BEMBAS YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT, A LET DOWN TO THE NATION AND A VERY DIVIDED PEOPLE- Prof Proud Moonga

By Prof Proud Moonga, PhD Lecturer, University of Michigan, United States of America

I am not a tribalist. I am a nationalist. I am a patriot. I am a Zambian who wants a united and developed Zambia. And that unity and development has been completely betrayed by UPND.

Let us not pretend. Politics in Africa is about tribes and regions. Even in America, Democrats dominate certain regions, Republicans dominate others. They know how to unite behind one ideology and one leader. That is how power is won. That is how nations are governed.

Southern Province has understood this. They speak with one voice, they move with one vision, they rally behind one leader. And because of that, today Easterners and Bembas have been pushed out of space in government. The Vice President is a token for the cameras. The Bemba ministers are puppets, only useful when it comes to dirty deals in mines and commerce.

In the civil service, the purge is open and unapologetic. Bembas and Easterners who have served this nation faithfully since UNIP and MMD have been humiliated and retired in “national interest.” Look around: the Police, the OP, the Army, ZAF, ZESCO, Education, Health , senior positions are captured. The boards, the Permanent Secretaries, the foreign service taken over. Development projects? Skewed deliberately. Under the World Bank funded Improved Rural Connectivity Project, Mazabuka and Chikankata enjoy 15 contracts, while districts in Northern, Muchinga, Copperbelt, Eastern and Central have zero. This is not “One Zambia, One Nation.” This is regionalism with arrogance. This is tribalism in government policy.

And yet the Bembas continue to embarrass themselves. Instead of uniting to fight for their rightful place in national leadership, they are busy fighting one another. HH has systematically targeted and eliminated prominent Bembas from the political scene with convictions, nullifications, and humiliation but still they cannot see the pattern. They cannot defend themselves. They cannot defend their future.

Every Bemba wants to be president. Every Bemba thinks they are the chosen one. And so they fight, divide, and weaken each other while the nation slips further into the hands of one regional clique. History has one lesson: a house divided cannot stand. The Bemba house today is in ruins.

But make no mistake: this fight is not about Bembas and Tongas. It is about Zambia. A country cannot stand when leadership is reduced to one region, when resources are distributed on tribal lines, and when millions of citizens are turned into second-class spectators in their own nation. True leadership must rise above tribe but what we see today is the opposite. Those who preach unity are the very champions of exclusion.

The time has come. Bembas and Easterners must wake up. Not to hate. Not to divide. But to rise in solidarity with every Zambian who has been betrayed. The time has come to rally behind one voice, one vision, one candidate. Enough of the endless selfishness. Enough of being used to fight your own brothers. Enough of this stupidity.

Silence is betrayal. Division is suicide. The answer is unity, courage, and an uncompromising demand for fairness. If this government has chosen tribalism over nationalism, then patriots have a duty to resist it. And if Bembas cannot rise, unite, and defend themselves, then they must accept their political death. They must accept to be written out of Zambia’s leadership equation for years to come.

The choice is clear: unite and fight for a Zambia that belongs to all, or stay divided, remain pawns, and watch the country sink deeper into tribal darkness.

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