WHEN DISDAIN FOR A PEOPLE GROUP CAN NO LONGER BE HIDDEN
10th March 2024
The pedestrian statement by President Hichilema that “the Northern Part has no culture of farming. We should not neglect provinces with a culture of farming because they have no rains” cannot go unchallenged.
We find the statement not only condescending and disdainful of the people from the Northern Part of Zambia but factually incorrect as well as divisive. People from the Northern Part, are not hunter gatherers, have lived there for centuries and have fed themselves from the time they came from Kola, through agriculture. As a matter of fact, the people from ‘the Northern Part’ have practised their Chitemene system and stored in their amatala enough reserves to last them until the next, and even beyond, agricultural season – something that this present Government has failed to do. If the New Dawn Government could humble themselves, they may just learn a thing or two from the culture of farming as practised by ‘the Northern Parts’.
Having travelled to Luapula Province during this 2023/24 farming season, our team were surprised by the extensive maize farming that has been undertaken as evidenced by healthy crops all over that Province. A Food Reserve Agency person spoken to, indicated that they expect nothing less than a bumper harvest from the Northern Part. Mr. President, even if your statement that Northerners have no culture of farming, had substance, people do adapt and learn to conditions that face them. People from the Northen Parts have learnt and are now growing maize and not just cassava, sorghum and millet.
Having said that, it is worth noting that there is no part of Zambia, North, East, West, South and Central, that did not and does not engage in agriculture and have a culture of farming.
Why did the President not merely say “We should not neglect provinces that do not have rains” and leave it at that? No one, in their right minds, would have disagreed with him. Why bring in ‘the Northern Part’ in that disdainful manner?
Here is wisdom. Whether we like it or not, the fact of the matter is that the rain-belt has shifted and ‘the Northern Part’ which include North-Western, Parts of Copperbelt, Luapula, Muchinga and Northern Provinces receive above average rainfalls. In addition, these same Provinces are the ones that have a lot of perennial streams, rivers and in the case of Luapula and Northern, large fresh water bodies. Other parts of the country to those mentioned above, receive less rainfall. We say this in all humility knowing that none of us are able to control weather patterns nor the location of water bodies. It is what it is. Planning around this fact, rather than making emotive and divisive statements, will greatly bring value to us.
Recognising the above, going forward, we need to plan our agricultural crop spread, not in accordance to our area of origin, but in such a way as to maximise our production from the sector – for the benefit of the whole nation. We must encourage the growth of crops that are more rain-dependant in the rain-belt and those that are more drought resistant, like sorghum, millet, cassava, cow peas and groundnuts in the drier areas. That way Mr. President, we shall leave no one behind.
Chimba Lumande.