HOW ZAMBIA ACHIEVED THE SLOGAN OF ONE ZAMBIA ONE NATION AS A SOLID FOUNDATION OF UNITY, PEACE AND TRANQUILITY. COMMEMORATING GOD’S FAVOR ON ZAMBIA AND HER PEOPLE Uniting the 73 tribes of Zambia The question of citizenship is an emotive issue world over, so much so that in some parts of the world it has triggered chains of reactions culminating in nasty incidents depending upon how such conflicts have been handled, and where they have happened. It is with this concern that I, Samuel Kambangu; a freelance journalist in liaison with Kasama’s award winning Radio Mano Community Station attempts to explain how our founding fathers of this country came up with the idea of defining who is a genuine ZAMBIAN after the break-up of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. When our country, Zambia attained its political independence from Britain on 24th October, 1964, it was imperative to recognize its inhabitants as its citizens. It is against this background that that the 73 different tribes of Zambia were brought together as one. Our founding fathers also looked at the various chiefdoms doted in the country and brought them together into one big state. Well, any informed debate on this question of who is a genuine citizen of Zambia should begin with the constitutional provisions on the article dealing with citizenship. Part 11 of the Zambian constitution, stipulates in (A) that, “A person born in or outside Zambia is a citizen of Zambia, if at least one of the parents is a citizen of Zambia.” The constitution states further in (B) that “A person born of established residents or a woman who has been married to a citizen of Zambia for more than three years or who has attained the age of twenty one and has been ordinarily a resident in Zambia for not less than ten years is entitled to apply to be registered as a citizen. I will logically advance the question of citizenship, by first explaining what constitutes a nation, a state and nation- state? A nation is a grouping of people who view themselves as being linked together, to each other ethnically linguistically and psychologically while a state is a geographically bounded entity governed by a central authority (chief/traditional ruler) that has the ability to make laws and to enforce those laws within its boundaries. And the term nation-state refers to a geographical entity, under one government, whose inhabitants feel bound together ethnically, culturally, linguistically or psychologically. So from the above premise, it is quite clear that what are called tribes today were in fact, nations and states (nation-states). This is owed to the fact that they occupied geographically defined territories under a central government and their subjects or inhabitants were related to each other ethnically, culturally or linguistically. These nation states which are presently known as tribes of Zambia nearly all of them straddled present day international boundaries. The Lozi nation state occupied present day Zambia, Angola, Botswana and Namibia. And the Ngoni nation-state occupied present day Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique. While the Bemba nation-state (Traditional cousins to Ngoni) covered present day Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Mambwe nation-state, Lungu nation-state and Namwanga nation-state spanned the international boundaries of present day Zambia and Tanzania. The Luvale nation-state, Kaonde nation-state, Lunda nation state straddled the international boundaries of present day Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Namibia. The list of nation states that straddle the present day international borders can be longer but suffice to give these as examples. By the way, during the “scramble” for Africa, absolutely no regard was given to the nation states that existed on the African continent. As a result, in the vast majority of cases, states (geographical entities) and not nation states (geographical entities made up of people who shared the same tribe, language and culture) were created. And due to the arbitrariness of the old colonial boundaries the Bemba find themselves in Zambia and Congo DR; The Tumbuka are found in Zambia, South West Tanzania and Malawi, the Tonga in Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Lozi in Zambia, Angola, Namibia and Botswana. It was the discovery of copper and other minerals on the Copperbelt of Zambia and subsequent the laying of a railway line for exploration of these minerals which instigated the process of making people from different parts of Zambia as well as different linguistic and cultural backgrounds acquire a new common denomination that of being citizens of the state of Zambia. While the economic forces (the copper mines and railway line), the trade unions and nationalist political parties were trying to build a new nation state out of the mosaic of tribes of Zambia it was a declared fact policy of the colonialists to divide and rule. A variety of ways were used such as restricting the movement of people from rural to urban areas and sponsoring tribal based political parties. Thus at independence in 1964, Zambia was a state but definitely not a nation comprising people with common destiny beyond the ethnic cultural and language divide. The state of Zambians living on the line of rail for many years after independence was that of double existence. When they were on the line of rail, they easily identified themselves with common denominators other than tribe, language or culture, like common employer or common residential areas but when they returned to their home areas they just became Bemba, Lozi, Tonga or any other tribe. They were Zambians on the line of rail and tribesmen at home. The slogan” One Zambia One Nation” was born out of a realization by the government of the day that the new state of Zambia was more of a geographical entity rather than that of a nation state, of people with common vision and common destiny. In the final analysis, the big question of our time may not be who the genuine Zambian citizen is, but how we created a nation out of the state of Zambia. The works of some scholars has held the idea that the greatest achievement of the United States of America has not been their technological ability to land a man on the moon, but their ability to literally take people from all the five continents of the world bringing them together to live in relative harmony. And therefore, the Zambian dream was to unite and create a nation state out of the diverse groups that comprises the Zambian people. After independence the United National Independence Party-UNIP government viewed the colonial system as not befitting the Zambian cultural practices for example:- • Racial discrimination • Apartheid practices • Separate education system All these factors led to the struggle for our independence and the need for our own PHILOSOPHY as our ideology. In 1967- The UNIP manifesto exposed the Philosophy of Humanism. And in April the same year, the UNIP national council approved the philosophy of humanism which was later in August adopted by its general council as the nation’s philosophy of humanism. From 1968 to 1970, the UNIP government embarked on national reforms, nationalization, and establishment of cooperative movements and this in turn put in place our national ideology. The slogan One Zambia One Nation and Humanism were in conformity. Humanism is a philosophical statement concerning the coexistence of man. Man the Bemba, the Tonga, The Tumbuka, the Lenje you name it, Man Yellow, Black or White, Man from North or South were treated as one, regardless of their tribe, religion, colour or status. They believed in • Man centeredness • Hard work and self-reliance • Extended family • Respect for human dignity • Cooperative effort • Patriotism and respect for authority • Equal opportunities for all (egalitarianism) • Reciprocal obligation. Since independence in 1964, Zambia has remained a unitary nation under the leadership of UNIP’s Kenneth Kaunda, trio of MMD’s Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda and incumbent Michel Sata of PF. And the five presidents have upheld the moto-one Zambia one nation as a unifying slogan under which the country has enjoyed unity, peace and tranquility for fifty years now. Long live mother Zambia, long live the people of Zambia. ENDS……
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 09:11:22 +0000
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