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MISA Zambia welcomes appointment of the IBA Board – calls on them to be independent
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia would like to commend the government for appointing the Board of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).
This step completes the establishment of the IBA and operationalization of the IBA Act which had been in limbo since 2002.
MISA Zambia always considered the IBA partially operational when the board was not in place. MISA Zambia felt that it was a mockery to state that the IBA was fully operational when the previous interim board comprised only the Permanent Secretary from the Ministry of Information and the Director General of the IBA.
MISA Zambia would like to urge the IBA Board to observe professionalism and act independently to ensure that the broadcast sector is independent and operates professionally.
We further call on government to adequately provide for independence of the IBA board by reinstating the appointments committee in the IBA Amendment Act of 2010 in order for the full purpose of the law to take effect. This should be in addition to including a clause that will allow Parliament to Ratify the IBA Board.
A 10 year -old – boy of Mwansabombwe district in Luapula province has died after he fell off a moving van.
The boy identified as James Ilunga of Salanga village in Chief Mwata Kazembe’s area met his fate when he fell off the moving van after he tried to cling to it and was run over.
Luapula Province Police Commissioner Malcolm Mulenga confirmed the incident to ZANIS in Mwansabombwe yesterday.
Mr. Mulenga identified the driver of the van as Evans Bupe aged 33 of Kampampi village in Nchelenge district who was driving a Mitsubishi Canter registration number ALF 1266.
He said the accident happened in Salanga along Kazembe – Mwense road on October 11, 2014 around 14:20hours.
Mr. Mulenga said the boy was run over by the Canter truck on his right leg and sustained a fractured leg.
He said the boy was rushed to Mbereshi Mission Hospital where he was later confirmed died.
The body of the deceased is lying in Mbereshi hospital mortuary awaiting a post mortem and the driver of the van is in police custody awaiting further investigations.
Meanwhile, a one –year- three months old baby of Kachesha in Chifwalo village of Nchelenge district has been burnt to ashes after the house it was sleeping in was set on fire by unknown people.
Police have since visited the scene of the crime and relatives have been advised to bury the ashes.
Dozens of Salanga village residents in Mulele ward of Mwansabombwe district yesterday matched to the District Commissioner’ s office demanding the release of an ambulance bought using Constituency Development Funds (CDF) early this year.
The residents who matched from Salanga to Kazembe in Mwansabombwe carried banners demanding to know why the ambulance delivered to Mwansabombwe last March has not been released to Salanga.
The residents who were accompanied by Mulele Ward Councilor, Dimus Bwalya also wanted to know why residents of Kazembe have continued to use the two ambulances while the residents of Salanga are suffering when faring patients from the villages to Mbereshi Mission Hospital.
And speaking on behalf of the residents Mulele Ward Councilor Dimus Bwalya said the women of Salanga are the most affected because the lack of an ambulance in the ward was resulting in pregnant mothers delivering in the bush while being taken to hospital.
He said the Area Member of Parliament, Rodgers Mwewa made it clear during the youth day celebrations that the three ambulances in the district be shared equally but that nothing has been done to ensure that the ambulance is delivered as promised.
He wondered why the ambulance bought using CDF and meant for Salanga was still working in Kazembe when there is another ambulance there.
He said provision of an ambulance in his ward was necessary as it would reduce the number of maternal deaths especially in Mulele and Chipunka wards.
Meanwhile, Mwansabombwe District Commissioner, Victor Kasuba could not talk to the demonstrators as he said their action was illegal.
The angry residents only called off their demonstration after Mwansabombwe police told them to end it.
Forum for Democracy and Development spokesperson Antonio Mwanza stresses a point during the meeting to demand for the release of the draft Zambian constitution
Forum for Democracy and Development spokesperson (FDD)Antonio Mwanza says his party supports the intended calls for countrywide demonstration by public workers over the wage freeze.
Mr. Mwanza wondered why the public workers and their unions have been so lenient with the PF Government when it has continued to implement unpopular policies such as the wage freeze without any consultations.
He noted the public workers should know by now that the PF government does not listen to reason and that they will continue to ride on their backs as long as the continue bending them.
He said public workers and Zambians should not continue tightening their belts when PF Ministers and their families are busy fattening themselves by sharing the country’s resources through road contracts at the expense of poor workers and Zambians who are just scraping by for survival.
