In his State of the Nation adres in may 2008 Thabo Mbeki said mutu ki mutu ka mutu yomumwi, meaning a person is a person by another person. Thabo Mbeki uzd ths sotho saying 2 underscor th undrstndng dat no man is an island. Mr. Mbeki adresd th rainbow nation SA aftr th xenophobic ataks on sam forein nationoz hd subsided. Most of thoz dat found thmselves engulfed in da xenophobic ataks were Malawians, Zimbabweans, some Zambians, the congolese and nigerians. In his spich Mbeki hintd on mekn Geog and Hist non-optional subjects in da edu curricula. Dis, he observd, wud help countervail inter-ethnc hate n violenc. Here in Zambia inter-ethnc fingerpointing cn 2 said 2 b on the rise as can be observed from the current political polarisation with UPND looking more Tonga-oriented while the ruling PF is looking Bemba supported. Those of us that have explored the theory of structural functionalism understand that Zambian society is only a society in transition. There will come a time when our rural and peri-urban society will undergo the process of gentrification, changing from a mechanically solidified, low income/cost life standard to a more complex, organically solidified modern society. At that time, it will be hard to distinguish between Kasama and Choma, between Bemba and Tonga. This shall be so because peaceful co-existence,as originally conceptualised by Vladimir Illytch Lenin, would have been achieved. It is beautiful to note today that my great-grand papa, Sebitwane had to migrate from the orange free state in South Africa to come and name the Zambezi water falls as Musi o Tunya nako kaofela. Today the Vic Falls stands an icon of wonder in the many minds of both men and women. It is these beacons of our cultures and the many different but highly intelligible languages we speak that should always remind us the Barotse-sotho, Tonga, Chewa, Ngoni, Bemba, Zulu, Shona and Xhosa that mutu ke mutu ka mutu yo mumwi.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 18:07:42 +0000
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