The rise of students' lumpenism and the fall of students' intelligentsia: the historical role of UNZA students in the liberation struggle of southern Africa

In the 1970s and 80s it was fashionable for students at UNZA to read Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels' theory of class struggle and the revolution.

During those days, the term lumpen proletariat figured prominently in the students' vocabulary. It was used to describe the illiterate, backwards workers and peasants who were more interested in drinking and other pursuits and were unconscious of their role in the class struggle.

Over the years, the role which UNZA students played in fighting political oppression and bureaucratic intransigence has been narrated in some historical quarters. Students learning at higher institutions like UNZA provided a voice for a voiceless citizenry that could not speak on a number of issues effecting society.

In the early 1970s for instance, the University of Zambia Students’ Union (UNZASU) organised a march to the French Embassy in Lusaka, to protest against the French government’s decision to supply sophisticated military weapons, including Mirage fighter jets, to the apartheid regime of South Africa

Alick Nkhata, broadcaster, musician and social commentator

Alick Nkhata was born in 1922 in the Kasama District of Nothern Rhodesia now Zambia. He was a popular Zambian musician and broadcaster in the 1950s through to the mid-1970s. Much of the traditional Zambian music was preserved through his efforts through producing and recording.

During World War 2, he was stationed in Burma. It is here that he began his musical career shortly after returning to Northern Rhodesia as a field recording engineer for ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey in 1946.
Nkhata went on to work with the Central African Broadcasting System (CABS), where he oversaw the recording of traditional music and rose to the position of deputy director of broadcasting and director of Zambian cultural services.

He made his presence felt as a musician with the late-'1940s music quartet, which evolved into the larger Lusaka Radio Band which performed regularly on Zambian radio during the 1950s. He continued to balance his radio and music careers until 1974 when he retired to his farm in Mkushi to devote his attention to singing and writing new tunes.
Four years later, he fell victim to raids by South Rhodesian forces during a cross-border raid against Zimbabwean liberation fighters.

One of his best known songs for Alick Nkhata include "Shalapo" and Other Love Songs.

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)

To regulate or not to regulate social media in Zambia

ON Wednesday April 4, 2017 the Zambia Daily Mail had a headline ‘Lungu challenges ZICTA on social media’. The paper reported that President Edgar Lungu said the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) must regulate the tele-communication space so that it can monitor social media which is being abused by some Zambians.
“Some people are using social media, especially Facebook, to write letters insinuating that it is government officials issuing certain instructions which Government is not aware of,” the President said.
This is not the first time such concerns are being raised on the alleged cases of malicious use of social media in Zambia.


Thus the concerns by President Lungu are just part of the many other concerns also expressed by many ordinary citizens in Zambia.It is a fact that social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google+ etc have in recent years attracted millions of users.
A s s u c h , d i f f e r e n t organisations and individuals are now using such platforms for target-oriented advertising, marketing including political campaigns and mobilisation.
Social media networks have attracted worldwide attention because of their potential to reach millions of users.However, the potential of social media networks, such as Facebook, is often misused by malicious users who extract sensitive private information of users who are unaware of such acts.
One of the most common malicious uses of Facebook is the use of fake names/ profiles, where malicious users present themselves in profiles impersonating fictitious or real persons.


According to Facebook, 5 percent to 6 percent of registered Facebook accounts are fake accounts.
Facebook clearly states in their legal terms that users are not allowed to provide fake information and that they must keep their information up to date (Legal Terms 2012).
In recent years, there has been an increase in mobile phone subscription in many parts of the world.
Particularly in Zambia, ZICTA indicates that 12,017,034 people have mobile phone subscription representing a penetration rate of 74.93 percent.Thus, today an ordinary citizen in Zambia has access to a mobile phone and internet.This, therefore, means that access to social media platforms has even been made easier than ever before.


According to ZICTA, Zambia has a mobile Internet users’ subscription of 5,156,365 representing 32.15 percent penetration rate.Further the Internet World Stats (2017) estimates that 1,400,000 people in Zambia are Facebook subscribers as at June, 2016, representing 8.1 percent penetration rate. It is, thus, evident that a good proportion of the population in Zambia has access to Facebook.
However, the bigges t challenge with social media is that it lacks moderation on who should filter the content before it is posted for viewing to the general public.


Thus the lack of guidelines on how one uses social media platforms such as Facebook do not exist.
This is why such platforms have been prone to abuse by many unscrupulous users with fake identities.
ZICTA is an ICT Regulatory body responsible for regulating the ICT sector in Zambia.
It falls under the Ministry of Transport and Communications and derives its mandate from the three Acts; the Postal Services Act No. 22 of 2009, Electronic Communications and Transactions Act No. 21 and the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Act No. 15 of 2009 to regulate ICTs, postal and courier services in Zambia.


