CHITIMUKULU SUCCESSION: WHY BEMBAS REJECT MEDDLING

In the last two weeks, there have been stories stating that one opposition party is planning to remove Chitimukulu Henry Kanyanta Sosala if they ever come into power. When the late President Michael Chilufya Sata had a standoff with the Bemba Royal Establ

By EXPENDITO CHIPASHA CHIPALO

I HAVE referred to “Chitimukulu Successions” in the title to this article because President Michael Chilufya Sata is not the first leader to interfere in the traditional rulers’ affairs in the then Northern Rhodesia and in present day Zambia. I also want all those concerned to know from the onset that this article is not aimed at President Sata but it is for the benefit of all Zambians who may aspire to power today and in future. The article is also meant to educate all those who disrespect the intelligence of the Bemba people through funny editorials and weird thinking.

To start with, I would like to introduce myself so that the readers can appreciate how and why I acquired the information and knowledge that I am going to share in this article. I belong to the royal household of Chief Chipalo of Luwingu and I’m a great grandson of Chitimukulu Kanyanta I who reigned as King of the Bemba people at the difficult and critical time of colonisation of North Eastern Rhodesia as that part of Zambia was called at that time.

It is important that I give an explanation of the Bemba royal family lineage before discussing the succession wrangles and interferences. There has always been a lot of misunderstanding of the Bemba royal family where many people think that each of the Bemba chiefs has his own lineage and his or her successors are chosen from that family.

The true position is that the Bembas have a queen from whom all the members of the royal family descend. The Bemba queen Chanda Mukulu and her two sisters Mukuka Mfumu and Mushimba bear the King Chitimukulu and his brothers and nephews who have been the rightful successors of the supreme Bemba throne for centuries. No person who is not the child of the queen and the two princesses has ever ascended to the throne of Chitimukulu.

The children of the queen as well as those of her sisters ascend to the thrones of Nkula, Mwamba, Nkolemfumu, Chikwanda, Shimumbi and Mpepo before they eventually become Chitimukulu. The children of the King and those of his brothers and nephews become the chiefs Makasa, Munkonge, Luchembe,

Shi Bwalya Kapila, Mpolokoso, Chipalo, Tungati, Mubanga, Mukwikile, Sunkutu, Nkweto, Mwaba wa Nkulungwe, Chibandaa, Mucheleka, Njoko, Kasonka, Misengo, Chimba, Kabwibwi and Sokontwe.

Viewed from the Bemba queen’s perspective, her children become the kings, then her grandchildren become the chiefs, then her great grandchildren become the village headmen. Thus from one woman and her sisters you have over a million royals controlling the Bemba kingdom. That is where the title of Chanda Mukulu (Chanda the great one) comes from. She has a huge number of descendants who reign over Ulubemba (a great land).

Perhaps it may also be important to explain the transient nature of Bemba names. In the Bemba name culture, a person’s name can change as one goes through the stages of life. This transient name culture is even more intricate in the Bemba royal family. When a prince is born, he will be known by the name given by his parents. Then when he ascends to the throne, he will take on the name of his throne. For example, Chitimukulu Kanyanta’s given name was Bwalya Chisupa. When he became Mpepo, he was only called Mpepo. Then when he moved on to become Mwamba (he never occupied the position of Nkolemfumu); his other names were completely forgotten and he was only known as Mwamba and many of his children bore Mwamba as their last name like my late grandfather Chief Chipalo (who reigned from 1926 – 1978) whose given name was Sampa Mwamba.

Then when the same Bwalya Chisupa became Chitimukulu, (aile yanga triumphal name) as Kanyanta Manga (ukunyanta is to step or trample and amanga is witchcraft – and the new name translated as “the one who trampled on witchcraft”). He thus became known as Chitimukulu Kanyanta and his given name was consigned to history.

He was a popular Chitimukulu and when he died many children were named Kanyanta. You will not find any %embas going by that name before Kanyanta’s reign as Chitimukulu. Kanyanta was also known as Mfupa yakene NunaNa the persistent fighter because he fought many battles from within and from outside the tribe

This transient name culture also affects the last names of the children especially those from the Bemba royal family. The living example that would best illustrate this intricate culture is that of GBM’s names and those of his first cousins. Why is he Nnown as Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba and not Geoffrey Bwalya Munkonge or Geoffrey Bwalya Mpolokoso. The reason is that GBM was born before his father Muma Mwamba became Chief Mpolokoso and later Chief Munkonge. GBM’s father Muma Mwamba was the son of Mubanga Chisupa who reigned as Chief Mwamba when his elder brother Bwalya Chisupa reigned as Chitimukulu Kanyanta. Mwamba Mubanga Chisupa died on his way to succeed his elder brother Kanyanta as Chitimukulu.

