MY LIST OF THE WORST POLITICAL BLUNDERS EVER MADE IN RHODESIA !

By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama I am sorry but you may have to put on your thinking cap for this piece as it is inspired by an excess of cryptic puzzles from The Mensa Society. You are more than welcome to have a go at deciphering it and do let me know what you think I am on about. CAUTION: It is only for people who like to excite their cranial department and are good at cracking codes. 1. The Bufo Amphibian or Goliath Frog reducing itself and consequently almost completely diminishing his political clout or influence after his not being preferred by the Double Mike River Mouth Group by forming an ineffectual party when he should have been more patient to join a more established one so as to propel himself to greater nation-wide appeal. This was when he failed to get the reins of power in the Double Mike River Mouth Group after the untimely demise of our very dear Israeli High Priest tribe and Irish cousin from the midlands. 2. The British heir apparent prince Sisutho variant lingo for Incessant Rains, a Barotse National, fancying his chances of ruling Zambia one day that he even goes ahead to form a political party. Though not explicitly stated, but the motive was to ride or bank on his almost default popularity or support base he would get in Barotseland. He grossly miscalculated by doing all this at a time when many a Mulozi are expressing deep nationalistic fervor. The pinnacle of this booboo was when during a campaign trail rally in Barotseland, he was booed and jeered off a platform and almost roughed up for forcing The Malozi to sing a Zambian national anthem this they resented and proudly bellowed out of their chest and instead sung in unison ‘ Bulozi Fasi La Bondata Luna’ (The Proud Barotseland National Anthem). 3. Double Hotel’s total lack of discernment or failure to learn from the lessons of the Ugly thing in Luyana botched unholy union with the micturition product informalized into a copulation euphemism. 4. Double Hotel wasting his chance at winning/stealing a sizeable amount of votes from a few confused Barotses who would shockingly still vote in Zambian election in 2015 and beyond by failing to understand what The Barotseland Agreement WAS about. He even embarrassingly likens the resolution of the Barotseland Question to federalism. 5. The Regal venomous slithery Reptilian blood lined individual from the boreal campus point, having the propensity for commenting on all matters even those whose full depth he sadly usually and obviously little understands, only to have them explode in his face like 10,000 mega-tonnes of TNT like promising to honor an agreement he little understood the depth of. 6. The ploy by successive administrations to make the issue of Barotseland taboo even to the extent of making even its mention treasonable and as not acceptable in parliament pretty much childish in my books. 7. The total avoidance and removal of the Barotseland Question from the country’s historical background and how their country was founded through meticulously doctored curriculum offered in schools to their children is extremely bizarre. 8. The total inability or unwillingness of the citizenry to comprehend a very basic once legally binding document (Barotseland Agreement 1964,whose abrogation has since been mutually accepted) and its full implication, which unity treaty was the sole basis of their country’s founding. 9. The failure of the BRE( Barotse Royal Establishment)to fully engage all the stakeholders who are part and parcel of greater Barotseland(Encompassed in the geographical boundaries of the Nation of Barotseland) in charting the way forward for the Nation of Barotseland. Their total failure or inability to unite all the activist groups and issue an equivocal statement on their stance to the international community and to their people post-BNC in the form of the State of the Nation address. 10. Zambia continuing to grapple with the Barotseland Question for 50 YEARS using the same techniques of fruitless internal dialogue, intimidation, belligerence, military armament,arrests,killings and invasions. What did Einstein describe the process of doing the same thing over and over again but expecting to get a different result? 