Monthly Archives: March 2014

By

Mwizenge S. Tembo,  Ph. D.

Professor of Sociology

“Greetings Prof Tembo, 

It is with the great joy writing to you to express my heartfelt joy using your book titled: Satisfying Zambian Hunger for Culture: Social Change in the Global  World. Bloomington, IN: XLIBRIS, 2012. I would like to say thank you very much. I am still writing a book review on it. I had almost finished then my computer had viruses so I lost some data on it.

Baba aTembo, lomba mweo baba, how do you use the concepts of “Uncle, Aunt and Cousin?” Are you using the named terms with the urban context or rural or both? I am using your book now, and I am somehow disagreeing with the usage of these concepts. Kindly indicate the context? (Cf. 46 of your work). In my paper I write, as suggested by Mwizenge S. Tembo, in the Senga-Luzi culture, a child “has more than one mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandmother, grandfather, and of course cousins and in-laws.” I strongly disagree with Mwizenge S. Tembo on the concepts of  uncle and cousins unless these concepts are used cautiously and among the selected few urban families. Even in urban setups, when one is called uncle, aunt and cousin, their relationship is quite distant. 

Once more, thanks for this great masterpiece. It’s one of the dirtiest books I have ever read while in the Zambian diaspora. 

Regards

Tembo Tembo Michael” (Not related to the author)

I was thrilled to read your e-mail as the author of the book. But your use of the word “dirtiest” in your last sentence first surprised me and then it made me smile. I tried to guess what word you had meant to type. When I failed to guess, I sent you another e-mail to ask you to explain. Then I received your e-mail in response.

“Oh no, sorry, I wanted to write, it’s the book I have dirtened with a highlighter. I have labelled so many pages in the book! I have really written in it very much and really enjoying it. I will do likewise when I am done with the book review.

This is my key textbook done by a Zambian scholar! It’s respectable work at my school. I have used it in my research works. Some Profs have been asking me if we are related. I answer them, the surname says it all. 

I am in Texas, at Oblate School of Theology. 

Once more, thanks for the great work and keep it up.”

I want to thank you very much for your kind words. I am very glad that you enjoy the book tremendously and you are finding it helpful in your academic papers at your School of Theology. Before I continue to respond to your questions, I am conscious that readers might assume that this is a publicity stunt for the book. I have not met you before and we are not related although we share the same last name which means our origins may be from the Eastern Province.

What you do when you read a book you very much like is exactly what I also do; mark them. All my books that I read and like I mark very heavily writing questions, both positive and critical comments on the edges of the page. So when you said you “dirtened” the book, that’s the sign that you are both enjoying and critically absorbing the ideas from the book.

The kinship relationships and terminology that I describe on page 46 of the book are common among my tribe; the Tumbuka and also the Ngoni in Eastern Province and may be going all the way to the Zulus in South Africa. I am sure similar kinship systems and terminologies exist among probably dozens of the 72 tribes of Zambia. Anthropologists have classified this as the Omaha kinship system which is among more than four  major types found in societies all over the world. The only question is whether many tribes or ethnic groups follow this system in Zambian traditions. For example, among the Chewa of the Eastern province of Zambia and also of Malawi and Mozambique, the most important kinship has been that between a woman and her brother whom they call malume or uncle.

Most families in urban Zambia today might be so removed from knowledge of their ethnic or tribal kinship systems that the use of “uncle” is used to refer to close relatives but also friends of the family who are the father’s age. “Aunt” is used to refer to close relatives but also friends of the family that are the mother’s age. May be this is what you disagree with. I am sure that there are still some families in Zambia and abroad that still follow their traditional kinship relationships and terminology.  I whole heartedly welcome the disagreements because that is part of intellectual discourse.

The book Satisfying Zambian Hunger for Culture can be used for so many different purposes; families can learn about Zambian culture, middle school, high school or secondary and college students can use it. Professors can use it as I do for teaching anthropology and Sociology. I recently gave a guest lecture in Professor Deborah Dunn’s class on “Nshima and Zambian foods” to her course on “International Foods and Nutrition” at our college. The book is so rich with our cultural history but also provides  some vision and recommendations for the future. There is no comprehensive book that does this well right now. I am glad you are finding the book very useful.

As a last comment, this discussion reminds me of when I was a student at University of Zambia in the early 1970s. A Zambian student told his European lecturer or Professor that he was going to be absent from his class because he was going to a funeral because his mother had died. Six months later the same student told the same Professor that he would miss class again because he would be away to attend to a funeral of his mother who had just died. The European Professor thought the student was being less than honest until the Zambian student explained that in the Zambian and African traditional culture, he had more than one mother. I am proud that I have had three mothers; my mother’s only younger sister who passed away in 1984. I have two living mothers; my mother who lives at Chainda Farms in Lusaka. Today we would call her aunt. Then I have my biological mother who is still living in the village. I call both women amama. They both know it and they are happy.

