By Kapya Kaoma

When I saw the Times of Zambia front page story that “HH Feels Let Down; Says Appointment of Ministers and Permanent Secretaries in his “New Dawn” Government has so far not helped matters,” on February 10, 2022, I made sense of his February 8, 2022 tweet, “25.7 million is coming to your constituency. What will you do with that money? Please tell us.” If one didn’t know the sources of these statements, they could be misconstrued as misrepresentations of the President. Yet they came from HH.

I am not surprised HH publicly stripped naked his own administration. His Cabinet and Permanent Secretaries his worshipers praised as the most competent, but I termed Salaula. It is the worst team one can pick aside from the fact that they shouted, “Bally will fix it,” the loudest! If HH couldn’t come up with the right team to help him govern, why should Zambians trust his judgment on policy issues?

There’s only one way to explain his disappointment; a disheveled President fleeing from his own ugly shadow. That tweet said it all. He doesn’t have a comprehensive vision for the nation–every Zambian must come up with his or her plan; and “as the youth of Zambia say, Bally will pay.” The same with his administration; it is all about his lugubrious egoism; so he must find someone to blame for his failing ideological programs.

Bally worshipers are in sacred denial. Sympathy for their god, these strange beings lack as his Presidency hangs on the cliff. How would he dance forward without disappearing into the apocalyptic abyss from which no idol can escape? Is dancing the cursed dununa reverse his only way to save face from those of us who saw it coming as if diviners yet mortals? Alas. A solemn indictment of all merciless Bally worshipers with us–their disappointed god has gotten it; the New Dark Regime’s incompetence on PF blame not. Yet in the Baal Universe, Lungu to blame save that a self exculpatory confession a god finally made; “I am not fixing it.” But faithful worshipers proudly respond, “Baal you are fixing it!”

It is important to note that the issue of this Dark Regime is bigger than the Cabinet and Permanent Secretaries; the President himself is the problem. Upon taking office, HH declared bogus ideological programs such as CDF, free education, boarding bursaries, and employment creation for teachers, nurses, doctors, and unemployed youths among many others, when he had zero knowledge about the logistics of government under workings. As President, he has limitless funds for these programs, but not a single experienced personnel to implement them. This is because these programs affect various Government Ministries–that is they don’t necessarily fall under one department of government. The President’s pride and lack of consultations have created unnecessary bottlenecks and subjected these programs to delays, confusion, misuse and corruption. In the real world, for example, the Ministry of Education should have handled Secondary boarding Bursaries. Funds would have moved from the Treasury to the established and experienced education system. As arranged, however, the bursaries have to go from the Treasury to MPs, then to local authorities. People would then apply to local authorities, and once processed, the money will be sent to schools. Among local authorities, nobody is trained to process these transactions. In the end, HH created his own problem. A transaction that would have involved two Ministries ends up going through many different Ministries; duplicating the process unnecessarily. Nobody understands the system but HH’s complex brain.

The same with CDF. In his complex mind, Zambia’s underdevelopment is due to lack of money–the opposite is true. As Dambisa Moyo has shown, money alone does not grant development; strategic planning, project and market analysis, outcomes, and systems of project viability evaluation are engines of development. HH assumes that all Constituencies possess such skills, and that they have management experience and personnel to implement such projects. Moreover, needs differ from one community to the other; here the administration’s guidance on how all Constituencies projects will add to the National Development PLAN should have come first. Sadly, the President expects Zambians to tell him what they need–forgetting that in democratic nations, we speak through our MPs and Councilors. Parliament should have come up with exact guidelines on which activities and programs would be funded through CDF. Without guidelines, what would happen when people and elected officials disagree as to how this money should be used? And as with bursaries, which Ministry will have complete oversight of these Funds? The MPs would want to control the fund, but what is the role of local authorities? Will the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, and the Ministry of Education have roles too? And what process would be used to ascertain which projects to fund? Nobody knows.

Moreover, how would this money be divorced from political corruption–that is MPs using these funds to ensure their own re-elections as opposed to serving all citizens. For instance, highly populated areas in one Constituency are likely to be developed over less populated ones for electoral reasons.

But the cost may prove deadly to all those involved. Whereas UPND MPs will be shielded from accusations of misuse of public funds, Opposition MPs are likely to be arrested one after another. If I were an Opposition MP, I wouldn’t be too excited. This is one route to Prison. But UPND MPs are only safe as long as HH is President. Thereafter, they will become devils of HH’s making–they will be arrested for misuse of Funds because Chimbwi had no plan. This is because most projects would fail due to lack of expertise and clear evaluation guidelines. More importantly, the money would pass through many hands before reaching intended audiences–making it easy to steal!

