Kuomboka ceremony in Barotseland            Photo courtesy

The front-page of most Zambian leading newspapers on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 read something like, “Barotse National Council Opts to Secede” or the equivalent. Some among the delegates to the Barotse National Council (BNC) of March 27th – 28th, 2012 called it historic. On Tuesday, March 27th, 2012, Ngambela  Wainyae Sinyinda termed it, “the Barotseland Crisis” and added that it was as a result of the “consequence of an impasse and a resultant failure from the non-implementation and unilateral abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement 1964.”

The above, are not the only reasons advanced for the desire to secede from the rest of Zambia. Another is what the representative from the Barotseland Royal Establishment (BRE) considered a desire for “total independence from Zambia because they felt marginalized.” The other is what BRE terms a “genuine cause.” The Ngambela of BRE opined that the Barotseland Agreement 1964 (The “Agreement”) would not have materialized in the first place had it not been due to the “wind of change against colonialism…sweeping across the African continent.”

Truth be told, the Barotseland is Zambia’s political Achilles’ heel.

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By Charles Mwewa.

Author: Zambia : Struggles of My People
http://www.zambiastruggle.com/