{"id":7143,"date":"2021-12-09T13:01:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T13:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi"},"modified":"2021-12-09T16:37:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T16:37:05","slug":"rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi","title":{"rendered":"Rewriting the history of the Zambezi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>After independence, many African scholars of history faced a daunting and enormous task of rewriting the continent\u2019s correct history, as it has been marred and distorted by colonialism due to lack of documentation.<\/p>\n

Hotep (2003) says Europeans practised and perfected territorial, intellectual and mental colonialism to conquer and colonise the land, knowledge and minds of the indigenous peoples of Africa to disconnect Africans from their heritage and culture.<\/p>\n

In the case of the Zambezi region, its history is shrouded in political and tribal confrontational and argumentative discourses. The case of the Zambezi possesses more challenges, as the region is volatile.<\/p>\n

Archaeological evidence and early arrivals<\/b><\/p>\n

There is scanty research carried out to establish the archaeological status and the early inhabitants of the region. Notwithstanding the claims and pronouncements, historical sources indicate the early inhabitants of the Zambezi region, like in many parts of Southern Africa, were the San.<\/p>\n

However, to presuppose that by 500 BC there were Subiyas in the region in their current status is an overstatement. Whereas there were Black people during the early biblical times, Kruger (1984) mentions that during Sundano\u2019s rule, Subiyas were known as Batwa. The Luyanas equally acquired their name three centuries ago after settling in the Kola district of the DRC along the Lui River.<\/p>\n

Name terms of the region<\/b><\/p>\n

There have been many terms referring to the region known as Zambezi today. It was initially called Divanga before the Luyana kingdom, then Linyanti during the first Luyana Kingdom.<\/p>\n

It came to be known as Kololo Country when the Kololos from South Africa conquered the Luyanas during the Difaqane in the 1830s. The region resorted to the Luyana or Lozi Country after the defeat of the Kololos in 1864.<\/p>\n

After the Anglo-Germany Treaty or Heligoland Treaty of 1890, Zambezi became known as \u201cGermany Barotseland\u201d, \u201cGermany Zambezi Region\u201d, \u201cGermany Bechuanaland\u201d or just \u201cCaprivi Zipfel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Because of its shape and geography of being a long and narrow stretch of country, the Region was commonly called the Caprivi Strip or Caprivi\u2019s Finger.<\/p>\n

Two years after Namibian independence in 1992, it was named Caprivi Region and later Zambezi region in 2014. One wonders why the region has been tossed around and given different names at certain periods.<\/p>\n

Oral traditions perspective<\/b><\/p>\n

Njoroge and Bennaars (1986) caution that the spoken word is always difficult to capture and assess and becomes more incomprehensible if it was spoken in the distant past. Because much of accounts of lived experience in Africa were not recorded, many researchers rely on oral tradition.<\/p>\n

This is the challenge faced by many historians in the Zambezi region emanating from the fact that their ancestors\u2019 work and traditions were not recorded. Another contributing factor to this complicated situation is the lack of objectivity among the residents and scholars in the region.<\/p>\n

However, Alagoa (2005) maintains that oral tradition is a viable source and a history in its own right; and recognises the fact that the custodians of the traditions are both informants and historians.<\/p>\n

Eurocentric perspective<\/b><\/p>\n

Very scanty information is available, which was carried out by early explorers like David Livingstone and Jalla\u2019s account of the history of the Lozis in his book, Litaba za Sicaba sa Malozi (History of the Lozi Nation). This version is equally controversial as it is Eurocentric and could be a third-party version of the original invents in the region.<\/p>\n

Still, there were issues Jalla could not understand and cover at that time because of the infrastructure. Because of his Christian orientation and principles, Jalla tends to doubt the validity and accuracy of some mythology portrayed by the Lozis as authentic.<\/p>\n

This is quite strange as he deliberately ignores the mythologies of his European ancestors, like those of the Greeks, Jews and Romans. There are currently three groups of people in the region who are striving for a different status.<\/p>\n

The traditionalists<\/b><\/p>\n

These are elderly people from different ethnic groups who still maintain that the region has been part of the Luyana kingdom and should remain like that.<\/p>\n

The Caprivi group<\/b><\/p>\n

These are the first nationalists who left the region after the formation of the Caprivi African National Union (CANU) and sought support for the liberation struggle. This group strongly believes that the region should be an independent state on its own and harbours intellectuals of note who are hibernating behind this concept for their bellies.<\/p>\n

The secessionist group<\/b><\/p>\n

This group maintains that the region should be seceded from Namibia and become an independent state. On 2 August 1999, a secessionist attack was launched in Katima Mulilo at the Police Station, NBC building and Mpacha Airport, which culminated in the arbitrary arrest of many Mafwes. Despite the flight of its leaders into exile and the repatriation of some members from Dukwe Refugee Camp in Botswana, the group seems to be operating underground.<\/p>\n

Zambezia claim<\/b><\/p>\n

The debate concerning the Zambezi region has made another drastic turn when literature dug has shown that there was indeed a country known as Zambesia and the group wants nothing from the country. What is most compelling is David Livingstone\u2019s utterance, \u2018I was then entirely dependent on my 27 men, whom I might name Zambesians, for there were two Makololo only, while the rest consisted of Barotse, Batoka, Bashubia and two of the Ambonda\u2019 (Livingstone, 1857). The advantage is that these four groups hardly see eye to eye to reach one common goal.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. After independence, many African scholars of history faced a daunting and enormous task of rewriting the continent\u2019s correct history, as it has been marred and distorted by colonialism due to lack of documentation. Hotep (2003) says Europeans practised and perfected territorial, intellectual and mental colonialism to conquer and colonise the land, knowledge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233,3060,639],"class_list":["post-7143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia","tag-rewriting","tag-zambezi"],"yoast_head":"\nRewriting the history of the Zambezi - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After independence, many African scholars of history faced a daunting and enormous task of rewriting the continent\u2019s cor ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rewriting the history of the Zambezi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After independence, many African scholars of history faced a daunting and enormous task of rewriting the continent\u2019s cor ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-09T13:01:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-09T16:37:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2021\/12\/img-61b23095ebd1e.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"711\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rewriting the history of the Zambezi\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-09T13:01:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-09T16:37:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi\"},\"wordCount\":905,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2021\/12\/img-61b23095ebd1e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\",\"Rewriting\",\"Zambezi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/rewriting-the-history-of-the-zambezi\",\"name\":\"Rewriting the history of the Zambezi - 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