Zambians and Zimbabweans will never be divided by any leader
By Austin Mbozi
Both of them do speak Tonga.
I am talking about Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema (HH). So, can Zimbabweans and Zambians really be divided just because President Mnangagwa misled Russian President Vladimir Putin that his fellow Tonga speaker HH is threatening Zimbabwe by inviting American military in Zambia?
My answer is that ordinary Zambians and Zimbabweans will never be divided by any leader. President Mnangagwa is the living testimony of their solid oneness. He did not learn the Tonga version spoken by Zimbabwean Tongas across Chirundu border. He learnt his Zambian Tonga when Zambia kept him safe in Mumbwa, and Zambia taught him at University of Zambia, away from Rhodesia-Zimbabwe whose racist white leader Ian Smith threatened his life. And his fellow refugees settled in Zambia. It is from these Zambian Shona speakers that I ‘ndino ziba kutaura Shona zakanaka’ (I lean’t speaking Shona a lot), and from where my younger sister, Nang’amba Mbozi, is married.
President Putin is the wrong person for President Mnangagwa to tell about Zimbabwe-Zambia differences. Putin has virtually destroyed the African Union (AU) by arming military regimes that illegally overthrew democratically elected governments Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The AU banned military rulers. But Putin’s Russian military is stronger than African armies. So, the AU simply watches after Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu was left alone trying to stop these soldiers. To make matters worse, South African President Cyril Ramaposa whose military is strong enough to save the AU is the one actually building up a military alliance with the same Putin. Let us not allow Putin to also destroy our SADC unity.
Dividing countries is not new to Putin’s Russia. After World War II in 1945, the USA and Putin’s Russia-USSR divided Germany into West Germany which was militarily funded by the capitalist USA and East Germany, militarily funded by Russia-USSR. When colonial Japan abandoned Korea in 1945, Joseph Stalin’s Russia-USSR imposed communist leader Kim II-Sung in North Korea while the UN-led US under President Truman supported the elected South Korea President Syngman Rhee. The resulting Korean civil war ended in a deadlock after four million deaths. Now that the wall diving Germany was demolished when his Russia-USSR collapsed, Putin should not support such walls in Africa.
History shows that our Zambia-Zimbabwean rulers always quarreled but our people remained one, like they were before imperialist John Cecil Rhodes named our two countries under his name as Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia.
Now reader, let us rap a song. Imagine I am musician Yo Maps on stage and you are the audience replying in choruses. Why? Because I aspire to become the Yo Maps of Zambian article writing. So, I will rap, doing ‘kwaangula’ as I state historical points. Then you the audience should answer in a chorus saying, ‘But our people remained friendly, ye ye ye mama oh!’
There we go, I sing.
First, since 1838, King Mzilikazi of Rhodesia-Zimbabwe routinely raided Rhodesia-Zambia’s King Lewanika for cattle until Rhodes overthrew his successor son Lobengula in 1893. Rhodes and Lobengula differed over the terms of the Rudd Concession. This 1888-signed Concession permitted whites adventurers into Rhodesia-Zimbabwe.
Your chorus: ‘But our ordinary peoples remained friendly’.
Second, during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953-1963), Rhodesia-Zimbabwean ruling whites provoked Rhodesia-Zambian ruling whites by ferrying Rhodesia-Zambian copper to enjoy it in Salisbury-Harare. So, the Rhodesia-Zambia white ruler Roy Welensky, a retired boxing champion, grabbed the prime ministership from Rhodesia-Zimbabean white ruler Godfrey Huggins in 1956. Do not let Rhodesia-Zambian blacks led by Kenneth Kaunda lie to you that they fought Rhodes’ BSA Company to stop grabbing copper from Rhodesia-Zambia. It is that white patriot, Roy Welensky, who fought-kicked out the BSA.
Your chorus: ‘But our people remained friendly, yo yo yo mama yee!’
Third, Rhodesia-Zimbabwean white ruling president Ian Smith who declared his country’s UDI independence in 1966 routinely bombed the Rhodesia-Zambia led by Kenneth Kaunda. Why? Because Kaunda in solidarity hosted black Rhodesia-Zimbabwean soldiers including comrade Mnangagwa who were fighting to remove white hegemony in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe.
Your chorus: ‘But our people remained one.’
Fourth, Rhodesia-Zambian president Kaunda preferred ZAPU led by Joshua Nkomo to take over Rhodesia-Zimbabwe and not ZANU led by Ndabaningi Sithole, even though he hosted both. Eventually, Rhodesia-Zimbabwean lawyer/freedom fighter Herbet Chitepo was fatally car-bombed in 1975 in Rhodesia-Zambia.
Fifth, even white rulers in the 1950s sent black (‘Zambian’) runner Yotam Muleya to America to represent both countries. Zimbabweans celebrated Zambia’s 2012 Africa Cup of Nations trophy until dawn. Zambians celebrated/locally-trained Zimbabwean wizardry boxer Charles Manuchi. Sports minister Chishimba Kambwili told Manuchi; ‘here is Zambian citizenship if Zimbabwean leaders mistreat you’.
Your chorus: Sports united our peoples!
Sixth, after the March 29, 2008 Rhodesia-Zimbabwean elections had no-outright winner, Rhodesia-Zambia president Levy Mwanawasa tried to reduce Rhodesia-Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s ‘dictatorship’; accommodating opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s views. But Mugabe sent to Lusaka the current Rhodesia-Zimbabwe President Mnangagwa to try and convince Rhodesia-Zambians to stop condemning Mugabe. Maybe Mwanawasa’s continued attacks on Mugabe are causing Mnagagwa to imagine that perhaps HH is anti-ZANU-PF like Mwanawasa?
Chorus: ‘But our people remained united. Yee mama yeh!’
Seventh, even if Zambia were to have an AFRICOM military office, which is feared by President Mnangagwa, that cannot automatically mean that Zambia would militarily attack Zimbabwe. Botswana under president Khama worked closely with AFRICOM and was even more anti-Mugabe’s ‘dictatorship’. But Botswana did not militarily attack Rhodesia Zimbabwe. And no African AFRICOM- friendly country has ever attacked another.
Your chorus: ‘Our people remained one yeee!’
Eighth, the Rhodesia-Zimbabwean Shona are friendly with the Rhodesia-Zambian Bemba. And the Rhodesia-Zambian Lundas are one with the Rhodesia –Zambia Ndebele.
Your chorus: ‘But our people remained united, let the Rhodesia-Zambian Nkoya marry from the Rhodesia-Zimbabwean whites. We are not Korea whom Putin’s Russia-USSR divided ye.’
The author feels as if he is in Zambia whenever he visits Zimbabwe. Phone 0978-741920. Email: austin.mbozi2017@gmail.com
I am very disappointed with the so called ‘educated people ‘ If this is educational or academic analysis, then I wonder what education is? How can one condemn Russian assistance to freedom fighters who wanted to liberate themselves from these criminals? Look at the transformations that have occurred in these Sahel countries since throwing out the Western Criminals! Mali paid off its debt and Burkina Faso is almost self sufficient in food and is going to start processing it’s minerals including gold. Where is Zambia? Busy acquiring debt and bringing in outside military that tore Libyia, irag etc.
The only part I can agree with the author is that Zambians and Zimbabwians are one people and should remain that way.
Voice of reason.
How I wish we had more people like you in Zambia.
Most of the countries in West Africa that have been taken over by the army in recent years have all cleared their national debts. We can only admire from afar while we get taken for a ride by conmen busy enriching themselves silly.
We really need an Ibrahim Traore in Zambia.
Vote wisely in 2026.