OPEN LETTER ON THE STATE OF THE BAROTSELAND NATION VIS-À-VIS
THE MARCH 2012 BNC RESOLUTIONS
On behalf of the Barotse National Freedom Alliance (BNFA) and by the instructions of its Executive Committee (EXECOM) of 29th February 2016, I am compelled to write this letter to you due to the immense pressure from the people on the ground keen to know the situation, further to the Barotse National Council (BNC) Resolutions of 26th and 27th March 2012. As you may be aware, the BNFA was created for the sole purpose of aiding the successful implementation of the BNC Resolutions of March 2012 on behalf of the people of Barotseland. The people of Barotseland regard the BNC Resolutions of March 2012 as sacred and base their fondest aspirations upon the successful implementation thereof. The people are worried by the trend that is emerging in that we see the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) acting in ways that are secretive and inconsistent with both the spirit and letter of the BNC Resolutions of March 2012. A case in point is the tour of the BRE trio of Indunas, Kalonga (Lubasi Nalishuwa), Katema (Mowa Zambwe) and Namuyamba Isineke (Dominic Lisulo), who going around Barotseland trying to persuade the Regional Kutas to turn against their BNC Resolutions of March 2012. It has further come to our attention that the three have proceeded to give a false report to the Zambian President purporting that the people of Barotseland are united against their BNC Resolutions of March 2012 when in fact the opposite is true. Our investigations indicate that the mission of the three Indunas, who are now referred to as the three Iscariots on social media, was met with fierce resistance and all-round rejection by the Kutas, let alone the people. I do not need to school you over the fact that the Barotse governance system is one that is open, where major decisions are made publicly in broad daylight (like how the BNC Resolutions of March 2012 were arrived at). This practice dates beyond Lewanika’s Grand Pizo (BNC) of 1909. It is through this open and transparent governance system that the treaties and concessions that shaped our nation were negotiated up to the now defunct Barotseland Agreement 1964. That is why the BNC Resolutions of March 2012 followed that process. Any deviation from this well-established modus operand is foreign to our very nature as Barotse people and alien to the norms, traditions and culture that have ensured the steadfastness of the Barotse Kingdom for many centuries. This new culture of secretive handling of issues of national importance by a clique of handpicked Indunas to the exclusion of the rest of the Saa-Siikalo Kuta (as we are made to believe), the Regional Kutas and other major stakeholders like the BNFA and other Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and most importantly, the people of Barotseland, is a formula for catastrophic failure. No clandestine activities or secret deals with the Zambia regime or President will ever bring a lasting solution to the decades-old Barotseland impasse. If anything, this secretive handling of public affairs has further discredited the leadership of the BRE as a whole. As you’re well aware, it is well known that according to the well-established Barotse democratic governance philosophy: Mulonga ki Mulena ni sicaba, that is to say Government is the Litunga and the people. Nothing that lacks the approval of the people like the ongoing backdoor manoeuvres will ever work. I write to invite you to create a situation that is conducive to coexistence and cooperation among all stakeholders and all sections of the Barotse society ensure a pacific resolution of the Barotseland statehood. I note that this is in line with a statement attributed to Induna Mukulwakashiko when speaking on behalf of the Litunga at a church service during the festive season last year. On behalf of the BNFA, and indeed on my own behalf, I wish to put it on record that we are religiously committed to actualizing the aspiration of the people of Barotseland to regain their right to statehood and, thus, recover their human dignity. As you are aware, the espoused wish of the people is to attain sovereignty for their kingdom. In pursuit of this mission, nothing shall deter them from this path for as long as their aspiration has not been realised. As an organisation that has chosen to align itself with the aspirations of the people of Barotseland, the BNFA is prepared to work with all and sundry for as long as the engagement is on open and democratic terms. We will not cower or be intimidated by anything or anyone because we know that ‘it is not treason to seek freedom’. That is why it was said by our forefathers that ‘mu fa na saye ni muteeba,’ meaning “blessed is he who dies for what is rightfully his.” It is for this reason that the Barotse are prepared to crush whoever or whatever threatens to stand in their way towards the actualization of Barotseland statehood which they consider their birth right. Thus, against the fore-going, that the BNFA calls upon you, to convene a Pizo (an all-inclusive meeting of the people at the scale, more or less of the the March 2012 BNC) to review progress of the implementation of the BNC Resolutions of March 2012 and chart a way forward, otherwise the BNFA stand ready to chart the way forward beyond the BNC Resolutions of March 2012 together with the people of Barotseland. In this regard, I look forward to your positive consideration of the issues herein raised and indeed your positive actions thereof.Yours sincerely,
Clement Wainyae Sinyinda
CHAIRMAN GENERAL
cc. All Regional Kutas, Barotseland