The rise of the Lumpa Church of Alice Lenshina

The Lumpa Church was one of the most famous religious movements in Central Africa which was founded by Alice Lenshina Mulenga who lived in the Chinsali district of Zambia.

The Lumpa Church was built at Kasoma Village called Sion-Zion in 1958 which gradually became an independent church.

The new Lumpa Church rapidly gained more members than the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland. It had a membership of 150 000 members in the northern and eastern provinces of Northern Rhodesia.

However, during the struggle for political independence in the 1960s, Lenshina and the Lumpa Church openly challenged UNIP in the involvement of its members in the political struggle and mobilization.

This resulted in the decline of UNIP membership. UNIP therefore saw the Lumpa Church as a rival and threat to their political survival. Violent conflicts between the two groups started.

The UNIP members burnt houses of Lenshina’s followers.

In return, Lenshina followers fought back and there were many deaths as the Lumpa Church burnt UNIP cadres’ houses and fought the UNIP activists.

Alice Lenshina was arrested and the Lumpa Church banned. She died in 1978.

Stephen Andrea Mpashi; the influence of oral narrative traditions on today's Zambian literary society

Stephen Andrea Mpashi was born on 3rd December 1920 in Kasama in Northern Rhodesia now Zambia. He grew up on the copperbelt where his career as a writer and social commentator emerged.

Many of Mpashi's writings has left an impact in today's Zambian literary society. Some of Mpashi's most widely held works include;

Betty Kaunda; wife of the President of the Republic of Zambia

Cekesoni aingila ubusoja 9 editions published between 1950 and 1975 in Bemba

Mnzako akapsa ndebvu

Abapatili bafika ku baBemba 8 editions published between 1956 and 1968.

Pano calo published between 1956 and 1967

Umucinshi  published between 1945 and 1968.

Pio na Vera 3 editions published between 1968 and 1996 

Uwakwensho bushiku  4 editions published between 1951 and 1955

Icibemba na mano yaciko 4 editions published between 1963 and 1966

Akatabo kabaice first published in 1960

Uwauma nafyala first published in 1974

Tusobolele icibemba first published in 1978

The first translation of the Bible from English to vernacular, remembering Paul Bwembya Mushindo

Rev Paul Bwembya Mushindo was born in 1896. Both his mother and father were members of the Bemba royal family.

Rev Mushindo was a teacher, politician, author, and minister of the Church of Scotland. He had seemingly endless energy combining all his demanding duties with the mammoth task of translating the Bible from English to Ichibemba, which took 53 years.

The translation of the Bible which was led by Reverend Robert McMinn started in 1913 at Mpandala and was only completed in 1966 at Lubwa.

Like many Zambians who went to school in his time, Rev Mushindo graduated as a teacher and taught at the Church of Scotland school at Lubwa Mission near Chinsali Boma and at Shiwa Ng’andu where he met Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, a colonial settler who genuinely and steadfastly supported African advancement and independence.

It is incredible that Rev Mushindo had time to write books despite his heavy workloads. He wrote three Bemba titles, Imilumbe Nenshimi (Riddles and Folktales), Amapinda Mulyashi (Proverbs in Conversations), and Ulubuto Mumfifi (Light in Darkness) and two English titles, A Short History of the Bemba and the Life of A Zambian Evangelist: the Reminiscences of Reverend Paul Bwembya Mushindo.

(Pic: Rev Mushindo in a jacket with his family)