Author Archives: Mwizenge Tembo

I bumped into my sweetest book ever over three decades ago purely by accident browsing in a downtown bookstore. As a sophomore in college at University of Zambia in the Capital city of Lusaka in Southern Africa, I had by that time probably read just over four dozen books mostly course text books  including a few books as a senior at Chizongwe Secondary or High School when I took an English Literature class. This was not for my lack of interest in reading books but because I lived in a stifling reading desert and I was in constant search of a reading oasis so I could find that one book that would quench my insatiable reading thirst.

The year before as a freshman in college before I stumbled into my sweetest book ever, I had read one of twenty books for my English 110 class that absolutely turned my world upside down. I was reading the book so intently and so engrossed in it late one night in my dorm room  that I forgot to jot notes. But at this point in the book, the more pages I turned the angrier I got. Somewhere in the middle of chapter twelve, I got so angry I slammed the book down and stormed out of my room.

It was dark and late at night and I didn’t know where I was going. I walked through the well-lit dorm parking lot and headed to the small path that led to the major highway next to the campus that went downtown City of Lusaka. I aimlessly walked under the street lights along the side walk going nowhere in particular.  Why did they have to treat him so badly? Why did whites in America enslave blacks? Who the heck invented racism and just why? Why was there racism and apartheid in South Africa? Why did Europeans colonize Africans? Are all Whites evil? Are all human beings evil? What about all the good whites I knew including som of my professors who were my friends? Why are human beings so mean and cruel to each other? I had so many furious questions rushing through my mind that I wasn’t conscious of where I was going and was barely aware of the few cars driving by because I had a glaze of tears of fury in my eyes. I had a million furious questions about the world. I was angry at people, at God, at education, at myself, at history, confused, 18 years old, and was reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”.

It must have been the fresh air in the cool night. The fog in my mind cleared and I found myself calm and standing before the brightly lit magnificent Zambian National Assembly or Legislative building which  would be equivalent to the American Capital Hill in Washington, D.C. I turned around and walked back to my dorm room. It was past midnight and my roommate was asleep.

I read so many heavy or serious books in political science, sociology and especially about the brutality of the racial history during Euroepan colonialism in Africa, race relations in the American society and the Black Civil Rights Movement. My life was turning upside down right in front of me. It was scary. I wanted a break.

One afternoon I wandered into and browsed in a bookstore downtown City of Lusaka’s main Cairo Road. The place was so dry I could not find any book that interested me. Then I saw this only copy of a book by Nigerian journalist Peter Ehahoro. I had been reading Enahoro in the “New African Magazine” which was the African equivalent of the American Newsweek at the time. I was hooked.  He was my favorite. I bought the book.  I was so thrilled with anticipation.

After completing my homework back in my dorm room that night, I got ready for the special treat. I took a shower, put on my pjs and crawled into bed to read my book. I felt so good reading it, that after five pages I carefully placed a bookmark and put the book away. It was like eating a rare delicious  gourmet  meal as I did not want to eat it quickly all in one bite. I wanted to savor and enjoy every small morsel at a time over many nights  before I went to sleep.

So it was that I read Peter Enahoro’s “You Gotta Cry to Laugh” five pages only for over twenty days before I fell asleep every night. I enjoyed every page of it. Enahoro satirically poked fun at the absurdity, ridiculousness, and the conundrum of racism among Europeans, African Americans, Africans,  humanity, and there are no sacred cows that he spared. He addressed many other tidbits on different topics. He even used some of the well-known mathematical principles in one of his light hearted arguments about race. He must have my sense of humor because Enahoro’s timeless satire is not just  funny, witty, cutting, but in a very subtle and not  loud gratuitous way.

Three decades later after easily reading perhaps  at least a thousand books, “You Gotta Cry to Laugh” is still my sweetest book ever even though it is old, torn, and has yellowing tape all over it. What makes the book even sweeter for me is that it is so rare I have not seen a copy of it anywhere; not even in any antique bookstore that I know of. Reading it now and again and owning it is like being a member of sweet secret club in which I am the only member. Is there at least one other  fan of “You Gotta Cry to Laugh” out there? Do you have your sweetest book ever which seems so rare you may be the only one who must have the only copy of it in the whole world?

Do you know who in Zambia were at one time the Muhammad Ali of Boxing, the Pele of the country or the greatest soccer player, or who was the best long distance runner? The easy to read book Zambia Sporting Score by Moses Sayela Walubita is what you urgently need at this point in our proud nation’s history.