11. The embarrassing intellectual inadequacy of failing to comprehend what is happening in Barotseland and some people’s inability to differentiate between Secession and reverting back to a previous status of Statehood. Secession is when a group of people in one historically solid monolithic state decide for whatever reason to detach themselves from the rest of the country. This usually happens where there is ethnic division and unequal distribution of wealth and resource utilization. The proud State and Nation of Barotseland only wanted to become part of Zambia based on the basis of the clauses enshrined in The Barotseland Agreement 1964 which Zambia decided to unilaterally and systematically abrogate by disregarding the clauses enshrined therein. The end result is what we see now; in my humble understanding this is technically not secession. How are they a Unitary State then? Who did they unite with and using what tool as the modus operandi of the union? 12. The failure to realize that the Barotseland Question left inconclusively addressed as it has always been, will FOREVER be there to haunt us up to the 20th generation and beyond. No amount of intimidation, arrests, killings, warn and caution statements will ever prevent the Barotse People from achieving that which was divinely ordained to be them, Royal Barotseland! They constantly add insult to injury by always going back to tease Malozi that when voted into office, they would help resolve the Barotseland Question and for some strange reason, like a cursed people Malozi ,buy into this cheap politicking by voting for them en masse. How not so shocking , remember The Curse of Sir Mwanawina III when he was forced to sign the Barotseland Agreement? 13. The perpetuation of a very unfortunate and dangerous ideology and thought that any other ethnic group in Zambia will never ever ascend to the helm of political power. This assertion unfortunately, we openly and publicly hear being repeated by the denizens of Zambia as an affront to anyone who opposes their plans and political hegemony. Armed with this fallacious thought pattern, many electorates have entered into polling booths to choose their preferred national leaders during their exercise of universal suffrage solely based on tribe and regional origins but not substance of the candidate. The voting pattern in most African countries is regional or ethnic in nature. This happens when certain, but not all, usually or predominantly the less affluent and those of humble educational backgrounds or the blatantly bigoted individuals vote for presidential candidates based solely on which tribe they hail from. Having come to grips with this eternal fact, “ May God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”Reinhold Niebuhr quotes (American theologian, 1892-1971). The almost unforgivable result of the succession rift in The upended group between Double Hotel and the Ugly Luyana thing was to say the least selfishness on the part of the duo. They did not realize that they had inflicted untold harm on the relations Of the Bulls and the Elephants. The two were, as a consequence, blinded at the potential of uniting or harnessing the south, central, copperbelt, north-west and The Occident into a formidable voting block of great repute taking full advantage of the historical strong bond of cousinship which binds us all. This, when properly done would radically create a paradigm shift in the political landscape of the zedians. 14. The various machinations of state to attempt to stifle the public freedom of expression and the free flow of diverse intellectual ideas no matter how they find them disagreeable. Fond memories of the Grecian’s Agora spring back to my mind where i would have intellectually thrived to unimaginable proportions. What this effectively does is it inadvertently creates a police state where citizens develop a morbid fear of officialdom. The barometric readings on broader or critical issues affecting the general public would not be ascertained accurately if you do not allow them vocalize their discontent. The end result of this strangulation of opinion is that they vent out their disdain and anger in the polling booth when it is too late for any meaningful intervention measures. 15. The blunder by the bearded fair skinned semi-Grecian to leave the trappings of the acme of professionalism at N.A.T.O. Phonetic Alphabet begins in encoded; Scottish product; The Brit heir apparent prince pet name; and lastly O’flahertie Wills Wilde’s forename only to join Double Mike River Mouth Group at its political nadir. Lo and behold he has effectively vanished into oblivion after he headed Zulu Romeo Alpha as CEO. Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama Barotse Patriot Barotseland, Central Africa “I tell you a Truth, Liberty is the best of all things, my son, never live under a Slavish Bond.” – Sir William Wallace’s Uncle

THE LEGENDARY DISMAL PERFORMANCE OF AFRICAN TEAMS AT FOOTBALL WORLD CUP COMPETITIONS.