He added that PF Government will not give into their demands of lifting the wage freeze as long as no action is taken.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mwanza has called on Government to scrap off the bursaries committee and give the money to the banks to provide student loans.
Mr. Mwanza said the current system is not sustainable and that it has outlived its usefulness as the country’s population has grown to still have a centralized system administered in Lusaka.
He observed that the bursaries committee has challenges and that it has become an institution where corruption thrives hence the need to scrap it off and give the money to the banks to administer loans to students something he said is sustainable as the funds will be revolving.
He noted that currently with the system based in Lusaka most of the children living in rural areas are disadvantage as they do not know about bursaries hence end up becoming peasant farmers or fishermen even after acquiring good results at grade twelve.
He further said the K200million given to Universities is not enough to carter for all the students as it is only enough to carter for 1 academic year at UNZA and not all the public universities.
The Muslim community in Zambia has been praised for the support it is rendering to the needy people in society.
Programme Officer at the Community Support for the Needy, Titus Sinyangwe, said the Muslim community has greatly helped the poor people who lack improved basic facilities such as clean drinking water, food and blankets.
He told the Zambia News and Information Services in Lusaka today that partners such as the Muslim community should be praised for their role in society.
Mr. Sinyangwe observed that there were a lot of less privileged people in society who are critically in need of help but the Muslim brothers and sisters have rendered significant assistance.
“The Muslim community in Zambia is doing a commendable job in alleviating the suffering of the less privileged people in society. They need to be praised for their contribution,” Mr. Sinyangwe said.
And Mr. Sinyangwe has praised government for having created an enabling environment for the Muslim community and other partners to operate freely in the area of helping the needy people in many Zambian societies.
He noted that the Muslim community in Zambia has so far lined up a number of programmes aimed at assisting the poor people as the country celebrates its 50th independence anniversary.
He said the Muslim community was willing to assist the needy especially this time when the country is celebrating its golden jubilee.
Mr. Sinyangwe has since urged other business entities operating in Zambia to emulate the good works of the Muslim community.
Government has officially unveiled a nine-member Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) board.
Speaking during the unveiling ceremony in Lusaka today, Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Joseph Katema said the board comes into office against the backdrop of high expectations from both the government and the public on the need for the media to exercise high ethical and professional standards.
Dr. Katema said through the appointment of the board ,government was reassuring the nation that in line with its “hands off” policy on the media, it has given the IBA and indeed the media fraternity at large, a leeway to operate independently and professionally in order to benefit the citizens.
Dr. Katema, who is also Chief Government Spokesperson, said the first ever board of the IBA has a mammoth task of laying a firm foundation upon which the independent broadcasting authority should grow.
He said some people doubted when government announced that it would make the media operate freely.
The minister said government has now been vindicated because of liberalising airwaves.
Currently, there are over 70 community and commercial radio stations and not less than 12 television station in Zambia.
Dr. Katema expressed confidence that the board has the competence, expertise and experience to grow the IBA from its current infancy stage to a formidable organization that will oversee the growth of a professional and vibrant broadcasting industry in the country.
The members of the board are former commandant for intellectual security Brigadier General Justin Mutale (rtd), an accountant Mr. Hillary Banda, Managing Director Izone ICT solutions Ms. Hildah Akekelwa and a retired broadcaster Mr. Alphonso Kashulwe,.
Others are Ms. Patricia Mwase, who is Director and Chief Executive Officer at Opti-Quest Media Corporation Limited, Mr. Evans Muhanga, who is Chief Marketing Officer at ZAMTEL Company Limited, former Central Province Education Officer Ms. Enita Hamatumbika, Ms Brenda Tambatamba Liswaniso, who is Sustainability Manager at Barrick Lumwana Mine and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary, Bert Mushala.
The IBA is a corporate body established by the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act No.17 of 2002 to regulate the broadcasting industry in Zambia.
FLASHBACK: A child receives measles immunisation during the child health week in Lusaka
The Japanese government has, through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), provided a grant of about to K10 million (221 million Japanese Yen) to support the expansion of the cold chain aimed at improving Zambia’s vaccine management through infrastructure support and development.
The project will see the procurement of a total of 423 refrigerators and 500 cold boxes which will translate into the expansion of the capacity of the cold chain from 45,200 litres to 59,550 in 2015.
