Wednesday, February 13, 2013

THERE HAS NEVER EVER BEEN ANY REPORTED CASES OF CHOLERA IN BAROTSELAND?

By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama This was one assertion of that a brother called fact after my earlier submission on ‘Malozi And Their General Hygiene Or The Lack Of It Thereof ’. Whether or not this...... can be collaborated by thorough Epidemic Research Survey findings collected over a protracted period of time is something we have to subject to scrutiny. I will from the outset state that I am no medical expert in any specialized field or neither did drop off from med school or anything of the sort but I will attempt to explain the above phenomenon as debatable as it maybe. Cholera is a diarrheal illness caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. This species is not endemic to humans, and its presence in the human digestive system is not part of the natural life cycle of the bacteria. Normally found in estuary ecology, the Vibrio cholerae bacteria life cycle naturally shifts between various reservoir species such as small snails and crustaceans, free-floating planktonic forms and static forms resident in the silt and muck of the estuary.Vibrio cholera bacteria enter the human ecosystem through a variety of routes. The most common entry is through contaminated food or water.(SOURCE: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189269.php) An acquaintance of mine once lambasted this growing trend among academicians of citing web sites in their former scholarly presentations as not being a commonly accepted practice. I am yet to have some good old intellectual intercourse with her for me to fully appreciate the angle she has taken on the matter. It is just unfortunate that I may never even have this chance though. Since I am not exactly writing for my Post-Doctoral thesis yet, nor am I a fledgling academic, allow me to indulge myself as above. It has been established that wet conditions are a necessary precursor for the spread of the disease causative agent or vector of cholera. The topography of Barotseland proper being generally low lying and set so many meters below sea level which mostly would have made it more prone to flooding . Surely this feature ought to have provided ideal conditions for the spread of Cholera, right? Wrong! What would have been technically more correct to state was that when we were still trying to be legally part of Zambia then courtesy of that Agreement, the Vice-President’s Disaster Management Team may never have constantly blackened our door steps that much because look, where we come from we celebrate floods and they are never viewed as disaster per se. Back to the vibro issue, let us address other conditions we see in Northern Rhodesia which has annually helped them get persistently plagued by this same disease yearly just like clockwork. It is almost an officially recognized and accepted occurrence, which is quite shocking if you asked me! The geology of Barotseland even in times when it receives heavy down pours of rain does not predispose it to conditions that can allow cholera to thrive. The Barotse/Kalahari sandy soils we have will always ensure that all the rain water that falls on it never collect in stagnant pools but percolate and seep through right down into the lower lying aquifers , water tables and under lying bed rock. This rain water even if it did fall, does eventually become part of the hydrology in the many sources of running fresh water in the rivers, streams and brooks spread all across the length and breadth of ancestral Barotseland. It is also a well-known demographic effect of population density that if poor sanitation exists disease will almost always be the inevitable end result. This is not usually true though as can be seen from other densely peopled metropolitan cities around the world. In Barotseland, the general description of our human numbers by head count per square kilometer through a stratified random sampling method is termed as sparsely populated. This amount of people is scarcely sufficient to generate the needed filth to provide an enabling environment for germs to breed. I have always held that the degree of urban conurbation is directly proportional to economic activity. This is what attracts people to be huddled up in a small area well exceeding its carrying capacity. The come to cities in that well known cliché of old ,rural urban drift. The only trouble is that the whole of Barotseland proper is mostly rural so there is no one drifting anywhere to search for which jobs in which industries created by whom? So our numbers are by and large mostly scattered in neat pockets of near predestined poverty. This reality we have to seek to redress and fast. This does remind me of a scientific paper I presented as a child at secondary school on the potential of unchecked population density causing mass deaths as espoused by The Right Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus in his dissertation on The Principle of Population. I experimented with bugs and gooey stuff on petri dishes people Yuck! The only problem is that, Barotseland Proper is mostly rural and has endured years of abject inhuman poverty through a sustained subtle form of economic neglect and I shudder to even think of what I had to go through growing up in rural Barotseland .To think that my kith and kin are still going through conditions of similar and even worse squalor just bites at the inner core of my consciousness. Mine eyes get glazed close to tears just recounting our day to day ordeals of life back home. These facts prove that there is hardly any chance of Malozi generating enough litter and waste or disposed of excess food material as most households sadly lack the financial spending power for them to buy the non-existent goodies that would eventually create garbage anyway. Let me put it more coarsely and crudely and for this, I apologies in advance. It is a well-accepted biological fact that you need to have eaten to defecate. Pardon me if you are fresh from enjoying a sumptuous meal, I did not exactly intend for you to get disgusted to the point of bringing the food back. I just needed to put things into their rightful context. Ladies and gentlemen there is poverty in Barotseland , we do not just parrot it, some of us have lived it and who feels it knows it,lord……singing! It is therefore my humble submission that to assume we have not had cholera in Barotseland because we are generally more hygienic than other people may be slightly flawed. The assertion above by the way, is one that, as I would say in Latin tongue Quod Est Demonstrandum (Q.E.D). We should take heart though for,” Amid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be they ever so humble, there is no place like Home.” – John Howard Payne. There is a clarion call though silent, but when we meditate it ,we will hear it as loud a Jewish Shofar from our ancestors to genuinely look back home in a way we have never done before and answer the call. We urgently need to prepare for a Renaissance of enormous proportion, may God, Nyambe ni Nasilele richly Bless us ALL!

