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The Lengends of the Royal Graves Of
BarotselandBy Yuyi Libakeni
Lishekandinde
Malalo a �Mafa Muku a Mukola�(1)
Godwin Akabiwa Mbikusita Lewanika was Litunga of Barotseland from 1968 to 1977. Shortly before his death in 1977, Mbikusita organised a regatta on the Zambezi River near what is today his sitino. It was at this regatta that Mbikusita formally announced to his Kuta his chosen resting grounds. The spot chosen was an uninihabited mound known hitherto as Lumbo, high ground, the creation of Inyambo, the second Litunga. He then set down to draw the perimeter of his grave, limbwata, as is custom.
Lishekandinde is derived from two Siluyana words: ku sheka, to laugh, and ndinde, a garden or field. Lishekandinde would therefore mean a place or field that makes one laugh. Or as Mbikusita's alter ego put it to me in silozi, "nto ye sehiwa ki sicaba", something despised or ridiculed by the public. But why laugh at a field? Perhaps it is an admirable piece. If this be his idea then Mbikusita would have been drawing parallels with his father�s �mba ni kelako�, I wish I could be there. Lewanika is said to have so remarked in 1884 about the place that was to be his sitino. A laugh can also express disdain, scorn or satisfaction. One laughs at something considered useless. It might even be a hitherto forsaken field, condemned as unproductive, but when put to the plough has yielded seven fold! It is the latter inference that is thought to have been at the back of Mbikusita�s mind in coining the name for his resting home. Coining' is used here advisedly, there is place of similar name ,in Senanga.
Mbikusita had fought a war of identity throughout his life. Seventeen years after his death, the debate (2) lingers on : was Lewanika his putative father? Those who pursue this line of reasoning point to the name Akabiwa, meaning a person cannot be given away. But who gave away who? The truth, elders say, is that the name was given in response to the wild rumours that Lewanika had given away his child, mwana kabiwa, a child is never given away, Lewanika responded. Akabiwa is Mbikusita�s formal given name, the latter being a sobriquet, the kicking horse (mbi ku sita o kulaha mufelo nakuwana - when the kicking horse punts you it is death). As a baby Mbikusita was reportedly notorious for kicking about and around hence the name in memory of a son of In�alamwa-wa-Mukola, progenitor of the present ruling family.
It is interesting that even as late as 1961 the African Mail newspaper of Lusaka reported that Mbikusita was forced to fend off a virulent attack on him by disclosing that it was the then Litunga Imwiko who in 1947 had in a letter addressed him as Lewanika and munyan�a ka, my brother, thereby recognising Mbikusita as Lewanika�s son. And in 1948 the then new Litunga Mwanawina III wrote in the same fashion inviting Mbikusita to be his private secretary, a proposal that raised disquiet from the provincial administration in Mongu. But when the Kuta at Lealuyi asked Malozi in Lusaka and Kitwe to propose a private Secretary for the Litunga, both groups overwhelmingly voted for Mbikusita!
Nor was the issue of paternity the only problem. In 1937 along with others (including Kaluwe, son of the then Litunga Yeta III) Mbikusita was expelled from Lealuyi and banished from Mongu-Lealuyi District, for allegedly planning a rebellion against Yeta III - the plot was apparently hatched during the Litunga�s absence, in London, with Mbikusita!.
In addition the local administration was hostile to Mbikusita. According to records at the National Archives of Zambia in 1945 when the then Barotse Native Government (BNG) resolved to lift the banning order, the Provincial Commissioner, Mongu, did not mince his words in his minute to the Chief Secretary in Lusaka: �this man (i.e. Mbikusita) is a thoroughly undesirable person � he should only be permitted to return on the understanding he is not to hold any office or employment under the Native Government.�
It is clear that throughout the years, Mbikusita was rejected and not accepted by his own royals and yet in defiance of all this he acceded to the highest throne, receiving the full support of the Lozi people and he, in turn, uniting them like never before. Indeed had the then President Kenneth Kaunda at anytime detected any dissatisfaction among the Lozi against Litunga Mbikusita, his bete noire, he would have swiftly taken the opportunity to de-recognise Mbikusita; after all it took Kaunda three years to recognise him as Litunga.
