•THE author in a chance meeting with Dr Kaunda at State House in 2005

By GUNSTON CHOLA –

HIDDEN 16 kilometres east off Tuta Road is Myeya, alias Lulimala, Serenje’s centre for ChaChaCha, a hot spot for Zambia’s independence struggle in the now Chitambo Ddistrict.
The concrete poster indicating the turning is almost hidden and motorists diving on the Serenje-Samfya road or Tuta, as it is known, often bypass it.
But those travelling to the area will stop at the nearby lay-by at Machendeto to ask for directions. They will be surprised to observe they missed the turning by 100 metres.
The poster prominently shows Gibson School, Ministry of Education, 16 kilometres, and a recent addition of the Gibson Rural Health Centre constructed in 2003.
Myeya is a stretch of dry land spanning 10 kilometres along the sprawling Lulimala swamp which links to Bangweulu, Luapula, to the west, islands Ncheta and Mbo to the north and Chiundaponde across to the east. Before 1958 it had only three major villages- Gibson, Eleni and Miyambo and later Kachelenga and Kanyanta.?Gibson is the offshoot of Miyambo.
These villages were protected by a historical dyke or known locally as Lwimbila almost six metres deep and four metres wide that controlled flooding of the area. Little is known about its construction and by who.
As children Lwimbila provided a pastime for us.?Today, Myeya is a bustling area and has given birth to local migration to other areas such as Katonga (amapala) and Mpelembe (kalukunga).
Nature facilitated the expansion.?In 1957, Bangweulu experienced major flooding which devastated Kasoma-Lunga, Matongo and many islands.
Like known historical dispersals the floods led the people to seek drier lands and Myeya seemed a more likely destination. By 1958, hundreds of hungry and deprived families arrived in canoes seeking new settlement.?In a short period the area hitherto of four villages was transformed.
Chief Kafinda (Chitambo) amiably welcomed the newcomers and 10 more villages of Waiteka, Chaiula, Mose, David, Peni, Rice, Singi, Zebediah, Mwananshiku and Silaswere added to the register.?Myeya had now grown.
The immigrants brought with them new ideas and enriched entertainment of the famous Kalela. Kalela dancing contests were thus introduced and powerfully competed against formidable teams from Chiundaponde and Bangweulu including Samfya.
Competitions in Kalela included styles, songs and innovations. A team that repeats a song and is limited on styles is defeated. Queens, immaculately dressed and going through the lines of dancers wiping off their sweat occasionally dusting their shoes, presided over each team.
Myeya had Ms Mumba Chila, princely and pretty with very long hair she neatly brushed who moved in the line with a mirror.?A king was overall and Myeya had my father Mr. Misheck Chola Mwabu and a Mr Sauti. From start, all the kings were seated on raised platforms covered in mosquito nets.
When a team is defeated, the covering is taken off. These were lavish times when chickens dreaded having grown and beers (Katubi) flowed ceaselessly.
Highlights in Kalela were small singing groups of three or four and a powerful conductor. Myeya had Mulila Changa, later became mad.
Legend says he flirted with a dreaded witch doctor Kalando’s wife.The group of Mulila Changa, Quarter Pin, because of his hunch back, and Sitaraka, was unbeatable.They attracted accolades from first Republican President Dr Kenneth Kaunda before whom they performed.
The growth in population also brought in its challenges, education being one of them. The Local Education Authority (LEA) asked Katonga to construct a school but Katonga hesitated. But Myeya grasped the challenge and thus in August 1960 Gibson School was opened with Mr Cheyeka Davison Kachenga, transferred from Mapepela, as the first head.
As the streams grew, another teacher Mr Zechariah Kunda, proud to be called Chumbu Munshyololwa was posted to handle standards one and two. Within two years of its infancy, Gibson School began to build a reputation of a power house in sport, especially soccer competing on an even keel with established Mpelembe and Chipundu schools.
It is a fact that as an enclave, Myeya was denied of politics. But this was not to persist. The coming of the school and the purchase of a Bedford lorry by my father in April 1958 which provided transport to people to sell their fish on the Copperbelt, cracked open the nut.
Hitherto travellers from Luapula brought news of political activities and exploits of Mr Mukuka Nkoloso whose reputation was legend.?Fishmongers, who could now easily travel to and from the Copperbelt encountered politics at Masala Market.
They learned about the freedom struggle and brought songs about independence. They experienced colour bar where they could only buy from Chifuchangulube, and other Indian shops in now Chisokone road,and would not venture into the town centre reserved for whites only.
Truly within a short period a United National Independence Party (UNIP) branch was formed in the area and my father’s shop was meeting place.The chairmanship momentarily went to Mr Gibson Mukonka but in no time changed to my father who carried the reputation as a fearless man recalling his encounter with a messenger whose arm he broke in a scuffle over poll tax.
My father had also an advantage of having travelled widely in Northern Rhodesia taking fishermen to Kafue and Luangwa. People liked him for his kindness and assistance given to the needy. As a spiritual leader, he was also highly respected and politically astute.
