ZAMBIA’S JUBILEE CELEBRATION—A MOCKERY TO BAROTSELAND
Press statement by Clement W. Sinyinda, Chairperson General, BNFA
The frenzied preparations for the so called ‘Zambia’s Golden Jubilee independence celebration’ is slowly coming to a crescendo on this independence eve. The climax is the festivities for the celebration on the 24th day of October in the year of our Lord two thousand and fourteen (2014). The theme for the celebrations is “Celebrating 50 years of God’s favour” while the rhetoric seem to be going in circles around the phrase which has been referred to as Zambia’s Motto ‘ONE ZAMBIA ONE NATION.’ Speaking for myself and my colleagues of the BNFA and all other Barotse activists and indeed all Malozi worth their salt at home and abroad in the diaspora of Zambia, beyond Zambia’s borders and indeed beyond the shores of mother Africa, the festivities that go with the Zambia independence celebrations, especially this particular one, are simply an irritating nightmare. One wonders if this sloganeering about One Zambia One nation is intended to intimidate and blackmail us into cowering from our determination to put right a blunder that has existed for fifty years now. It is a marvel and mind boggling that successive Zambian governments cannot get the simple fact sticking out like a nose on someone’s face that the unitary nature of the Zambian state did not just happen! It took the signing of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 for Zambia to become a unitary state. Therefore, one does not need rocket science to know that the unitary nature of the Zambian state cannot be maintained outside the perimeters of the treaty or agreement that gave birth to it, there are simply no two ways about it. Even the One Zambia One Nation motto that is now being attributed to Kaunda actually came from that same treaty which successive Zambian governments have called all kinds of names from ‘stale’ to ‘cow dung’ and anything else in between. Zambia’s so called motto has its birth and origin, like Zambia itself, from the Barotseland Agreement 1964. In the preamble it says and I quote: “Whereas it was proposed that the Northern Rhodesia shall become an independent sovereign state to be known as Zambia. And whereas it is the wish of the government of Northern Rhodesia and the Litunga of Barotseland, his Council and the chiefs and people of Barotseland that Northern Rhodesia should proceed to independence as one country (Zambia) and that all its peoples should be one Nation: ...” Zambia’s independence and the Jubilee celebrations means one thing to someone and the complete opposite to the other, depending on which side of the Kafue River you are. For those of us that are Malozi from the kingdom of Barotseland that lies west of the Kafue River and on both sides of the Zambezi river, from which Zambia gets its name, it means the loss of hard won and long cherished Autonomy and Dignity for which the last ‘Mulozi Sakata’ standing would rather die than surrender and watch being taken away. It is an exchange of shackles of white colonialism for the shackles of black on black domination. For some of our colleagues on the other side of the Kafue river it a celebration of the falling away of the British chains of colonialism and the acquiring of new jurisdiction over the Kingdom of Barotseland albeit by deceit, ‘hook and crook’ tactics. BNFA is determined, with the support and collaboration of all patriotic Malozi and our God given leadership in all Kutas of Barotseland to reverse this anomaly of the century that has been perpetuated for half a century now. Let no one think or even imagine that this will die a natural death or that we will be deceived by piecemeal development designed to blindfold and blackmail our people. Neither are we going to cow down by the heavy rhetoric of One Zambia One Nation or the threats with fire and brimstone on our necks that we are committing treason by demanding that which is rightfully our birth right—Self-determination. We have no doubt whatsoever that ‘it is not treason to seek freedom’. The failed unitary state of Zambia should not be forced on our throats. It is rude, repugnant and disgusting for Zambian authorities to think that they can force Barotseland to be part of a union whose terms of unity they have trampled upon. I DO BELIEVE THAT BAROTSELAND HAS A RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION hence I will expend the remainder of my strength, energy and will power to ensure that Malozi like any other peoples of the world exercise this God given right because the right to self-determination is a human right and the Barotse people are part of the human species. We as BNFA, we as Barotse Patriots and Activist, We as the leadership of Barotseland in all forms shades and colours DO BELIEVE IN BAROTSELAND’S RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION hence we will endeavour to cooperate and collaborate as well as to complement each other’s efforts while putting together our mental capacities and pooling together our various and varied skills and competences to ensure that not another half-century, not another decade and not another year should pass while our people still have to endure this forced Zambian dominion over Barotseland. We shall soon be making serious pronouncements as to what we have achieved so far as BNFA what we intend to do and how we intend to do it. We are committed to none violent means of achieving our goal which is bringing to fruition the aspiration of our people; to fully exercise their right to self-determination leading to an international recognized and modern self-governing Kingdom of Barotseland. As for this Jubilee independence celebration, well, let them go ahead with their merry making for now. Yet we remind them that this is a painful mockery to the peoples of Barotseland and we will not allow it to continue forever. We will not take this lying on our backs because like Nelson ‘Madiba’ Mandela (MHSRIEP) one of the greatest sons of the African soil said:“No people are perpetually too weak so as not to be able to stand up for their rights”
Tukuongote! WamwanaNongoloshaaMalozikomuyakomukuwa.
Signed
Clement WainyaeSinyinda
Chairperson General – Barotse National Freedom Alliance (BNFA)