By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama

Now that the football World Cup is underway in Brazil, it is in order that we all declare our interest as to which team(s) we are rooting for. It is an open secret that I am and always have been an ardent supporter of the disciplined Germans as inspired by Hitlerism. It is not just because of last night but I seem to now have a much softer spot for The Dutch team as well! At this world cup, you will not catch me dead supporting the quadrennial under-performing African teams as they cause us way too much embarrassment as a continent. The individual players only exhibit their true talents when applying their trade in professional leagues abroad. The African individual players seem too muscular for some reason maybe they think this stamina helps them endure the physical exertion. Sadly, it also causes their brain to harden or something this judging from their decision making on the pitch and final execution of moves. Well, news flash, football is not only about physical staying power but more to do with mental and intellectual acumen as well. The Africans should pick a leaf from the way Robin Van Persie launched himself at the ball, while seemingly levitating, defying all known forces of gravity but still managed to think and control the ball and knock it where he wanted it to go. That is, quickly calculating the position of the goal minder and lobbing it over the keeper, paying attention to the trajectory of the ball, his own aerial lift and determining correct point of actual contact with the ball then lo and behold scoring! That was, to me, truly the classic definition of ‘The Flying Dutchman!’ My note to our African players is this that, ordinarily you are not expected to miss when you head the ball for the very simple reason that you are using a body appendage on your own torso, and not on anybody else’s .This body part, the head that is, contains both the aids of sight, eyes, and thought processes (Brain) so use it god damn it! What I have noticed is that when approaching or facing the goal in an offensive effort many an Africa player opt to rely on their obviously superior physique and unleash an undirected shot at goal hoping it will find its way in by sheer virtue of the strength employed even with their head bowed down while they do this. The usual result of this is what we are all too familiar with. It hits into players or just gets ballooned into outer space much to the annoyance of the over-zealous expectant fans. This is not to justify the practice but now you have a fair enough idea where the occasional toss of Musa paradisiaca spp.(Banana) to African players on the pitch comes from. What they little realize is that, with an occasional lifting of the head as they run with ball and checking the position of the keeper and possible obstacles in their way, it may not take that much strength to put in the shot . The seemingly never ageing Arjen Robben from Bayern Munich was particularly impressive also but you may not probably notice this from the many online reviews especially hereon because the majority of the commentary on last night’s game is predominantly coming from the Manchester United support base for obvious reasons. Modern football is more about finesse, technique and team-work. So, when these aspects are well-coordinated this is what delivers on the pitch. There are a myriad of scapegoats that do the rounds after many a shoddy showing at global sporting arenas by African teams. What they need to be told is that we are just about fade up with their never ending shocking levels of sporting ineptitude. What is our latest excuse for not performing as well as other non-African nations? The player’s allowances not being paid or they are not enough? Look, if you are a little thin on resources as a football association go ahead and borrow from Qatar or something but be sure to pay them back while you are at it! The lack of facilities is now a cliché which has become stale and does not really hold anymore. The African players are too scattered abroad so when they are hastily assembled during major competitions there is little or no time for the players to bond or gel properly and be well coordinated. The pre-colonial slave trade generally still has many psychological scars resulting in inferiority complexes etched on the African personality thereby doing untold harm to their ego. When they meet other Nations they have a low self-esteem and this has had a negative impact on their game. However, and unfortunately, probably unlike you, I am not abusing a substance to delude me into thinking of impossible outcomes. Because of my infantile dread for claustrophobia and asphyxiation I will not be turning blue from holding my breath too long that an African team is going to win this particular World Cup either! I beseech you not to get me wrong. They have actually been known to win a few matches here and there but when it gets to where and when it really matters they falter. It will crash your heart to learn that more often than not, they have proven to be rather consistent with their failure to achieve. Before you decide to lynch me, I know this will not go down well with many soccer fans on the continent but, just know that I derive credence for my rather harsh assertion from their proven track record of not improving on their previous showings at these tournaments. Africans should be advised to gracefully withdraw from this competition and re-group. Probably just play among themselves or field one team for the continent so that the shame and heartache they inflict on us is reduced somewhat. The strength in numbers concept clearly has not helped Africans much as the pain ever increases. This is not healthy at all because we can only take so much embarrassment as a people. There is so much pride that rides on these chaps and people with hyper tension are strongly advised not to be overly passionate and expectant even this time around as the picture is bound to be the same. What did Einstein define as doing the same thing but expecting a different result? So, there you have it, I have officially dared them to shame me and win the 2014 Brazil World Cup so that I eat my words! Caution: Just remember though, that, I do not have a voracious appetite for my own words and they usually do not return void.

