Maravi

(LUSAKATIMES) Mpamba to be crowned Bemba queen mother

Mpamba to be crowned Bemba queen mother
Saturday, July 4, 2009, 13:26

Former Headmistress Judith Theresa Chilekwa Mpamba, will be crowned Queen Mother for the Bemba people in Kasama today. Ms Mpamba will be succeeding her late mother Her Royal Highness, Chanda Mukulu wa Chibundu, who died last year.

Ms Mpamba will be crowned queen of the main stream Bemba Royal Establishment through a coronation ceremony which will take place at the Chanda Mukulu Royal Palace in Kasama.

In a press release to ZANIS in Lusaka today, the main function of the queen mother is to bear children that will succeed the main stream of Bemba chiefs such as Paramount Chief Chitimukulu and Senior Chiefs Mpepo, Nkolemfumu and Mwamba.

The release further states that Bemba chiefs, being matrilineal,trace their decent and ascendancy to the highest thrones through the female line.

Ascendancy to the position of queen mother is also through the female line, and the tradition dates as far back as the 18th centaury when two brothers, Chiti and Nkole, were running away from the brutality of their father, then King Mukulumpe. They left Kola Country and founded a Bemba Kingdom across Kalungu river in present day Zambia.

The two fugitive brothers later rescued their sister, Chilufya Mulenga, who had been imprisoned by their father in Kola Country, saying he did not want her to bear children who would succeed them as king.

The statement says since the Bemba tradition of tracing ascendance through the female line has been strictly followed ever since and there is no doubt that the current queen mother who will be installed today will be any different, adding that she shares the same blood with the very first queen mother, Chilufya Mulenga.

The Bembas are sure that the current Paramount Chief Chitimukulu the 37th is a blood relation of the first chief chitimukulu who was the son of Mukulumpe of the Kola Country.

ZANIS

Labels: BEMBA, CHIEFS, JUDITH MPAMBA

posted by MrK @ 2:25 PM