Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement

As part of the independence constitutional arrangements for Northern Rhodesia, in May 1964 in London, Kenneth David Kaunda, then Prime Minister at the head of the Self Government of Northern Rhodesia signed the Barotseland Agreement with the Litunga of the Lozi people Sir Mwanawina Lewanika III. The Barotseland Agreement of 1964 recognised the Litunga of Barotseland (Bulozi) as the principal local authority for the government and administration of Barotseland, with powers to make laws of Barotseland in respect to matters such as land, natural resources and taxation. The Barotseland Agreement 1964 was abrogated and cancelled by the Zambian Republican Government (GRZ) through the Constitutional (Amendment) Act of October 1969. Some groups among the Lozi (activists) have been lobbying for the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 for over four decades. Some extreme elements have even called for secession. The Barotseland Agreement activists include among others the Movement of the Restoration of Barotseland Agreement (MOREBA), the Barotse Patriotic Front (BPF) and Linyunga Ndambo. On 23rd October 2010 and 14th January 2011, the activists were involved in violent disturbances, which rocked Mongu and surrounding areas. The 14th January riots resulted in fatalities, serious injuries, arrests and detentions. The state came down heavily on the activists who were arrested. Twenty-four detainees were charged with treason for seeking to secede Barotseland, now Western Province, from the Republic of Zambia, while others were charged with riotous behaviour or conduct likely to cause a breach of peace. The nation was shocked by the violence and deaths. Concerned nationals, civic and church organizations, scholars, lawyers, political leaders and analysts from all corners of the country and in the diaspora raised issues and concerns: What was the basis of the Litunga’s power? Was secession a viable alternative? And what geographical area was to be excised from Zambia? etc. etc. This paper attempts to throw more light on the deep historical roots of the Barotseland Agreement 1964, going as far back as the 1900 Concessions/Treaties which were negotiated and signed by Lubosi Lewanika ruler of the Lozi, the British South Africa Chartered Company (BSA Co.) and the British Government

A History of the Lozi People to 1900.

This study seeks to throw new light on Lozi history partly by exploiting new sources, written and oral, and partly by asking new questions. A thorough examination of the Lozi's concept of their own history reveals the existence of complex and detailed variants of oral Tradition, whose character is fully discussed in this thesis. These different variants of tradition can be used to illuminate many of the crucial problems of Lozi history. In addition this thesis draws upon a variety of written sources, some of them hitherto unused by historians. It seeks to combine the written and oral and oral material to produce a coherent interpretation of Lozi history, and at the same time to explore the character and reliability of each type of evidence by comparing and contrasting, as well as by supplementing the one with the other. The main emphasis of this thesis is on the attempt to establish the nature lines of development of the Lozi traditional structure and institutions from time of the founding of the present Lozi dynasty, probably in the mid-seventeenth century. It also endeavours to show how external factors affected this structure, and the extent to which such external factors were themselves exploited by the Lozi, and especially by king Lewanika. The arrival of Mbunda immigrants at the end of the eighteenth century of the Makololo invaders in about 1840, and of the Europeans whether as missionaries, traders, empire builders or administrators, are the main external factors considered. In the past , writers on Lozi history have tended to treat these external factors factors as distinot from the main internal development of the structure of the Lozi state. In this thesis the survival of the Lozi state into the twentieth century is examined and explained in terms of the interaction of internal and external factors in Bulozi

Bulozi under the Luyana Kings : Political Evolution and State Formation in Pre-Colonial Zambia

Bulozi under the Luyana Kings is a study of the Lozi Kingdom in Western Zambia in the pre-colonial period. The study traces the origins of the Luyana and the Lozi people; the founding of the Luyana Central Kingship and the invasion by the Makololo in the mid-nineteenth century; and ends with the study of the Lozi response to European intrusion at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Bulozi under the Luyana Kings was first published in 1973 by Longman, London. After wide consultations at home and abroad, the book is now republished in its original form