Renegade BIs get it rough and tough in Lukulu
by Mampi Ńundamai
A group of renegade Barotseland Imilemas (BIs) on a mission clearly in conjunction with the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) or more precisely the three Iscariots and the government of the Republic of Zambia—the oppressive regime—got it rough and tough in Lukulu as the populace resisted their malicious manoeuvres and warned them to disappear if they did not want a worse plague than what they experienced in Sisheke to befall them. This group of former BIs (prominent among them Muyunda Makala, Mushokabanji Wamui and Mutemwa Pumulo) had lost the last elections of BIs and are now working as agents of the three Iscariots and the oppressive regime for the purpose of frustrating the gains made by the people of Barotseland and the Barotse National Freedom Alliance (BNFA)-Namungelele in actualizing the March 27th 2012 BNC Resolutions. On their ill-fated mission to Lukulu the renegade BIs were accompanied by a former Barotse Freedom Movement (BFM) member who sometimes masquerades as a Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) Induna and is now member of the BFM newly formed splinter and pro BRE grouping called ‘Congress for the Total Independence of Barotseland’, Muyangwa Mungwaluku AKA Linońu, who actually played the role of team leader and spokesperson. Ironically, the group made known their presence in Lukulu by using a public address (PA) system to announce a meeting they planned to hold with the people. Some youth activists attended the meeting with the sole purpose of listening to whatever crap the group was preparing to deliver and give them free advice to the effect that they are undesirable elements in Lukulu and they should vacate immediately before the activists are forced to eject them in a manner worse than what happened to them on their Sisheke expedition. At the meeting Linońu, in his usual elaborate and otherwise eloquent manner, made the key presentation pointing out that they were in Lukulu to solicit for the support of the people for BRE’s efforts in the issue of Barotseland’s struggle. He did not mince his words in discrediting the Sinyinda led BNFA as well as the BNC of 2012 and the Resolutions that ensued from it. It took just a few questions from the ‘TRUE REDS’ (Real Barotse Activists) to rattle the foundation Linońu was trying to build, among which the people wanted to know how come they made known their meeting by PA system when they had not even given notice to police and were well aware that other youths in Mongu were arrested for doing the same. Their defence was that the police could not temper with them because they were working hand in hand with the BRE. This confirmed to all present that these people were working with the oppressive regime and subsequently given free advice to resist from making any further obscenities otherwise the people would be forced to descend on them. The group hurriedly concluded their meeting realising that those were not mere threats. They promised the host of the meeting to show up again and bid farewell before leaving Lukulu, which promise they did not fulfil. It remains a mystery why the three Iscariots made an abrupt U-turn in Lukulu without reaching the Namayula Kuta on their equally mysterious ‘tour of duty’ after they had been to Naliele in Kaoma and why they were not on the entourage of the renegade BIs when all indication from our intelligence sources point to the fact that this was planned to be a joint venture. What is very clear though, is the fact that both the efforts of the three Iscariots and the renegade BIs to turn the hearts of the people of Barotseland from actualizing their statehood are exercises in futility and at best just hitting against the wall or at worst chasing after the blown wind. The people of Barotseland are more resolute than ever in actualizing their BNC Resolutions of March 2012, which epitomises Liwanika’s dream for a free, secure and self-governing Bulozi.