 

 

by

Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.

Professor of Sociology

When I was young growing up in the village, one day I rushed home to my parents to report that my brother had insulted and used the worst vile language, kutuka, in Tumbuka against another boy in a quarrel. I repeated the vile disgusting graphic language to my parents word for word to make sure I was reporting accurately. To my utter shock, my parents proceeded to angrily berate me for the report. When my brother who was the  guilty party arrived, my parents gave him lighter punishment and milder tongue lashing. What was my mistake? Didn’t I report accurately what had happened? My parents’ response, which was in form of Kulanga, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHz_bMRl2Rc   was that my reporting and repeating the actual graphic language was a further degrading and a humiliating insult to them and those listening; it was like adding salt to a wound. Better I should have just said my brother had insulted someone very badly without repeating the vulgar language.

A few years ago when Rupiah Banda was President, the medical doctors had a dispute with the government over low or poor pay. The doctors went on strike. This caused so much disruption in the normal operation and services of the hospitals that somehow a pregnant woman had to give birth in the middle of the street. A Zambian who had a digital camera took the graphic picture of the woman giving birth and went ahead and posted it on the internet media. The person argued that this was freedom of the press, transparency and showed how the government of President Rupiah Banda was mishandling the case of the striking doctors. If you think everything and anything should be posted on line because it promotes transparency, democracy, and shows freedom of the press, you should stop here and not read the rest. You might not like what will be said next as it follows the tradition of Kulanga. I will not describe the stories in graphic detail or show you where you can see the pictures according to the wisdom of my elders.

There have been two controversial media stories in the Zambian press recently. The first one was a young Zambian folk musician who apparently riled the Ngoni Royal Establishment (NRE) because the musician is shown in a photo pulling the nipple of a bare-breasted old Ngoni woman at the Ncwala ceremony. The musician is his defense said he was practicing “chimbuya” with the old woman. Another story was yet a second photo from the same ceremony where another young man is holding the bare-breast of a woman. One thing should be made clear. This author is not against both young and older women being bare-breasted at these ceremonies. The beauty of the human body and its expression should be celebrated according to the appropriate rules of conduct in our culture. This is something that I totally support and am very passionate about. But there is nowhere in traditional Zambian history and the present where the culture says any man has the right to openly grab any woman’s bare-breast during these ceremonies. Our culture never encouraged degrading sexual exhibitionism in public.

What is probably more important is that all the Zambian media that published the humiliating photos should have the primary blame. If you are a credible Zambian media, the Editors should not have published the particular photos in question. Because they have zero redeeming value and only serve to humiliate and embarrass all of us Zambians to ourselves and because of the viral nature of internet technology, the whole world might have seen the photos.

The second person to blame are the photographers and especially if you are a private individual with a personal cell phone camera. You might even enjoy and be excited about taking selfies. All photographers should have a moral campus. Just because something is happening it does not mean you should photograph it or post it on the internet. I know what I am saying goes against the tsunami that is the digital generation because I will probably be thought as a prude, a  fontini, too conservative, tin pot dictator, or living in the old or dinosaur past. I have digital cameras and have been taking thousands of photos since 1967. It is not about taking away your freedom of expression but it is learning about making good judgment about public moral integrity and dignity. There is no freedom without dignity and responsibility anywhere in the world. If you believe this freedom without any controls, it is a myth. Think about the hurt and degrading feelings of the victims, especially of the old woman who appeared in the photo and public pain her family and relatives have felt. Those photos will never be taken back from the internet.

As a nation we may have a need to have a conversation about this matter in the light of the digital age technology and millions of younger Zambian audience who attend these ceremonies where people and especially girls and women may be celebrating bare-breasted enjoying and expressing our culture.  There might be slaughtering of animals and other graphic rituals that may be part of the ceremonies.

This is a message to all the Royal Establishments of the many wonderful Zambian traditional ceremonies: Chibwela Kumushi, Kulamba Kubwalo in the Central Province,  Kulamba, Ncwala, Vinkhakanimba in the Eastern Province,  Umutomboko in the  Luapula Province, Chibwela Kumushi in the Lusaka Province, Ukusefya Pa Ng’wena in the Northern Province,  Likumbi Lyamize  in the North Western Province,  Lwiindi, Shimunenga in the Southern Province, and Kathanga, Kuomboka in the Western Province. All the Royal Establishments should consult with their subjects, the public, Members of Parliament and the President to establish the rules of conduct to be followed by all ceremony goers and participants. If a ceremony goer happens to take a risky or embarrassing private photo, let it remain private. There should be an orientation and dissemination of lessons for all participants before they go to the ceremony so that they will know how to behave and conduct themselves.