ZAMBIA’S 10 BIZZARE AND NOTORIOUS PEOPLE EVER KNOWN
Below is a little history known of some of Zambia’s most notorious and bizarre people in their own way and right:
1. ALICE LENSHINA
Alice Lenshina was a female ‘Spiritual leader who formed and led a religious sect in Northern Province.
She claimed she had immense divine powers but the truth was that she had tremendous hypnotical skills.
These convinced her followers who believed she truly was a woman of God.
Some of the practices her followers did were to drink their own urine and smearing of own human excrete on the body which they believed would make them invincible to evil
forces.
Alice Lenshina also convinced her loyalist followers that they could fly if only they had strong faith.
Many people are believed to have plunged to their deaths from great heights on their ‘test flights’.
As a result of her growing influence even in other provinces such as Luapula and parts of Eastern Provinces, some political party members used the cult to further their political ambitions and under took clandestine activities.
The Sect was outlawed by the government after a spiral of violence and deaths between rival factions.
Her followers were deported by the Kenneth Kaunda government to Zaire then Congo.
Lenshina had healing powers and could through her devine powers as a prophet heal the sick.
People travelled from far countries like South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and even the United Kingdom to come for healing.
She amassed too much influence which unfortunately did not go down well with the British Overseas Military
Adminisration [BOMA].
Kenneth Kaunda was then Prime Minister.
A fracas arose and a police officer was unfortunately killed by
some purported followers of Lenshina.
Kenneth Kaunda then being a memeber of the British colonial cabinet was a part to the decision to crash what they termed a ‘rebellion’ and arrested Leshina.
She died in Lusaka’s
Kaunda Square Stage 1 in the 1990’s without any of the charges leveled against her being proved.
2. ROY MUDENDA.
Roy Mudenda is believed to be the most notorious multi-activity criminal Zambia has ever had in living memory.
He had committed various acts of inhumanity which can only be described as
horrendous.
In the early 1970s he had a reign of terror particularly in the City of Lusaka .
He had plied his trade by engaging in armed robbery, burglary, terrorism, murder, and rape of women.
Many times
he had skirmishes
with Police and managed to evade arrest on several occasions.
When he was finally caught, he was tried and
sentenced to death.
He was hanged at Mukobeko Maximum Prison.
The nation breathed a sigh of relief at the announcement of his death during that period.
3. ADAMSON MUSHALA.
Adamson. Mushala was a Wildlife Warder by
profession who felt that he had contributed a lot to the liberation struggle of Zambia.
History books though have never recorded this.
He was one of the people Kenneth Kaunda had sent to one of the Eastern block countries for training.
When Zambia got its independence on the 24th October 1964, Mushala had hoped to be given a post of Director in the Ministry of Wildlife and Fisheries.
His wishful dream did not happen so he became disappointed and disgruntled.
Inspired by the activities of Jonas Savimbi of UNITA in the pre & post independence Angola he waged war against the government of Kenneth Kaunda and agitated for the secession of North Western Province.
He carried out terrorist activities in mostly rural areas, burnt villages, abducted women and children
and enlisted child soldiers.
He was known particularly for his magical prowess where he would evade detection and capture by government sildiers who were sent to look for him by “disappearing in thin air”.
There is even a story about him having gone to State House in Lusaka several times in his invisible state.
His dats were numbered as he was tracked and gunned down by a young Zambian corporal in the army after a tip off from one of his wives.
The secret she revealed was that if his pursuers were to see and capture or kill him they were to first strip off their clothing and remain nude.
This turned out to be true as that was what the young corporal did and achieved his objective.
Mushala had gone on his routine daily activity of hunting and bee
honey collecting when the corporal saw him and killed him.
His body was displayed for the nation to see. Army was honoured for having achieved this mission.
4. ROSEMARY
“Rosemary” was a famous prostitute who was believed to have originated from Southern Province.
It is believed she had died a
horrific death under mysterious circumstances at the hands of some men.
She started appearing as a ghost and went for an all-out carnage to any man who fell prey to her.
Rosemary had developed a hatred for all men because of what had happened to her in real life.
The ghost would emerge out and appear as real beautiful street prostitute.
The unsuspecting men would then engage her and go out for a ride or a quickie.
The woman would then turn into a fairytale superficial being and suck
the victim of blood with the precision of a
vampire to death. Those who were lucky enough came out without their teeth.
