🇿🇲 BRIEFING | M’membe’s Barotseland Promise Sparks Online Storm
Socialist Party presidential candidate Dr. Fred M’membe has triggered sharp debate across social media after promising to restore the historical name “Barotseland” to Western Province if elected President.
Speaking during a visit to Limulunga Palace, Dr. M’membe told Ngambela Mukela Manyando that he would sign a Statutory Instrument on his first day in office to replace the name Western Province with Barotseland.
“If that continues to be your wish, it will be done the very day I am sworn in. We shall remove Western Province and replace it with the original name, Barotseland,” M’membe said.
The remarks immediately ignited online reactions, with critics questioning why a presidential candidate polling in single digits is making constitutional and historical commitments that successive governments have approached with caution for decades.
Others argued that the proposal risks reopening one of Zambia’s most sensitive national conversations: the legacy of the 1964 Barotseland Agreement and the relationship between the Barotse Royal Establishment and the Zambian State.
Supporters viewed the pledge as recognition of Western Province’s historical identity. Critics, however, described it as election-season symbolism designed to attract attention in a province where M’membe has struggled to build significant political support.
The backlash also reflects a broader challenge facing the Socialist Party leader. Despite being one of Zambia’s most educated politicians — a lawyer, journalist and economist — many voters continue to question why his campaign often gravitates toward highly emotive constitutional and historical issues rather than presenting a detailed economic programme capable of challenging the ruling UPND.
For some observers, the announcement sounded less like a governing priority and more like a political headline.
The larger question now is whether the promise was aimed at solving a practical governance issue or generating momentum for a campaign that has so far struggled to convert intellectual influence into electoral traction.
As the election campaign intensifies, one thing is clear: M’membe’s Barotseland remarks have succeeded in getting people talking. Whether they have won him votes is another matter entirely.
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