Part of the cold chain equipment, which includes 300 solar refrigerators meant for rural areas, electricity refrigerators, vaccine carriers, installation toolkits and refrigerator accessories, have already been handed over to the Zambian government by Japan.
The handover today signifies the commencement of the project which will also see the training of 65 technical staff to gain knowledge and skills on the sustainability of the cold chain system in Zambia.
Japanese ambassador to Zambia Kiyoshi Koinuma made the handover on behalf of his government while Minister of Community Development, Mother and Child Health Emerine Kabanshi received the donated items on behalf of the Zambian government.
Ms. Kabanshi noted during the handover function that the donation will benefit children who are the direct beneficiaries of immunization services in Zambia.
She said the donation of vaccine refrigerators will help in addressing the storage gaps at districts and health centres in six provinces of Zambia.
She has since commended the Japanese government and other partners for supporting Zambia in the areas of cold chain investments.
And Japanese Ambassador to Zambia Kiyoshi Koinuma said the project is aimed at promoting child health through improved access to quality and effective immunization against vaccine preventable diseases.
Mr. Koinuma disclosed that his country, through the project, will vaccinate 550,000 newly born children and protect them against vaccine preventable diseases by 2015.
The ambassador was optimistic that the project would make a significant contribution to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number four which aims at reducing child mortality in Zambia by 2015.
The K10 million worth project has been entrusted to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for implementation.
UNICEF Country Representative Hamid El-Bashir noted that the equipment will build capacity of district to store and manage vaccines and ensure the delivery of a high impact intervention of unrivaled effectiveness of mothers and children in Zambia.
Dr. El-Bashir disclosed that 350 refrigerators and 500 vaccine carriers plus several spares and accessories have been procured and are already in the country.
He added that 73 more refrigerators will be procured in the coming months bringing the total to 423 refrigerators that will be procured under the project.
Dumped Garbage in the Central Business District in Lusaka
Lusaka Mayor Mulenga Sata has called for a change of mindset concerning waste disposal among residents of the city.Mr. Sata said there was need for the people in Lusaka to develop a common approach and desist from indiscriminate disposal of waste around the city.
He urged Lusaka residents to partner with the Lusaka City Council (LCC) in making the city clean and reverse its perceived dirty image.
Mr. Sata said this in Lusaka today when Airtel-Zambia donated 175 dust bins worth K56, 000 to the Lusaka City Council.
He thanked Airtel-Zambia for the donation saying it will supplement LCC’s efforts in solid waste management in line with its vision of providing a clean environment.
And Airtel-Zambia Managing Director Charity Lumpa said the donation was part of the company’s key corporate social responsibility of making the city clean.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sata said LCC will continue to enforce laws relating to public nuisances as provided for in the statutory instrument number 44 of 2007.He also said LCC will continue to enforce the public health act cap 295 of the laws of Zambia in an effort to make the city of Lusaka clean.
He further called for more concerted support from the private sector if the far-fetched dream of making Lusaka to be among the cleanest towns in the world is to be achieved.
File:ZCTU President Roy Mwaba addressing a news briefing at Lusaka Hotel on Wednesday flanked by officials from health workers unions
The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has threatened to organize countrywide mass demonstrations if government does not lift the wage freeze imposed on the civil service.
ZCTU Secretary General Roy Mwaba said from now on government will take full responsibility over its arrogance on the wage freeze.
Speaking during a media briefing in Lusaka today, Mr. Mwaba said the ZCTU is consulting its affiliates and will mobilize workers countrywide to demonstrate against the wage freeze because the action by government has left it with no option.
Mr. Mwaba, who was flanked by his Deputy Cosmas Mukuka, said part of the mass demonstration will be at Parliament building as a means of sending a strong message to Members of Parliament not to endorse the 2015 nation budget until, the wage freeze is lifted.
He states that should government not pay an ear to these mass demonstrations against the wage freeze, the union will apply other measures and actions to emphasize its disapproval of government’s decision to maintain the wage freeze.
The ZCTU Secretary General who could not clearly state whether union’s pressure on government to lift the wage freeze will culminate into strike action, said the public service workers will not shy away from striking if it becomes necessary.
He said that public service workers have conducted strikes before under previous successive governments and therefore it can also do the same under the Patriotic Front government especially that the unions are determined not to allow the country to become an animal farm.
And Mr. Mwaba has observed that it will be foolish to consider dialogue now over wage freeze when the budget has already been printed.