During that time there were a lot of reports of the sightings of this mysterious woman who had also caused a lot of road traffic accidents.
It went on like if you were driving in the evening or night suddenly a beautiful woman would appear in the middle of the road.
If you hit her you would die and if you try to swerve and avoid her you would still die as you had been targeted.
In other instances if you pick this beautiful woman thumbing you down for a lift on the side of the road she would pounce on you on
the way.
The practice of picking strange women at night was stopped by make motorists and even up to now this is not so common.
The haunting spirit of Rosemary was finally put to rest when a group of Priests got together and held special prayers at her grave to make her rest in peace.
5. SIPALO.
In the mid part of the 1970s the ‘Notorious Strangler’ appeared in Zambia.
The country was
plagued by a spate of serial killings.
The notorious strangler had targeted unsuspecting young women whom he would court and date at exclusive pubs or night clubs.
He would pick up a young woman
then take her for an outing and at an opportune time pounce on her twisting her neck until she died of
strangulation.
The strangler had become so invincible that the law enforcement agents had run out of ideas how to catch him.
He terrorized mostly the Greater City of Lusaka and had strangled about 28 women in total before he was cornered. Ironically there had been no traces of rape on virtually all his victims.
He was caught after he mistakenly left one of his victims for dead but the
victim regained her conscious after the strangler had gone thinking she was dead.
She was able to recognize and identify the strangler who was one of the respected members of a particular well known township in Lusaka .
Before he was sent for trial a lapse in security by the police enabled the strangler to find his way up on the roof at police force headquarters where he was being interrogated and threw himself off and plunged to his death.
He died with his secret and his motives for the killing of all the women he strangled were never known.
It was however suspected that he was linked with a bogus businessman and politician who had ran a thriving business in bus coach services. To this day the man is only known as SIPALO and had served in the Zambian Army.
6. NEVERS ‘Spoiler’ KAPENDA.
Indeed Nevers had ‘spoiled’ the aspirations of many Zambians by his despicable acts of crime and violence.
He was a ‘Super Gangster’ who had perpetrated a reign of terror particularly in and around Lusaka. He coordinated a spate of armed robberies, banditry and burglary in his target areas.
He was really a crime maestro of his generation who enjoyed inflicting pain on his victims.
He had escaped prison so many times.
He died when he was shot down during a
skirmish with Police.
7. CHANDA SILIYA.
On the Copperbelt in the early 1990s there was a criminal who caused alot of
terror.
This was the famous Chanda Siliya.
After playing ‘Tom and Jerry’ with the police for sometime he was eventually
gunned down by the anti-robbery squard led by the celebrated officers Sakato and Musumali. These officers were so famous on tracking criminals at that time.
If you had lived in Kitwe then you would know them.
The police took his dead body around Kitwe to show people that the so called famous criminal was no more.
They then displayed his body at Kitwe Central Police for all the other residents to
see.
8. UNCLE BARRY.
‘Uncle Barry’ was another dangerous
criminal who had restricted his criminal
activities to the Copperbelt towns only.
He had commanded respect with his
peers and had a “Mafia type” status. He was the man at the helm of most of Copperbelt province’s horrendous crimes including armed robbery and terror.
He was gunned down when he tried to escape from Police custody.
There were so many criminals in different towns of Zambia who did not make it on the ‘National level’ but were nonetheless causing a stir to local residents in respective areas of crime operations.
If you were a Livingstone resident at the time, you may have heard of big names in the world of crime such as ZEPILA; GEORGE KILLER;
ZAMBO; KINTO; SKINJO; WINDIE;
DARKOTA; and JAGUAR who later became mad Brian Mulenga
9. MIKA, STEPHANO AND FABIAN.
The men were known as the Mailoni brothers, a trio of serial killers of three brothers. They were suspected to be behind a number of murders around Luano Valley in Central Province. They were gunned down by a team of Zambia Army Commandos in 2013.
They were stated as officially having killed 12 people since the start of their crime spree on April 27, 2007.
10. YOUNGSON KALOBO.
Youngson was the Leader of the Copperbelt based group of small-scale miners popularly known as the Jerabos.
He was also the leader of the rich copper slug dumpsite known as the black mountain.
By Kunda Katwishi KALABA