CHALLENGE TO SIGN A PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION SUBMISSION

DUGUÉ & KIRTLEY AARPI CHRISTOPHE DUGUÉ AVOCAT BARREAU DE PARIS WILLIAM KIRTLEY AVOCAT BARREAUX DE PARIS │WASHINGTON │NEW YORK For the attention of: Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata President of the Republic of Zambia State House Lusaka Republic of Zambia From: William Kirtley Partner, Dugué & Kirtley AARPI E-mail : wkirtley@duguekirtley.com Admitted to practice in Washington, D.C., New York and Paris Christophe Dugué Partner, Dugué & Kirtley AARPI E-mail : cdugue@duguekirtley.com Admitted to practice in Paris Sylvana Sinha Attorney-at-law, IAA Network E-mail : sylvana@post.harvard.edu Admitted to practice in New York By e-mail and DHL Paris, 28 March 2014 RE. : CHALLENGE TO SIGN A PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION SUBMISSION AGREEMENT Dear President Michael Chilufya Sata, We are writing you on behalf of the Barotseland National Freedom Alliance (“BNFA”), which our firm represents in tandem with co-counsel Ms. Sylvana Sinha. It would be unfair to hold you personally responsible for the issues concerning Barotseland’s status within the Republic of Zambia (“Zambia”) today, for it was primarily your predecessors, including the former President Kenneth Kaunda, who made a mockery of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 by which Barotseland became a part of Zambia. Nevertheless, given your position as the President of Zambia, on behalf of our clients, and the People of Barotseland, we would like to propose a peaceful solution to end the outstanding issues of Barotseland’s disengagement from Zambia. If you believe that Zambia’s position is legal, then you should have no difficulty with respect to our simple proposal that you sign the enclosed arbitration agreement so that this matter may be settled in accordance with the law. It is our client’s position that the undisputed legal basis for the creation of modern Zambia, formed by Barotseland and the rest of Northern Rhodesia, is the Barotseland Agreement of May DUGUÉ & KIRTLEY AARPI │2 BIS, RUE GUENEGAUD 75006 PARIS FRANCE │TEL. + 33 1 42 60 04 31 │FAX. + 33 1 42 60 04 55 │WWW.DUGUEKIRTLEY.COM SIRET 79922270800015 │TVA INTRACOMMUNAUTAIRE FR20799222708│ TOQUE C1401 Membre d’une association agréée, le règlement des honoraires par chèque est accepté Page | 1 DUGUÉ & KIRTLEY AARPI CHRISTOPHE DUGUÉ AVOCAT BARREAU DE PARIS WILLIAM KIRTLEY AVOCAT BARREAUX DE PARIS │WASHINGTON │NEW YORK 18, 1964 (“Barotseland Agreement”), which we submit must be legally qualified as an international treaty signed by Sir Mwanawina III, OBE, then King of Barotseland, Mr. Kenneth Kaunda, the Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia (to be renamed Zambia), and the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and for the Colonies on behalf of the United Kingdom. Starting in October 1965, the Zambian Government began to violate its obligations under the Barotseland Agreement, and it has continued to violate both the spirit and the letter of this treaty, even going so far as to purport to annul it constitutionally and by wrongfully stripping Barotseland of powers over its land. Our client’s position is that Zambia has flagrantly violated the Barotseland Agreement by refusing to comply with its obligations to maintain the special autonomous status of Barotseland and by depriving Barotseland of its full economic potential. Furthermore, it is our client’s position that Zambia’s unilateral attempts to renounce the Barotseland Agreement and to deny Barotseland the right to an autonomous existence represent a repudiatory breach of the Barotseland Agreement, granting Barotseland the right to terminate the treaty once and for all and to determine its own fate. Our client’s position is also that Barotseland validly exercised its right to terminate the Barotseland Agreement on 26th and 27thMarch 2012, when a National Council representing the people of Barotseland formally recognized the abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement by the Zambian Government, thereby freeing Barotseland from its former union with Northern Rhodesia. Therefore, resolutions such as the following must be given their full legal effect: “The people of Barotseland shall exercise their right to revert Barotseland to its original status as a sovereign nation, so that the people of Barotseland shall determine their political, cultural, social and economic development.” On the basis of the BNC Resolution, and under international law, Barotseland has therefore legally reverted to the status of being an independent nation. It is further our client’s position that the continuing attempts by Zambia to force an independent nation to remain under its yoke, without its consent, is a flagrant violation of international law, with the result that, under international law, Zambian authorities and State institutions must immediately vacate Barotseland. If you believe that any of the above positions are incorrect, and that Zambia’s actions have in fact been legal as a matter of international law, then our clients invite you to prove it, by DUGUÉ & KIRTLEY AARPI │2 BIS, RUE GUENEGAUD 75006 PARIS FRANCE │TEL. + 33 1 42 60 04 31 │FAX. + 33 1 42 60 04 55 │WWW.DUGUEKIRTLEY.COM SIRET 79922270800015 │TVA INTRACOMMUNAUTAIRE FR20799222708│ TOQUE C1401 Membre d’une association agréée, le règlement des honoraires par chèque est accepté Page | 2 DUGUÉ & KIRTLEY