Southern Province: Its contribution towards the struggle
SOUTHERN region claims to have played the biggest role in contributing to the development of politics in Zambia.
Alongside Lusaka, Central and Copperbelt provinces, Southern Province was leading in terms of donations in cash and in kind.
Even women were able to donate cattle during the struggle.
“At one time a single person donated about 300 of his animals and another 52,” said 71-year - old Onesimus Habeenzu, a former governor of Kalomo during the Second Republic.
Proceeds from the sale of animals were used to run the merged Africa National Congress (ANC) and UNIP parties, and to send a delegation to England to represent the Zambian people on the issue of their Independence.
It was a time of recollection of the independence struggle when at the weekend this writer met four Second Republic mentors in Kalomo, some of whom have held high public office.
Habeenzu, Esau Siamujompa, Zekias Siamasuku and Philip Mpundu all told their stories of life in the pre-independence days that evoked memories of the cruelty of their “white masters.”
“What annoyed Zambians most was being kicked out of their own country.
The British brought ex-soldiers after the First World War to settle them here. The British did not have money to pay their soldiers terminal benefits and so gave them land instead,” Habeenzu said.
Philip Mpundu, 66, remembers how the British went to Gwembe and ordered the black people to move because a boma was to be set up and the white people were coming to stay there.
The best land was given to the whites.
“Zambians became second class citizens. We used to carry the white man on our backs and give them our chickens,” said Habeenzu.
He remembers the numerous strikes on the Copperbelt after World War II.
The whites, the four remember, had better conditions than blacks.
A white persons salary was £200 while that of blacks was £12.
The white man would be allowed to sell his cow for £15, while the black persons only fetched four pounds.
There were cattle exclusive to the whites and blacks depending on the breed.
Even in shops and hotels there was segregation.
Mpundu remembers when he bought the bakery and butchery that belonged to a white man, he had to demolish the wall that segregated the whites and blacks.
A black man could not walk into a white’s shop. Someone would be standing in the corridors and ask the black man who wanted to buy something “jula lapa (what do you want),” and then get it for them.
He remembers that he and his colleague were the first to walk into an all whites country club after independence.
They were not welcome initially, but they did not give a damn.
There were schools for blacks only and for whites; Mwata school belonged to the blacks, Greenacres was for Indians and Kalomo Primary school belonged to whites only.
The elderly citizens remember that there were roads for blacks and roads for whites.
There was a train for whites which only stopped in towns where there were hotels for white people only.
“The whites introduced identification certificates (chitupa in Tonga). No black was allowed to visit without a permit and we paid tax. A black person visiting from outside town had to have a permit and was given the number of days to visit,” said Habeenzu.
Failure to comply with the regulations resulted in a jail sentence.
“They destroyed our industries, beliefs and religion and dubbed it satanic and primitive. Some chiefs resisted this, others could not do anything but dance to the white man’s tune to further their causes.
When independence day came, there was jubilation.
“It was very exciting to get into shops and on the trains where whites were,” Esau Siamujompa, 66, said.
For the first time during the coalition government there was one Ministry of Education headed by Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula.
Before Independence, there were two ministries - one for whites and the Ministry of African Education headed by a white director.
During pre-independence days, there was one government school nationally (Munali). Southern Province only had mission schools like Chikuni, Kafue, and St Marks.
All the top jobs were occupied by whites before independence. There were no blacks in high office. The highest position for a black man was that of clerk or interpreter.
“We had no pilots, no judges, no district commissioners who were black. Even after inde Cont On Next Page