MUSIC AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama “Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and quits the memory with difficulty. Magical music never quite leaves the memory.” -Sir Thomas Beecham quoted Lord Booth by ‘My Yesterday, Your Tomorrow.” ... We no doubt all have different genres of music we enjoy, some plain and gentle, some mellow and just and others coarse and offensive even vulgar at times and others exquisitely sublime and heavenly. In order to fully enjoy music, a genuine connoisseur is really never that fixated about what genre a musical piece is. For as long as it appeals to their inner spirit, then they will respond to its rhythm. I do completely agree with this assertion however, truth be told, you will never ever catch me dead walk into a music shop with any reputation to speak of and come out with a copy of some of this racket that we are treated to which now passes as music. What we must be alive to, is the fact that, as shocking as it may be,there are actually human beings who do this and we are forever indebted to the great fashioner of human natures for this diversity of interests in all things artistic. After having said all this, you will perhaps appreciate how I have,in my cherished humble collection, New Age tunes, Nature Sounds, The music of The Brave i.e Hard Rock, Native American Chants, Gregorian Chants, Radical & Dub Poetry Yiddish(Jewish)& Arabic folk Tunes, hypnotic Barotse Royal Drum beats. We must however respectfully admit that, for most, their taste is but a cacophony of incoherent unintelligent din.The only consolation is that, and this is true, to those who are keen lovers of music, somehow we all have a particular piece or pieces of music we can play over and over ad infinitum but still enjoy them the same way as if playing them for the very first time. I will give examples of a few of the many songs I cannot seem to stop playing back. 1. Zahara’s Loliwe,an eternal ballad sang in Si Zulu. 2. Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D 3. Giacomo Puccini’s Nessun Dorma ; well ,really most other Classical symphony pieces by great composers just whisk me away to another spiritual plane I never thought existed. 4. Antonio Vivaldi’s "The Four Seasons" or like I would say in the scanty Italian I picked up from my brief Tuscany connections, ‘Le Quattro Staggionni.’ 5. The Celts and their Gaelic Tunes mostly on flute and Harp. 6. Barotse Royal Drums-Sikota Mutumwa litondo lya linene/ Ngoma ya Lume 7. Mzwakhe Mbuli(The People’s Poet’s) poetic renditions 8. Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Dub Poetry 9. Mutabaruka’s (Which is Burundian or Rwandese meaning ‘The Unconquerable One’) his Agitative Propaganda usually delivered as Radical Poetry. 10. Scottish Highland Bagpipes Etcetera et cetera ……….. The simple explanation is that one may just like the song, period. The truth though, is deeper rooted than that. The inner workings of the mind and brain are more involved than earlier realized. This perhaps is why left handed people using the dominant Right side of their brain have an upper artistic advantage. If you are interested in knowing just what happens to your brain under the influence of music I urge you to read up on this subject matter on (http://io9.com/5837976/what-happens-to-your-brain-under-the-influence-of-music) The personality which we are born with or the one we have acquired or attained because of being shaped by the external environment we find ourselves in has a lot to do with which music we lend an ear to as well. To most, the music they choose to listen to is reflective of a certain mood they are in and it keeps them that way for as long as they want. What I can state here with a great degree of certitude is that, whoever we are and whatever we listen to, any music is by its very nature spiritual. I may not be an acclaimed neuroscientist or anything but, I am quite curious to know just which parts of our brains get excited for us to respond to different types of musical pieces differently from other people. I will here give an example of situations when a certain song is loved by a surprising huge number of listeners and manages to maintain its followers. Are we to say these people were touched the same way when they first listened to it? Unless you are wired like me and are not afflicted with Herd Mentality and have not thus succumbed to the Lemming Hood Effect then you would understand what I mean. If you have had to suffer the misfortune of being born in a part of the world replete with overzealous Christian fundamentalists who are perpetually on a high of religious excess where we get all manner of half thought through explanations for certain physical or psychological phenomenon then you will miss my point. From them, you will even get to hear nonsensical talk of certain songs having great appeal because they were composed under the sea by some mythical mermaids! What balderdash indeed, these folks may be abusing substances seriously! I have never done anything because everyone is doing it no matter how strong the urge becomes and i have realized that sometimes I have done this out of sheer stupid pride. The saddest thing is, most pieces of music no matter how nice after they are first released, have been spoiled from being over played to obsolescence. I have, on countless number of occasions, simply kept away from and avoided things that every Tom, Dick, Harry and Jane have taken to like a bear to a honey pot just to be different. I will never be painted with the same brush as my surface is a bit coarser than your average bloke. You may need brushes with wire bristles to achieve this artistic feat. This is exactly what I did when James Cameron show cased Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio as they treated us to that epic romantic nautical disaster that The Titanic was. This apparently also applies to certain movies I find irresistible to sit down and watch over without ceasing. You just cannot seem to get enough of them. So there are Mermen or satanic directors at Holy Wood right? Please get a life! Those who have had an encounter with me know that I am a keen follow of global Illuminati activity and the extent of their reach in influencing events on the planet past and present, but we are now over stretching issues to dizzy heights if we ever started thinking like this. I hope you had sufficient attention span to go through my rumblings which a brother called unsolicited verbiage! Mwiice, I will bring a train on you Mudaala…..

