On the Post-colonial Zambian state and Barotseland

Since 1964, successive Zambian governments have tried in vain to completely erase the question of Barotseland, from the post-colonial Zambian discourse. On the contrary, this issue has constantly re-emerged time after time, more so, after the return of multi-politics in Zambia after 1991. After draconian measures were employed to obliterate the Barotse issue, the question remains: is it one of secession or one of self-determination? This paper casts light on Barotseland’s quest to “liberate” itself from Zambia.  The paper further posits the following questions:  is Barotseland not about a people’s legitimate cause or right to self-determination?  Has it been erroneously interpreted by Zambian politicians and citizens alike as akin to secession? The former are posed in so far as the historical narrative and current realities point to a different scenario, which show that  Barotseland existed as a country long before Zambia and Northern Rhodesia, with its own institutions, political systems, economic activities, national anthem, flag and coat of arms, among others. Whilst Europe has allowed many “sub-countries” to become independent nation-states, especially after the fall of the Berlin War in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union thereafter, with minimal bloodshed, Africa is extremely nervous about such a prospect. Many African states seem to treat the boundaries which their colonial masters bequeathed them as sacrosanct. Is this a realistic stance in the twenty-first century? Can the African post-colonial state, in its current form - with vast powers vested in presidents and highly centralised governments in place, which in some cases negate national development – realistic?  

A shameless generation of leaders

So former president Rupiah Bwezani Banda has finally retired from politics? This took a bit of time considering the fact that he was already above 70 years and had been deposed in the last elections of 2011. However, what are more disconcerting were his utterances when he delivered his resignation speech. If what was reported in the Post newspaper is anything to go by - since this newspaper is now a reactionary news outlet and a mouthpiece of Michael Sata’s Patriotic Front-led government. Nonetheless, the Post had pointed out that Banda had wept when he handed over the instruments of power to the then in-coming president, Michael Chilufya Sata, because he had loved being “addressed as president.” He also knew that he was going to miss the travelling that came with the post and that he was “worried that his friends were going to lose their jobs and therefore their children would not go to school.” How shameless is this? Here is a man who was in Kenneth Kaunda’s UNIP government and had been an Ambassador to Egypt; Ambassador to the United Nations and the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. These positions entailed a lot of travelling and Banda had been to different parts of the globe. So one would have thought that this old man would not have been excited with travelling, especially that it is also a taxing activity, as one grows older. Secondly, it is even sad to note that Banda could admit to the world that the ministers who were supposed to serve mother Zambia were his friends. So they had just been invited to enjoy the national spoils. Because that is what governance is all about in Zambia where all politicians just occupy positions of power to help themselves to national resources and not help the mass of the people who are generally poor.

The SDC is very clear on the question of leadership: that Zambia continues to be bogged down in poverty and bad governance because it is ruled by mediocre leaders. This malaise continues because Zambians choose leaders not because they are capable, but because of ethnicity or other parochial related issues. But more importantly, this generation of old timers, the leaders of the colonial era and post-colonial period need to vacate the political space and make way for the new generation. But they keep on clinging to power and suffocate the young generation. Zambia is stuck because of such mentality which is rooted in what we term a “village mentality”. The world is now dynamic and globalised. This is not 1964 and the tactics that worked then are surely outdated in current times. These old men are also very much in control in the new PF government. We shall soon begin looking closer at this party of, frankly, jokers. In this article we wanted to express our continued dismay of the low caliber of politicians we have had in Zambia. It is just simply shocking.     