In short, the President own policies are buried in prideful ignorance engraved in his egoistic “one man kantemba syndrome.” The efficiency of every administration begins with the President’s vision planted in truth and reality. Unfortunately, HH does not understand that leadership means carrying others with you. Had he spent time thinking through his programs, consulting with community leaders, Civil Society leaders, Opposition leaders, community development experts and of course, political historians, he would have realized that Presidential ideological programs are always wasteful. They are also gold mines for corruption.

Fili uko tuya!

By Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.

If you live in town and enjoy the Western world culture, you have seen many Hollywood romantic movies and read romantic novels, you probably believe one thing: the best way to express love and romantic feelings during this coming Valentine’s Day is through flowers, kisses, a card, a letter, text message, the cell phone, very expensive ring, and especially a romantic dinner with wine by candlelight. You might also believe that love and romance may not have existed traditionally in rural Zambia and other non-Western cultures back in the old days.

After all, aren’t marriages in these rural areas and non-Western cultures miserable and practically between strangers since they are arranged? Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only did single young men and women have choices, romantic love often bloomed. The only exception might be that the romantic love started and was expressed differently from the present Westernized lifestyle.

Take, for example, among the Tumbuka tribe of Eastern Zambia. The single young women in the village were known as mbeta and they all slept in the nthanganeni; a hut for young single women. On the other hand, young single men were known as jaha and they slept in the mphala; a hut for single young men. When the time to seek a marriage partner came, a jaha (young man) will dress at his best and walk often for kilometers to a village where he knew there was a particular mbeta; young woman he either knew or has heard about through the grape vine to be attractive and eligible for marriage.

Once he arrived at the village, he was shown the nthanganeni (single women’s hut) and word quickly rippled through the village that he had come, say for Tryness. There was tremendous excitement in the village as children were sent and gleefully scrambled to fetch Tryness who might be bathing and drawing water at the river. Once Tryness learned that there was a Jaha waiting for her in the nthanganeni, she went bonkers with sheer excitement and anticipation. How is she going to do her hair? What dress will she wear? Is he handsome? Will she like him?

Once the two saw each other and if their chemistry was just right, it might have been love at first sight in which case electrical sparks will fly. But quite often they may have found there was no mutual attraction and either one of them could back off. But if there was attraction and she accepted the proposal, the period of romantic love and courtship begins. This is the period of romantic love which is full of drama and has many legendary stories among the Tumbuka people.

Because the two lovers cannot stand being away from each other, there have been kusomphola (elopements). Depending on the distance between the villages, he might visit her practically every day during the period of courtship. The two of them are allowed to spend hours alone in the nthanganeni (single young women’s hut). They enjoy and experience kufwasa. Meals, often of nshima with delicious chicken, were served to the two lovers by the woman’s family. Since any sex was traditionally strictly taboo before marriage, the romance was even more intense and blissful.

Stories say that lovers stare and gaze into each other’s eyes lovingly, smile, act silly with one another, and playfully feed each other. Passers-by could hear loud hearty laughter, conversations in low tones, the woman giggling, and silence. Giggling, noisy, and snoopy kids were shooed away from outside the hut so that the couple could have privacy and kufwasa. When the man departed later in the evening, she escorted him in the dark.

The lovers might have exchanged chikole; a personal possession as a symbol of commitment and love for one another. The woman might have given him her bangle, bracelet, her ear ring, her scarf, and perhaps traditionally most intimate, one strand of brightly colored beads from inside her waist or mkanda. The man might give her his white well pressed handkerchief, or a chithumwa (small charm or love object he made he might always carry in his pocket)

Among the Tumbuka, romantically involved young women were known to become absent minded, to stare blankly into space as they went about doing chores, to lose appetite, to be tearful and lonesome. Some young women composed romantic songs dedicated to their lover. The women sung the song while pounding maize with a pestle and mortar. Young men in love might sing the composed song during the traditional dance such as mganda and fwemba. One such a song by a young man is featured in my novel The Bridge when the novel’s two romantic characters visit the village.

Young men in love might be miserable and restless everyday and can’t wait to walk to the other village to visit their lover. They might persuade their lover to skip the traditional stalled marriage and wedding arrangements and instead elope in defiance of custom, elders, and community. The romantic lovers were constantly teased by their friends and relatives.

The author is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Author of Internationally acclaimed Romantic Novel “The Bridge”.