am a citizen of Zambia concerned with the pervasive negative effects of tribalism and the toll it is exacting on Hichilema, a man, who in his own right, dreams of becoming the first Tonga to preside over this beautiful land.

This coming August will be unprecedented. The man who lost in 2016 by 27,757, and who has since made efforts to break out of the tribal circumscribed politics, will be trying to navigate the murky road to State House like he has done the three times he has tried. This time it’s different, his supporters are certain they have exceeded the 2016 deficit and UPND has grown by leaps and bounds. Still, what stands between Hichilema and State House is not so much Edgar Lungu, but the word “Tonga.”

A Tonga Will Never Rule Zambia

Behind this well orchestrated tribalism scheme is President Edgar Lungu and the Patriotic Front. Asked if a Tonga will ever become president, Lungu responded: “One day, a Tonga will rule Zambia, but certainly not the one that’s aspiring now.” The evocation of the word “Tonga” is a euphemism for “A Tonga will never rule Zambia.” A judicious head of state would have put it simply: “I’m above tribal politics. Any Zambian who aspires to be president and wins the hearts of the majority of Zambian voters certainly becomes one.” Lungu, who throughout his reign has not bothered to rekindle the country’s motto “One Zambia, One Nation,” is upholding the long-held maxim that Tongas are unfit to rule Zambia.

Let me ask a couple of questions that are at the heart of this article? Why do Tongas have to endure such abuse with each presidential election? What wrong have Tonga’s done that warrants such mistreatment? How can we allow a head of state to perpetuate politics of divide and rule? How have we come to a point where the head of state tolerates hate mongering and lends a blind eye to the dangers of tribal politics? Does President Edgar Lungu fully understand the dire repercussion of tribalism? One more question: How did we get here?

Kenneth Kaunda and the Seeds of Tribalism

Currently, Zambians are witnessing the worst negative branding and persecution of a presidential candidate in a country that claims to be democratic. Opportunistic political failures Edith Nawakwi and Chilufya Tayali have labeled Hichilema a fraud in their bid to derail his candidacy. In doing so, they have created a vintage recipe for civic chaos, to speak less of a civil war. The explosive accusations have come at a time when UPND members and their leader think they have in the past five years worked tirelessly to capture the hearts of Zambians in their 72 ethnic groups.

Let me dip into a very delicate piece of history that will provide a clue to why tribalism remains Hakainde Hichilema’s Achilles’ heel. Please be advised that I do not mean any disrespect to former President Kenneth Kaunda, this serious matter calls for historical facts. I have taken time to excavate facts shared by historians around the world, some credited at the bottom of this article.

Historical records show that Kaunda contributed to sowing the seeds of tribalism and caused estrangement between Bembas and Tongas. In November, 1953, the visionary and radical Kaunda, a Bemba by birth, accompanied by the Chinsali boys led by the militant Simon Kapwepwe, arrived in Lusaka from Lubwa to assume the post of Secretary General of the ANC led by Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, a Tonga.

The Kaunda cabal arrived with a sense of entitlement emanating from a feel of incontestable Bemba ethnic supremacy, and Kaunda let Nkumbula know that. When Nkumbula referred to Kaunda as a “Nyasalander meddling in the politics of Northern Rhodesia,” Kaunda quit ANC in 1958 and formed the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC), taking the Bemba militants with him. Henceforth, Tongas and Bembas were at daggers drawn and tribalism became a major factor when Kaunda became president of UNIP in 1959, and also a factor in the outcome of Zambia’s independence.

Although Kaunda preached non-violence, he did not shy away from a bloody fight. Using inflammatory language he attacked Nkumbula full throttle and portrayed him as a womanizer and an alcoholic wreck and his supporters as “idiots,” “simple souls” and “Tonga peasants “whom [Nkumbula] robbed of their money to squander on beer and other immoral ways.” Nkumbula punched back, describing Kaunda and his followers as “poor thieves whose political objective of positioning Bembas in power was to colonize Tongaland.”

As expected the exchange resulted in inter-party bloody clashes between UNIP and ANC. Growing up in Chililabombwe and Chingola before independence, this writer is aware of the frequent clashes between the two parties, involving stoning, beatings, arson, pipe bombs and murders. A UNIP militant was seen as “a person who would inflict harm on a political opponent or rival. Hence the origin of the slogan ‘UNIP is fire and anyone who plays with it gets burnt.’”