The problem of not having original ideas in Zambia

This week we turn our attention to the issue of political parties in Zambia of not having original ideas in regard to governing the country. This is especially true for the ruling party, the Patriotic Front. Due to this, the government of the day under the leadership of Michael Chilufya Sata has been fumbling with issues from day one. We note this as a matter of concern in Zambian politics. The redomination of the Kwacha is a case-in-point. We had stated in our manifesto, long before the PF came to power:

“The volatility of Zambia’s currency, the Kwacha, will be investigated fully by the SDC and prudent solutions will be sought to remedy this anomaly. In addition, the redomination of the Kwacha will be vigorously pursued by the SDC. This will involve the creation of a new unit which will replace the old unit, with a fixed number of old units being converted to 1 new unit. Simply put, the SDC will “cut” the zeroes in the Kwacha. The current situation where large dominations are used for simple day-to-day transactions is simply not competitive or sustainable. A name change will also be proposed as the Kwacha is also the name for Malawi’s currency. An indigenous and authentic name will be sought from the Zambian public through an inclusive and transparent process.”

The PF rushed to copy this issue but because it was not their original idea, they are finding it difficult to implement this monetary strategy. It is important that Zambians choose people who know how to move the country forward in matters of development and have sound and original ideas on this matter. We shall return to the PF's mediocrity in the next couple of months. Right now we are still watching.... 

Zambia's white Vice President and his racial opinions

The veteran politician and Zambia’s new Vice Dr. Guy Scott had made quite baffling assertions in an interview with the UK’s Guardian newspaper - Tuesday’s edition (4/10/2011). We have known Guy Scott for many years and frankly, there is nothing astounding about his colour. In fact we have known him as a Zambian muzungu (Zambian white). He represents a small group of whites who have consistently lived in Zambia since the colonial days. Usually such families will have only the parents living in Zambia after their children emigrated back to the “mother country”. However, it seems that indeed this individual has colonial hang-over. In the said interview, Scott was of the view that he was elected due to the fact that: “People are nostalgic, not for exploitation and division, but for the standards of colonial times. When you went to the hospital there was medicine, when you went to schools there were books, when you went to the shops there were goods to buy.” Now what kind of hogwash is this? We the members of the Social Democratic Congress (SDC) unequivocally state that this romantic version of colonial rule never existed in Zambia as our people were made to buy food and other essential commodities through pigeon holes at the back of shops; were denied education and remained illiterate and disenfranchised. Scott must not lie to the world about colonialism in Zambia. The United Nations Mission to Zambia in 1964 noted that 73% of African males and 93% of African females over the age of 16 were illiterate, meaning that they had not completed at least four years of primary school education. For a population of about 3.4 million people, there were less than 10,000 hospital beds, less than 700 nurses and less than 400 doctors. Now which heaven on earth is Scott referring to?

We would like to remind Guy Scott that the youth who voted for his party, the Patriotic Front (PF), do not have any inkling of what colonialism entailed, later on the One-Party state of Kenneth Kaunda. Many of us in the SDC were born in the 1960s and grew up in a prosperous Zambia where we were taught to be proud of being black. This was before Kaunda became obsessed with power. We do not subscribe to the misguided notion of “white is right”. Therefore it is quite dangerous for him to peddle bizarre racial opinions - willy-nilly. He must take care and refrain from such inflammatory statements. We would like to remind him that Vice-Presidents have come and gone in Zambia, and that there is nothing special about him. Moreover, he forms part of the club of retirees who are running our country today. But our time is coming.

Abash baas mentality Abash!

The signs of an autocrat

Zambia now has a new president in the name of Michael Chilufya Sata. However, there is nothing new about the septuagenarian politician who has literally held a post in every regime – from the United National Independence Party (UNIP) era, Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) and now the Patriotic Front (PF). There is also nothing new about his politics which are in the main those of ethnicity. This is clearly attested by his cabinet which mostly comprises his tribesmen and women. Lastly, there is nothing new about his cabinet as some of these “new” officials were in the first government of Kenneth Kaunda of 1964. This “new” government is full of old relics. So those youths who had voted for “change” did not do the country any favour. Zambia shall continue going nowhere slowly with this “new” crowd. But what is characteristic of Michael Sata is his gruff approach to life and politics. He has also strong autocratic tendencies which were exhibited during his reign as Lusaka Governor in the 1980s during UNIP’s rule and as a minister in the MMD government. Recently, this behaviour came to the fore when he woke up on Tuesday and re-named all the major airports in Zambia. This was done without any consultation with the country’s citizens (who are its major stakeholders), Parliament or any other state institutions. He went on to assert that he did this with “immediate effect”. In a democracy, a public official, later on a president cannot carry out major societal changes without consulting the citizenry. Zambia is a democracy and we fought hard for this democracy. It is not a one-party state dictatorship or a one man show! People are going hungry to bed, poverty is on the rise, maternal and child mortality rates are on the increase and the first thing this man does when he is sworn into office is to re-name airports? God help us all. We are indeed going for a bumpy ride in Zambia! However, we in the Social Democratic Congress (SDC) have seen this circus before during the reign of Frederick Chiluba. So we are merely steeling ourselves. Aluta continua!    

