A False Friendly Voice for Barotseland Can Do More Damage Than an Open Enemy

2 June 2011

The Patriotic Front(PF) president Michael Sata has recently been claiming many times to be a steadfast friend of the Lozi-speaking people and the creation of their own state of Barotseland.

He certainly found bold words to convey that impression when he took his first visit to Mongu where he addressed one meeting and another in Senanga – his first political rallies in Western Province.

On his return to Lusaka, he told journalists that; ” when I was in Mongu, I told the people of Barotseland, when I am in power, the PF government will restore the Barotseland Agreement in 90 days.

We know that we cannot relent, we cannot yield, and, as president of Zambia, I will never compromise when it comes to the Barotseland Agreement … not when there are still voices in the MMD that deny the shootings that just happened recently, not when there are within the police and political leaders in the MMD committed to Barotseland’s destruction, not when there are maps across Zambia that don’t even acknowledge Barotseland’s existence, and Government-funded textbooks filled with hatred towards the Lozi’s, not when there is no development, and the Baroste children have to take a deep breath and summon uncommon courage every time they board a canoe to school or walk to school.” (Or so he seems to have been assuring the people of Mongu and Zambia as a whole.)

The aspiring president went further and proclaimed that; ” there is no room at the negotiating table for the MMD Government and the rest of the people of Zambia.”

The PF president didn’t touch on the matter of boundaries, but he did seem to realise that he had to be president of Zambia first and that ” Lusaka will remain the capital of Zambia, and it must remain undivided with him as president.”

But since his bid for State House, the PF president’s actions have been anything but friendly. By previously and publicly proclaiming that he shall not deal with or recognise the Litunga of Barotseland that the Litunga halts all claims to Land in his Kingdom and allow investors to buy and hold title to land, Sata stepped into the role of negotiator for a Baroste secessionist group, that had not, before then, made participating in Barotseland talk’s contingent on such a moratorium. (Afterward, he could do nothing else.)

By announcing the Baroste Secessionist Group’s demands on Barotseland at a rally, Western Province’s-despising despots, and the PF president betrayed the Zambian Constitution to stand by the lonely democracy under the Litunga of Barotseland that the Baroste people have been enjoying and, in fact, contributed to the atmosphere of menace toward the Litunga and the Zambian Constitution.

The PF president’s concept of friendship toward Barotseland was capacious enough to permit him to insult the Litunga during his Mongu and Senanga visits because the Litunga does not agree to the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement, and to hold a political rally to engage in a dressing down of the Litunga for the same offence.

Now Mr Sata claims to have found a new expression of friendship – the demand that negotiations over a future Barotseland state begin with the assumption that the Republic of Zambia will relinquish all of the Western Zambia, west of the rail line from Livingstone to Kusumbalesa territories acquired in a defensive colonial war 45 years ago.

Is the PF president again serving as chief negotiator for all the Zambian people?

The PF president claims a warrant for his unprecedented demands on the whole of Zambia- pressure to reconstitute what Cecil Rhodes called “Barotseland borders” – from the Baroste secessionist group’s recent uprising and what he perceives to be the dangers of ” procrastination.

” It’s an interesting word choice, most likely lifted from George Mpombo’s dictionary, suggesting that the Zambian people have been reluctant to make peace with themselves.

An actual friend of the Barotseland state might look at things differently. And the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian border crisis is a perfect example.

Did Sata notice that Mubarak’s exit, however, well-deserved, has thrown into doubt the most important peace treaty Israel was ever able to sign with an Arab neighbour? Egypt, which had been, at best, an intermittent ally in thwarting Iranian arms shipments to Hamas, has now become much more cordial with Tehran, with unknown consequences for the sensitive border between Egypt and Gaza.

The PF president has been slow to comment upon it or he does not understand foreign affairs, but surely he has noticed that Syria is in flames, and that Bashar al-Assad has already attempted to divert anger away from himself and toward Israel by sending hundreds of Palestinians to breach the border on Israeli Independence Day. Turkey, formerly Israel’s best Muslim ally, has slid into hostility under the leadership of an Islamist party.

At the UN, the General Assembly will vote in September on declaring the statehood of “Palestine.” What then? Will Israel’s efforts to disarm the Palestinians in Gaza be considered an act of war against a sovereign state?

And what of the Barotseland Secessionist Group, with whom Mr Sata would presumably be negotiating these “land swaps?” What of the Luvale’s, Lunda, Luchazi, Chokwe, Mbunda, Nkoya, Lenje, Lamba, Lala, Soli, Kaonde, Illa, Tonga, Toka-Leya groups in Barotseland? Will they agree?

The PF president acknowledged that the “Baroste secessionist group cannot be expected to negotiate with ” those in the MMD who do not recognise its right to exist.”

Which part of Zambia that remains will Mr Sata become president for?

Never the less, the PF president and Baroste Secessionist Group have gone ahead and just agreed a unity accord for the sake of the 2011 elections.

Meanwhile, after the PF rally in Mongu, the Baroste Secessionist Group made clear that they had surrendered none of its extremism to get the deal:

” It is not required of the Baroste Secessionist Group to recognise the Republic of Zambia as a unitary State. We will form a government of technocrats and we will not ask any Zambian government in place to recognise Barotseland.”

As it stands and after 90 days in power, Mr Sata will remain president of the areas east from Livingstone to Chililabombwe.

That’s half of Southern, Lusaka and all of Eastern Province then that part of half of Central and Copperbelt and the whole of Luapula and Northern provinces.

It means half of his voters in Lusaka, Central and Copperbelt will go to Barotseland with the land swap and he will remain president of areas where his popularity is non-existent or waned such as Luapula, Eastern, and Central provinces and this assumes he will maintain his few seats in Northern Province.

By his false friendly voice, Mr Sata is shooting himself in the foot. He will preside over a hostile Parliament. But Mr Sata is lying to the people of Barotseland by promising nonsense.

Yet at this, of all moments, Mr Sata chose to issue a public demand that in 90 days of taking over the instruments of power, the Zambian people pre-emptively surrender its essential natural resource rich part of land.

It’s nothing less than a reward for the Barotse Secessionist Group 2011 election support and for the PF president’s unswerving dedication to Zambia’s destruction.

Mr Michael Sata may now be considered a friendly voice for Barotseland, but he will do more damage than an open enemy.

AllAfrica – All the Time