Therefore, as a regulatory body, ZICTA regulates; internet service providers (ISPs), postal and courier service providers; mobile network operators and electronic and communications equipment dealers in Zambia.Section 6 (2) (f) of the ICT Act empowers the Authority to regulate and promote the respective rights, interests and obligations of consumers, and purchasers of ICT/ telecommunications services.
This means that ZICTA is mandated to regulate any users of social media sites such as Facebook as they are part of ICT consumers in Zambia.
For instance, part of ZICTA’s policy on consumer protection states that “a consumer shall not post, transmit or submit through the service provider, any material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others.Any material which is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of public or private rights, vulgar, obscene or otherwise objectionable, which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or violate the law or constitute spamming on the internet is also prohibited.”

Therefore, although ZICTA provides for such measures to curb the abuse and misuse of ICT products, including social media platforms, there is need to further review and strengthen laws or legislation in the country which deal with cyber crimes and offences.
Further, as the world continues to move towards the use of digital technology in this competitive global knowledge economy, the country should too, move towards investing in research in the sustainable and productive usage of digital technology and social media platforms such as Facebook.
Further, ZICTA, as a regulatory body of the ICT sector in Zambia, should create a lot of capacity in public sensitisation on the provision of guidance on codes of acceptable behaviour in the use of ICTs and social media tools, especially among young people, such as the training of pupils in schools and students on the responsible uses of social media.

African universities and the African renaissance

On 27 February, 2017 former South African President Thabo Mbeki during his maiden address as Chancellor of the University of South Africa UNISA said the African universities have a special responsibility to strive to occupy the front trenches in terms of producing the ideas and knowledge, cadres, and activists who will drive Africa’s effort to realize the “African Renaissance,”

Former President Mbeki said the African Renaissance means “eradicating the legacy of centuries, and perhaps a millennium, of a demeaning European perception of Africa and Africans, as well as the stubborn material and subjective consequences of slavery, imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism.” He added that “as Africans we must define ourselves according to the image of ourselves, exercising our inalienable right to self-determination.”

Although the idea of the African Renaissance is not new to the African continent, it is the most prominent initiative by African leaders such as former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika, former President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade including the former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak to come out of Africa in recent times. Besides being a proposal to harness Africa’s potential, the concept of the African Renaissance is also an effort to remove the sources of conflict in the continent, restore its self-esteem and turn it into a zone of economic prosperity, peace and stability.

Thus the approval in July 2001 by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) of the New Partnership for Africa's Development NEPAD and a commitment soon afterwards by the world’s richest countries (G8) to launch a detailed development plan for Africa can justly be regarded as a major boost for Former South African President Thabo Mbeki’s vision and other African leaders of an “African Renaissance”. In essence, the concept of the African Renaissance is a challenge for Africans to engage in debate of redefining and understanding themselves: who we are, where we are coming from, and where we are going, our way of life, education, state of mind in this increasingly globalised world and understanding of the world consistent and compatible with a clear African identity.

However, in the face of the African Renaissance is the reality of the African dilemma. For instance, more than fifty years after the process of decolonization, the majority of Africans still remain chained in chuckles of poverty, ignorance and disease. The majority of the African population remains ill educated and living in squalor. Barrell (2000) observes that the continent’s economic and political marginalization in the world economy also appear to be “more extreme than at any stage since the 1960s”.  In fact, Former President Mbeki himself acknowledged this African dilemma at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000, when he noted that Africa’s current poor image is justified due to bad things happening on the continent such as coups d’état etc.

For the African Renaissance to be successful however, there should be essential elements in place. According to Former President Mbeki, these elements include the “economic recovery of the African continent as a whole, the establishment of political democracy on the continent, the need to break neo-colonial relations between Africa and the world’s economic powers, the mobilization of the people of Africa to take their destiny in their own hands and thus preventing the continent being seen as a place for the attainment of the geo-political and strategic interests of the world’s most powerful countries, and the need for fast development and people-driven and people-centered economic growth and economic development aimed at meeting the basic needs of the people” (Mbeki, 1999: 212).

The role of African Universities in attaining the African Renaissance

Thus in his inaugural address as Chancellor of UNISA, former President Mbeki emphasized on the need for the investment in higher education and universities as centers of knowledge and ideas to transform society. But in order to do this, African universities need to represent the African experience, ideas and find its resources from within the African culture. African universities need to liberate African people as well as the international community from inhuman dehumanizing ideas and practices. African universities should aim to provide Africans with ideas, methods and habits of mind which they need to investigate their societies. The African university needs to be relevant and responsive to the needs of the African people from which it draws its identity. The African university needs to respect and acknowledge the culture of the people it is serving.

Thus given its function as universities, African universities must imbue their learners and communities with an African conscious of innovation, knowledge, science, ideas and technology that maximize the positive expression of fundamental humanity and ability to contribute to the growth and development of African community of which the university is a member. To achieve this challenge, the African university must redefine the concept of African-ness, recollect its roots of knowledge production and ideas and localize its curricula to African needs and aspirations. Therefore, in order to attain the African Renaissance, African universities have a critical role to produce graduates who are both critical and creative, encourage students to be thinkers and doers rather than mere accumulators of facts and receivers of knowledge. This is undoubtedly the special role African Universities should play in order to achieve the African Renaissance that former President Mbeki talked about during his inaugural address as Chancellor of UNISA.