• The Zambian population cannot grow. The students, nurses, air force pilots, medical doctors, including the labour to construct roads, all cannot exist without proper customs about sex, courtship, marriage and especially the family in the context of Zambian society.
By MWIZENGE TEMBO –
THE most exciting day in mother Zambia as a brand new nation must have been the 24th day of October 1964.
The colonial British Union Jack flag was removed and the new flag of independent Zambia was hoisted in all official government offices and schools.
There were mass celebrations of utter joy and pride among the 3.5 million of the whole nation of Zambia at the time.
The vast majority of 77 per cent or 2.6 million Zambians lived in traditional rural areas in villages among the 72 languages and tribes which include the Lozi, Lovale, Lunda, Tonga, Bemba, Kaonde, Tumbuka, Chewa, Nsenga, Ngoni, Lamba, Lenje and Soli, many others.
At independence in 1964, the young President Kenneth Kaunda and that first equally young cabinet: Vice President- Reuben Kamanga; Ministry Foreign Affairs – Simon Kapwepwe; Minister of Housing and Social Development – Dingiswayo Banda; Minister of Labour and Mines – Justin Chimba; Minister of Home Affairs- Mainza Chona, Minister of Information Broadcasting – Peter Matoka, Ministry Agriculture- Elijah Mudenda; Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources – Simon Kalulu; Ministry of Communication Industry – Nalumino Mundia; Ministry of Education- John Mwanakatwe, Ministry of Health – Munukayumbwa Sipalo, Ministry of Justice-James Skinner, Ministry of Finance – Arthur Wina, Ministry of Local Government – Sikota Wina, Ministry of Transport and Works – Grey Zulu, Ministry of State for Defense – Lewis Changufu, Ministry of State for Cabinet and Civil Affairs – Aaron Milner were faced with a major challenge which would have easily brought the young nation of Zambia to its knees or total disintegration and failure.
Most of these problems were left behind deliberately by the British colonialist policies of oppression, exploitations and racial contempt of Zambians and Africans.
The country needed the urgent development of massive infrastructure in virtually all phases of the economy: social, economic and political.
What President Kaunda, the top leadership, and the Zambian people would discover is that the British colonialists had left them with almost nothing with which to run the newly independent country.
Zambia had only 100 Zambians with university degrees, about 1,500 Zambians with Form five or Grade 12 school certificates, and only 6,000 with junior or two years secondary education. How could the leadership and the country develop?
During the last 50 years, what are some of the major changes that have occurred in Zambian culture and technology?
There are so many changes that include the number of medical doctors, hospitals, clinics, schools, university graduates, teachers, tarred roads, bridges, population, languages, types of music, transportation, food, agriculture, communication and broadcasting, political leadership and parties, regional politics, gender and many others.
Most readers can read reports, consult the internet, and get statistics about some of the stunning advances that as a society we have made and not so well in some areas, such as unemployment, poverty, gender equality and violence, including the gap between the rich and the poor, that we still need to work hard and improve on as a nation. This article cannot address all these topics.
This article discusses some of the major changes that have occurred in the Zambian society in sex, courtship, marriage and the family.
Sex and Courtship
The major reason why sex, courtship, marriage and the family, as topics, are discussed in this article is that these are the major foundations for building the Zambian society or any other. The Zambian population cannot grow. The students, nurses, air force pilots, medical doctors, including the labour to construct roads, all cannot exist without proper customs about sex, courtship, marriage and especially the family in the context of Zambian society.
Fifty years ago, most boys and girls were raised in the 72 traditional ethnic-tribal groups that were spread in constellation of villages all over the rural areas. Girls at an early age were raised to learn how to fetch water, cook food and also learn the biology of their bodies through customs and traditions from older women.
The ChiNamwali and Chisungu girl initiation ceremonies were the apex of the girls’ training and socialisation to become a woman, to be married, be a wife, and later on to have children and be a responsible member of the family and village.
Courtship before marriage had some very interesting rituals which are described in Yizenge Chondoka’s book: Traditional Marriages in Zambia (1988). Christian churches and boarding schools taught values that encouraged boys and girls to have sex after marriage. Sex before marriage or let alone pregnancy were a great taboo that was a source of shame for the girl’s entire family.
Similarly, before colonialism, boys and men were raised to be warriors and defenders of the village, ethnic-tribal group and the chiefdom. The boys and men were raised to be fishermen, hunters, farmers, builders of grass huts and houses, and were guided by older men in their training later to marry, have children and be responsible defenders of the community.
Courtship was enjoyed by young men and women and it was always in preparation for marriage. Boys and men could not have sex with a girl outside marriage. Any such behaviour of having sex out of marriage and the subsequent scandal of pregnancy out of wed lock was a source of tremendous shame and social grief in the family for the young people involved.
However, as young women and men began to migrate to boarding schools for education and migrated to cities and towns seeking jobs to lead independent lives, Westernisation was increasingly being accepted, the traditional parental and kinship control of their sex lives and general control weakened. While as letters seeking personal advice to “Dear Josephine” column in the Times of Zambia were seeking advice on how to prevent sex before marriage in the 1960s.
By 1975, the sexual revolution that had hit the Western and particularly the American society in the 1960s finally arrived in Zambia. Alcohol in bars, night clubs, parties where single young beautiful women who lived in flats arrived alone in large groups were wide spread especially along the line of rail in Lusaka and on the Copperbelt.
Sex and pregnancy outside marriage and abortions became common and single motherhood became more acceptable.
The sexual revolution and changes that have happened since the mid-1970s have had a tremendous impact on our culture. Although the sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, syphilis and such traditional names as kaswende, and cinzonono may have been rampant in the 1970s, these did not compare to HIV/AIDS which was very deadly and has taken the lives of many Zambians.
The sexual culture has changed so much that there are virtually few or no Zambians who have reckless sex, with or without the use of a condom today. Random and risky sexual relationships may be more restrained today than they were in the mid-1970s because engaging in such behaviour is dangerous.
