I’m a bit delayed in my posts, but hopefully we will be caught up at some point. To put content up sooner than later, the next several posts will cover just a few days each, this will also shorten the read. We had a meeting and the writer discussed it with the manager and we all agreed. We’ve also discussed writing less, though that is still in debate.
Kingdom of Barotseland
Now to follow up on the meeting I had with the prince and tell you more about Barotseland. Prince Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika is 67 years old and goes by ‘Aka.’ Below are some highlights of what I found most interesting and also will hopefully give an overall understanding.
- The monarch started on the basis that the people decided they needed to have a king for governance and chose one, not that a conqueror became king through conquest.
- The people continued choosing kings from the same family. Since they are chosen, kingship is not passed from father to son, but all kings do come from within the royal family.
- The title for the king is ‘Litunga’ which means ‘keeper of the earth.’
- In written history there are 31 Litunga of Barotseland.
- The first two Litunga were queens and later the 16th Litunga was also a queen.
- Oral history remains that the rulers prior to the first two queens were women.
- The 3rd Litunga ran away when he heard rumors that he would be chosen. He had to be brought back and was forced to be king.
- The most basic disqualification for leadership: wanting to be a leader. You are not a leader by right or might; you are a leader because people have chosen you to be there leader to serve them. Someone wanting to be a leader might not be ‘user friendly’ to be a king. This still remains the ideal characteristic for kingship.
- When you are crowned you are given a name of kingship, but still keep your given name.
- The ‘language of the king’ is Luyana. To a degree, it can be thought of like Latin. If you use it, you are educated and of high class. The term ‘Litunga’ is Luyana. When speaking about the king, the words are of the language Luyana, and those words are only used to speak of the king, not of other people.
- The 12th Litunga had the longest period of reign, being more than 70 years.
- The king’s children generally will not be seen outside of the palace until they are able to walk. To protect the children, they may be given several names and the palace will release the wrong information that a child born a boy is a girl, and vice versa.
- It is doubtful that there will be a queen as Litunga again, but it is not impossible.
- The 27th through 30th Litunga were all brothers. They have the same father but do not all have the same mother.
- A person does not own land; they have custody of it and are the custodian of it.
- There have been many conflicts and there are political disputes still today between the Kingdom of Barotseland and the Republic of Zambia.
Near the end of my conversation with Aka I say, “So you are a prince?” He responds, “It depends on what your definition is for a prince,” I provide my definition as, “The son of a king.” “Then yes, I am a prince.”
Aka is the son of the 29th Litunga, King Lewanika II, whose given name was Mbikusita. Aka’s last name is Mbikusita-Lewanika. The first part (Mbikusita) comes from his father’s given name, and as Aka’s second name indicates he is his father’s son. (‘Surnames’ don’t have the function in Africa as we know them, they still function as second names did in Europe in the 1700s.) The second part (Lewanika) is to indicate royalty, although not all royal families adopt this same convention in their names. Aka is also the grandson of the 24th Litunga, Lewanika I.
I ended up meeting with Aka because I know another person with the name of Mbikusita-Lewanika. That would be his sister Mbuywana, the principal of the community school. She is still a princess at age 70. Once a princess, always a princess.
Kings of Barotseland Photo Gallery Includes the most recent six kings, reigning from 1916 to present.
Friday, March 27, 2015
I arrive in the afternoon to Limulunga and meet Mulele and Musasa at the community school. We start walking north along the road and soon it begins to rain, so we take cover under the veranda of a church. There are some women there selling bananas so we buy a dozen or so, they are smaller than the average banana. Once the rain lets up a bit, we continue our walk north, eating the small bananas as we go. We reach the area of shops and go into one of them. After asking, I swap three warm drinks from my backpack for the exact same drinks in a refrigerator in the shop. Cheers.
From the shop we walk to the home of Musasa. In 2008, Musasa was whom I put in the role of general foreman for the school construction project. Once we are inside his home, it is extremely hot. But he has invited me here so this is where we will meet, even though it is easily 15 degrees cooler outside with a breeze. I drip sweat for the entire time we are in his home.