Thursday, January 17, 2013

WARNING: SIM CARD REGISTRATION EXERCISE COMING SOON NEAR YOU!

By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama Kindly join me in saying a BIG NO to the current maneuvers of forcing mobile phone service subscribers to register their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards. I am of the considered view that we have given up way too much of our privacy already. Therefore, this latest intrusion into our affairs is highly uncalled for. Look, just because South Africa has done it does not mean we all must follow suit. This is Africa, the registered SIMs will merely be used to track down people and political opponents who have divergent views to the established body politique. To the relatively uninitiated these are the initial signs of The Illuminati moves of extending their tentacles into your sleeping quarters if they must and these actions are akin to the micro-chips to be implanted into the nape of your necks or foreheads and the upper right arm. What? So they will ask for my blood group as well, eyes color or the arrangement of nucleotides in my Double Helix DNA molecular structure? This is utterly absurd. The concept of Big Brother always peering into our affairs with that Occultist ALL Seeing Eye of Horis is one that needs to be confronted and opposed. Seeing that am not really up to date with the Rhodesian social calendar, I may be behind a little who is doing this anyway, ‘ZONKTA’? As a timely warning therefore, to all those who lacked the good sense and got my mobile number, wasted their meager phone memory space on their humble phones, but have never used it for calling me, I am afraid as a matter of principle this might be the last chance they have of ever calling me. I have chosen to be off any mobile communication if it ever came to this manner of autocratic Corporate Aggressive Coercion. I will officially be heading to being the typical village boy that I have always known meself to be. Folks will cry on and on until the cows come home but I will choose to be without a phone because, like Sting (Gordon Michael Sumner) aptly put it, strangers are listening in to my transmissions! This will very much be in keeping with my much sought after but yet elusive Minimalist outlook on life. These introductions, It has been stated, that without the micro-chip implant for instance it will be made rather hard for anyone who will not succumb to carry out day to day activities especially in global commerce and trade. The American public has had issue with such matters due to that Health Care Bill which was recently signed into Law by Hussein, who by the way,is very much in league with shadowy elements owing to the agenda he is towing. Americans are taking a stand due to their much cherished privacy. Granted, that I have nothing to hide really, but there are certain people and entities I choose to know things about me and that is just the way things are. I recently UN-LIKED Barack on Face Book for the many unfulfilled promises he made to the world. Some of us had way too much hope in the poor guy even when he is poised for re-election, It quickly dawned on him upon taking office that there are far more powerful forces that control world affairs than this Kikuyu man had earlier realized. He is but a marionette on the strings of those that rule the world in proxy! This planet is indeed exciting I want to Live forever!!!!!! selah Kozo, 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

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

REVELATION TIME!

