Muyanda and the cancer of tribalism

Muyanda and the cancer of tribalism
Written by Editor

Opposition UPND has done the right thing to distance itself from its member of parliament Raphael Muyanda’s statement full of tribal sentiments. However, this repudiation by UPND of Muyanda’s tribalism may not be enough. Former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi once characterised tribalism as a cancer. Being a cancer, Muyanda’s tribalism cannot be cured by UPND distancing itself from his statements. What is needed is a total repudiation of Muyanda and what he stands for. Cancer needs serious chemotherapy and in some cases amputations to avoid its spread.
Tribalism is truly a cancer, an evil that we have to overcome. For the nation to live, tribalism must be wiped out. No one can wipe out a tribe but tribalism should be eradicated because it doesn’t represent the interests of the tribe.

After almost 45 years of independence and nationhood, it is very difficult to understand why a member of parliament like Muyanda can still be imbued with tribal consciousness. It is difficult to understand why such a rotten tribalist can continue to be a member of a national opposition political party. It is equally difficult to understand why a tribalist like Muyanda can continue to sit in our country’s national parliament and make laws for the whole nation. A member of parliament in this country does not only represent the constituency that elected him. He is a representative of all the people because he doesn’t only make laws for his constituents, but for the whole nation.

It is now easy to understand why Muyanda behaves the way he does and why he is always defending Rupiah Banda. They are birds of the same feather: they are both tribalists and regionalists. It will be very difficult for many Zambians to forget Rupiah’s last year’s instruction to the people of Eastern Province not to entertain people coming from other regions of our country to campaign there. Rupiah ordered them to chase them away and tell them to go back where they came from. The whole of Rupiah’s campaign was anchored on tribal lines and alliances. This explains why tribalist Muyanda is very comfortable with Rupiah and his friends.

The Chibemba language that Muyanda is so hostile to does not belong to a small group of people calling themselves Bembas. It belongs to all the people of this country and this world who use it. No one owns a language. Those who are Bembas by tribe do not own the Bemba language; it is not theirs. The Bemba language belongs to all who use it.

Equally, this tribalist Muyanda should not cheat himself that he owns the Chitonga language. It is not his. This language is not owned by a tribe or a group of people; it belongs to all who use it. The same can be said of our beautiful Chinyanja language. This language does not belong to the lovely people of our Eastern Province. It is our language; it belongs to all of us who use it.

And Silozi, Luchazi, Lunda, Kaonde and the many other languages our people use don’t belong to a small tribal group, they are all our languages for all of us to use in our interactions with each other.

If one language, if the Chinyanja or Bemba languages spread more fast across the breadth and width of our country than the others, this should not be seen as a bad thing, as a crime on the part of those who use it. The more people who can speak one language in an area, the better will be their understanding of each other. They will be able to communicate with each other more easily and faster. This will result in increased mutual understanding of all those who use the common language. This has been demonstrated in the Eastern Province by the common use of Chinyanja language. All the tribes of Eastern Province – Ngonis, Nsengas, Tumbukas, Chewas, Kundas, Sengas – use the Chinyanja language. The use of chinyanja has not divided these people, it has united them and brought them much closer to each other.

This is also the same with the people of Western Province. The use of the Silozi language has united the people of this region who use this language. It has brought together the Subiyas, Nyengos, Kwangwas, Mbundas, Nkoyas and even Luvales who use Silozi as their main language of communication.

Our people in Luapula and Northern provinces, and some northern parts of Central Province are united, have been brought closer to each other by the use of the Chibemba language. Not all these people can be said to be Bemba by tribe. Some of them are Bisas, Namwangas, Mambwes, Lungus, Ushis, and so on and so forth. But Chibemba is their main language of communication.

Doesn’t it behoove people like Muyanda that if this was the case on the national scale, people like him, tribalists like him would have no place in our country. This is why we are looking forward to a day when our school children in Northern, Luapula, North Western provinces and other parts of our country would be taught Chitonga in school. And the same for the other languages in other parts of our country. If one language becomes more popular, more spoken than the others, that should not be seen as a bad thing, a crime. It should instead be seen to be a positive thing that will bring our people closer to each other much faster.

It is therefore undesirable to keep people like Muyanda in the top echelons of the political leadership of our country. Being a member of parliament gives one a great opportunity to make laws and direct the affairs of our country. Such responsibility should not be given to elements like Muyanda. People like him deserve to be expelled for being tribalists. They should have no place in the politics of our country; they should be repudiated by all progressive political parties and politicians. Only fellow tribalists like Rupiah should welcome them. In our country’s history, the fight for a progressive political line has been intrinsically bound up with the fight against tribalism for which all Zambians in general, and Dr Kenneth Kaunda in particular, deserve much credit. The struggle to defend and consolidate national unity demands permanent vigilance and action to neutralise and eliminate the manoeuvres of political opportunists and tribalists like Muyanda. This struggle requires a constant fight by all our political parties to clarify and develop a more correct and progressive political line that clearly defines tribalism, regionalism and even racism as enemies to be fought and defeated. By defining tribalism, regionalism and racism as enemies to be fought against, they will be depriving tribalists and opportunists like Muyanda of the chief instruments of their anti-people, anti-national unity manoeuvres.

As we have stated before, there is need to explain to our people that their experience of suffering in Sinazeze, Sinazongwe, Chavuma, Kasempa, Nchelenge, Mwense, Kaputa, Chama, Chadiza, Shangombo is the same. All bear the same scars, all have known the same hunger, the same poverty, the same suffering, the same tears. They should be united through the discovery of common wounds and scars, but above all their unity should be realised through common effort. Links are forged through collective work, through collective struggle, through criticism and self-criticism, and through collective action against divisive elements, tribalists and opportunists like Muyanda.

For these reasons, it is important for all our political parties that are genuinely and sincerely opposed to tribalism not to accommodate tribalists in their ranks. As long as they continue to harbour tribalists in their structures, no matter how much they try to distance themselves from their sometimes politically embarrassing statements, they will not achieve much in eliminating this cancer. A dangerous cancer is not eliminated in this way.