Our five deadly political lies that sustain mass poverty, mass unemployment and extreme inequalities The Mast Online – themastonline.com

[By Azwell Banda]

Before the people today called Zambians were colonised by the British, they lived in their own kingdoms, had their own systems of governments in their kingdoms, and the people in all the kingdoms were neither the same nor equal. Nor were neighbouring kingdoms always neighbourly!

Complex systems of kinship, patriarchal and matriarchal inheritance systems, family and clan proximity to the throne and ownership of wealth; and ultimately social history and status and whether one was a slave or not, and many such differences were present in all the kingdoms of present Zambia. Slaves were present in most kingdoms. And so, we would have a kingdom with all these divisions, including several languages in some kingdoms. Everyone in a kingdom paid homage and taxes to the king. The different divisions among the people were well known, knowledge of these differences was passed on from one generation to another through the spoken word. Every individual in the kingdom grew up learning and struggling to stay in their place.

The common thread running through the complex social systems in the kingdoms and determining the place of an individual, was power military and wealth ownership. Wealth could be husbands, wives, children, land, cattle, copper, gold, iron, or any valuables upon which the kingdom itself in fact was build. For example, slaves would be people who would have been defeated in war, captured, and their people, land and all wealth confiscated by the victorious kingdom.

In fact, kingdoms came into existence and were organised around an individual or individuals who would have successfully led a war against another kingdom and conquered it. Such an individual and her or his family would be rightfully feared, respected and recognised as the queen or king. With the passage of time and distance from the war of conquest, it became the duty of story tellers, medicine men and women, spiritual leaders and the loyal followers around the family of the queen or king to sustain the myths of the unique powers and sources of authority of the king if the kingdom was to survive. Of course, those who would oppose the queen or king and resist her or his authority would be dealt with harshly, including being killed.

Our kingdoms therefore, were not nice and peaceful villages in which everyone was free, equal, and lived happily! Slaves longed and struggled to be free. Women longed to be free from male domination and ownership, so did children. Those without land wanted their own land. Those without cattle wanted their own cattle, hence raids on cattle rich neighbours. We melted iron and made both knives and spears, not for fun, but also to kill others in order to protect ourselves from them and to raid them for their children, women, young men, cattle and other wealth. Our kingdoms had deep divisions and peace was sometimes secured by civil war!

What colonialism did was, in very cruel and spectacular fashion, destroy these African kingdoms and their independent economies, impose their legal systems, introduce new systems of government, and generally commit mass cultural genocide by relegating to the periphery and dustbin of history all cultural and traditional practices of what they called the native.

The Christian missionaries of course dully replaced our own spiritual and faith leaders, and consigned our complex systems of gods into the never to return recesses of our minds. As for our medicine women and men, the colonialists replaced them with their own medicines and systems of clinics and hospitals. It remained only for the missionaries to take the African children into their schools to start erasing our memories of our ancient knowledge and systems of belief. In less than a generation, the child who could speak crude English and read the Bible became superior to all natives who could not. And so, it has been, since then. It was from the missionary schools that our nationalists were educated, and whence Kenneth David Kaunda, first president of Zambia, got his education, at his fathers mission school.

These and many details about our past, with many rich variations in each kingdom, are absolutely essential to understand Zambia and Zambians today and to fashion a way out of the poverty, unemployment and extreme inequalities (triple crises) which are the burdens of the majority of Zambians today. Our past is very much our present!

All our politicians today, in their quest to win the largest number of votes, conceal the divisions and differences among us, and sell us the supper lie of a peace loving and united one Christian country. Below are some five deadly lies they all promote, to fool the majority of us:

First lie: We are One Zambia and One Nation

Of course, the world has only one country called Zambia. But Zambia has rich people whose interests are violently opposite to, and against, those of the majority who are poor, as it has always been in human history. We have more than 70 different cultural and linguistic groups, each one with its unique history. Pretending they do not exist and our politicians do not exploit them for votes is fooling ourselves. Women and girls are treated as second class citizens of Zambia. Young people, especially from working class families suffer the most economic and social deprivations. Increasingly, rich people are raiding villages and turning peasants into their slaves, on their lands! We are one country with many different people!

Second lie: Zambia is a democratic country

Democracy is more than having political parties and voting; it is about economic equality and constantly improving quality of life, for the largest majority. We have been voting even before 1964, and the majority of Zambians have historically seen their poverty grow, especially after 1991. Politicians promise to abolish our poverty, increase jobs, and improve our lives. 58 years after 1964, it is not happening! Instead, the rich are getting richer as the majority get poorer. In reality, we are a true democracy for the rich, only.

Third lie: The majority of Zambians are poor and powerless

It is true that the majority of Zambians are poor, unemployed, and many survive in the harsher rural areas of the country. Are they powerless? As individuals, yes, and as organised large groups of people, no! Organised as voters, for example, they booted Lungu and his violent Patriotic Front from government. They can do that to Hakainde Hichilema too. Any number of unemployed youths properly organised can shut down Zambia, for as long as they want. As individuals, they are hopeless and destitute. Organised, our mothers who trade in markets across the country can starve Zambia to death if they choose not to sell their foodstuff for just 15 days. As individuals they are desperately poor, surviving from the little money they make every day. By spreading the lie that the majority of poor, unemployed Zambians are powerless, without explaining that this is true only if these poor and unemployed people are not organised, a deadly lie is spread, and Zambians die from this lie.

Fourth Lie: There is no alternative to capitalism

Apparently if the rich become richer, we shall all have our problems solved and be happy and united. All the rich became rich by corruption and violently robbing others and suppressing or killing them. This is why every country has armed police and soldiers to protect the wealth of the rich! Zambia has been a rich persons country all along, since even before 1964. Zambia is a perfect paradise for the rich and a hell for the poor!

Fifth Lie: Zambia is a peaceful country and Zambians are peace loving people

Peace is not just the absence of war; it is the absence of all discrimination, oppression and exploitation, it is full equality of human beings. Violence is not just physical force of any kind, or war. Violence is also psychological, social, economic and cultural oppression and deprivation! Mass poverty is violence. Mass unemployment is violence. Forced girl marriages are violence. Oppression of women is violence. The mere absence and fear of physical violence does not mean absence of other kinds of violence, and it does not mean peace. In Zambia, the threat of physical violence is used to hide all the other kinds of violence. We are a very violent country!

58 years after 1964, it is time to know and see the world as it is, not as we are lied to!

Send comments to: banda.azwell@gmail.com.

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Our five deadly political lies that sustain mass poverty, mass unemployment and extreme inequalities The Mast Online - themastonline.com