Traditional Authorities & Levy's Legacy, 2nd Edition

Another piece from last year on Levy's traditional legacy, focusing on his role with respect to traditional ceremonies :

Levy leaves legacy on ceremonies, Boyd Phiri, Sunday Times, Commentary

A nation without culture is like a tree without roots. So goes an old adage. In Zambia, as elsewhere in the world culture has since time immemorial played an important role in defining the identity of the people.

However, in every country there is a wide range of practices among different ethnic groups that define culture.

Among these practices are traditional ceremonies. Apart from them being avenues of enhancing cultural identity, traditional ceremonies also provide a platform for traditional leaders to interact with their subjects and civic leaders.

It is for this reason that President Mwanawasa attached great importance to traditional ceremonies in the country.

In many respects the President had been at the forefront of ensuring support for traditional ceremonies among the 73 tribes in the country.

He considered traditional ceremonies as one of the ways of attracting foreign exchange through tourism.

Since his coming into power in 2002, President Mwanawasa had every year attended traditional ceremonies around the country and he was always considerate to send representatives whenever he did not find time to attend.

Among the 66 traditional ceremonies he always found time to attend are Nc’wala of the Ngoni people in Chipata, Kuomboka of the Lozi in Mongu, Mutomboko of the Lunda in Kawambwa and Lwiindi of the Tonga in Monze.

Others are Ukusefya Pa Ng’wena of the Bemba people in Mungwi, Kulamba of the Chewa in Katete and Kulamba Kubwalo of the Lenje people in Chibombo.

His last visit to a traditional ceremony was in February this year when he officiated at the Nc’wala ceremony of the Ngoni people at Mtenguleni near Chipata.

Speaking during the ceremony President Mwanawasa said culture presented a unique and irreplaceable body of values as shown through oral traditions, languages and other forms of expressions.

He expressed sadness that many children of today did not have the knowledge and understanding of their mother or father tongues because of being deprived the right to culture.

He believed that this literally rendered children strangers to their own cultural upbringing, customs and beliefs.

He also said that with UNESCO declaring 2008 as the International Year of Languages, there was need for people to embrace culture that is humankind’s principal of communication.

At last year’s Kulamba ceremony of the Chewa in Katete, President Mwanawasa hosted Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi. The three countries host Chewa people whose Paramount chief is Gawa Undi based in Zambia.

To many people, this showed that President Mwanawasa and his counterparts recognised the fact that traditional ceremonies played an important role in regional integration.

Speaking during a banquet in honour of President Mutharika that time, President Mwanawasa hoped that Malawi and Mozambique would continue to develop ties through culture and tourism.

In more ways than one, President Mwanawasa believed that traditional ceremonies safeguarded people’s heritage that included praise, poetry, cultural dances and counsel from royal highnesses.

One other significant development he brought in order to promote traditional ceremonies was the re-introduction of the House of Chiefs. This exhibited co-operation between him and the chiefs, who had felt sidelined in the past.

As if this were not enough, early this year President Mwanawasa created a loan facility to buy motor vehicles for chiefs in the country.

In a speech read by Minister of Defence, George Mpombo, at the Kuomboka ceremony in Mongu, President Mwanawasa said his government had facilitated the loan to enable chiefs be mobile so that they could visit and monitor development programmes in their areas.

“I wish to take this opportunity to inform you that apart from the current guidance of culture and governance matters being addressed by the House of Chiefs, Government is actively addressing the welfare of our chiefs,” he said.

President Mwanawasa had also pledged government’s financial support for one traditional ceremony in each of the nine provinces per year.

Traditional ceremonies have tourism potential and it is for this reason that President Mwanawasa also encouraged the private sector to promote traditional ceremonies.

As part of its corporate social responsibility, Celtel Zambia (now Zain), took heed of
the President’s call by supporting traditional ceremonies by way of building arenas where there was none.

The company also compiled all traditional ceremonies into a booklet for purposes of preserving culture.

Other companies also have been rendering their financial support for logistics to
ensure success of these traditional ceremonies.

However, President Mwanawasa will be remembered for improving the status of traditional ceremonies and it was his desire to see to it that traditional ceremonies helped to enhance national development through tourism.