Hypocrites in the name of the Christ Jesus

 

by Mukunda

  The Gospel according to Saint Matthew Chapter 25 verses 41 to 45 records Jesus Christ’s teaching as follows:   “For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”(KJV).   Does this sound as one of those Sabbath or Sunday sermons in one of our local churches? Nay, this a preamble to a response to the recent calls from three mother church bodies in the failed unitary state of Zambia comprised of the Council of Churches of Zambia (CCZ), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and the Episcopal Conference of Zambia (ZEC) for dialogue over the now defunct Barotseland Agreement 1964 (BA’64) (Daily Nation, Wednesday, 29th October 2014). These are calls from hypocrites, misrepresenting the name of Jesus and the church. The bear facts are hereunder:   The BA’64 unilaterally abrogated by the Kaunda regime was an international treaty that allowed Barotseland and the rest of Northern Rhodesia to proceed to independence as one country called Zambia. In 1969, the Kaunda regime annulled the unity treaty, which action led to arrests of several people of Barotseland who protested against his actions. Since then the people of Barotseland tried in vain to restore the BA’64. The least successive Zambian governments could do was to kill, mutilate and send more than 500 Barotseland nationals to prison over tramped up crimes.   We are telling representatives from the so called three mother churches bodies from the failed unitary state of Zambia once and for all that in as far the peoples of Barotseland are concerned, they represent the oppressive state of Zambia and the matter of the BA ’64 was shunted to the back yard on 27th March 2012. In other words, it is a dead issue. On the 27th of March the people of Barotseland resolved as follows:   “The people of Barotseland shall exercise their right to revert to its original status as a sovereign nation, so that the people of Barotseland shall determine their political, cultural, social and economic development.”   This resolution was cemented by a letter dated 12th May 2012 to the late President of the failed unitary state of Zambia Michael Sata from the Ngambela of Barotseland (Prime Minister) under the subject: RECOGNITION AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE REPUDIATION OF THE BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT 1964 BY THE ZAMBIAN GOVERNMENT. On the basis of the BNC resolutions, the people of Barotseland took noble and civilized steps to put the Barotse impasse to rest. These include:  
  1. affiliating to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples organization (UNPO);
  2. petitioning the Banjul based Africa Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR); and
  3. inviting the then President of Zambia (Sata) to sign a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) submission agreement.
  Unfortunately, these initiatives were treated like child play whereby today some people under sheep skin are making noise about dialogue over the Barotseland impasse. What kind of misguided thinking and foolishness is this? What is even more frustrating is that calls for dialogues are coming from agents of the oppressive regime. Surely, how does one, expect the people of Barotseland to take serious, a person who stole a motor vehicle at a tender age – and asks for forgiveness for stealing the motor vehicle while taking possession of the stolen motor vehicle and that he be allowed to be in charge of running your affairs. Come on guys we are not jokers. You have pushed us too far.   ‘Do not throw stones if you live in a glass house,’ so goes an old adage. It is clear from your persistent loud crying that you are simply acting your ‘master’s voice.’ Let it be known by you and your sponsors that the matter of Barotseland’s self-determination is real and will not die away like you and me. If you are truly peace-makers (bayahi ba kozo) that you claim to be, why don’t you assist the Patriotic Front (PF) and the rest of Zambia to resolve their succession wrangles—is it because you cannot see them even where it is clear to blind person? What hypocrisy?   I question the three mother bodies in regard to the now defunct BA ’64 as follows:  
  1. What did you say to Kaunda, when he, in 1969 before and beyond embarked on a destructive path to destroy the very foundation of the so called unitary state of Zambia?
 
  1. Did you not hear the people of Barotseland seek the matter of the BA ’64 respected since 1965?
 
  1. Where were you when in January 2012 Zambian government unleashed armed police, killed, injured and arrested Barotse nationals?
 
  1. Where were you when Barotse people were suffering in Zambia prisons over the past 50 years? “in prison, and ye visited me not”
 
  1. What advice did you render to the late Sata when his government lamentably failed to submit counter evidence to the Barotse forensic evidence contained in the Petition before ACHPR for close to two years now?
 
  1. Why did you not prevail over the late Sata and his government to take advantage of the Barotse initiated PCA process to resolve the Barotse impasse?
 
  1. Why did you remain mute when Sata and Kabimba (the latter then as PF Secretary General) threw unwarranted scone on Dr. Rodger Chongwe and his team of Commissioners for the report on the so called Mongu riots of 14th January 2012 or the release of the Rodger Chongwe Commission Inquiry Report?
 
  1. Where were you when Sata transgressed on the Ten Commandments?
 
  1. Where were you when Zambia acquired fighter Jets and intimidated the Barotse peoples?
 
  1. Why were you silent when the Post Newspaper insulted the leaders of the New Apostolic Church in Barotseland for building a show piece church in Malengwa?
  The answer to all the above questions is summed up by the teaching of Lord Jesus when he addressed the Jews, in John Chapter 8 verses 39–44:   “They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (KJV)   Again, this article is far from being a Sabbath or Sunday sermon but simply an attempt to bring to the fore the behaviour of hypocrites who claim to say or do things in the name of the Christ Jesus or the Church. The hypocrisy in them is so deep that they lamentably fail to see ‘wood for trees.’   In addition, let the people at the Daily Nation know that I do not agree with them when they said in their paper’s editorial of 29th October 2014 that dialogue over the BA ’64 is vital; thus categorically agreeing with calls of the three mother church bodies. I don’t agree because the people of Barotseland put the matter of the Agreement behind them way back in March 2012. As has been said already, the BA ’64 is a dead issue. Moreover, Barotseland has since taken her case to the international level thereby rendering domestic engagements redundant and irrelevant. I am consoled that we all pray to the same God–the same one who referring to the children of Israel when in Egypt said: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey…………” Exodus 3: 7-8 (KJV)   My plea to the people of Barotseland is not to waste time with these jokers. You cannot afford to fall over each other when you are fighting to free your country. YES, Bulozi ki NAHA and KI NAKO. I urge all the people of Barotseland through the Barotse Government (not Barotse Royal Establishment—a term erroneously introduced by Kaunda) and the Barotse National Freedom Alliance not to relent in actualizing Barotseland statehood. I challenge the three mother church bodies, as a matter of priority, request whoever will succeed Late President Sata to sign the PCA submission agreement and vacate Barotseland within one week of his/her inauguration. This is so because the matter of the Total Emancipation of Barotseland is IMMINENT.   KI NAKO. TUKONGOTE.