By CHARLES KACHIKOTI –
The full meaning of the Year of Jubilee is that a nation and its citizens should enter into a state of rest and renewal in all areas of life.
More than merely celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of independence or nationhood, individuals in that nation should forgive all their offenders and also receive forgiveness.
At the same time, the people and their Government should close the issues of the past and allow the economy, agriculture, natural environment, labour relations and governance to and embark on a totally new start.
Across the nation, debts should be forgiven from individual to individual; and loans should be forgiven by corporate bodies and by Government.
Cumbersome employment contracts should be terminated. Houses bought from certain families, within the past one year, and cities similarly acquired, should be redeemed and returned to the original owners.
The concept is taken from Leviticus 25 in the Old Testament, in which God intended that the nation of Israel observe the fiftieth anniversary with a year of complete rest, release, relief, remembrance, restoration, refreshing and renewal in all areas of personal and national life.
According to biblical records, the nation of Israel did not honour this instruction and failed to enter into God’s rest.
The Year of Jubilee is noticeable in this country by reason of the Christian Nation Declaration by the late Dr Frederick Chiluba in December 1991.
This concept is not totally alien: Zambians have had a feel of a Jubilee.
DEBT
By 2004, Zambia’s national debt was USD 7.1 billion. Twenty per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) went towards servicing that debt. Only three percent went to budgeting for education and health.
The debt forced Government to adopt harsh policies that led to closures of parastatals and loss of jobs.
The Catholic Church, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, Council of Churches in Zambia and other religious bodies teamed up under Jubilee Zambia 2000 to campaign for the cancellation of that USD 7.1 billion.
By 2006, after many years of international pressure from bodies like Oxfam and many others, Zambia’s debt was slashed by G8 group of nations to less than USD 1 billion.
Those individuals who followed these events felt a sense of relief, a sense of rest.
This means the Year of Jubilee should not be merely celebrated, but practical and meaningful economic relief should be given to people of Zambia by their Government. That is rest at national level.
IMPLEMENT
If Zambia were to implement this in the biblical spirit of the Year of Jubilee, there would be no agricultural activity in the fiftieth year of her existence as all the land would be required to lie fallow and renew itself.
God would by then have provided the kind of bumper harvest that would last the nation the next three years, such that the impact of agro inactivity would not be felt at all.
Looking back, it would appear that God—if Zambians were listening—gave us two unprecedented bumper harvests for the reason that the Year of Jubilee should have been a year of agricultural rest.
In the 2010-2011 agricultural season, Zambia recorded a bumper harvest of 3,020,380 metric tonnes of maize.
That represented an eight percent rise above the 2,795,483 metric tonnes recorded in the 2009-2010 agricultural season harvest.
A maize surplus of 1,661,626 metric tonnes was recorded, with a notable increase in production of maize, soya beans, cotton, Irish potatoes and tobacco.
Government last year announced an 11 per cent drop in maize production for the 2012-2013 season, the country being expected to achieve 2,532,800 metric tonnes.
In Leviticus 25, the instruction was that people in the nation of Israel celebrate the Year of Jubilee by doing the following things:
•Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all inhabitants;
• Allow the inhabitants to return each one to his possession and to his family;
• Leave the land fallow and not even reap whatever grows by itself;
• Avoid oppressing one another;
• Lend without demanding interest (usury);
• Release servants or slaves without oppressing them;
• Redeem lands and houses for the person who has fallen into poverty (his relatives were required to do this); and
• Avoid ill-treatment of foreigners among them.
The debt relief won by the Jubilee 2000 campaign, spearheaded notably by the late Cardinal
Medardo Mazombwe, was a practical event with a tangible impact on the national economy. In the same way, the celebration of Zambia’s Year of Jubilee should serve real economic packages to the people of Zambia.
RELIEF
While Zambia might not be in a position to implement wholesale the Jubilee celebration agenda of Leviticus 25 and related scriptures, Zambia is in a position to consider providing citizens material relief in a number of areas.
A few areas of contention which warrant meaningful forms of relief include income tax versus the controversial contribution of the mines to the Zambian economy; commercial banks’ lending rates; problems of the administration of justice and land ownership.
It is not funny that five individuals can legally hold title deeds to one strip of land and end up in court.
The land management system is so contaminated that some crooked elements play with people’s legitimate expectations and manipulate land issues.
In Zambia, it is doubly hard for an ordinary person to apply for land and secure it in a short period; but easier for a foreigner to do so in the blink of an eye.
The whole land management system is so oppressive that in spite of the limitless expanse of Zambia’s land, citizens are struggling for ownership as if there were no land left.
OWNERSHIP
In Numbers 33:50-56, God instructed the children of Israel to cross over the River Jordan and take ownership of the land of Canaan.
The seven major ethnic groups residing there practiced numerous evils as the very essence of their culture.
God wanted to terminate their trend of life: Child sacrifices, cannibalism, witchcraft, sex orgies and many other evils arising out of warped attitudes and mindsets.
After the children of Israel had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, they were crossing the River Jordan from homelessness into ownership; and from insecurity into security and dignity.
In 1964, God enabled the people of Northern Rhodesia to cross over into Zambia and own the land and its natural resources.
Today, the need for Zambians to cross over into true ownership and real opportunity is still glaring at different levels.
Misfortune, or the reversal of that crossing over, has happened so often that many Zambians
have ended up disinherited and unable to lay their hands on that entitlement that was going to change everything for their families.
Much of that misfortune has happened because of malice: There are retrenches and retirees who have languished for years on end because some important official has sat on (or eaten!) their benefits and built himself or herself a mansion.
This is where the Year of Jubilee should deal with attitudes that have veritably caused Zambia’s impoverishment – the process of becoming poor.
There is a widespread inability among Zambians to rejoice when another person runs into success and rejoices; the tendency is to work hard to pull down that person and rejoice in his calamity.
What about the ownership that should accrue to orphans?
Many individuals and institutions have increased the distress of widows and orphans, whom they have the power to uplift.
That is perilous: the Creator has said He will punish severely those who oppress such suffering souls (Exodus 22:22-24).
Not only that; they too deserve access to employment, entrepreneurship opportunities and land ownership.
CELEBRATION
The first requirement for our nation to celebrate the Jubilee is to proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants (Leviticus 25:10).
All the persons living in Zambia should be liberated from those realities that oppress, suppress and disable life.
Since Government is the forefront as the goal owner of this epochal celebration, our leaders should determine in what ways genuine liberties can be given in this period according to areas of common human need.
If we believe that all things are possible, we should not shy from this imperative but in 2014 be determined to practically stand and sing of a Zambia that is indeed proud and free.