He said if government wants to dialogue over the wage freeze, it should put on hold the passing of the 2015 nation budget.
Mr. Mwamba was responding Information and Broadcasting Minister and Chief Government Spokesperson Joseph Katema’s indication that government is ready to dialogue over the wage freeze.
This column suggests that we Zambians and Africans are taught and continue to teach ourselves the wrong and distorted Zambian history. The column explains the Eurocentric context of the current history. The column proposes the Distracted Dog Syndrome (DDS) as the reason we continue to teach ourselves, sustain, fiercely continue to support our wrong history. The column appeals to both educated Zambians and Ministry of Education to revise the current education to teach ourselves the accurate Zambian/African history.
*In Memory of the Great Africanist and Thinker Ali Mazrui.
Introduction
In our African history in 1968 in Form II (Grade 9) at the prestigious Chizongwe Secondary School, we learned that some of the earliest humans 125,000 years ago included the Broken Hill man (Kabwe) whose skull was found in the mine. There was also Zinjanthropus whose bones were located in East Africa in the Olduvai Gorge from 1.75 million years ago. The history also included the numerous names of Zambian and African tribes that I could not easily remember during exams and too many people that constantly fought each other; the Sebetwane of the Kololo fought their neighbors, Mzilikazi of the Ngoni fought the Chewa, the Ndebele fought the Matebele and so on. Zambia has 72 names of tribes.
The big part of the African history was European explorers’ arrival in Zambia such as missionary David Livingstone, Mungo Park, Henry Morton Stanley and others spreading Christianity, European colonialism and stopping the brutal Arab Slave trade in East Africa. My classmates and I did not have to be geniuses to realize that our place in this narrative of history was that we Zambians and Africans lacked religion, were ignorant, uneducated, passive, fighting tribal wars, lacked modern schools, democratic institutions, we were uncivilized, superstitious until the more advanced, enlightened, and powerful Europeans arrived.
This narrative of history clashed with my personal experiences when I grew up among the Tumbuka people. I experienced my grandparents, aunts, father and mother and everyone in the village as the most confident, intelligent, confident use of indigenous technological knowledge, articulate in Tumbuka language people I have known in my life.
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They didn’t behave and look like people who were waiting for Europeans to tell them what to do.
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My paternal grandfather Zibalwe Tembo was smelting and forging iron in the late 1800s. The founding fathers and mothers of the Zambian nation led by President Kaunda did not look lost in 1964. They were a confident lot. Indeed, looking back my grandfathers and mothers behaved more like people who have been around for numerous generations going back perhaps thousands of years. There was a confidence, knowledge and dignity about their persona and life that I can’t describe that suggested to me that they are people who had been around for thousands of years. They didn’t behave and look like people who were waiting for Europeans to tell them what to do. But why was their legitimate and accurate history not in the textbook official Zambian history I was being taught? For forty-six years these questions and contradictions were always in the back of my mind as I continued to gain Western education and lifestyle.
Why does the history we learn always have this undeserved underlying background and undertone of Zambian inferiority? Why do we continue to teach the history in this manner so that future Zambians will believe they have been always passive, colonized, slaves or somewhat inferior and will be perpetually behind while trying to catch up especially to the West and the rest of the world?
This column will address four major ideas. First, I will discuss the more broad accurate history. Second, I will discuss why our Zambian history is so distorted. Third I will discuss the Distracted Dog Syndrome (DDS) as the major obstacle to we Zambians as individuals and a nation discovering and teaching our 13 million citizens the accurate and appropriate history. Fourth, I will discuss in what ways as Zambians through the Ministry of Education can teach, reclaim for our future generations, and learn our accurate Zambian history.
The More Accurate History
The more accurate history is that many groups of Africans called homo sapiens evolved from Savannah East Africa about two hundred thousand years ago. They migrated through present day Saudi Arabia through India, Andaman Islands, to the Far East including Islands in the South Pacific, Australia, and New Guinea. The same Africans may have lived in North Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East and some may have migrated by canoe from West Africa and settled in North and Southern America.
This may have been thousands of years before what are known as the Dark Ages in European History (500-1500 AD), Spanish exploration(1492 – 1892), Portuguese exploration (1500-1600), and European voyages of exploration and colonialism around the world. I discuss some of this information which is at the center of human evolution in Chapter 17 of my book: Satisfying Zambian Hunger for Culture.