INFORMATION ONLY FOR PEOPLE WITH CRITICAL MINDS. By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama Few may have noticed this, but who remembers that the SHAPE of the LOGO for RSZ (Rail Systems of Zambia) was actually a Pentagon with a rail track insert drawn in perspec...tive? Do you know the predominant colors of their company logo were Blue and White? Did you know where the people who were running the company came from? Do you know the Occult significance of the Pentagon? Do you know the nation which has The Star Of David as its National symbol and is even depicted on its flag? Do you know that the Pentagon is at the center of the so called Star of David? Do you know that the citadel of American military might is housed in an edifice of a geometric Pentagon? Have you ever wondered why? The Pentagon building is located in Arlington, Virginia, (just across the Potomac river from Washington DC). If you realize that we are living in the days of Biblical Revelations fulfillment, kindly read Revelation 2:9 and Revelation 3:9 and think about it for a minute.Do copy and paste this link in your browsers; ( http://www.hebrewisraelites.org/rev2939.htm) No one now living has ever called themselves Jewish but only the current inhabitants of Palestinian Land, ignoring Balfor Declaration of course! Why these verses are so important to consider is this that these quoted passages of scripture which appear in the very last book of the Bible are revealing a truth which a lot of people have not been aware of. If these be the days when people will have truths revealed to them then we know who the scriptures are refering to ,correct? Are their actions Godly when you look at their treatment of Palestinians?Do copy and paste this link in your browsers; (http://www.angelfire.com/ill/hebrewisrael/printpages/phys.html) The beauty of it all is that it is going contrary to what people may have hitherto known is the biblical truth as to the real identity of original biblical Hebrews/Jews and not those Eastern Europeans immigrants settled in Palestine today.Do copy and paste this link in your browsers; (http://www.hebrewisraelites.org/hebrewism.htm.) Do you now see the world happenings and the events in the Middle East and the world in general in context? Too many people been blinded to certain truths and I feel it is about time you WAKE UP! I find it utterly shocking that you have been in narcoleptic sleep for over 400 years while your heritage has been stolen from right before your very eyes. I know all sorts of adjectives will be heaped on mine head for having had the testicular fortitude of bringing meself to saying all this in an intrepid fashion. I very well know that so-called ‘Anti- Semitism’ has been made criminal in most Schengen countries but is that what it is called now when you disagree with the these people’s actions in the world? Have people developed an almost mind numbing morbid fear of a people self-branded as the apple of god’s eye who have been effectively elevated to the level of demigods? Granted that this expose has pretty much been presented in a disjointed manner but then like I said it was meant for those with critical minds who would sift through the intellectual rubble and get the gist. This material is only for those brave enough individuals who have not accepted to shallow information they have been fed for years hook, line, sinker and rod!

DISAPPOINTED DOOMSDAY PREPPER

By Namakando Nalikando-Sinyama
May truth be told, after all is said and not done, there are some of us who eagerly waited for this world as you know it to END! Yes, just fizzle out by any means necessary. We as humans badly needed a fresh start to things and generally in the manner we have been doing things on this planet. This is partly because of the sodding mess we have found ourselves in as a people, and largely because of what has been our experience on this Big Blue Marble that EARTH is. We as the human race really need to engage the RE-SET button for a lot of reasons. If you saw that captivating music video by the Rock group Linkin Park, “What We Have Done!” then you would probably understand why. So as it was, the day came,we awoke to the disappointingly clear azure sky, with nothing ominous about it save for some nimbus cloud hovering the skies which sent a lot of us agog. This soon gave in to disappointment as only traces of them remained and later to have them all disappear after a slight precipitation. We tried to get an overview assessment of what may have been happening elsewhere in the world from cable television only to be treated to images of a bunch of crackpot New Agers gathered around at Ground Zero of 2012 Dooms Day watchers at The Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chich'en Itza in Mexico. They were clad in ragtag apparel while they engaged in some hypnotic humming and ritualistic chanting which almost nauseated me due to the silliness of it all. All in all, if one lesson had been learnt, and it is true it is this that we need to give our Mother, yes, Middle-Earth a little more credit. She has been around for way too long than we have been made to understand for her to just simply vanish for whatever reason. This planet is bound to endure a whole lot longer than earlier thought. This is of course when you wisely choose to ignore even the rantings of religious fanatics or zealots caught up in a feat religious excess about an impending end of the world. What I found really disheartening it must be stated here is how even scientists were also way off in their calculations this time around. Indeed another proof that it does not belong to man who is walking to direct his own steps. The most realistic scenario I orchestrated in my mind about how it was all going to pan out was this that, an over-zealous Netanyahu would get so uneasy and unleash their Zionist nuclear arsenal on the revolutionary Iranian regime as a pre-emptive strike and almost simultaneously cause an already edgy Brother Mahmoud Armedinajad to want try out his hitherto thought ‘non’ existent and yet to be perfected ‘weapons’ which the West still believe no Arab country should be trusted to possess as they are a preserve for the West and other ‘favoured or permitted ’ nations. It would be down-right stupid to do this if you asked me, for look if you suspect I have The Bomb and you choose to bomb me to make sure I do not use it against you! So much for the fabled intellectual brilliance of the Jewry I would say. This is Nuclear Fission we are talking about here people. The resulting Mushroom cloud would trigger a ripple effect which might cause other reactions in neighboring nuclear nations of Pakistan and India. A Synchronized Thermonuclear explosion of this magnitude would release so much energy that there is no telling what would happen to the idle weapons in the former Soviet Republics nearby. The resulting nuclear fall-out would then block out your mid-day sun light and throw the world into pitch black darkness causing untold panic and looting. This , if you recall, is exactly how the Dinosaurs where brought to extinction when a meteorite is believed to have struck earth and a huge dust bow arose which effectively obscured the light from the whole planet and ushering in an Ice Age from the resultant low temperatures. So you see, it was never going to be an inter-stellar or intergalactic, apocalyptic cataclysm of ethereal origins which will cause our own demise as a people. The above scenario if allowed to occur was to me the surest way that this world as we know it would be brought to instant oblivion. It is really sad that a combined Zombie/Vampire invasion has been postponed yet again. This is truly stuff for the box office as I can imagine how Quentin Terantino would have feasted on this event to come up with a blockbuster.