Sports mediocrity continues unabated in Zambia

The 10^th All Africa games which just ended in Mozambique again saw Zambian athletes exhibiting high levels of mediocrity. Zambia only managed to win three bronze medals. This pales in comparison to South Africa’s haul of 158 medals. What a disaster! It was also sobering to see Mozambique host these games with quite sophisticated sports infrastructure adding to the flair of the competition. This is after Zambia failed to host the last games after bidding to host them in the first place. The reason for this was that Zambia did not have adequate infrastructure and that it could not build modern sports facilities in time. Mind you, Mozambique is a country which had suffered decades of civil war whilst Zambia has been a “haven” of “peace” and “stability”. Why do the sports authorities and the government continue to send under performing athletes to regional, continental and international competitions just to embarrass us? We of the Social Democratic Congress (SDC) are fully aware that the country has a huge reservoir of talent which is not properly tapped and nurtured. The sports authorities do know how to prioritise and focus on comparative advantage in regard to which events the country could surely reap dividends. Let us take the swimming team. This team has never won any medal at any major event – ever, and yet sports authorities keep on sending these “swimmers” who are ironically only white (one wonders where they scrape them from?) to various competitions. It is not healthy for a nation to constantly lose at every event when it can do better. Zambians have just been reduced to losers and whipping boys and girls at major sports events. If this half-baked performance is all the country has to show for, what more of the Olympics and Commonwealth Games? It is noteworthy that these so-called athletes use tax-payers money for their travel, allowances and upkeep. Perhaps, it would not be so far-fetched to suggest that a moratorium be put in place until such a time that the country has high-quality athletes who will bring glory to the country. We are sick and tired of this charade!  

A nation desrves its leaders

As Zambians prepare to go to the polls in the coming month, we the members of the Social Democratic Congress (SDC) unequivocally state that (with the obtaining material conditions) the nation deserves its current crop of leaders. Indeed, with a multitude of illiterate, ill-informed and ethnically-based voters, the nation is not spoilt for choice in terms of visionary and quality leadership. We say so because the frontrunners in the presidential elections being the incumbent, Rupiah Banda and the leading opposition contender, Michael Sata are of a by-gone era and with due respect cannot execute modern-age democratic governance. They are also in the twilight of their years as both are 74 years old. We believe that whoever wins these elections, Zambia’s development trajectory will not be significantly altered – in short it will be business as usual or even worse. We want to put this on record for posterity. But one wonders whether this sate of affairs does favour ancient politicians and not dynamic and young visionaries? This calibre of politicians would deliriously celebrate when the World Bank classifies Zambia as a low middle income country. On the other hand the SDC sets its goals of making Zambia one of the top 10 performing economies in the world - not in Africa, not in the developing world, not in middle income countries, but in the world! We believe that it can be done! Whatever the case may be the SDC membership firstly believes that it has a moral duty to stand up and be counted and chart a new course of action in Zambian politics. Secondly, it firmly believes that no matter what the obstacles are, one day – when the material conditions are right, the SDC will rule Zambia and take into the future. Zambia is our country and we have a citizenry responsibility to make it a better place. Our time will come.