In other words all the 7 billion people today all over the world may be biologically descendants of Zambians and Africans starting from about two hundred thousand years ago. If this is the broad accurate history, why is it today that the history of Zambians and Africans is so distorted that nearly everyone generally denies that Africans had any significant influence in history? That somehow Zambians and Africans are a black race that have always been colonized, inferior or were slaves?
Why Our History is Distorted
We cannot understand why our Zambian history is distorted until we are aware and conscious of how we as humans have a major weakness: we try to impose the present day conditions on past history. We wrongly impose what we know and the language and terminology we use now on the past and are wrongly convinced that what exists today or now was there and is going to be there forever.
Also once as human beings we have declared one group of people as inferior, the dominating group or nations work hard at suppressing and successfully removing and distorting the history of that targeted inferior group. Europeans have been very successful in all three in suppressing and distorting the history of Zambians and Africans.
Today we have language and divisions according to races; Caucasian, (white or European), Mongloid, (yellow skinned), Negroid (black or dark skinned). All of these skin colors are false. A “black person” or “human” never existed among the Africans or Zambians from two hundred thousand years ago. In fact, munthu wakuda (Nyanja or Chewa) or munthu mubinkha (Tumbuka) referring to the physical race of person never existed among our people or Zambian ancestors. These terms are recent inventions and adoptions from probably the 1950s as a response to European racism and the superficial racial constructions. The term “Bantu” in our Zambian lexicon means “human” with zero reference to skin color. In this sense, all 7 billion people today are actually banthu or bantu.
Europeans have used three principle motivations and forces to successfully suppress the accurate history of Zambians. The clash between Zambians and Africans in the ancient Egyptian civilization and the Greek Civilization, the Atlantic Slave Trade of Africans to North and South America, and European Colonization of the entire African continent.
Ancient Egyptian and Greek Civilizations
The ancient civilization of Egyptian Kingdoms headed by powerful Pharaohs dominated North Africa and the Middle East for almost two thousand years ago from c 3100 to 1090 B.C. E. This was before Assyrians, Persians, the Babylonian Empire, Greeks, and Romans occupied Egypt. This was also before Christ. The African Egyptian civilization was the first to create a large empire, establish writing using hieroglyphs, large scale political economy, the bureaucracy and built the sophisticated massive pyramids. In 330 B. C. E: Alexander the Great of Greece had gained control of Lower Egypt and established the city of Alexandria. Greeks ruled Alexandria for 3 centuries or 300 years until the Roman conquest.
In 30 B. C. E: Rome imperial rule was established. Queen Cleopatra committed suicide to avoid being humiliated in Rome. Roman law and religion were imposed on Egyptians until the 4th century. From 7-2 B.C. E. to 30 -33 AD was the period of Jesus also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth the central figure of Christianity. From 640 -1600 was when the historical Age of Islam took root.
Zambian Direct Descendant of Egyptians
Europeans, their scholars, and other supporters for a long time have denied that any Africans were involved in the Egyptian Civilization. Their argument was that if they built the Egyptian Civilization, where are those same Africans and their descendants to day?
We Zambians are direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians. The journal article that Dr. Chisanga Siame had published was titled: “Katunkumene and Ancient Egypt in Africa” from the Journal of Black Studies of 20 March, 2013. It clearly shows that all of us Zambians might be descendants of the ancient Egyptians. Dr. Siame had cracked the secret code which was hiding right under our noses; our clan names and our Bantu languages which have left our imprints all over North and West Africa, the Middle East and all over Africa up to Cape Town on the Southern tip of the African continent.
The secret code might be buried all over rural Zambia in our 72 tribes and our languages and clan names which include Lozi, Tonga, Bemba, Nyanja, Chewa, Kaonde, Luchazi, Tumbuka, Namwanga,Luvale and dozens of Zambian languages. Dr. Siame found out that the Bemba term uku tunkumana may have descended from the name Tunka Men (Tutankhamun: c. 1346-1328 bc) the name of the ancient kingdom of Sudan suggesting a connection between the Bemba and Namwanga people and ancient Egypt.