Friday, September 28, 2012

ZAMBIANS OR NOT ZAMBIANS? - Discussion Document, BNC, March 26-28, 2012 by PROF. SITWALA NAMWINJI IMENDA

ZAMBIANS OR NOT ZAMBIANS? - Discussion Document, BNC, March 26-28, 2012 by PROF. SITWALA NAMWINJI IMENDA Published on Thursday, 27 September 2012 21:10. | Written by The Online Editor. Quote of the Week “We have always said we have nothing to fear about the Barotse Agreement. It is a decent agreement that must be honoured. Only crooks, dictators who want everything to be controlled by them from Lusaka can fear the Barotse Agreement.” Michael Sata - January 8, 2011. Post Newspaper, Zambia ZAMBIANS OR NOT ZAMBIANS? - Discussion Document, BNC, March 26-28, 2012 by PROF. SITWALA NAMWINJI IMENDA Published on Thursday, 27 September 2012 21:10. | Written by The Online Editor. | | | Hits: 330 GREETINGS AND PREAMBLE Na cilanisa, mi ni lumeIisa makwambuyu kaufela,batompehi, ni baenyi ba luna ba ba sepahala, ni batu kaufela ba ba konile ku to ina ni luna ha lunze lu buhisana fa litaba za naha ya luna - Barotseland. Ki bumai kuli ka mafosisa amañwi a ezahalile, ni palezwi ku toba teñi fa mukopano omutuna hakolo woo. DEFINING MOMENTS LEADING TO BAROTSELAND'S FREEDOM In this submission, I argue that Barotseland regained her status as a free and independent, sovereign state in 1969, but because we did not fight for the freedom, we have remained confused to the present day. Instead, we have been engaged in a fight to become Zambians once again by insisting continuously that the Barotseland Agreement 1964 be put back into Zambia's Constitution. This is most probably the only such bizarre story in the entire history of this world. I am sharing these thoughts in response to an invitation by Sope, Minyolui (Ngambela of Barotseland) regarding possible key points for discussion at this all-important Barotse National Council (BNC) meeting. In line with my submission to the Chongwe Commission of Inquiry last November, I dwell on this one point only, which I believe to lie at the centre of most of the problems and challenges we face today as the people of Barotseland. As the title of my paper suggests, the key question I ask is: Is it correct to refer to the people of Barotseland as Zambians today? In order to find a possible answer to this question, allow me - ladies and gentlemen, to itemize for you what I see as the defining moments in the chronology of events, leading to the position I advocate in this paper: 1964, May 18th The Barotseland Agreement is signed; signifying the consent of the people of Barotseland, through their king, the Litunga of Barotseland, to proceed to independence from British rule, together with Northern Rhodesia, as one country. However, the Agreement contained strict conditions with regard to powers vested in the Litunga, the Litunga and his Council, as well as those to be discharged by a future central government. Important to this presentation is Clause 8 of the Agreement which provided as follows: The Government of the Republic of Zambia shall take steps as may be necessary to ensure that the laws for the time being in force in the Republic are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Agreement. To me, this was the most important provision of the Agreement. 1965 In the months that followed the celebration of Zambia's independence, three defining acts of betrayal were committed by the Zambian government - contrary to the provisions of Clause 8 of the Agreement cited above: 1.0 Relocation of Administrative Staff - By a mere proclamation made by the Provincial Local Government Officer (appointed by the Zambian government), the entire administrative departmental staff under the Barotse Government, in all districts, were moved from the royal administrative centres to the respective Bomas. This had the effect of usurping the control of day-to-day administration of the affairs of Barotseland from the hands of the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) to Zambian-appointed government officials - with the attendant hierarchy of power and authority shifting away from the BRE and stretching, instead, all the way to the authorities in Lusaka. This was contrary to the above-referenced provision of the Agreement. 2.0 Promulgation of the Local Government Act No 69 - to repeal the Barotse Native Authority Ordinance - thereby usurping the powers and authority of the Barotse Government by abolishing the Barotse Native Authorities, the Barotse Native Treasury and providing that, henceforth, Barotseland be administered through a uniform local government system applicable to all districts and provinces of the country. [Again, this was contrary to the above-referenced provision of the Agreement]. 3.0 The enactment of the Chiefs Act Chapter 479 of the Laws of Zambia - which empowered the Republican President to recognize, or withdraw recognition of, any chief in the country. [Again, this was contrary to the above-referenced provision of the Agreement]. The above acts of betrayal were then followed by one more in 1966: 1966 The Local Courts Act came into force in April, 1966, to repeal the Barotse Native Courts Ordinance - thereby abolishing the Barotse Native Courts, in turn disfiguring the judicial functioning of the indigenous courts in Barotseland. 