Before and after independence, militant Bembas within UNIP vowed never to allow a Tonga become president. Realizing the precarious tribalistic situation he found himself in, Kaunda begun to steer the country toward unity using his slogan “One Zambia, One Nation” as “the basic principle to national construction.” But the die was cast. Tribalism remains latent 57 years later.

Up to this day, non-Tonga politicians continue to whip up long-held animosities and stereotypes against Zambia’s indigenous people. The typical pattern has been to continue to give the Tonga people the undesirable label of tribalist and therefore unworthy of presidential leadership. This year, a desperate president who could lose an election devoid of rigging, is doing just that to cling to power. The question is: For how long can the Tongas tolerate such humiliation? Another: For how long can UPND watch their leader tortured? One more question: For how long will UPND members watch their efforts thwarted?

The Power of the Kneeling

Tribalism is a dangerous system that has caused millions of deaths across Africa and beyond. Tribalism fosters intense hatred for a fellow being. The Rwanda genocide is a case in point. Power, greed, heartlessness, foolishness, pride, and ignorance of one man can torch the entire country.

When a 29-year-old American quarterback knelt during the national anthem, he sparked a non-violent protest against racism. That’s the power of the knee. Kneeling is the most effective and powerful way of protest. No stones are hauled; no gas is used; no gun is fired, no fires are set; no buildings are destroyed; no one is hurt; and no one is killed. Maybe it’s time for Hakainde Hichilema, the man trapped in the web of tribalism to lead all loving Zambians regardless of their tribe and political affiliation to taking a knee. If not Hichilema, someone should take a knee for mother Zambia, Edgar Lungu perhaps?

Credit is due to the following historians: Giacomo Macola; Chiponde Mushingeh; Stephen McLaughlin & Maarje Weerdesteijin.

By Sunday Chilufya Chanda

We take great exception to Mr. Hakainde Hichilema’s UPND appointee Mr. Mubita Nawa’s crass shenanigans on a video where he is clearly seen gleefully enjoying and encouraging a UPND cadre’s insults targeted at the President of the Republic of Zambia Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu.

While it is bad enough to insult even a child, it is an abomination for Mr. Nawa to abet insults of a person old enough to be his biological father. It is even a greater abomination beyond words, when the target of the insults besides being old enough to be Nawa’s father, is the Head of State. Sheer abomination! Ala Mupamba! Ni maloza! (Abomination!).

What is even more sickening is that Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, in his defiant response in a terse social media statement, describes Mubita Nawa’s vulgarities and insults directed at the Head of State as that of a “model citizen”. Mr. Hichilema’s defiant defence of his “presidential aide” clearly demonstrates how Nawa’s crassness has Mr. Hichilema’s full blessing.

We wish to remind Messrs Hichilema and Nawa that the Presidency is a venerable institution enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia.

Let me remind my brother Mr Nawa as follows: Section 69 of the Penal Code provides:

“any person who, with intent to bring the President into hatred, ridicule or contempt, publishes any defamatory or insulting matter, whether by writing, print, word of mouth or in any other manner, is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years.”_

Rather than frantically trying to spin it or deflect it, Mr. Nawa must show remorse by apologising to the President and the people of the Republic of Zambia. The more he tries to cosmetically cover it up with misplaced banter, word play and semantics, the more his boil of insults festers and the more the pus of his indecency is exposed.
It is a tragedy how insults have defined the UPND culture and character both on-line and offline. It just goes to show how Mr. Hichilema and his party of “insultants” are so bankrupt on alternatives, that they can do nothing but hone their vulgarity on innocent others.

It is disturbing that Messrs Hichilema, Nawa and Co. think that they can insult their way into State House. The majority of voters in Zambia love the Head of State and are pro-PF. They have not forgotten how Mr. Hichilema insulted them just because they support the development agenda of His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu.
When will UPND ever learn? Their vulgarity and insults are anathema.

Mr. Hichilema and his ilk should learn to disagree without being personally disagreeable. We therefore challenge the Opposition UPND to meet us at the arena of development, the arena of alternative policies, not insults.