AARPI CHRISTOPHE DUGUÉ AVOCAT BARREAU DE PARIS WILLIAM KIRTLEY AVOCAT BARREAUX DE PARIS │WASHINGTON │NEW YORK signing the following arbitration clause, which would allow for an independent and impartial international arbitral tribunal to determine the validity of Zambia’s actions as well as the current legal status of Barotseland under public international law. This issue is separate, but complementary, to the issue of Zambia's violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights with respect to the people of Barotseland, which is currently being examined by the African Commission of Human and Peoples Rights in Banjul. You may be disinclined to sign the following arbitration agreement, but you would have nothing to fear if Zambia’s actions and positions were in fact legal. We hope you realize that your failure to sign the arbitration agreement must be viewed by the international community as an acknowledgement that Zambia has acted illegally in its relationship with Barotseland. If we do not hear from you within two months from the date of this letter, we shall consider the matter to have been ignored in bad faith by you and the Zambian Government, and our clients reserve their right to pursue the other options that are available to them at this time. With this in mind, we trust that you will sign the enclosed arbitration clause, which grants jurisdiction to a neutral arbitral tribunal to peacefully resolve all of Barotseland’s outstanding disputes with Zambia. Your failure to sign this arbitration clause would not surprise us in the least, but can only be viewed as a clear admission that Zambia’s actions with respect to Barotseland are in violation of international law. Sincerely yours, ______________________ ______________________ William Kirtley Sylvana Q. Sinha Dugué & Kirtley AARPI ______________________ Christophe Dugué Dugué & Kirtley AARPI Encl. - PCA Submission Agreement (signed) DUGUÉ & KIRTLEY AARPI │2 BIS, RUE GUENEGAUD 75006 PARIS FRANCE │TEL. + 33 1 42 60 04 31 │FAX. + 33 1 42 60 04 55 │WWW.DUGUEKIRTLEY.COM SIRET 79922270800015 │TVA INTRACOMMUNAUTAIRE FR20799222708│ TOQUE C1401 Membre d’une association agréée, le règlement des honoraires par chèque est accepté Page | 3

I SHOULD NOT BE ALIVE!

By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama I have been traversing the Southern route back and forth using MazhanduFamily Bus Service since January of 2008. Having been such a regular patron of this bus, there has been certain ‘benefits’ or privileges that accrue like having preferred seats reserved for me well in advance. I have always been offered the front roll seats when I travel. I have often joked that if the distance I have covered to date on this bus were to be stretched, it might easily run from Cape to Cairo! On this fateful dayof 05/10/2012,keeping true to this tradition, I was given seat No. 2 which is right behind the driver’s seat. All seemed well and relatively uneventful after we started off from Livingstone at about 09:00hrs until at around 10:25 or so at a point 10 to 15 km before Choma, when our bus had a front tyre bust while moving at speed and careered off the road. This sent it hurtling into the nearby bushes where we yet again had a second tyre bust from hitting into tree stumps and a living tree, effectively uprooting it in the process until we came to a traumatizing stop some 100 meters away from the first tyre bust. It is worth mentioning that throughout this ordeal, our gallant driver, though having passed the regulation speed, telling from the breaking distance of our bus, he had his hands firmly on the steering until he brought the bus to a stop. We all know that stories abound where drivers have been known to jump out through the window or in a feat of sudden panic they apply emergency breaks which if it had been done we would certainly have flipped over making fatalities all the more likely. Judging from the bus wreckage,a number of people must have been badly hurt and indeed they were.Some people I sat next to sustained broken limbs and very deep cuts. In the thick of things, due to her instinctive infinite maternal ‘wisdom’, there was a lady who decided to toss her young infant through the back windowof this wildly speeding bus. This infant may have landed head first on the hard ground because she had a soiled head when we later met up with them at Choma General Hospital where we had gone to have our vitals checked and shots of Tetanus injection administered due to the threat of our wounds becoming septic. This poor baby’s neck or spine would have instantly snapped on impact. As to whether or not this was a right decision by her mother, may not be for me to say as I never experienced pangs of labour! Granted that in instances such as these rationality is thrown out of the window, literally! There were people who got badly injured and some could have so easily died, so you will not catch me dead leaping to thanking god that my life was spared and because I escaped with merely superficial bruises on the body, aching spinal column and a severely sore left Gluteus maximus,my head was left in a dazed state from the post-traumatic stress which might explain why moments after the accident I just stood there in a transfixed pose,I am having pieces of glass debris still imbedded into my skin. The only visible reminders of this incident on my person is, that despite the famed hardness of a cotton fabric that denim is, its structural