By Elias Munshya
#Bakwetu
Ushis, Milenge, Mansa and the little story behind them.
#Milenge was part of Samfya district in the 1960s. Then it became part of Mansa, in the 80s. Then it was recognized as a sub-boma.
And then abena Chiluba made it a full blown district encompassing both Milambo and Sokontwe chiefdoms.
My NRC still lists Mansa as the district. When I went to have it changed, they told me the district changes don’t act retroactively. So Mansa it is.
The Milenge Constituency can be confusing to some. This constituency was known as a Chembe Constituency. But after it became a district, there was a contradiction between the area being called Chembe Constituency, while the district was called Milenge. The solution? Milenge Constituency became the new name.
But President Lungu had other ideas when he created a new district of Chembe, curving it out of Mansa and that new district adopted the district name for the constituency, hence Chembe Constituency. This new Chembe Constituency is therefore not the old Chembe Constituency. Nevertheless; it is all Aushi area.
Not so fast though because even if Ushis claim these districts – they actually share them with several other tribes. And the Ushi language itself has huge variations from Chembe to Chipili. You can’t tell the difference; but the locals can tell.
Sibling rivalry? Too much of it. Milenge covering a very huge area has some rivalry between Milenge East and Milenge West. In fact, even political parties find it difficult to reconcile the two Milenges. Solution? Each of the areas have their own district committees. For political parties that try to make one district committee – the Milenge District committee must have an equal number of member shared between the east and the west.
After the passing of a long reigning Chieftainess Sokontwe, the chiefdom was embroidered in a dispute. It had to take the High Court to decide and last year; the new Chief Sokontwe took the throne.
Milambo is also undergoing similar disputes.
Who is senior? This is a huge issue among Ushis. Government recognizes several senior chiefs among Ushis. The dispute though is yet to be settled as to who is the most senior of the senior. But it appears like Matanda; due to his role as the custodian of the Ushis’ crossing point at the Luapula should be the most senior. As between Milambo and Sokontwe; Milambo has the title of Senior Chief and Sokontwe doesn’t. And so between the east and the west, the west win – they have the senior chief. But the east is where the boma offices are located. And so perhaps, east is the capital.
There’s a lot to learn about Ushis, their languages, their neighbours and the difficult history of enslavement by King Kazembe’s Lunda warriors. But we will leave that for another day.
#Milenge #ZambiaOmubotu #Ushis #AbaUshi #Mansa #Samfya #Chembe