Focus on Livingstone: Some Undeniable Historical Facts about the City of Livingstone The town of Livingstone has and will always be significant to Barotseland as several important treaties and agreements were reached at and in Livingstone. The town was founded in 1905 and became a tourist capital in 1907 though it had long existed as Musi-o-Tunya or Musi-wa –Tunya which is wrongly spelt as Mosi-oa-Tunya in Zambia.This is where the name of Zambia’s famous beer Mosi lager is derived from. Home to the mighty Victoria Falls locally known in silozi as Musi-o-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) the history of Barotseland can never be complete without the mention of Livingstone town. To quote the words of Mutompehi Godwin Kaluwe of the Barotseland Peace Foundation, ‘the waters of the Victoria Falls are a witness and testimonial to the existence of Barotseland Kingdom. These waters and rocks have seen all the Litungas of Barotseland from Mboo Mwana Silundu.’ The first treaty of King Liwanika and Harry Ware of 26th June 1889 was penned in Livingstone so is the Lawley treaty of 25th June 1898.The Lockner (Lochiner) treaty with Frank Elliot Lockner, whose basic principle was to secure protection from Ndebele incursions was signed on 27th June 1890 in Livingstone. Apart from these important events, other events that were held in Livingstone include the 1924 handover of the BSA Company to the British colonial office, attended by Litunga Litia Yeta and the coronation divine service for Queen Elizabeth which was held on 2nd June 1953 and her birth day function held on 11th June in the Barotse Park, so was the Codrington Concession. The 1911 amalgamation of North Western Rhodesia and North East Rhodesia was signed in the Barotse Park in Livingstone and was witnessed by the Litunga. The Zambians changed the name of this historic Park from Barotse to Mukuni Park around 1995 and later changed the local language used in schools from Lozi to Tonga around 1997 by unilateral government policy declaration on the excuse that Livingstone was in Southern province and not western province, so Lozi could not be used as the official local language there. (Livingstone was among the towns that were cut off from Barotseland to Zambias Southern province by Kaunda on 26th August 1969 when he also changed the name of Barotseland to Western Province, while the formally Western Province was changed to the Copperbelt province.) However, we now look forward to adding to that list of important events the signing of disengagement between Zambia and Barotseland from the same historic place. In 1905 the King of Barotseland Liwanika inaugurated the Victoria Falls Bridge across the mighty Zambezi river to link Barotseland to present day Zimbabwe to bring development and civilization to Barotseland. The construction of the bridge had commenced in 1904. In 1910 the Litunga Liwanika met Colonel Fair in Livingstone and in 1911 the Litunga again traveled to Livingstone with his son Litia to meet the Duke and Duchess of Connaught. Accordingly Livingstone does fall under the Barotseland territory currently under claim, which claim is supported by the publication of the document entitled International Boundary Study No. 123 of 3rd July 1973 by the Geographer, Directorate for Functional Research, Bureau of intelligence and research, Department of State, The United State of America as published in accordance with the provisions of Bureau of the Budget Circular No. A-16 which states, as shown at paragraph 4, page 4, which states in part that: “The territory of the Barotse Kingdom was defined as that over which the King of Barotse was paramount ruler on 11th June 1891.” File Picture: On 14 November 1910, 168 men of the [Barotse Native] Force were on parade at Livingstone for inspection by Field Marshall His Royal Highness The Duke of Connaught. ... The Duke complimented the men on their steadiness on parade and the manner in which they went through their drill movements. A brass band had been formed in 1909 and was, of course, on parade. The Duke, as Colonel of the Corps of Royal Engineers, gave the Barotse Native Police permission to adopt as their own the quick march Wings, the march of the Royal Engineers. In 1947 King George VI of England was on tour of Southern Africa and paid a state visit to Barotseland and was received by the Litunga (Imwiko) in Livingstone. This was King George’s first overseas visit since 1939 and the end of the Second World War and came along with his daughter Princess Elizabeth ii, the current Queen of England. According to records at the Livingstone Museum, the British royal family crossed into Barotseland from Southern Rhodesia on a steam boat called the’ Dalphine,’ and this is the only recorded time in history that the Litunga’s royal barge the Nalikwanda made a long trip from the Barotseland capital of Mungu to Livingstone. They met on 11th April 1947 and the place they met at has a monument to-date. The video of this visit can be found on british pathe/video/south-africa-royal-visit The video shows the Nalikwanda with its flotilla on the Zambezi approaching the Livingstone boat club and further shows King Liwanika disembarking from the Nalikwanda to a thunderous sound of the sinkoya royal drums. The town has several landmarks such as the North Western Mansion Hotel, the first hotel to open in the country and also boasts of the biggest and oldest museum opened in the early 1930’s apart from the railway museum. Livingstone also offers one of the best white water rafting in the world while the Musi-o-Tunya game park offers 385 bird species within the park area. It is here where the Zambezi River has the widest section upstream the Victoria Falls whose waters are known to have 8 species of fish. The town boasts of one international airport with a terminal potential of over 1 million passengers per year. The temporal agreement of 16th April 1964 was signed at the Victoria Falls between Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia and this is what culminated in the Barotseland Agreement signed in London on 18th May 1964 which was shortly abrogated by the Zambian government and Barotseland formerly accepted this abrogation on 27th March 2012 at the Barotseland National Council (BNC). File Picture: Barotse Police Band File Picture: Victoria Falls Regatta – The Barotse Police who were paraded on the day of the Regatta and whose Band played selections, picture Published courtesy of Hallis & Co, Port- Elizabeth - 1907 - See more at: barotsepost/index.php/en/frontnews/local-news/824-focus-on-livingstone-some-undeniable-historical-facts-about-the-city-of-livingstone#sthash.U8XpTs5h.dpuf
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 18:42:15 +0000
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