integrity was breached as a hole was made in it near a very delicate part of my body.If only whatever made this impression had moved upwards by a few inches, I would have kissed my procreative ability good bye! There is a deep lesion in my left breast made by some sharp object. If the object had moved just slightly to the left I would have lost a nipple! My lower back is experiencing some dull but telling pain as I cannot seem to support the bulk of my frame as well as I used to. I now have to walk gingerly with a slight noticeable limp. I do not intend to trigger any religious debate but I happen not to subscribe to the common notion of there being a Celestial Ledger where world events are neatly choreographedor orchestrated by the powers that be and where it was ordained that on a specific day this lady who sat next to me was to break her leg in two points!The same way I find it rather utterly inconsiderate of people who escape death in an accident where others have died but they thank God they did not die themselves. This, of course, is notwithstanding the ecclesiastical proclamation of there being time for dying and time for laughing etc. What is fact though is thataccidents do happen and always will to one and all.Some people die and some people survive, some people end up with severed limbs and others come out of accidents unscathed, others are maimed forever others end up only with a mere headache and a version of events to narrate. It is quite implausible that a whole bus could have been filled up with very special people who god wanted to save on this day for some later assignment and higher purpose in life. Whether there is some yet unknown reason why we did not die and others have died gruesomely before is not an area am prepared to delve into just yet as am still recuperating to entertain philosophicalred herrings. Look,going by The Law of a Probable Outcome, the very frequency with which I have travelled that route just rendered me prone to any of such freakish accidents. A number of conditions conspired to make this bizarre event possible. In my opinion, the driver may have over sped well over 140 Km/h,owing to the extreme mid-day temperatures and the possibility of the bus being in a semi-state of neglect, that is,tyres not having been checked or replaced with more road worthy ones made them fail to hold their own against the full brunt of the mid-morning sweltering heat coupled with the traction frictional heat. Sadly, not even Thegod Vulcan could protect us as the tyres gave in to the massive heat generated from the tarmacadamised road surface. After having said all this, what remains to be said is that despite all the whys and wherefores, I have yet again Lived To Die Another Day!

THE RESTORATION OF THE NATION OF BAROTSELAND TO FULL SOVEREIGNTY

By William Kirtley Although few who were born after World War II know of the State of Barotseland, a previously well‐known nation that is slightly larger in size than Germany and forms the Western part of what was until recently universally considered Zambia, this is likely to change in the near future. The union between Barotseland and the rest of the former Northern Rhodesia is in its death throes, after nearly five decades of misrule and neglect of Barotseland by the Zambian central government, which has seen Barotseland go from the most affluent region of Zambia to one of its poorest, and Barotseland, on the basis of public international law, is seeking formal recognition as the 55th African State. “Recognition” is the proper term, since, on the basis of pure public international law, de jure independence has existed since Barotseland chose to terminate the original Barotseland Agreement on 26 and 27 March 2012. While the separation of Barotseland from Zambia may ring of treason, the far better view from a legal perspective is that Zambia’s attempts to force Barotseland, which has had a special status in southern Africa for hundreds of years and which was previously recognized as an independent nation, to remain trapped within the Republic of Zambia without its consent is illegal as a matter of public international law. Barotseland is one of the few nations in southern Africa never to have been annexed or conquered by a European power, and the first nation north of the Zambezi River to sign a concession agreement with the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes. For the hundreds of years prior to the British period, Barotse rule extended over a large region of up to 370,000 square kilometers, and the Kingdom of Barotseland governed many other tribes in the region. Barotseland’s existence as a State was recognized by the King of Italy, in an arbitration award of 1905 concerning the Anglo‐Portuguese Barotse Boundary dispute, and most legal scholars today, such as James Crawford, recognize Barotseland as a classic example of a sovereign to which “the general rules of international law were applied,” similarly to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Tonga and the Kingdom of Swaziland (see James Crawford, The Creation of States in International Law, p. 263). In violation of the law of treaties, the Government of Zambia has plainly begun an attack that is designed to force Barotseland to remain within a union to which Barotseland no longer is bound. It has recently arrested Barotseland’s former Prime Minister, Clement Sinyinda, is increasing its deployment of soldiers to the nation, and the number of human