1969 Promulgation of the Constitution Amendment Act No 5 - which terminated the Barotseland Agreement 1964; and abolished all rights, obligations and liabilities attached to the Agreement. It stated that the Agreement shall on and after the commencement of the Constitution Amendment Act No 5 of 1969 cease to have effect, and all rights (whether vested or otherwise), liabilities and obligations there under shall thereafter lapse. This is where my clock stops. This Act, not alone violated the above- referenced provision of the Agreement but it summarily terminated the union between Barotseland and the rest of the country- with the effect that: 1.0 The Republic of Zambia, as contemplated at the time of independence, came to an abrupt end; and, therefore 2.0 The two entities comprising the Unitary State became autonomous. Thus, as a result of the above basket of breaches of the Barotseland Agreement, but particularly with reference to the Constitutional Amendment Act, three things should have happened: 1.0 New geo-political boundaries must have been determined for the two entities which had been rendered autonomous by virtue of Constitutional Amendment Act No 5 of 1969; 2.0 A new name should have been contrived to correctly describe the entity that remained after Barotseland fell outside the constitutional provisions of the ‘Zambian’ Constitution and 3.0 The governance and administrative structures of the part from which Barotseland had broken away should have ceased to operate in Barotseland immediately with the coming into force of the Constitution Amendment Act No 5 of 1969. It is important to emphasize the point that the coming-into-force of the Constitution Amendment Act No 5 of 1969 marked the moment Barotseland became autonomous and free from the rest of country that was previously known as the Republic of Zambia prior to the constitutional amendment. The geo-political entity that remained after Barotseland was constitutionally tossed out of the Zambian constitution had the right to name itself anything - including the 'Republic of Zambia' - but should not, thereafter, have extended its governance and administrative structures to Barotseland. Thus, my humble but informed opinion is that the current governance and administrative dispensation obtaining in Barotseland is illegal - and should, therefore immediately cease to exist. What has happened is tantamount to illegal occupation of one country by another. This point has been made numerous times before - and I have not yet come across any compelling and justifiable reasons, excuses or arguments, to contract this interpretation - either in law or by way of common sense. We see every day that the 'Zambian' government continues to extend its rule to Barotseland - including deploying its army, paramilitary and ordinary police, as well as its intelligence officers (plenty in this room) to do their dirty work in Barotseland. The fact of the matter is that without draconian acts of aggression, repression, suppression, intimidation, harassment, torture, arbitrary arrests - as well as other forms of brutality, Barotseland would have operated as a free, autonomous and sovereign State since 1969. This is what I understand to be the desire of the majority of the people of Barotseland even today. Skirting this matter at this Council meeting will be to do the people of Barotseland an injustice; it will be failing to honour those whose limbs have been amputated, as well as those (whose) blood has already been shed eternally for this cause. There is no need for a referendum. What question is one going to ask the people? They have been rendered stateless for over four decades to this date. Constitutionally, they already fall outside the Republic of Zambia. The only possible question that could be asked is whether or not they want to go back - in line with the recent recommendations of the Chongwe Commission of Inquiry - as elucidated below. SPEAKING IN PARABLES The problem with speaking in parables is that the audience needs a certain level of cognitive apparatus, aptitude and insightfulness to be able to decipher the hidden meaning, or reasons for what is being said. In this case, it is certain that the Chongwe Commissioners saw it clearly that, as things stand presently - and, particularly as a result of the Constitution Amendment Act No 5 of 1969, Barotseland falls outside the jurisdiction of the entity calling itself the 'Zambian government'. This explains why the Commission recommended an immediate constitutional reinstatement of the Barotseland Agreement 1964, in its original and entire form - even before any talks can commence for a future political dispensation. Unfortunately, because the meanings embedded in parables are beyond the reach of some people, the Zambian government has not yet seen the light. So, this means that 'BULOZI KI BWA LUNA", for the time being, while we continue to sit outside the boundaries of the Zambian constitution. The question is, don't we want to make this permanent? If we wait until they have put us back in their constitution, it may be difficult to wriggle out of the bind. This is what makes it extremely urgent for us to come out of this consultative Barotse National Council meeting with one