Here was a man long rejected, ostracised but at last becoming a uniting Litunga. �Can anyone now laugh about my true identity, I am on the throne, I have done it!� one can imagine Mbikusita whispering to himself, and like King Lear boasting he was prince every inch. Lishekandinde mu Ukolo ta malalo a Mbikusita wa Mukola, meaning deep in the Barotse flood plain stands Lishekandinde, Mbikusita�s burial village.
Mbikusita�s grave keeper, n�omboti, is named In�omba. N�omba is the male lead lechwe - always alert to danger while the rest of the herd are busy feeding or resting. It keeps order - mukunyi wa mbulwa n�omba ku enda niku shuwila - a herd without a n�omba (leader) is always in a state of disarray. Mwanawina III had fought a pitched battle against encroachments by Kaunda, did Mbikusita see himself as the man who provided leadership to the Lozi when they were under siege? (3) And yet, n�omba also means �the last born� - n�omba lu kombola mapumo - one that cleans the womb, after him no more. Again that defiant message - I am Lewanika�s last son on the throne, whence comes such another! Moreover the Lozi believe that not only does n�omba clean the womb but he also gets all the remnants of their parent�s wisdom. In fact it is believed that parents deliberately reserve their best brains for imparting to the last child so that he is better endowed to fend for himself in their absence - the first born is expected to mature long before the parents expire, not so for the last . And so he who picks residual wisdom is better endowed!
The headman at Lishekandinde is known as Ikanjiwa. The name is best known as the president of Namaenya local court and senior steward at the former Nawinda chietainancy, Balovale (Zambezi). But why did Mbikusita choose it for his ngambela? The cue might lie in the Siluyana saying �kanjiwa samba konji mu si nyomeka mu kanwa� (4) - I have not said anything myself, all this talk is just forcing words down my throat! For years Mbikusita was newsmaker as Junior Minister in the Federal Government. Following the dissolution of the Federation Mbikusita returned to his cradle becoming Induna Natamoyo, the second position after Ngambela, before he became Litunga. Throughout his time at Lealuyi, Mbikusita remained �silent� in spite of provocations. Kaunda waylaid him at every corner but Mbikusita kept his cool, sadder but wiser.
Notes:
(1) Mbikusita signed off using this phrase (extolling Mukola his village as the place where rats die in their thousands) in some of his letters to his old teacher, the late Y W Mupatu, grandfather of the writer. He probably got the idea from The Pied Piper Of Hamelin:
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats
Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats.....
Families by tens and dozens......
Followed the Piper for their lives.....
Until they came to the river Weser,
Wherein all plunged and perished!
(2) It is tempting to digress into this paternity debate, but I do so here merely to raise points which appear to me to merit clarification. At Mbikusita�s birth, a messenger bearing this good news was despatched by Lewanika to his eldest son, Yeta III then chief at Mwandi, Sesheke (this messenger crossed with Yeta�s own messenger bearing the message of the birth of his own son, Kaluwe). The royal naming ceremony normally takes place around 4 years of age, before that a cover up name is given, usually an awkward one depicting the child as ugly, sickly etc. It is said that when news of Mbikusita's birth was delivered Lewanika who was knitting a fishing net, sandi, as if by reflex ordered that the baby be named Sandi. He was also named Sikopo - one with a concave face - before the formal name of Akabiwa. Mbikusita was given Mubanga Village, which had belonged to his earlier namesake. Why would Lewanika go to this length if Mbikusita was not his own?
(3) This feeling is best epitomised in the popular Simbunda song � Ni ka chayisa phone ya ku ya England� talking of Mbikusita inviting the UK to help sort out the interferences in his Kingdom from the UNIP government of Kaunda.
(4) I came across this saying in a copy of Mbikusita�s unpublished manuscript generously made available to me by one informant. Writing immediately following explusion from Lealuyi it is probable that Mbikusita was reflecting on the rebellion allegations against him, and events of later life must have reminded him.
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