by
Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.
Professor of Sociology
Introduction
What is a Kukaya? Kaya is a Tumbuka language noun which depicts a physical place in Savannah Africa where people who are closely related due to deep kinship ties build houses, huts, and dwellings that they share. Calling it a village limits the meaning of kaya as it has a deeper emotional meaning to Zambians and Africans who still live and identify with kaya. Ku-kaya – the prefix Ku is an adjective that denotes “to” as in Tumbuka: “Nkhuluta Kukaya” “I am going to Kaya”.
Kukaya is where all the houses of people you love are next to each other.
Kukaya is where your soul can wander. Kukaya is where girls and boys go to school to learn, gain knowledge and skills that they may use later in their adult lives as women and men. The boys and girls are learning in the modern school while being raised within the deepest aspects of their roots, traditions, and culture; chikaya. Kukaya is deeply buried in your heart although you may be ten thousand miles, 16,000Kms, or just four hundred miles or just 600Kms away. Kukaya is a place where all the people you love so deeply smile, speak to you, quarrel with you, mourn with you and even laugh in the most comforting language; your mother tongue.
Kukaya in Zambia
Kukaya in Zambia and Savannah Africa is a place where you are related to all the children, boys, girls, men and women. Kukaya is a place where the maize for cooking the nshima, nsima, or sima staple traditional food, the peanuts for the nthendelo peanut powder and the delicious ndiwo, dende, umunani, or relish that is cooked is so fresh as it has just been picked from the garden just next to the house. Kukaya is where the food has been carefully cooked using wood fire taking plenty of time and served while the whole family eats together with plenty of love.
Kukaya is where all the women, girls, children spend time together. Children know who they are.
Kukaya as the seat of the soul is a place where all the chickens clack and roosters crow, goats bleat, cows moo, nkhunda domestic pigeons sing, pigs roll in the mud, dogs bark, cats catch rats. The livestock all intermingle with the people. Kukaya is where you can enjoy succulent fruits such as fresh pawpaws, mangoes, guavas, bananas, oranges, and wild fruits. Kukaya is where children as young as five years reveal their soul as they play with the freedom that most children can’t even dream about in the contemporary cities and urban life. Kukaya is where children even go to school through miles of bush paths while being watched and cared for by all adults. Kukaya is a place where you can walk barefoot and wear a t-shirt and enjoy your daily commune with nature and spirit of the beautiful daily blue sunshine of the Savannah.
Kukaya is where you play drums, dance, and sing all night to the Vimbuza Spiritual dance.
Kukaya and Nature
Kukaya is where people don’t cage pet lions, snakes, wasps, frogs and all creatures because one can see these creatures everyday if one wants to. Kukaya is where the thatched houses and homes of your father, mother, brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins are all next to each other. Kukaya is where you quarrel with relatives but you still remain close. Kukaya is where at night you can see all the twinkling stars and the bright Milky Way. Kukaya is where the moon lights are mesmerizing. Kukaya is where you hear the distant singing and rhythmic sounds of the vimbuza dance drumming deep into the dark night as one turns over in one’s sleep.
Kukaya is where children drink fresh clean water from a hand driven borehole pump.
Visit Kukaya Soon
Kukaya is where during the cold nights in June one can sit with relatives around a fire late into the night chatting about yesteryear while you bury sweet potatoes kandolo deep in the hot red ambers of the fire as a late night snack. Kukaya is the only place where the grave yard has all your relatives from bygone days are buried in one place. Kukaya has a special place in our hearts that we yearn to visit and dream about every day.
The reason this author has tremendous grief for all Zambians and Africans who don’t know kukaya is that this is what they are missing; it is simply put Heaven on Earth. So make an effort to visit kukaya soon especially during this holiday season.