Towards the end of the fall of the great Egyptian Civilization, the Greeks are believed to have taken some of the technical knowledge and philosophy from an Egyptian library in Alexandria. Some of the key technical knowledge for building the great Egyptian pyramids is believed to have been later adopted in the construction of sophisticated building structures in Greece, Mesopotamia and the Biblical great tower of Babel. As Europeans advanced during the enlightenment period in the 17th century, they sought to expunge or remove completely African Egyptian influence in the Greek Civilization. They wanted to make Greece suddenly a white, Caucasian, or exclusively European.The reinforcing and hanging on to this myth still goes on to day in form of conflict between Euro centrists and Afrocentrists in American academia. The European suppression and distortion of Zambian and African history may have started in earnest about ten thousand years ago.
The Atlantic Slave Trade
In the early 1600s Europeans began to buy and ship Africans as slaves to North America, the Caribbean Islands and South America. In 1619, the first 20 Africans arrived in Jamestown in Virginia in America as free indentured servants. By the 1660s all the British colonies had passed laws making all Africans outside the continent of Africa slaves for life. The Portuguese bought Africans from Angola and shipped them to Brazil. Other European countries bought slaves from West Africa. It is estimated that 11 million Africans were enslaved in the transatlantic slave trade. The significance of the trade is that it helped create and reinforce the image and ideological belief of Africans as an inferior people and therefore it was probably morally and ideologically appropriate not only to enslave them but to distort and deny their significant contribution and participation in human civilization but instead always portray them as just slaves and passive inferior observers in history of the rise and fall of civilizations.
European Colonization of Africa
There were dozens of large Empires in Africa and movement of Zambians and Africans on the continent and beyond for thousands of years. In 1885, 14 European countries met at the Berlin Conference and divided the continent into 54 countries that they colonized. Zambians and African were suddenly not only dominated and exploited, but were divided into 54 small countries. Often many tribes were divided between 3 or 4 different countries. For example, half a million Tumbukas are in Eastern Zambia and half a million are in Northern Malawi. A large population of the Lozi people are in the Western Province of Zambia. But some of the Lozi people are found in Namibia and Botswana. Some of the Luchazi people are in NorthWestern Province but others are found over the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Chewa people are in the Eastern Province but many of the same Chewas are in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. All of these people are Bantu or just Africans and belong together in terms of their origins, language and culture.
The most destructive aspect of the Atlantic Slave Trade and European Colonialism in Africa is the ideology of racial inferiority of Africans that Europeans generated, spread, and maintained all over the world. What made it possible to maintain this distorted and often racist knowledge about Africans was especially after the invention of the Guttenberg Printing technology in Germany in 1450. This made it possible to print newspapers, journals, text books that could easily spread false information and propaganda all over the world and into Africa about the inferiority of Africans. Why and how do you think the inferiority of Africans and anyone with dark skin was spread all over the world?
Distracted Dog Syndrome (DDS)
Why is it that 13 million Zambians cannot teach ourselves a more accurate history 50 years after gaining independence from European colonialism? Why do even the most educated Zambians at Universities and Africans in the 54 countries still learn and believe in the distorted history that is Eurocentric and continues to project and have the undercurrent of the inferiority of Zambians and Africans? The answer is the Distracted Dog Syndrome (DDS).
The “Distracted Dog Syndrome” (DDS) is a useful metaphor. Supposing you are walking along and out of the blue a big menacing vicious dog is charging at you and closing in. If you have a bone or a piece of very rotten meat in your pocket, you can throw it away from you. The dog will immediately change course and go where you threw the bone or meat. You distract the dog. You will escape safely.
The same analogy can be applied to how we Zambians and Africans have failed to uncover our own ancient history, because each time we may try to ferociously and tenaciously uncover our own history like that vicious charging dog, Europeans and others who have joined them who want to continue to bury that history throw us a bone or a piece of rotten meat and we charge into the wrong direction chasing the bone instead of pursuing our own ancient history going back to antiquity. How does this happen?
Whenever you mention an interest in finding out if Zambians, Africans, or we the Bantu created the ancient Egyptian civilization for example, you will be told: “Black Africans were in Sub-Saharan Africa and were always enslaved to America and sold by their fellow Africans”. “There were so many people crisscrossing Africa, there is no definitive evidence who built ancient pyramids in Egypt”. “Do you have a degree or qualification in Egyptology or Greek? If not, how can you tell?” “Aliens must have built the pyramids because Africans today are so backward.