rights abuses against Barotse civilians has increased dramatically. To date, over 100 independence activists have been imprisoned, and 84 were recently charged with “treason,” a misguided charge given the history and legal basis of the inclusion of Barotseland as a part of Zambia, which is punishable by death under Zambian law. The undisputed legal basis for the creation of the modern Republic of Zambia as a unitary nation formed by Barotseland and the rest of Northern Rhodesia at the time of decolonization was the Barotseland Agreement of May 19, 1964, which must be viewed as an international treaty signed by Sir Mwanawina III, OBE, then King of Barotseland, Mr. Kenneth Kaunda, the prime minister of Northern Rhodesia (to be renamed Zambia), and the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and for the Colonies on behalf of the United Kingdom. At the time, the United Kingdom was overseeing Barotseland as a “protectorate,” the same legal status that had been granted to diverse countries such as Kuwait, Monaco, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Morocco. The Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia had been created through an amalgam of territories acquired through treaty, grant, sufferance and “usage” by the British South African Company of Cecil Rhodes, which was initially operated under a Charter granted by the British Crown, but was eventually administered by the United Kingdom itself. Throughout this period, the successive treaties signed by the King of Barotseland ensured Barotseland’s power over land, natural resources, regional government, and its court system, and other aspects of sovereignty that were never abandoned. These treaties were to terminate upon the independence of Northern Rhodesia, allowing the territories constituting Northern Rhodesia to proceed to independence separately. Faced with this scenario, the Interim Self‐Government of Northern Rhodesia, led by Kenneth Kaunda as Prime Minister, pressed for a new agreement with the King of Barotseland to operate as a substitute for the colonial agreements that were coming to an end, in order for Northern Rhodesia to become independent as a unitary Republic of Zambia. The net effect of the new treaty, cited as the Barotseland Agreement 1964, was simply to reaffirm the continued autonomous status of Barotseland as a condition for its incorporation into the republic of Zambia. As noted in the book The Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations, the Barotseland king only signed the Barotseland Agreement under British pressure, despite the many legal protections ensuring Barotseland’s continued autonomy that were enshrined in it. In the Barotseland Agreement, the people of Barotseland consented to be associated with the rest of Northern Rhodesia to form modern Zambia, on condition of maintaining the primary legal aspects of their sovereignty, including the recognition of the Barotseland King and his Council as the “principal local authority for the government and administration of Barotseland,” the continuation of Barotseland’s legal tribunals, the maintenance of Barotseland control over local taxation, as well as the preservation of its right to land, forests, fishing rights, game preservations, the management of the Barotseland treasury and other rights that it had previously maintained while a British Protectorate. It was also expressly stipulated in this Agreement that the Republic of Zambia would take steps to ensure that the laws of the Republic were “not inconsistent with the provisions of this Agreement.” On behalf of Northern Rhodesia, Kenneth Kaunda also recognized that “full consultation should take place with the Litunga [Barotse King] and Council before any land in Barotseland is used for public purposes or in the general interests of economic development,” and it was expressly agreed that appeals from decisions of the local courts to Zambian jurisdictions could only be made with the approval of Barotseland appellate courts. Kenneth Kaunda, who would soon become the first President of Zambia, agreed to each of these conditions and, on this basis, the King of Barotseland signed the Agreement on his own behalf, and on behalf of his heirs and successors, his Council, and the chiefs and the People of Barotseland, thereby agreeing to the union creating modern Zambia. Unfortunately for Barotseland, however, Kenneth Kaunda’s international commitments to Barotseland would be flouted, and he did everything possible to remove all aspects of Barotseland’s special autonomous status, starting very soon after independence. In October 1965, the Zambian government, under Kenneth Kaunda, first passed a law taking away the privileges and rights of the Barotse King, in violation of its obligations under the Barotseland Agreement, under the Zambia Independence Act and Zambia Independence Order. In 1969, President Kaunda then unilaterally announced that Barotseland would be renamed “Western Province,” in a speech entitled “I wish to inform the nation.” The Government of Zambia then introduced and passed the Constitution Amendment Act No. 30 of 1969, which rather than enshrining the rights agreed to in the 1964 treaty, purported to annul it, leading to mass protests which the Government responded to with mass arrests. From 1969 to 1970, the Government of Zambia then passed the Western Province (Land and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No. 47, which stripped Barotseland