A Time to Mourn

John Hudson

Description

While Northern Rhodesia was preparing for independence as the Republic of Zambia in 1964, impoverished villages in the remote north east of the country were divided by a bitter conflict fuelled by apparently irreconcilable political and religious convictions. This book describes the origin of the dispute and how it led to skirmishes, defiance of authority, massacre, torture and displacement: a previously unreported mutiny. It is as such an important contribution to Zambian history, with a significant proportion of the material being published for the first time. The author was a district commissioner at Isoka during the time of the massacre and was personally involved in the peace settlement. He argues that the situation need not have escalated had the authorities acted to prevent it; and that for different reasons, both the colonial government and its independent successor tried to distort the gravity of what occurred.

PART ONE: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE LUMPA CHURCH

PART TWO: ISOKA 1963 - 64: A PERSONAL TESTAMENT

Sujets

• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Histoire
• África
• Postcolonialism
• Northern Rhodesia
• General officer
• South
• History of Zambia
• Zambia
• History of Africa
• General
• Africa

Informations

• Publié par: Gadsden Publishers
• Date de parution: 21 octobre 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789982241311
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

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A TIME TO MOURN

A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE 1964 LUMPA CHURCH REVOLT IN ZAMBIA

JOHN HUDSON

Bookworld Publishers (Now Gadsden Publishers) P. O. Box 32581, Lusaka, Zambia.

Copyright © John Hudson 1999, Reprinted 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN978 9982 24 121 2

Cover photographs from John Hudson collection

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; Ecclesiastes 3, 1 - 4.

This book is dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives in the Lumpa troubles of 1964, and also to my wife for her support then and since.

— ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to quote from; “The Lumpa Sect; rural reconstruction and conict” by J.L. Calmettes (PhD, Aberystwyth, 1978) reprinted by permission of the late Fr. J.L. Calmettes; John Hannah’s unpublished statement to the Commission of Inquiry into the Lumpa Church (Government of Republic of Zambia, 1964) printed with the permission of Mr John Hannah, M.B.E.;The Lenshina Movement in Northern Rhodesiaby Fr. L Oger (Ilondola Mission, 1960) reprinted with the permission of the White Fathers, Lusaka:Not Merrion Squareby Hope Trant OBE (Thornhill Press, East London, 1970) reprinted by permission of Mr R.J. Trant. We also thank the Survey Department of the Republic of Zambia for permission to reproduce the map at the back of the book and the Ministry of Information of the Republic of Zambia for permission to reproduce the photographs on pages 15, 33, 39, 44, 45 and 129.

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PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

— CONTENTS —

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PART ONE: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE LUMPA CHURCH 1. The Background 3 2. In the Beginning 11 3. He who is not with us is against us 17 4. Armageddon 29 5. Exodus 59

PART TWO: ISOKA 1963 - 64: A PERSONAL TESTAMENT 1. The District 2. First Encounters 3. Violence 4. Nsindano 5. Mutiny at Muyombe 6. Chanama and Jombo 7. Aftermath

GLOSSARY

APPENDICES 1. The Rules of the Lumpa Church 2. The Rules of the Lumpa Church Choir 3. Some Examples of Lumpa Hymns 4. Letter to Lumpa Church members, Nsindano village,  31 August 1964 5. Map of North Eastern Zambia

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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69 81 87 98 155 119 127

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137 139 141

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— PREFACE —

This book is mainly about the interaction between religion, politics, and government in the north east of Northern Rhodesia during the 1960s, just before it gained independence as the Republic of Zambia after seventy years of colonial rule. Since central Africa came under the control of various foreign powers over a century ago, the lives of its people have been changed irrevocably by the arrival of missionaries, traders, miners, administrators, settlers, teachers and doctors. The impact has been enormous, yet many customs, beliefs, and behaviour patterns have survived to this day. Traditional religious beliefs have been changed most of all. For an unknown number of centuries, the Bantu peoples were sustained in their wanderings across the face of Africa by various forms of faith in a powerful but remote spiritual being who was thought to be the creator of all things, and in the spirits of chiefs and ancestors. The latter were believed to have a much greater direct inuence on the lives of their descendants, and they were remembered and propitiated at many local shrines. While these beliefs have not yet been completely discarded, they have been greatly modiîed by the inuence of Christian missionaries. The supreme being (known as Lesa in several languages) was readily equated with the Christian God, but the concept of a relationship with Him through the intercession of Jesus Christ was new. It has been accepted by the many converts, and has largely displaced spirit worship. However, the multiplicity of Christian doctrines both caused confusion and showed that if these doctrines were not fully compatible with local customs such as polygamy and the still widespread belief in witchcraft, formation of new indigenous churches to accommodate them was possible. Before long, separatist churches, sects, and cults emerged, based on Christian teachings but with local adaptations and ministers. During 1953 such a church was founded, based on the profound spiritual experience of a village woman in the Chinsali district of Northern Rhodesia’s Northern Province, and her subsequent claim to divine inspiration. It came to be known as the Lumpa church. For some years this church was highly successful. It attracted a large following, much

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of it from members of the local mission churches. Eleven years later a bitter conict arose between the main political party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP) and the Lumpa church, over participation by its followers in politics. First paramilitary police, and then troops, had to be called in to disperse illegal Lumpa settlements and to restore order. They were resisted with primitive weapons and suicidal bravery. Over seven hundred people were killed, including some members of the security forces. Over four hundred were wounded, and several thousand ed to Zaire. These events and the ultimate survival of the church are described in the following pages.

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— INTRODUCTION —

Several accounts of the Lenshina or Lumpa church and the tragic events of 1964 have been published by missionaries, historians and sociologists, but so far as is known, none by eye witnesses. This book has been written primarily to record the personal experiences of contact with members of the church by an administrator who was District Commissioner at Isoka, one of the îve districts affected by the trouble during the period leading up to the outbreak of violence and until it ended. The narrative has been compiled from vivid recollections of some unique events and on extensive notes made at the time. It is prefaced by a description of the area as it was thirty years ago, and by a short historical summary of the rise and fall of the ill-fated church. This provides some necessary background to the Isoka narrative. It draws heavily on published sources, acknowledged in the bibliography, for events outside the Isoka district, and particularly for the origin and development of the church in the neighbouring district of Chinsali. However the author accepts full responsibility for interpretation of this material and for its credibility or otherwise. He is greatly indebted to Father Hugo Hinfelaar WF, who was at Mulanga mission during the violence, for detailed comments on the manuscript. There has been an ofîcial conspiracy of silence over responsibility for what happened in 1964. The outgoing colonial government and the incoming independent one had a common interest in this; the former, because it did not wish to have its record of good governance damaged by disclosure of failure to prevent violence by acting decisively before it started, and the latter, because the use of lethal force against the very people who should have been its îrm supporters in the home district of their leader was a grave embarrassment. The ofîcial report of the commission of enquiry into the “disturbances” is part of this conspiracy in the sense that it describes the events, but does not discuss responsibility for them. Its terms of reference did not cover this vital aspect. Attempts to obtain documentary information on it since independence were discouraged. Ofîcial use of the term “disturbances” to describe the events of 1964 was misleading, and served to play down their true signiîcance. The

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