British handled Barotse better than Zambia – M’membe
By Thandizo Banda
SOCIALIST Party (SP) president Dr Fred M’membe says independent Zambia has failed where the British colonial government succeeded in terms of respect and preservation of the Barotse governance system.
In a statement issued yesterday, Dr M’membe said it was painful to see how Zambia had treated the Barotse issue.
“The British, in pursuit of administrative efficiency, recognised the sophistication and depth of the Barotse system and did not destroy it but used its structures to govern Northern Rhodesia through indirect rule,” he said.
Dr M’membe said the administrative maturity of the Barotse state was so profound that it became the blueprint for colonial governance, inspiring the Native Authority Ordinance No. 9 of 1936 which was applied to other ethnic groups.
“To avoid disrupting the original system, he said, the colonial administration enacted a parallel law – the Barotse Native Authority Ordinance No. 25 of 1936 and the Barotse Native Courts Ordinance No. 26 of 1936 – which codified the Kuta under the Litunga, formalising the Ngambela and Indunas and granting them exclusive administrative, financial and judicial jurisdiction,” Dr M’membe said.
Dr M’membe said even the 1911 Northern Rhodesia Order-in-Council protected Barotseland by ensuring no land could be alienated without the Litunga’s consent.
He said it was sad that Zambia had failed to show the same institutional maturity the colonial system respected.
Dr M’membe said successive post-colonial administrations systematically sought to marginalise, undermine and destroy the Barotse system through sweeping laws, notably the Local Government Act of 1965 and the Local Courts Act of 1966, which repealed the Barotse ordinances and imposed a hyper-centralised bureaucratic framework.
He said while the Socialist Party’s critique of colonialism remains absolute, as the colonisers used the system to minimise costs and exploit resources, the tragedy of the post-colonial state is its failure to build an inclusive and decentralised republic.
He said national unity cannot be forged through erasure or forced dismantling of traditional systems that have held societies together for centuries.
Dr M’membe called for a radical departure from the destructive approach and for a governance model that respects historical treaties, values traditional administrative wisdom and fosters unity built on voluntary solidarity and not state coercion.