voice regarding our interpretation of the meaning of the Constitution Amendment Act No 5 of 1969. Certainly, by terminating the Barotseland Agreement 1964 and removing it from the Zambian Constitution, this tossed us out of the union with the rest of Zambia. We still sit outside their Constitution. I find it very strange that all along we have been relentlessly fighting to be put back into another country's constitution - while they have steadfastly refused. Do we really want to go back? That is the question this BNC must answer on behalf of the people of Barotseland. The sentiment that 'Bulozi ki bwa luna' is not new. In his letter of February 1, 1994, to President Chiluba, Litunga, Ilute Yeta IV had the following to say: In our humble view, secession is a matter of right and is inherent in the Barotseland Agreement of 1964, so that the parties to the said Agreement reserve the right to revert to their original status if the agreement under which they intended to achieve unity can no longer work. The problem has not been that this position has not been communicated to the Zambian government many a time enough, but rather that we have consistently lived under successive governments which have not had answers to the problems that they created; governments whose primary preoccupation has been to work tirelessly to project a falsehood as the truth - and the truth as a falsehood; governments which have consistently engaged in indoctrination and the propaganda of fabrication and deception - campaigning, through the various national media they control, to make Zambians believe that Barotseland came into Zambian independence on equal and similar terms as all other "provinces"; that the Barotseland Agreement 1964 was a seditious document - after they co-signed it, thereby agreeing to its terms (they actually hid it away from Zambians for almost five decades). Every time they have been challenged to come up with logical reasons for denying the people of Barotseland their rights and freedoms they have simply responded through acts of intimidation, brutality, harassment, arrests and even killings. They keep on doing the same things over and over again, expecting a different result - love, from the people of Barotseland. Einstein defined lunacy as doing the same thing repeatedly - and expecting a different result. The people of Barotseland are not going to forget this story - and time will come, as it appears imminent at this point, when justice shall finally prevail and the people will have an opportunity to exercise their rights and freedoms within their own State. THE IMPEDIMENTS THAT PREVENTED BAROTSELAND FROM ACTUALIZING ITS FREEDOM It is important, and appropriate, to reflect briefly on the circumstances that prevented the BRE from taking over the - governance and administration of Barotseland following the termination of the Agreement - thereby allowing the now - fake Zambian government to eat their case to the finish, and still have it. The natural question that arises out of the background information presented above: What prevented the people of Barotseland from taking over the governance and administration of their land after the breakup of the Agreement in 1969 Unfortunately, the answer to this question is a sad one - particularly when one considers that the Zambian Presidents have so far projected themselves as God-fearing Christians, by day; by night, they have meted out the severest forms of brutality imaginable against the people of Barotseland. It is a situation that clearly illustrates that "in the hands of dishonest and deceitful individuals, power is a very dangerous weapon, indeed." There are many ways by which successive Zambian governments have acted to suppress the people of Barotseland, and thus preventing them from exercising their human and political rights as a nation within their own State. I am aware that there is someone here who has been requested to give a synopsis of acts of discrimination, aggression, repression, suppression, intimidation, torture, harassment, brutality, killings, etc., that the people of Barotseland have been subjected to over the years. So, I'll not steal their thunder by covering this area as well. Suffice it to stress the point that Barotseland remained classified as a nation without a State in world books of nations. One of the best descriptions of the callousness of the Zambian government regarding the question of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 is contained in a letter written by RMA Chongwe and Company, on April 21, 1992, to the Zambian State President, on behalf of the BRE. The letter read, in part as follows, at p.2: Mr. President Sir, the members of the Barotseland Royal Establishment had constantly reminded the UNIP government about the breach but due to the perpetual State of Emergency that existed at the time coupled with UNIP's dictatorial tendencies, it was feared and indeed reasonably so, that any pressure exerted on the UNIP government would have serious repercussions on the members of the Barotse Royal Establishment and therefore the grievances could not be publicly voiced out. [Emphasis mine]. As I have just pointed out, other speakers at this Council meeting will cover this topic in greater detail. However, the