Halt all Kuomboka preparations until our house is in order – Barotse Royal Establishment advised
Hosting the Kuomboka ceremony amidst the current confusion and tension will do more harm than good for the Kingdom of Barotseland, governance and cultural expert Muyendekwa Sishekano has advised.
“While the ceremony has been the pinnacle of the Barotse Kingdom in terms of marketing its rich and diverse cultural heritage, it would be counterproductive if the ceremony were to be held in the present ‘charged’ atmosphere. It is no longer a secret that the citizens of the kingdom are frustrated with their monarch and royal establishment for their apparent reluctance in supporting the speedy implementation of the unanimous 27th March 2012 Barotse National Council independence resolutions,” Muyendekwa has observed.
The Litunga (King) of Barotseland, Lubosi Imwiko II, is currently embattled amidst accusations of gross incompetence and lack of personal support for the citizens’ calls for complete independence from the oppressive Zambian state that opted to annex the Barotse territory in 1969 rather than honour the 1964 pre-independence deal which would give shared sovereignty of the two previously separate British protectorates of Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia-come-Zambia. Since then, calls for honoring of the defunct agreement have attracted heavy reprisals from the Zambian state under archaic treason laws, with many Barotse people killed, arrested and tortured or left to languish in Zambian jails without fair trial or no trial at all.
The Kuomboka ceremony has not taken place in recent years, and although many official reasons have been advanced for its non-hosting, ranging from low water levels in the Zambezi River to royal family bereavements, it may seem that the real reason is because of the political transition Barotseland is currently undergoing.
In March 2012, Barotseland officially accepted Zambia’s 1969 unilateral termination of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964, essentially declaring independence and since then it has been very difficult to stage the ceremony which would amount to Zambian interference in its national activities.
To counter growing calls for Barotseland self-determination, the Zambian state has increased its human rights abuses on the people and citizens of Barotseland, arresting and imprisoning hundreds of citizens and their leaders putting the contested region in the perpetual state of emergency, with thousands of security personal roaming the territory.
As such, many Barotse like Muyendekwa are calling for the complete halting of all fundraising ventures for the hosting of the Kuomboka until the royal establishment puts their house in order because although the ceremony has not successfully taken place lately, fundraising activities for its hosting have always taken place.
“What I am saying is that we should ban the hosting of Kuomboka fundraising functions as this is synonymous to ‘fraud’ due to lack of accountability on the monies realized in past years. We should also call upon all individuals and well wishers, especially the Business community, to stop donating towards any purported Kuomboka ceremony related activities until we sort our ‘house’ and restore order back home.
“Organizing it now amidst this tension and all these reports of fraud in BRE will only give us a bad name as a people. Our tradition will not suffer as irreparably for this brief period than it will if we organized it badly,” concluded Muyendekwa in a written submission to Barotseland Post.