Zambia’s journey to Chinese colonization and slavery

So much has been said past weeks about a possible takeover of our great country, Zambia by the Chinese, an impossible thing to imagine, there has been the issue of Chinese policemen, then Chinese nationals seen driving state owned Zesco vehicles, could this be a sign that we are already bought as a people, and that we are headed for slavery and potential re-colonization? Well let’s break this down, and to do this we will have to take a peek into both African Slave trade and colonization.

I will first deal with the results of both slavery and colonization before talking about how we got to that point.

By the 1600 and 1700s, black Africans were being sold by their own chiefs who signed secret self beneficial agreements with white people in exchange for clothes, spices, mints, food and other ornaments, then shipped to the Americas and Carribeans to work in plantations against their consent, and the effect was seen, a reduction of male presence which meant less security for kingdoms, it also meant less manpower to develop kingdoms hence the backwardness of most parts of our country. By mid 1900, most of Africa with the exception of Ethiopia was under Western rule, what that meant was Africans had no say in the running of their own land, they were ruled with an iron fist, mistreated and regarded as lesser human beings, they were only good for labour without social protection. They were treated to a separate legal, health, educational and economic system; separate schools, hospitals, and marketing places, they were not allowed to be in certain places and could only purchase things from shop windows without entry.

Question is how did we reach this point?

Well, the seeming impossible as with the with the Chinese happened;
Mid 1800s we had explorers, David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley in the name of slavery abolition, the London missionary society visitors, Francois Coillard and his French Missionary group in Barotseland, all seemingly coming with good intentions of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and leading people to heaven, but within forty years the visitors had duped our chiefs into signing concessions for protection, bought land cheaply and resold it to fellow white people, an increase in their number meant control and boom the entire country was under foreign rule; Locals were exploited and their natural resources taken away from their land without them benefiting – it is this that our forefathers fought against and finally won on 24th October 1964 (independence), something our present government is selling and losing at a very fast pace.

The mistakes of our chiefs way back is exactly the mistake our President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu and his PF government are making, welcoming the Chinese, signing loan deals that seem to benefit them only and not the masses. The Chinese in turn are buying every piece of land they can and inviting other Chinese, an increase in their number plus the huge loans the government owes their government has meant control of our land; they mistreat the local people who work for them, pay them less and we have even had cases of them shooting and maiming our own people, yet none is arrested or deported because our leaders are bound by what they owe in loans, because they are beneficiaries of the secret deals signed, a case similar to the 1800 concessions that lead to our country be in total control of foreigners.

Ladies and gentlemen, it may seem impossible to have our people enslaved and our country re-colonized by the Chinese but we are headed that way, remember the first slave trade and colonization of Africa started in similar fashion and it didn’t take long before our people were trampled upon and treated in the worst form by the colonizers.

We have only one country and can’t afford to lose it when we won it back just 54 years ago, now seems like there won’t be total control of it by the Chinese but soon we will back to being mistreated, possibly not being allowed to own anything.

We can all rise with one voice and say no to Chinese invasion, put our government to task so they can openly declare the deals signed and how they will come out of them. Zambia is bigger than President Lungu and his ministers.

Mbanga, Irvine Ilukui.
Fayetteville, Arkansas.
United States of America.