[pullquote]Aliens must have built the pyramids because Africans today are so backward.[/pullquote]
How could they have built the sophisticated pyramids that even present day European engineers do not understand?” These sources of distraction are not only by Europeans but also our very educated Zambians and Africans who have been coopted to the Eurocentric thought or perspective in the process of acquiring Western education including Secondary School Certificates, B.As, Masters, and Ph. D degrees.
If you are an educated Zambian like this author, if you criticize your fellow Zambians and Africans harshly, you are said to be “rational” “objective” and the most well “educated”. The conversations and arguments will turn to who enslaved Africans, why Africans have failed, what were the other groups that crisscrossed North Africa and Egypt hundreds if not thousands of years after the fall of the Egyptian civilizations instead of the main topic. All the distracting tactics constitute the Distracted Dog Syndrome or what the Bemba would call “ukufulunganya ifintu”, “mifulungenye” or what the Chewa would call “musokonezo”(causing confusion), what the Tumbuka call “ku tangwaniska munthu” or causing “mfundukutu” or confusion and doubt.
Ministry of Education and Zambian History
Both the very educated and ordinary Zambians will be bewildered and will ask questions like: “What will learning our accurate ancient history do for us?” “Will this knowledge provide us food, create democracy, employment, get rid of HIV, now Ebola, or help us compete in the modern world, will this be racism in reverse?” “Will all the teachers have to be retrained and the Ministry of Education write and print new text books?” “Will all our Eurocentric educational certificates, degrees and credentials that we have be revoked or become useless?” “All of this will be wasting money and time that can be used for true development.” Insisting that we learn our own accurate history is not racism in reverse or retrogressive as those who practice DDS will claim or charge to create confusion and doubt like they have done during the last perhaps one thousand years. To the contrary, the answer to all these questions is “yes” in the long run we will develop better. Our accurate history is so important that it will truly liberate us from “mental slavery” as Bob Marley would say. If all the 13 million Zambians learn our accurate Zambian and African history, the thousands and millions of teachers who will also have this knowledge will play a very special role. This new knowledge will truly improve our lives and we will be truly educated, liberated, strengthen our sense of dignity and we will make better strives in development.
By Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.
Professor of Sociology
References
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Bernal, Martin., Black Anthena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Vol. I, The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
Bernal, Martin., Black Anthena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Vol. II, The Archeological and Documentary Evidence, New Bruswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
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Khapoya, Vincent B., The African Experience: An Introduction, New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2013.
King, Richard D., African Origin of Biological Psychiatry, Baltimore, MD: Afrikan World Books, Inc., 1990.
Lefkowitz, Mary., Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to teach Myth as History, New York: Basic Books, 1996, 1997.
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Messages demanding a good constitution pasted on trees outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross
The Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD) has urged Members of Parliament to reject the K29.26 million allocated to the constitution making process in the 2015 national budget.
ZCSD Executive Secretary Lewis Mwape said it is disappointing that such a small amount of money can be allocated to such an important undertaking.
[pullquote]Government should explain how the K44 million allocated to the constitution making process in 2014 national budget was used.[/pullquote]
Mr. Mwape stressed that this is a mockery to the people of Zambia who are demanding for the release of the final draft constitution.
He said that the allocation of clearly demonstrates how less committed the Patriotic Front government is to giving the people of Zambia a new constitution.
Mr. Mwape said government should be serious and show commitment to the constitution making process through actions.
And Mr. Mwape has challenged Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda to tell the Zambian people how the K44 million allocated to the constitution making process in 2014 national budget was used.
Debutants Shepolopolo have been eliminated from the ongoing 2014 African Womens Champions in Namibia.
Ten-man Shepolopolo were eliminated with a game to spare after losing 6-0 on Tuesday to Nigeria in the two sides penultimate Group A match in Windhoek.
Desire Oparanozie scored a brace while Ngozi Okobi, Osinachi Ohale, Asisat Oshoala and Perpetua Nkwocha scored a goal each for Nigeria.
Zambia defender Grace Zulu was sent off in the in the 38th minute for a second booking with Nigeria already leading 3-0 heading into halftime.
With two defeats on zero points heading into Friday’s final Group A match against Cote d’Ivoire, Charles Beale’s side are unable to finish in the top two to clinch a semifinal place thanks to a poor goal difference.
Shepolopolo have yet to even score after two rounds of matches played.
Nigeria lead Group A on six points, Cote d’Ivoire are second and tied on three points with Namibia whom they beat 2-0 in Tuesdays other Group A match.