Moses Sayela Walubita, Zambia Sporting Score: A Period of Hits and Misses, Bloomington, IN: iUniverse Publishers, First Published in Zambia 1990, 2011, pp. 219, $18.95. K98,000.00, Paper. All Zambians everywhere held their collective breath just before Stophira Sunzu of the Zambian Football team Chipolopolo boys kicked the penalty. When he scored to make the penalties 8-7 to beat Ivory Coast, pandemonium broke, wild celebrations, jubilation took place on the field and all over Zambia and among well-wishers everywhere. Most of us did not go to bed until the wee hours of the morning. Zambia had just won the most prestigious soccer cup trophy on the continent: The Africa Cup of Nations. This cup had eluded the nation since Independence from British Colonialism in 1964. During all the celebrations, Zambians have remembered the National Soccer team that perished in 1993 in a plane crash in Gabon. This may be the right time to ask all Zambians whether we know enough about our Zambian heroes in not just football or soccer, but many other sports. Do you know who in Zambia were at one time the Muhammad Ali of Boxing, the Pele of the country or the greatest soccer player, or who was the best long distance runner? The easy to read book Zambia Sporting Score by Moses Sayela Walubita is what you urgently need at this point in our proud nation’s history. ZAMBIA SPORTING SCORE describes Zambian achievements in 16 sports in such well known and popular sports as Soccer, Boxing, and Athletics but also less popular sports in Zambia including Netball, Volleyball, Table and Lawn Tennis, Golf and many others. The book describes sports in the Southern African country of Zambia from the 1950s when the country was a British colony of Northern Rhodesia. It describes Zambia’s greatest sports personalities, team sports, and their achievements.
In the country’s number one sport of soccer, the book describes the performances of such Zambia’s legendary players as “Ucar” Godfrey Chitalu; who is perhaps Zambia’s best and most dazzling soccer player ever. Samuel ‘Zoom’ Ndhlovu and Kalusha Bwalya will forever be etched in the history of soccer and sports in Zambia and beyond. Chitalu is by far Zambian’s equivalent to Pele of Brazil soccer great. Chitalu in one soccer season in 1972 scored 107 goals facing stiff premier club and international defenses. Chitalu was a deadly striker who left goalkeepers sprawled on the ground diving to save his shots. He was Zambia’s scoring machine long before the era of Kalusha Bwalya, the 1988 Africa Footballer-of the Year.

Zambia’s greatest Boxer Lottie Mwale, with a ring name of “Kaingo” (the Leopard), used to pack the 30,000 seat Independence Stadium in Zambia’s capital city of Lusaka. Mwale had dynamite punches and at the height of his dominant career travelled to the United States of America twice as contender of the World Light-heavyweight champion. Unfortunately he lost to former world light-heavyweight champions Matthew Saad Muhammad and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad for the title. Mwale was the only Zambian boxer capable of fighting with intelligence, clean style, and strength. He usually knocked out his opponents who fell without staggering. Zambians burst into celebrations soon after the victories by “the Leopard” who moved stealthily around the canvass – and when he attacked, it was with lightning speed, which currently Zambian Woman boxing icon Esther Phiri is emulating. Samuel Matete competed in the US in track and dominated 400m hurdles becoming its world Champion in the 1990s. Zambia produced the greatest and legendary long-distance runner in Yotham Muleya in the 1950s and 60s. From an early age, Yotham Muleya chased calves into submission. He also excelled in ‘Kamando’ (a form of wresting). Athletics came to him naturally. Sadly, Yotham Muleya died in a car accident when he came to the United States of America to compete.

I would strongly recommend this book for educators, scholars, teachers, or coaches of sports history. This book can also be used to understand the impact of sports in creating national unity and globalization. Whatever your age and where you are today as a Zambian someone who is very interested in Zambia, I strongly recommend that you buy this book with pride for yourself, your family, daughters and sons, friends, and may be to show your grandchildren and visitors in your home.

One of the biggest weaknesses for hundreds of years as Zambians is that we never developed written records or the archival tradition. This review highlights two books that can serve as a blueprint to preserve our history for the future generations.

Yizenge Chondoka and Frackson F. Bota, A History of the Tumbuka from 1400 to 1900: The Tumbuka under the M’nyanjagha,Chewa, Balowoka, Senga and Ngoni Chiefs, Lusaka: Academic Press, 2007, pp. 217, $16.95. K87,000.00, Paper. Yizenge Chondoka, A History of the Tumbuka and Senga in Chama District, 1470 to 1900: Chiefdoms Without a Kingdom, Lusaka: Academic Press, 2007, pp. 125, $14.00, K72,000.00, Paper.

