COPPERBELT: THE EMERGENCE OF A TRIBE
The law administered in the local courts is wholly unwritten. The cases are heard in terms of the customary law of the tribes. And claims are brought before the courts and are argued by the litigants themselves in terms of the customary law of the tribes. The evidence from these courts shows that not only do the people on the copper-belt regulate much of their social behavior in terms of tribal norms and values, but that in this sphere they also respect the authority of court justices who deal in customary law.
In 1990 I wanted to find out the divorce rate on the copper-belt since it has a higher percentage of inter-tribal marriages in comparison to other provinces. I obtained divorce statistics from the Director of Local Courts for 1970 and 1980. The copper-belt Province had the highest number of divorce cases heard, but had few divorces granted, while Western Province had the highest number of divorces granted. I later learned that the court justices on the copper-belt took into account tribal incompatibility when dealing with divorces. In Bemba culture a person does not only marry a woman or a man, but marries the entire family and hence that is why when a man wants to divorce his wife, the family has the right to object or to tell the man to divorce his wife. And so when a Bemba woman gets married to another tribesman, the tribal incom- patibility would arise on food management since the Bemba housewife would be preparing excess food with plenty of relish (ukutebeta) especially when the relatives of the husband visit. And that would be deemed by the husband to be wasteful. And the court justices would explain the different cultures and try to reconcile them.
The Township Economic Philosophy.
Let us now look at how the Chiluba regime comprising of the urbanists equipped with compound mentality interpreted their economic philosophy. They introduced the liberation of the economy. The promise of the privatization programme was claimed to be a constant rise in the living standards and an end to the vicious business circles. The liberation of the economy was sold to us as a science that would enable our country to achieve the ageless ambition and an ever-ascending abundance and from these triumphs would flow a more caring government and a greater individual liberty.
However, this kind of Zam- bia’s indigenous economic philosophy that was being proclaimed in such extravagant metaphor is the “township or compound’’ economy. This is the type of economic philosophy, we usually witness in townships where if a person loses his job, he then begins to sell his household goods in order to meet his daily needs, until eventually when he has nothing to sell is driven into destitution. And everybody knows how the regime put up a grand sale of our national assets and how the proceeds were squandered in unexplained circumstances.
An American author, Alex Osborn in Applied Imagination wrote: “Urban life tends to sap imaginative strength in all except the few who work in the arts and in creative phases of business and science. Most of those in routine jobs practice ingenuity far less than those who work on farms. One proof that a non-urban background is more likely to foster creativity is found in the disproportionate preponderance of country-born leaders among those listed in Who’s Who. A committee of educators recently conducted a five-year survey to determine the geographical origin and the economic backgrounds of those who had made good as creative scientists. In interpreting the committee’s findings, Newsweek editorially commented: ‘’The conclusion is that creative research is a grassroots business….it thrives where memories of frontier days still linger’.’’ (ibid. p. 47)
According to Social Watch Report 2002, Dr. Kaunda left the poverty rate at 56 percent, while Dr. Chiluba after ten years in power left the poverty rate at 80 percent. What is the use of education if it cannot work towards the betterment of our society. This bankruptcy of vision was affirmed by Chiluba himself and it was he himself who had headed a team of the supposed “top-cream technocrats’’ in his government. And it was good that Dr. Chiluba himself touched on the subject that we had expected the geniuses and intellectuals of his regime to accomplish when they stepped into the corridors of power in 1991.
Dr. Chiluba said, “A case has been argued that the Tigers of East Asia such as Malaysia, Singapole and Taiwan with insufficient resources at independence have moved from third world to first world. Singapore did not have half of Zambia’s resources, but developed so quickly that you would wonder if this tiger was walking or flying. Zambia continues to stagnant such that not much can be talked about in terms of development.’’ ( The Post 24th October 2004) (emphasis mine).
Epilogue
In conclusion, I believe that through inter-tribal marriages, the new generation on the copper-belt is becoming more aware of wider political loyalties than that of the tribe and hence “tribalism’’ will soon be no longer a political force. However, in the emergent social system of the copper-belt, we also have to face the challenge that tribal factor does intrude into situations where, on my analysis, it would seem to have no place. Thus we have strange paradox of ‘’tribalism’’ re-appearing in situations in which a man’s tribal affiliations would appear to be completely irrelevant. This may likely be to the fact that the copper-belt is a single field composed of different sets of social relations. We must note as well that each set enjoys a certain degree of autonomy, so that the total field appears to be characterized by contradictions and discontinuity. And the greatest problem usually emerges from those who have never lived on the copper-belt and are not therefore exposed to another social system other than their own. In Bemba it is said, “Umwana ashenda atasha nyina ukunaya’’ (i.e., lack of exposure limits a person’s vision.’’
I also earnestly appeal to you youngsters, born in a non-tribal community to come on board and help to chart out the future of this nation because the current burn’t out generation seems to be living in almost Stone Age conditions where there is total lack of future-mindedness, i.e., the ability to see the present from the vantage point of the future. And where there is future-mindedness there is hope, and where there is hope, there is religion, for what is religion, but institutionalized dreams of paradise or bright future? This is the freedom to feel unencumbered by the past and more emotionally attached to things to come i.e., living the life that is always becoming and never being. We lack this mental framework and this explains why we are always desperately looking outside ourselves for ideas and visions about the future of our nation.
GOD BLESS
I believe that through inter-tribal marriages, the new generation on the copper-belt is becoming more aware of wider political loyalties than that of the tribe and hence “tribalism’’ will soon be no longer a political force.