On the other hand, GBM’s first cousins are Nnown as Munkonges and yet they are the children of Chilekwa Mwamba who was the elder brother of Muma Mwamba the father of GBM. The reason is that Chilekwa Mwamba’s children were born and grew up when he was reigning as Chief Munkonge.

Among the commoners, a person’s name changes as one progresses through the stages of life. One may be born as Chipasha Chipalo and once he has a child, they will start calling him by denoting his first child¶s name. If the child’s name is Monde, the man becomes Bashi Monde and the woman becomes Bana Monde. Then when they have a grandchild, the name changes to denote the grandchild such as Bashikulu Nsansa and Banakulu Nsansa.

Bemba names can also be expressive revealing the character of a person, history of a place and so on. For example, the present day Luwingu district was originally known as Chulung’oma. But at some point in history, it became a dangerous place because of man-eating lions and the name of the place was changed to Lubingu Lwa Nsase Uwatumpa Lwamocha the sparNing Àame which burns the foolish one). A village near the Boma in Luwingu was called Pakabula Ndume (the village without brothers) because three sisters founded the village. Chief Chipalo’s last village was Inda ya enda umuno ikasuka aikakumana no munwe (the lice that moves about will one day meet the fingers that will crash it to death), Chief Munkonge named his palace Bulanda (sadness in memory of his father). Many Bemba names always carry a meaning or inference.

For individuals, they may also be called by names which express their liking or a life changing experience that they may have gone through. The names can be very funny and strange such as Kambe Chipuba (let me be a fool) Lumanuna (the man who keeps on marrying), Shiwalunona (very promiscuous man) Fikansa (argumentative man), Lunkonena (persistent man), Mpilikisha (controversial man), Mupinga Nsofu (he handles great problems or issues), Ba Fyabwafya (controversial or troublesome person), Munshipingulwa (a despot, tyrant or oppressor unadvisable person) and many, many more all of which denote people’s characters.

It is for this reason that members of the Bemba royal family may have different surnames (in fact Bembas do not really have surnames but last names) although they are from the same father and mother and descendants of one queen and her two sisters. To further emphasise this point, children of Chitimukulu Kanyanta, Bwalya Chisupa and his brothers Mwamba Mubanga Chisupa and Nkolemfumu Kangwa Chisupa should have carried their grandfather’s name Chisupa as their surname. But they all have different surnames reÀecting the status of their fathers at the time the children were born.

Having given that background which illustrates the oneness of the Bemba royal family let me now proceed to the core issue of this article and give a brief history of some succession disputes and outside interferences. Bembas have had succession disputes in the past and they have developed their own institutions which are responsible and capable of resolving such disputes.

One good example from living memory is the dispute between Chitimukulu Kanyanta and his cousin, or in Bemba culture his younger brother, Nkula Bwalya Changala. (Bwalya Changala’s mother Mukuka Mfumu was the younger sister of Kanyanta’s mother Chandamuklu Nakasafya). When their uncle Chitimukulu Ponde Chisowa died in 1925, both Kanyanta and Bwalya Changala claimed the right to succeed him.

The Bemba Supreme Court presided over the matter and resolved the dispute, without government interference, in favour of Kanyanta. Nkula Bwalya Changala then vowed that the Ichinga clan (the second most important province of Bemba territory which is present day Chinsali) royals will never succeed as Chitimukulus ever again.

But later the family came together and once the dispute was resolved, harmony prevailed in the Bemba kingdom. Some of Nkula Bwalya Changala’s children even went on to live with Chitimukulu Kanyanta’s children many of whom at that time had become chiefs in different parts of the Bemba Kingdom.

And when Chitimukulu Kanyanta died, he was succeeded by a member of the Ichinga lineage Nkula Musungu who was the younger brother of Bwalya Changala Chitmukulu Musungu was also known as Petelo Chaponta or Ba Fyabwafya because of his controversial character. He was the first ChitimuNulu , saw in my life and he was one of the Zambian chiefs that the late rebel leader of Katanga province in the Congo DR Moise Tshombe gave gifts of vehicles as he tried to fulfill his dream of rebuilding the Luba-Lunda Kingdom

Chitoshi Lusankula, of the Lungu people in Mpolokoso district. Lusannkula succeeded Mbokolo as Chief Chitoshi in the early - 1950s and was perceived by the t colonial government to be a supporter t of the freedom struggle and was deposed in 1958. The a colonial government then forcibly e installed his brother Chisonshi f as Chief Chitoshi. Lusankula . was banished from his chiefdom p and my grandfather Chief Chipalo a offered to look after him in dee fiance of the colonial authorities with the support of Chitimuklu p Musungu. d Chief Chipalo ordered ten villages s in his chiefdom to take care s of Chief Chitoshi Lusankula. d When the country attained independence n in 1964, the Lungu t people demanded that Lusankula e should be given back his throne n and the imposter, Chisonshi who n was installed by the colonial government was removed. Chisonshi , tried to fight his elder brother for s the throne but his end was horrible. d He died a horrible death o together with his advisors. His a body split into pieces and so did t the bodies of his advisors.

