MR FRED NAMAKANDO M’MEMBE NEVER CONSULTED OTHER TRIBES IN WESTERN PROVINCE OVER BAROTSELAND….HE IS LYING
Authored By Mupishi Jones
Mr Fred M’membe must play his politics without pitying one tribe against the other in this country.We have seen him doing this divide and rule kind of politics since his days at the Post Newspaper.He did the same during the past general elections.
He’s doing this again in Western Province.Mr Fred Namakando M’membe belongs to a dialect called Lozi in Western Province.When he said his Socialist Political Party have made enough consultations over the name Barotseland with people from this region and that all the people they’d consulted want to revert back to the name Barotseland,he probably must have consulted the people whose dialect is Lozi where he belongs.
I want to tell Mr Fred Namakando M’membe that I have equally made enough consultations from other tribes including Nkoyas,Mbundas,Luvales and other tribes from this region and they’re saying they are comfortable to be called Zambians and to belong to Zambia.Therefore,if Mr Fred Namakando M’membe and the Lozis he consulted wants to revert back to the name Barotseland,let them start by redefining their boundaries and exclude areas occupied by the rest of the tribes such as Kaoma.I belong to the Nkoya tribe from this region.Our capital was called Mankoyaland before it was changed to Kaoma by the UNIP government, the Nkoyas are not complaining.The Luvales had their capital in Baluvaleland before it was changed to Zambezi, they’re not complaining why should it only be this Lozi dialect complaining over the change of the name? Barotseland was an area covering 252,368km2,it was a region between Namibia, Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe including half of North Western and Southern Provinces of Zambia and the whole of Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Did Mr Fred Namakando M’membe consult the people from all these regions?
When he says a day or two after being elected to run government, he’ll sign a statutory instrument reverting back to Barotseland,where will the boundaries be because the current boundary of Western Province is different from the original boundary of Barotseland?
As a matter of fact,these other tribes like the Nkoyas were neither consulted nor part of the delegation that went to append their signatures on the document called Barotseland Agreement.Therefore,why should they involve us now?I want to tell Mr Fred Namakando M’membe that we’re still not part of the Barotseland Agreement even today! Our position has never changed and it’ll never change, we’ll remain Zambians staying in Zambia because we love it ,kwamana shamana!
The Lozi dialect must exclude us from their agreement because we have never been part of it and we will never be part of it.They are on their own!
Mr Fred Namakando M’membe and those few Lozis he consulted must be grateful to the current government because almost all the government positions from Western Province are occupied by people from the Lozi dialect only.They are part of this government and therefore when Mr Fred Namakando M’membe says Western Province is the second poorest province in Zambia,does he realize that his people are part of the key decision makers in this province and country at large ? Who is he blaming because the President has appointed people from this Lozi dialect in key government positions.The people that should have been complaining of being excluded from the current government are other tribes from Western Province and not the Lozis.
As I conclude,I want to appeal to Mr Fred Namakando M’membe to play clean politics unlike the kind of dangerous politics he’s been doing.
Let him vent his vengeance on those who crumbled his Post Newspaper like a ton of bricks because they are still alive and not on his imaginary adversaries
I submit
Mupishi Jones