“IT IS NOT TREASON TO SEEK FREEDOM!” - Mukunyandela wa Nyandi The sublime words, “It is not Treason to seek Freedom!” first struck me as boy watching the famous Bible Movie; ‘The Ten Commandments’. The words are in the movie spoken by Moses in his defence before the Pharaoh of Egypt. The creators of the movie seem to make the deliberate attempt to portray the fact that Freedom is heaven’s endowment on all creatures created in the image of God and that Human beings, who these creatures are cannot continue to exist in the absence of the sense of Freedom without which they would rather die trying to achieve than fold hands and watch while others trample on their right to Freedom. It is for this reason that our forefathers came up with various instruments to protect the freedoms that every child of humanity should enjoy in such documents like the Universal declaration of Human Rights which include the Right to Self Determination because it must be said again that; ‘It is not Treason to seek Freedom!’ I have popularised this saying in a number of my writings and indeed in some of my speeches in relation to Barotseland’s right to and fight for self determination: ‘It is not Treason to seek Freedom.’ The events of the last few weeks have helped to bring this fact to surface again. Starting with the swearing in of one fondly referred to by his followers as the Right Honourable Afumba Mombotwa to the imaginary office of Administrator General of the so called Transitional Government of the Royal Kingdom of Barotseland, to the high handed action of the Zambian security forces in random arrests of people, innocent people I must add whose only crime was to celebrate the elusive actualization of a dream that belongs to every Barotse person worth their salt at home, in the Diaspora of Zambia and beyond its boundaries and indeed beyond the shores of mother Africa; that is the dream for a free and self governing Barotseland. Then followed the varied and various reactions from all kinds of sectors of our society. Sectors like Politicians, Government Officials, Academicians, Civil Society organizations including the Kaushikus of this world speaking on behalf of the so called Nkoya Royal Council. The top Civil Servant in Barotseland one, Emmanuel Mwamba, has not been left out in the line-up of comments and reaction and has taken full advantage of the situation to bask in the lime light which is one of his favourite sports. He has suspended other civil servants on mere suspicion that they too desire a free Barotseland and made statements some of which are far too partisan to be made by a civil servant and others are outright erroneous and even outrageous. Mwamba, his Masters and everyone else that has had a field day over the situation in Barotseland ‘by making absurd and inappropriate comments, even those that have absolutely no moral right to make the unpalatable comments they have made need to be reminded that ‘It is not Treason to Seek Freedom! Reading through Mwamba’s long statement in the Media where he hallucinated that there are other people that are behind the Barotse calls for self determination, one seems to wonder whether Self determination is a right or a crime. Will you please wake up Emmanuel, ‘It is not TREASON to seek FREEDOM!’ As the resident PS in Occupied Barotseland what you should be telling the occupying forces for which you work is that the calls for self determination are genuine serious and justified and they can no longer be ignored because doing so is tantamount to burying your heads in the sand in the face of approaching flames of a raging wild fire. Mr PS sir, please advise your masters that to continue to ignore the calls and demands of the Barotse people is to court trouble because this is a time bomb, if we do nothing about it, it will definitely erupt and catch your Government unawares like the devastating eruption of a dormant Volcano. What is worse is that the Zambian Security forces have continued the field day and extended the arrests and harassment of innocent citizens of Barotseland causing havoc in their trail by stealing from their victims and also using the arrests to settle personal scores. The latest such foolish arrest is of a Mr. Mukenge, a respected member of society and headmaster of Kaoma Secondary School whose residence was besieged on Sunday 25th August 2013 afternoon and he was drugged into police custody like a common criminal. He was seen driven out of Kaoma in a police open van surrounded by heavily armed policemen on Monday morning (26th August 2013). Let us face facts; if it is a crime to desire a Free and Self-Governing Barotseland, then the Zambian Government has no capacity to arrest the culprits because it is almost all of us Malozi. Let the Zambian occupying forces not deceive themselves into thinking that by arresting this or that one, maybe they can succeed in unlashing terror into the Barotse people so as to quieten their demands and break their resolve. Nothing can be much further from the truth and the reality. The more innocent people are arrested the more radical the remaining ones become because ‘IT IS NOT TREASON TO SEEK FREEDOM!’ What the Barotse people need is FREEDOM! We are not asking to be given ‘a dog’s horn’ or ‘a snails bone’, we are simply asking to be given our birth-right the right to determine our own future and destiny. On 27th March 2012 we made a declaration in full view of the whole world and in front of the then Zambia’s representative in occupied Barotseland Mr. John Kufuna, that we have had enough of this domination. Why does the Zambian Government sometimes act as though they do not know what we want? Or pretend as though we are making unreasonable or unheard off and strange propositions? It is only normal for a people that have been subjugated for as long as Barotseland has by the Zambian Government to demand what we are now demanding. It is rather amusing to hear it repeated over and over through the Zambian media houses that the people being arrested are being charged with Treason according to one, Ms Lombe Kamukoshi as instructed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). It is not treason at all to seek freedom you people! By the way it doesn’t matter whether you are Linyungandambo, BFM, MOREBA or BNFA for that matter; the bottom line is that we want freedom. Yes we may differ in the way we want to make our demands known, we may even disagree about that. Yet all we want the world to hear is that Barotseland wants out, at all costs. We are fade-up of this domination. We may use different means or strategies but the message we want to get across is one. Finally let no one think that by mass arrests torture and harassment of our people they will be terror stricken to abandon the course and struggle. We will keep on keeping on; the struggle shall continue to the last man standing. ‘Aluta continua’ as they say. The wheels are in motion and slowly yet surely turning and no one can stop them this time. It is only wishful thinking to imagine that the Barotse match to freedom can be halted. Yes it may be derailed slightly from time to time but it will get back on course and move on until one day we shall all shout in Unison in the words of the old negro spiritual; Free at last! Free at last! Barotseland is Free at last! ‘It is not Treason to Seek Freedom!’ Let it be said again that the Train taking Barotseland has started off and is gaining momentum with the passing of time. The options are few; it is either you get on board or get out of the way otherwise you risk being run over. Tu kuongote shaa! Wa mwana Nongolo kapa wa mwana Muka isi wa mwana Nalukapwa! IT IS NOT TREASON TO SEEK FREEDOM! Mukunyandela wa Nyandi - See more at: barotsepost/index.php/en/frontnews/local-news/459-it-is-not-treason-to-seek-freedom-mukunyandela-wa-nyandi#sthash.8p3RMH6I.dpuf
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:22:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015