Since the school construction, Musasa has done some other construction projects at some schools and a post office. Primarily he is farming but does other work as there are the opportunities. He farms rice every year and sells it, last year selling 60 bags of 50 kg (110 lbs). This year with the drought, he may not be able to sell any. His wife helps with the farming as well as buys maize in the town of Kaoma, several hours away, and resells it in Limulunga for a profit.
Musasa has increased the size of his home by double since 2009, and his family definitely needed it. He and his wife married in 2005 and have six children of their own. In 2005, his brother and sister-in-law both passed away, leaving two children that Musasa took in. In 2007, his sister died, leaving another child that he took in. So with the addition of the three orphans that are his nieces and nephews, he now cares for nine children that are ages 19, 16, 16, 14, 11, 10, 10, 8 and 7. All the children have been healthy in his home, but it takes every bit of income to be able to feed everyone and pay their public school fees once they continue beyond grade 7 at the community school, where there are no fees.
The Home of Musasa Photo Gallery
From the home of Musasa, we head with Mulele down to the harbor, which is a dug channel from the floodplains to Limulunga. We continue past the harbor and find a location with a great view of the plains.
A dredger removing sand from the bottom of the harbor in Limulunga.
Mulele was the bookkeeper during the school construction in 2008. He was in charge of payroll, checking tools out and back in to all workers, material use tracking, and eventually petty cash.
Since almost all business here is done in cash, paydays included many currency notes and envelopes with each person’s name on it for their pay to be placed into. Besides those envelopes, many workers had an additional envelope for savings to be placed into each week. Besides knowing the total number of cash needed each week, we also needed to know the quantity of each note needed so each envelope for pay and savings could have the exact amount put into it each week. I developed a process for Muelele to determine all of this and we dialed it in until there were no longer any mistakes. Each Friday, Mulele let me know the total quantity needed for each denomination of note and he handled the rest. This meant that each week, Mulele received an amount of cash that at times was equal to an entire year’s pay for him. Nothing ever went missing or was questionable. And prior to us working together, he did not know the math to be able to do any of this. What he was able to do for the project made my job a lot easier.
Since the school construction, he has done farming and various work when there have been opportunities. Recently he has take a driving course and obtained a driver’s license, something not common for those living in Limulunga. He is working on becoming a taxi driver. He stays with friends in Mongu during the week and with his brother Ngela, the welder, in Limulunga on the weekends.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Today we are going on a journey. A mini bus arrives at Liseli Lodge in the morning and Shaun (PhD student from Canada) and I get aboard. We head up to Limulunga and pick up two teachers and four of the men who worked on the school construction. We are on the road out of town by 10:15am.
We drive south for two hours, enjoying some fancy cookies along the way, and arrive at our destination in the town of Senanga. Here we are staying at a small resort for one night in three chalets. The resort is located right along the Zambezi River. I wanted to do a short trip out of town and attempt some fishing.
The Zambezi River in Senanga.
The fishing poles are home made with the pole being a stick. There is a piece of foam from the sole of a sandal tied into the line of each to act as a bobber. The hooks are purchased, but it is also common that they will make their own. Waluka has made most of the poles. For what they are, they are very well made. We fish away on the shore of the Zambezi River and out of all of us over several hours of fishing, just one is caught, a little one about 4” or so long.
There was a huge bolt of lightning across the river and off in the distance. It was followed by a huge crack of thunder that actually jolted me a bit from the intensity. There was some light rain and we took cover in the building, afterward returning to some more attempts of fishing.
In the early evening, we go out on the river on a pontoon boat for an hour and enjoy the sun as it goes down and lights up the clouds. It is grey skies and there is not a sunset to view but it was quite enjoyable to be out on the water with these men that have never done something like this before. We enjoyed some more of those nice cookies, from the mini bus ride here, along with the cider Hunters Gold, which was my absolute favorite when I lived here before.
Some of the men chose not to drink because they don’t have alcohol, and another tried cider for the first time. For the ones that do drink, they enjoy a drink very rarely because they can’t afford it when they have barely enough to get by day to day for the basics. Anyone who does drink, would make their alcohol themselves from the fruits that will ferment and turn to alcohol.
