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Truly Zambian
‘Truly Zambian’ goes the advert for Mosi Lager. But there are many
other things which are Truly Zambian. As we celebrate Zambia’s 40th
Independence Anniversary, let us take a look at some of them.
First is Thornicroft’s Giraffe, a sub-species of giraffe which is
endemic to the Luangwa National Park and Eastern Zambia and which
was named after ‘Dongolosi’ Thornicroft, who was an African
Commissioner in the Petauke area for seventeen years early last
century. He had rowed bow for his College and believed that it was
important to always set a good example. Thus he always wore long
trousers, long sleeved shirts and a stiff collar, even when hunting
The Boma at Petauke was surrounded by a stockade which was
ceremoniously shut at sundown. ‘Dongolosi was loved by the local
people who referred to him as ‘the grandfather of the people’ and he
was known for his calmness. When informed of a murder, his usual
exclamation was ‘Tut-tut’.
One of the giraffes that ‘Dongolosi’ had shot was on display in the
South Kensington Museum and the story has it that when on leave, he
would hang around the specimen, hoping to get a chance to tell of
how he had shot it.
Next is the Kafue River, which, unlike the Zambezi, Luangwa and
Luapula Rivers, we do not share it with any other country. Rising
near the Congo border, it meanders its way, for 960 km, until it
runs into the Zambezi River.
But, this river was not always known by the name Kafue. At its start
it was known as the Lwenge River; through the Copperbelt, it was
known by the local people as the Lufubu or Kafubu River, reverting
back to its original Kaonde name, Lwenge in the Ndola rural areas
and Kasempa district.
David Livingstone’s map of 1865 shows a section of it near where the
current town of Kafue is and he calls it Kafwe or Kafue. In his book
The Zambezi and its Tributaries, he calls it the Kafue. Major Serpa
Pinto on the map of his explorations (1877 – 1879) calls it the
Loengue in its upper reaches and the Cafucne in its lower reaches;
Dr Emil Holub, 1886, makrts it ‘Luenge [called Kafwe at the
confluence into the Zambezi]’; Major A St Hill Gibbons (1895-6)
marks the river above the ‘hook’ and the area below the gap as the
Kafukwe or Loenge and Selous in his travels from 1872 to 1892, shows
the lower river at Kafue or Kafukwe. Thus, it would appear, that the
name Kafue is an Anglicised version of the Namwala spellings.
And the river was not without its mysteries. In 1948, an article
appeared in the Bulawayo Chronicle about the unexplored mysteries
of the Kafue Gorge, the area south of the road crossing near Lusaka
and the confluence of the Kafue and Zambezi Rivers, where the river
drops from 3,200 feet to 1,500 feet above sea level. At that time,
it was said that ‘this problem still awaits those who dare to face
difficulty and danger’. Yet the area had been explored by early
explorers as far back as 1896. Today, the Kafue Gorge Power Station,
which supplies 50 percent of Zambia’s power, has changed the flow of
the river.
The river is also not without its legends.
South of the Kafue Hook, the Ila people recognise the bapuka, a
wide-range of insects, reptiles and fabulous animals which inhabit
the trees and pools. Best known of these is the great Kafue River
monster called Itoshi, a 50-foot creature with a crocodile's
body, a man's head, and the fins of a fish. Invisible to those who
do not have the proper medicine, it seizes people and takes them
into its burrow beneath the river bed.
The Kafue River is also the cause of one of our
golf courses being called ‘the nastiest golf course on earth’ This
is Konkola Golf Club in Chililabombwe, on the banks of the river.
Rules have been changed slightly to allow a ball coming to rest
in a hippo footprint to be lifted and dropped in the nearest
possible position to provide maximum relief. The scorecard also
warns players to beware of crocodiles on certain holes.
The Kafue is the river of life for most of
Zambia and it is said that once you have drunk water from the Kafue,
you will never leave.
Last in Broken Hill Man; the skull which was
found by Tom Zwigelaar on 17 June 1921 in Kabwe and now lies in the
Natural History Museum in London.
 This
skull was the first early human fossil to be found in Africa and was
subsequently sent to Arthur Smith Woodward, who gave it a new
species name "Homo rhodesiensis" (Rhodesian Man). Thought to
be at least 125,000 year old, some researchers have suggested that
the skull could be a member of the African population from which all
modern humans descended.
The skull shows evidence of disease and wounds that occurred in the
lifetime of this individual - the upper teeth have cavities, and
dental abscesses of the upper jaw are clearly visible. A partially
healed wound is also visible. The cause of this wound was thought to
have been made either by a sharp instrument or the tooth of a
carnivore. Other researchers attribute it to a process called
trephining, which is a practice
by
which a hole would be carved in the skull of a living person. The
true reason for the hole will forever remain a mystery.
Last year, I was visiting London and decided
that I needed to see Broken Hill Man. But therein lay a problem – he
was not on permanent display, but rather hidden away in the depths
of the paleontology department of the museum. Finally, after a
number of emails and a few phone calls when I got to London, I was
granted permission to see him.
Out he came, from his safe box, resting on a
tatty piece of foam. I took out a ten-pin note and put it next to
him (just to make him feel at home,) took a photograph with one of
those disposable cameras and with a wave of my hand said ‘OK, you
can put him away now’. Now here was something Truly Zambian. |
October 2004