One of the biggest weaknesses for hundreds of years as Zambians is that we never developed written records or the archival tradition. We relied only on the oral tradition. European history books described Zambians as belonging to the so-called 72 tribes or today called ethnic groups. Even though all of us Zambians may be Lozi, Bemba, Kaonde, Ngoni, Tonga, Luchazi or Namwanga just to mention a few, how many of us know the history of the various ethnic or tribal groups we, our parents, our close friends, relatives, or even our ancestors belonged to? Where did they migrate from? Who intermarried and intermingled with us? Who fought whom and why did they settle in an area? Who were the Chiefs, headmen or women rulers? What were the numerous customs practiced? How did the slave trade and the arrival of Europeans affect our lives?

When Zambia got independence from British Colonialism in 1964 forty-eight years ago, there were practically no history books written by Zambians. As a result, most of our history has tended to be portrayed from a European or Eurocentric perspective. One of the most exciting developments is that many more Zambians today are tracing, researching, and writing their own history. In the books: “A History of the Tumbuka from 1400 to 1900” and “The History of the Tumbuka and Senga in Chama District, 1470 to 1900” Yizenge Chondoka performed a phenomenal task that every Zambian should celebrate, emulate, and be proud of. While a history lecturer at University of Zambia for more than 25 years, Dr. Chondoka conducted extensive research into the history of the Tumbuka and Senga in Eastern Zambia.

In “A History of the Tumbuka from 1400 to 1900” in Seventeen Chapters, Chondoka and Frackson Bota trace the history of the Tumbuka as migrating from the the Luba Kingdom in the Congo in the1400s, through Southern Tanzania, dispersing from Kalonga in 1435 to the present day Northern Malawi and North Eastern Zambia. During those 500 years up 1900, so many migrations, kingdoms, chiefdoms, trade routes, hunting and iron smelting skills, changes, influences, intermingling with so many different groups happened. All the major players are identified by maps and names. How did the Ngoni and the Chewa influence the Tumbuka? The book also described in detail the traditional family and marriage customs.

In “The History of the Tumbuka and Senga in Chama District, 1470 to 1900”, in the very first two paragraphs of the first chapter of the short 15 chapter book, Yizenge Chondoka identifies a major weakness in how Europeans may have recorded our Zambian history of the 72 ethnic groups. In this instance, the British identified a small ruling class or dominant group of the Senga and may have recorded a somewhat distorted history of the Senga in Chama district from that group’s narrow perspective. The book attempts to create a proper historiography of the Senga and Tumbuka people in the Chama District. Chondoka describes the rise and fall of the Chamavyose Kingdom and the reign of various chiefs such as Kambombo, Tembwe, and Chikwa. He explores the culture, salt making, disease, impact of the slave trade, and religion.

You might be asking: “What is the relevance of all these old details of names and places you might not even care about or be interested in?” “How does this old history of tribes or this stuff make you or young Zambian child a better person today with the internet and globalization?”

Even in the age of globalization knowing your history and cultural heritage will give you a stronger sense of identity and confidence in whom you or your children are whether you live in Lusaka, Kafulafuta, Lundazi, Mwinilunga,Tokyo, London, Russia or the United States. You will have a good idea where you came from as a Zambian or African. This information is useful if you are someone who is curious and interested in Zambian culture or has current relatives, friends, or ancestors who may have belonged to any of the 72 ethnic groups. This knowledge is power and will give you peace of mind.

I would strongly recommend these books for all Zambians, Africans, and all people who are interested in understanding Zambian and African history. I would further recommend that the books should not only be used for teaching African history in classrooms but families can read the books and sit together in groups and discuss the ideas learnt. These books could also be a blueprint for many Zambians who might want to do serious research about their own families or ethnic group history. This is how as Zambians we can ignite the writing and archival tradition to preserve our history for the future generations.

Why and how did the Machona leave their villages? Where did they walk for months in the dangerous savannah wilderness? Read this book to find the positive and negative impact of this migration.