The resort wanted to charge 10 kwacha per person for us to use one of the barbecues. I wasn’t a fan of that, so instead we went into town and went to a sit down restaurant that was 25 kwacha ($3.50) per person. At the end of dinner, Peter, the bus driver, bought sodas for everyone. It meant a lot that he wanted to contribute to the trip. He also gave a discount on the final cost for the mini bus.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
In the morning, we pack up and head for the harbor, making a stop on the way to buy rolls for breakfast. The harbor is not large and doesn’t really have anything official or permanent about it. There are more than a dozen temporary thatch enclosures where fisherman stay and from where dried fish and fresh fish are sold. We have come to buy fresh fish, since we couldn’t make our own catch, but there are none. It is not the season for fishing, so we don’t feel so bad about our own lack of success.
Hand carved canoes in the harbor in Senanga.
We are on the road out of Senanga by 7:45am because we need to get back to Limulunga so some of the guys can go to church. If the plan hadn't been to leave early to be back in time, some of them wouldn't have come. For the duration of the drive, there are grey skies with no rain, which doesn’t happen very often, but is nice because it brings cooler temperatures.
After dropping off my bag at Liseli Lodge and eating some additional breakfast, I head to the community school to attend the same church service as I did last week. Since it is Palm Sunday, the congregation is walking from the town to the school with palm branches and I have arrived before them. One of the workers from the school construction in 2008, which I had not seen yet during this visit, is there and comes to me to talk and he ends up translating for me as Mulele had done last week. The service is in the large hall today and in attendance: 24 adults, 10 teens, and 21 children. In contrast to last week’s unusually small service, this is larger than average because of it being Palm Sunday.
Because it is Palm Sunday, the service is much longer than usual, running for almost 2.5 hours. During the service there were many songs in Lozi by the choir and a bit of dancing at the end, which I did get wrapped into. At the very end of the service, every person goes through and shakes the hand of the other, starting with the pastors and then once each person has shook the hands of those already in the line, they join the line at the end as the other people come through, so by the end every person has shook the hand of every other person.
The two videos below are under two minutes each. They are clips of songs in the Lozi language.
In the afternoon, Waluka comes and finds me in Limulunga. When I had texted several of my workers after arriving, one of those was Mwanalushi. He had not responded and no one has seemed to have his number. Waluka sent someone to go and find Mwanalushi and they did. Mwanalushi came to find Waluka this morning while I was at church so now Waluka gives me the phone number for Mwanalushi. I give him a call then go to his home, which is about halfway between Limulunga and Liseli Lodge.
Mwanalushi is so excited that I have been trying to find him and now have come to his home. He is in disbelief that I have returned. His disbelief is both amazing and perplexing because it does really seem to take him some time to really believe I am there and talking to him! We have met at the road and now walk to his home, which is not too far. He lives on the land of his father just next to his sister and her children. He married in 2006, is now 28, and has two children ages 6 and 3.
In front of his home on a tarp is maize spread out drying in the sun, the grains having been removed from the cob. I ask him about it since I don’t know the exact process before it becomes usable for nshima. He explains that it is only taking two days to dry this season because the drought has already made it so dry when it is picked. Normally it would be pre-dried at the location where it was grown, before being spread out to dry in the sun, but it isn’t necessary this year. So two days from now, it will be milled and ready for making into nshima.
Maize drying in the sun before being milled.
Mwanalushi was a worker who I always enjoyed being around. He always smiled and was ready to laugh over a situation or joke. When something was needed from Mongu, he was the first choice for sending on the mini bus to go find what was needed and have it back at the construction project at the school. Today he primarily farms but would like to work as an auto mechanic. He took a course on auto mechanics and had a short duration of employment as a mechanic but he has not been able to find a job long term.
The Home of Mwanalushi Photo Gallery
New photos have been added in each of these galleries:
"Do not dare not to dare." – Aslan
The Great Lion. High King of All High Kings. Lord of Narnia. October 1950 - forever.