I remember hanging in the shop a cartoon of Mobutu being offered a sack of dollars to destabilise Congo, whose meaning I clasped later. Sharing the border with Congo we could hear reverberations of boom boom echoes of what we learned as heavy gun fire (iminshinga) during the bloody civil war.
Shortly in the 1960s, a delegation arrived in the area of leading UNIP leaders among them Mr John Chisata, Mr Mateo Kakumbi and Mr John Mwanakatwe to explain the independence struggle and urging the people in civil disobedience such as burning of fitupas (passes).
The message spread like bush fire, so the saying goes, and the news of the revolution reached Serenje Boma. Known informers had travelled to Serenje to report to authorities that people from Myeya had burned the bridges at Mulembo, Mpulumba, Njelele and Chitikilo.
To Dr Angel, then District Commissioner, the situation was frightening and needed instant justice.?Dr Angel summoned the dreaded mobile unit from Kamfinsa, known for their cruelty led by Mr Mataka and the informer, as there could only be one who knew the location and identifed important landmarks which were given protection, among them my father’s shop who at the time was away in Chipundu.
The serene of the night was broken by eerie cries of the people obviously in deep anguish punctuated by gunfire and burning houses.
At the school, which was less than a kilometre from the village, we made a bon fire. It became the refuge of the people who could manage to escape the dragnet and run while the majority chose the bush. Men, women and children were brutalised and many women were raped and some gang raped.
Young and vibrant men and women were rounded up as Mr Mataka’s men passed through the villages going all the way to the sprawling fishing camp of Chipyapya, almost 30 kilometres away.
As Police canted them, they sang freedom songs which incensed the mobile unit further.?Bushiku bumo, naile kuli ba Kaunda?Nasangile ba lelila balelila balelila?Nalibepwishe, chinshi mulelila?Ndelila nde lila bumba lwandi lyashala kunuma?Kafikenipo kafekenipo Kaunda wesu mwende umutende?Tatwa kalalila ukatumona fwe bumbalyobe?Nangu ba pange nangu pange mafunde ya boma funde yabo yantu tatufwaya?Kano tukabuke ichichima na mwisa achilika?(One day we met Mr Kaunda and he was crying.
And we asked him why are you crying? He answered I am crying because my people have fallen behind. We answered him go in peace you will not see us cry until we have cracked their bad laws and we attain our independence).
More than 60 people were taken to Serenje for screening. Prominent among those taken were my uncles the William brothers Blackson and Mulibo, Ba Titimo and his brother Kabanga and Ba Matelya. Some were released after a few days and more than 30 were jailed for three months for riotous behaviour.
My father as chairman who had travelled to Chipundu at the time reported himself to Serenje where he was severely interrogated for three weeks by Dr Angel.
He narrated to us how he was being whisked from the cell in the middle of the night and driven into the forest with Dr Angel setting his big dogs on him to try to subdue him into revealing alleged saboteurs.
Asked to reveal the names of people who had burned the bridges, he countered how if this was possible can the convoy of mobile unit reach the area since there was no other road. He was released after three weeks.
Like many areas involved in the struggle Myeya has received no acknowledgement. In his 27 years as President, Dr Kaunda did not even bother to visit the area.
Dr Fredrick Chiluba stopped by in the Tuta Road en route from Luapula and Mr Rupiah Banda visited the area only to drum up support for Solomon Musonda in the 2009 by-election.
And that is the way the area shall be remembered in this 50th year of Zambia’s Golden Jubilee of independence, a real struggle for recognition.
The people who were beaten, children who were brutalised and women who bear the memories of rape are still alive and asking:??Was it worth it?
The question was partly answered in 2001 election when I was elected Member of Parliament for Chitambo. Grown up in the area and among the first intake at Gibson school, bearing in mind this historical factor, I set off to change the depressing situation.
In the first meeting with the community, welcoming a son of the soil, I asked for their priority. The clinic was number one advancing the difficulties encountered going to Chipundu Clinic almost 30kilometres away or Mpelembe being under construction of similar distance, while those who can afford can travel to Kasenga in Samfya to seek medication.
The school was secondary followed by the canal and the road.??The message was loud and clear and I took it as a challenge. Zamsif answered the challenge and within a period of two years of hard work, the Gibson Rural Health Centre standing today was constructed and commissioned. Money was equally secured for the renovation of the school, while the Ministry of Transport and Communication provided K20 million for the resurfacing of the canal and the road was worked on.
The most active women club Tafisa nga ameno also benefited with a K2 million grant from the Ministry of Community Development.
Based on the above, it was, therefore, comical when former President Rupiah Banda, addressing a political rally at the school ground, wrongly and ignorantly attributed the rural health centre and the renovation of the school to late MP Nazim Hamir and challenged Musonda to work even harder once elected. They both left no record of development.
Clearly, the fight for independence was waged to change the status quo and end Myeya’s isolation. This can be achieved through construction of a bituminous road to replace the current one facilitated by Mr Misheck Chola Mwabu designed for his lorry in 1958. Only this will reassure the new generation that their forefathers’ struggle was not in vain.
*THE author is a former MP for Chitambo (2001-2006) and grew up in Myeya. He witnessed the new arrivals from Kasoma Lunga and the cruelty and aggression of the Mobile Unit on innocent people based on a lies.