short answer is that successive Zambian governments have been 100% predictable in their response to anyone who attempted to reclaim freedom for the people of Barotseland. The response has always been a well-orchestrated regime of brutality. Over the years, many have been arbitrarily arrested and tortured, others have been maimed - to different degrees ranging from mild to permanent; some have been killed, and others have gone missing (baisizwe mwa kunu). This has been the reality of life for the people of Barotseland - contrary to the slogan some Zambian leaders {as perpetrators of the calculated legislative enslavement and violence against the Barotse people) that this country has enjoyed peace and prosperity since independence. What peace when people are being maimed and killed; what prosperity when Barotseland stands as the poorest of the poor? GOING FORWARD Going forward, there is one fundamental fact of life that this Council meeting needs to be aware of - and that is that, there is no government that easily and voluntarily surrenders its power and authority to a third party without compelling pressure to do so. Unfortunately, this is just the plain truth about life - even when a government has messed up in a big way, as is the case with the issue of Barotseland Agreement 1964. Failure to see this as a point of departure is likely to see this Council meeting emphasize resolutions as an end in themselves. What is needed is an Action Plan, with time frames, around a set of practical actions aimed to result in the realization of set goals for Barotseland. This Council meeting should not end up like the previous ones - only with good-looking resolutions which, ultimately, took the people of Barotseland nowhere. This Council meeting takes place at a time of heightened expectations for a clear vision and leadership, going forward. I am sorry to say that over the years, there has not been much evidence of a clear vision and leadership coming from the structures of Barotse governance and administration. Lone soldiers have fought isolated battles - and it has been lonely out there. In line with my argument in this presentation, one possible starting point is to debate, frankly, the matter of the meaning and interpretation of the Constitutional Amendment Act No 5 of 1969. The meaning and interpretation that the Council will come up with could help shape its Vision - and hence its Mission, broken down into SMART goals (Simply formulated; Measurable; Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound). There may be other starting points, but for me it is this constitutional amendment that gives us leverage for reclaiming our freedom - and I think the Chongwe Commission also saw it that way, hence the high premium they have placed on it. Certainly, an affirmation, for instance, that by tossing the Barotseland Agreement 1964 out of the Zambian Constitution, contrary to Clause 8 of the Agreement, the Zambian government has no further jurisdiction over the territory they excluded from their constitution, this could set in motion a number of specific actions. It is time to allow the Zambian government to "fall on its own sword". That is why I advised the Chongwe Commission last November to go back and report to government that the people of Barotseland had long accepted the Zambian government's termination of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 - and understood that action to mean that Barotseland could now immediately proceed to complete self-determination. In my view, this position leads to an immediate commencement of discussions with the government, with the sole purpose, in mind, of working out transitional arrangements towards Barotseland's self-determination. Certainly, given that the element of trust has broken down irretrievably between the Zambian government and the people of Barotseland, this matter can only be resolved by neutral, trustworthy, international mediators. CONCLUSION This Council meeting will have broken new ground if, and only if, at the centre of its honest and frank debates and deliberations will be the people of Barotseland's democratic wishes, rights and aspirations. Up to this point we, the people of Barotseland, have failed to find a common stand-point on the matter of the Barotseland Agreement 1964. The reasons for this may be varied, but we need to realize that we shall never achieve anything for the people with varied stand-points of this matter. Let us shave different opinions, but in the end we need only one, two or a maximum of three points which should serve as our rallying point(s) as we approach the Zambian government for discussions. Such a position will not be possible if we each endeavour to fore-ground and craft that, which will be best for our own personal benefit. On the other hand, if our focus is on what the people desire to see, we cannot fail to establish the rallying points that we so badly need to move forward. Our freedom has been deferred and postponed for far too long because of relentlessly undermining one another, and agreeing to be used by other people to fight ourselves. Are you not as sick and tired, as I am, of living in perpetual fear of targeted repression? Are you not as sick?

Monday, April 9, 2012