Yizenge Chondoka, Machona: Returned Labor Migrants and Rural Transformation in Chama District, North Eastern Zambia, 1890 -1964, Lusaka: Academic Press, 2007, pp. 125, $14.00, K72,000.00, Paper.
There was a popular song “A Phiri Anabwera Kucoka Kuwalale” (Mr. Phiri Came Back from the City) by Nashil Pitchen that struck a chord among Zambians that played dozens of times per day on radio Zambia in the early 1970s. . The song describes a Mr. Phiri who left the village to look for a job in the far way city. He worked for many uncountable years without communicating with relatives back home. One day, he suddenly returned home alone with an empty suitcase to find the village gone or relocated , (kusama) and his parents were long dead. Mr. Phiri looked down and stared into the sky. No doubt teary eyed, feeling destitute and heart broken, he did not know what to do. The thousands if not millions of people who migrated from all over their villages in Zambia in search of wage employment in distant cities and stayed away for dozens of years were called Machona. In the book: “Machona: Returned Labor Migrants and Rural Transformation in Chama District, North Eastern Zambia, 1890 -1964,” Yizenge Chondoka, who was a history lecturer at the University of Zambia for more than 25 years, conducted ground breaking research using 200 interviews about the lives of Machona among the Senga people in Chama district in North Eastern Zambia. In the ten chapter book, Chondoka describes why and how the Machona left their villages. How in the 1890s they walked for months in the dangerous savannah wilderness to such distant cities as Lusaka, the Copperbelt, Bulawayo and Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) up to Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa. He uses maps to trace the Machona routes from Chama in Zambia and the Southern African region.
 The most interesting descriptions are the motivations for migrations, how the families and the kinship headed by women left behind in the village coped, and what the Machona brought back to the village on their return. The Machona brought change to the village. On page 105 and 108, for example, Chondoka lists some of the dozens of items a married man brought back to the village that included 3 children’s print dresses, 5 women’s blouses, 3 blankets, 11 bars of soap, 1 mirror, 3 saucepans. Some Machona brought back bicycles and used the money they brought with them to upgrade village houses so that some of the homes had wooden door frames and windows for the first time. Besides new material possessions, many of the Machona brought new ideas and social changes about different lifestyles, marriage roles, languages, food including tea, bread, and sugar, farming methods, education, politics, religion, and knowledge about the world outside or beyond the village.

Perhaps the most significant conclusions Dr. Chondoka arrives at after analyzing the data he had meticulously collected is that the positive aspects of labor migration or Machona outweighed the negative aspects. Machona benefited the people in Chama district. His conclusions for the first time contradict or debunk the Eurocentric narrative and economic determinism perspective of most of the Zambian history we learned in school; that labor migration initiated by European colonial industries always had an overwhelming negative impact on the village social, economic, and political organization. What is often overlooked in these main stream Eurocentric historical narratives of the Machona or labor migration is the reality that many Zambians may have been motivated by human curiosity. Beyond paying the compulsory colonial hut taxes, many of the Zambians may have been motivated by human drive and desire to explore, investigate, and experience change.Mbr/> It is a possibility that other future researchers of Machona experiences among the Lozi in Western province, the Kaonde or Luvale in the NorthWestern Province, the Tonga in Gwembe Valley, or Lunda in the Luapula Province may yield different results. But this is where other future researchers could carry out further investigations. There may be parallels of the Machona from the 1890s in rural Zambia to the wave of Zambians who left the country in the late 1980s to work in Southern Africa and in the Diaspora abroad. Are we the new Machona? If so, what do we bring back to Zambia when we return? Will we be like A Phiri who returned to the village alone with an empty suitcase, destitute and heartbroken?

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ABOUT REVIEW AUTHOR: Mwizenge S. Tembo obtained his B.A in Sociology and Psychology at University of Zambia in 1976, M.A , Ph. D. at Michigan State University in Sociology in 1987. He was a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Zambia from 1977 to 1990. During this period he conducted extensive research and field work in rural Zambia particularly in the Eastern and Southern Provinces of the country. Dr. Mwizenge S. Tembo is Professor of Sociology who has taught at Bridgewater College in Virginia in the United States for twenty years.
Dr. Tembo has authored 4 books: Titbits for the Curious (1989), Legends of Africa (1996), The Bridge (Novel) (2005), Zambian Traditional Names (2006). He is spearheading the building of a Zambia Knowledge Bank Libraries: Nkhanga Branch Village Library in Lundazi District in his native country of Zambia in Southern Africa. He is a weekly columnist for the Daily Newsleader Newspaper of Staunton in Virginia in the USA. He is a frequent column contributor to the Daily News-Record of Harrisonburg in Virginia in the USA. He was also a frequent contributor to the Sunday Times of Zambia in the 1980s. He has published at least 100 newspaper columns. He is a freelance photographer who has sold many of his works. He has written over a 100 articles and research papers which he has published on his web page: www.hungerfoculture.com . For more details: www.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo , www.bridgewater.edu/zanoba Dr. Tembo has also published at least 15 scholarly articles, 21 book reviews, and 10 journalistic articles.
He has just signed a contract for the romantic adventure novel “The Bridge” to be published this year by Linus Publication of New York.