NO BAROTSE NATION, ZAMBIA WILL REMAIN ONE – HH
President Hakainde Hichilema (HH) has retaliated that Zambia will remain a unitary state under his presidency, reports Martha Banda.
Speaking at the 2024 Nc’wala traditional ceremony of the Ngoni people today, President Hichilema says he will see to it that Zambia remains united as one country.
There are growing calls from the people of Western province to secede from Zambia after what they call the breach of the Barotse Agreement of 1964 by the Zambian governments.
But President Hichilema who recently said there was no Nation called Barotseland the remark that did not sit well with the people of Western province, retaliated his call to maintain Zambia as one.
I will follow President Kenneth Kaunda legacy of having one Zambia, one Nation, President Hichilema told a colourful well attended ceremony with some Traditional leadership from other provinces.
Recently sources within government said President Hichilema sent a high powered delegation of Government officials to the Litunga the King of the Barotse Royal Establishment to broke the empasse emerging with his administration.
The BRE responded urging President Hichilema to put his message in writing. The growing resulted in one of the Barotse Activist to quit from The Teaching Service Commission. Sinyinda a former BRE Ngambela or Prime Minister left Lusaka for Barotseland.
Zambian Eye
Why talk about Barotse while attending Ncwala ceremony? This is very insensitive and provocative.
This man is a very divisive fella.
Why not ? Isn’t the ” Barotseland” issue a tribal ( traditional) inspired issue? A traditional ceremony is indeed an excellent setting to talk about such issue with a background in traditional powers.
Aikona.
Let him give this same speech when he attends Kuomboka ceremony. That is if he even gets invited.
There are better ways of trying to resolve the Barotse issue than use a traditional ceremony of the Ngonis to tell your Lozi traditional cousins that you can forget about me addressing your issue. In Bemba we say, “mulomo uyo.”
On ZNBC I didn’t hear him say Barostse but heard him say Zambia is a unitary state and he repeated it. He was right to say that so that he can have the support for the right thing from all traditional leaders. This issue has been there for long coz the past presidents have been sugar coating it, treating us Loziz like we are babies. The truth should be on the table no matter how it hurts.
If the issue of Barotse land could not be resolved by Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda, SATA, Lungu why should it be a hot topic around this time now? Here there must be something fishy. If there was a correct time to have this issue resolved it was during the reign of Lungu because his second who helped him to be on the seat is from western province. Now why should it be a disturbing topic after Inonge Winner was bitten to hail by her horner (sp) Nalumango? Won’t it make sense we just talk about other pressing issues around us? It might be some people somewhere want to take advantage of the once buried topic so that they gain support from the people of Western province, this still will not go well with those in question because 3/4s of the Zambians don’t like the Barotse land topic.
This is totally distorted reporting, the President never mentioned the word Barotseland, he just said Zambia will remain a unitary state. He said he wouldn’t want to be the president who will divide this country. But he never said that there is no Barotseland, that’s a lie and total fabrication. We know that the usual propagandists are trying to scavenge for damaging stories which they can’t find. The President is in touch with the Litunga and the people of Western Province and he knows what he is talking about.
The President only talked about Zambia being a unitary state. At no time did he make any reference to Barotseland.