. In the post independence error, President Kenneth David Kaunda a interfered in the succession of the a Chitimukulu. When Chitimukulu f Bwembya died in the early eighties, e his younger brother, Senior Chief Nkula Mutale Chitabanta e was the next in line to succeed t the throne. Dr. Kaunda differed t with Senior Chief Nkula because h the chief was suspected to have d joined the opposition United l Progressive Party (UPP) led by s Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe. Senior Chief Nkula was detained e under the state of emergency h regulations without trial and degazzetted. d Nkula Chitabanta’s detention e paved the way for the late Chitimukulu a Mutale Chitapankwa II

Lakement Ng’andu to ascend to e the throne. I must explicitly explain here that Bashi Lubemba accepted the enthronement of p Lakement Ng’andu as Chitimukulu h because he was already lined up to succeed from the day h he was born. Mutale Chitapankwa y II’s lineage was not in any . doubt because his mother was the sister of Chanda Mukulu. At this t point, I would like readers to note s that despite Mutale Chitabanta’s e detention and de-gazzetting, the ll Bembas continued to recognise o him as Senior Chief Nkula and e looked after him for eight years

until the government re-gazzetted t him as Senior Chief Nkula a once more. This is a very critical point: once the Bembas have enthroned a Chief and put him f through their sacred rituals, they n will not install another successor d until he dies. The enthronement a of another chief while a reigning r. Chitimukulu is alive has only e happened once in the long history d of the Bemba Kingdom. In the late nineteenth century, Chitimukulu f Chinchinta Susula was deposed on grounds of severe . cruelty. He used to amputate and r poke out the eyes of offenders and the Bembas could not stomach o such inhuman punishment.

Susula went to live in exile with y Chief Nsokolo of the Mambwe people, and was succeeded by f Chileshe Chepela. However, when Susula died, the Bembas collected his body and gave it the respect of a Chitimukulu and he was buried in the same way they bury all Chitimukulus. Note once again that once you have a Bemba chief who has seen Ba Benye, he remains a chief until death.

There is therefore evidence and fact that once the Bashi Lubemba have installed a Chitimukulu, they cannot remove him when he is still alive. One would have to commit a very serious crime against the sacred rituals and traditions of the Bemba to be removed from the Chitimukulu throne once he has been initiated. It is therefore important for all Zambians, any of our governments in power or to come in power to note that the centuries old customs and traditions cannot allow the Bembas to succumb to interference as is the case in the current stand off between the government and the Bemba Royal establishment. It is not a question of truancy or disobedience of government by any individual, but the observance of the Bembas’ cultural heritage which must be paramount and respected. The United Nations (ducation Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Charter gives very clear guidelines on the preservation and respect of cultural heritage.

There are four Paramount Chiefs in Zambia, namely, Chitimukulu, Gawa Undi, Litunga and Mpezeni and the government has only always interfered in the succession of the Chitimukulu. The Bemba people are now wondering why this should be the case. There have been quarrels in many chiefdoms in this country and the government has never interfered. The tribesmen have been left to sort their differences either through traditional institutions or through the courts of law. In the case of the Bembas, they have their own Supreme Court which handles their internal affairs and it is definitely unfair to strangle that system and impose an outsider as a Chitimukulu. If forced, the Bembas will keep quiet and wait for the right moment to remove the imposter. After all, governments do not outlive traditions like in the example of Chitoshi Lusankula given. Only last year, the Bembas removed one man from the throne of Senior Chief Shimumbi after the death of the Chitimukulu who had forced his appointment.

As the readers can see, it is not without reason and fact that the Bembas cannot and will not succumb to government interference in their traditions. It is not also without reason and fact that it is imprudent for the government to interfere in traditions and customs that have been observed and practiced for centuries by a free people who solemnly pledged their loyalty to their customary norms as well as the government of their country.

Let us respect history, let us respect heritage, let peace always prevail.

Copyright: Expendito C

Chipalo 2014 ecchipalo@yahoo.co.uk mobile: +260 977 87515, +260 955 873515