of its powers over its land and, instead, vested them within the power of the President of Zambia as Zambian Reserves of Barotse nationals. Such acts in violation of the spirit and the letter of the Barotseland Agreement have continued to this very day, despite the many protests on the part of Barotseland, including the King of Barotseland’s warning in 1994 that they expressly reserved the “right to revert to their original status.” The leaders of Zambia must understand that their past attempts to change the Constitution of Zambia, in order to negate the existence of Barotseland, merely represents changes to municipal law, which do not possess the legal force of interational treaties like the Barotseland Agreement of 1964. This is a basic principle of international law, as is the principle of pacta sunt serva, literally “agreements must be kept,” which is clearly not what occurred with respect to the Barotseland Agreement. Under Article 60(3) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a material breach is a repudiation of a treaty by a party, or a violation of a provision essential to the object or purpose of the treaty, which entitles the other party or parties to invoke the breach as a grounds for terminating it. As noted by the International Court of Justice in the ICJ’s Gabcikovo ‐Nagymaros (Hungary/Slovakia) case of 1997, the breach must already have occurred for the termination to be legal. Zambia has not only violated each of its obligations under the Barotseland Agreement by denying the obligations it owed to maintain the special autonomous status of Barotseland and neglecting its obligations to assist in its economic development, but its unilateral attempt to renounce the Barotseland Agreement and to deny its very existence is clearly a repudiatory breach of it, granting Barotseland the right to terminate it once and for all should it wish to do so. Barotseland chose to exercise its right to terminate the original Barotseland Agreement on 26 and 27 March 2012, when a National Council, representing the people of Barotseland, formally recognized the abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement by the Zambian Government, freeing it from its union with Northern Rhodesia, and noting the natural consequence that it had been restored to the status of an independent nation. Barotseland is in the process of taking the necessary steps to become a fully‐recognized member of the international community, and has requested that Western Governments, especially the former colonial power, Great Britain, which is a signatory to the initial treaty that created the union between Barotseland and the rest of Northern Rhodesia, urge their Zambian counterparts to free all Barotse political prisoners and then comport themselves in respect of human rights law and international legal standards. Both States will clearly be better off if they choose the path of Czechoslovakia, smoothly transitioning into two States on the basis of negotiations, rather than becoming the next Yugoslavia or Biafra. It would indeed be a success story for the increasingly modern and prosperous Africa, and a sign of its maturity, if two States could peacefully revert to independence. Although Barotseland’s struggle does not concern economic nationalism, there are various consequences that do necessarily flow from its decision to revert to independence. Namely, Zambian concession agreements negotiated that concern Barotseland land or mineral rights are technically invalid since at least March 27, 2012, since the Zambian State lacked the legal capacity to make them. While Barotseland’s representatives have expressed a willingness to honor the commitments contracted by the former Zambian Government, those contracts must plainly be entered into with the chosenrepresentatives of Barotseland, or face the consequences of illegally operating in a State without its consent. Another consequence of the termination of the Barotseland Agreement is that Zambia’s recent arrest of the former prime minister of Barotseland may best be seen as the arrest of an ex‐diplomat of a foreign State, and sending soldiers into Barotseland may be legally qualified as a foreign occupation. These are hostile acts on the part of Zambia and, in addition to reserving the right to seek compensation for economic harm, Barotseland has put Zambian politicians, soldiers, policemen and other armed groups on notice that their prosecution will be sought for all criminal acts performed by Zambians falling within the scope of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to which Zambia is bound. There is nothing sacrosanct with respect to the combination of Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia into modern Zambia, with the encouragement of British Colonialists who appear to have done so purely for the sake of their own administrative efficiency. One may hope that the Republic of Zambia recognizes its obligations under international law to cooperate with the newly‐proclaimed independent State of Barotseland, and that it has the diplomatic maturity to recognize that the two independent nations would be better off by respecting international law, and living harmoniously as they did prior to the Barotseland Agreement of 1964, which appears to have been a noble, but failed, experiment. ‐ William Kirtley, Partner at the international arbitration law firm Dugué & Kirtley AARPI, on behalf of the Barotseland National Freedom Alliance.