Zambia--Culture Smart! by Andrew Loryman

Author:Andrew Loryman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kuperard
Published: 2018-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

chapter four

MAKING FRIENDS

Zambians are sociable. A particular feature of the friendship patterns that exist today are the relationships between the once-warring Bemba and Ngoni; the Lozi and the Tonga and Ila; and the Lozi and the Ndebele of Zimbabwe.

These relationships or cousinships are very important, no more so than between the Bemba and the Ngoni. These tribal relationships came into being after the establishment of colonial rule, when young people migrated to seek work in towns and found themselves far away from their homelands. Thrown together, they were in situations where it was found to be beneficial to let old tribal animosities and rancor go, and establish what are called “joking relationships.” This banter between groups who were formerly hostile to each other now provides for functional collaboration between them.

Weddings and funerals are the best places to see this tribal interplay, though President Kenneth Kaunda, the first president of the republic, did referee a Bemba v. Ngoni soccer match in 2002! When President Michael Sata, who was a Bemba, died in October 2014, thousands of his Ngoni “cousins” came out to do mgubo at the official mourning to celebrate his life. This practice involves sprinkling white powder (maize meal, talcum powder, or crushed lime) on anyone thought to be Bemba. This particular mgubo involved a female Ngoni Member of Parliament who sprinkled powder on a police officer on duty at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre, where the body viewing was taking place. All good-humored fun, which President Sata would have approved of—he had commented that he could not declare Chipata to be a city because easterners (Ngonis) were backward!

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