Zambesia's colonial borders (Part 3)

BEN S SIYAMBANGO NZEHENGWA WRITES:

Zambesia was declared a British sphere of influence between 1885 and 1887.

The actual area to be covered by this “sphere of influence” was defined as the country north of the Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Limpopo (or Crocodile) River, south of the Zambezi River, East of longitude 20 degree E, West of the Portuguese province of Sofala.

This area covered two Kingdoms or countries known as Sebitwane or Makololo country to the West and Matabeleland and Mashonaland to the East.

However, after order in council of 1894 which established southern Rhodesia, there was delay in implementing any of the conditions of the Lochner Concession in Barotseland. Robert Coryndon was dispatched to Lealui as the long awaited British Resident in 1897, the same year that the territory north of the Zambezi River became known officially for the first time as Northern Rhodesia.

Following a further Order in Council in 1899, Coryndon became Administrator of the Western part of this territory, North Western Rhodesia.

Strangely, today Northern Rhodesia is now found south of the Zambezi River at Katima Mulilo where they operate a border post contrary to historical evidence and arrangements. A letter written by the Resident Magistrate in the Native Commissioners office at Sesheke, Northern Rhodesia, on 4th August 1919, clearly shows that Katima Mulilo was part of Eastern Caprivi Zipfel (ECZ). And therefore, one wonders when did the status of this area change hands from ECZ to Northern Rhodesia?



HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT

Zambesia was a country administered by Her Majesty's government in the period 1890-1909, when the area was administered from Mongu by the Native Commissioner Office at Sesheke as part of north western Rhodesia.

The country continued to be administered by her majesty's government in the period 1918-1920 from Mongu by the Native Commissioners Office at Sesheke as part of Northern Rhodesia.

In 1921-1929, the area was administered by the British High Commissioner to South Africa as if it were a portion of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and in the period 1929-1939 Zambesia was administered by the Administrator of German South West Africa under British control who acted as a representative of the Union of South Africa until proclamation 147 of 1939 which transferred the administration of the territory to South Africa under the minister of Bantu Affairs.



OUR VIEW

Why should Zambesia be a sacrificial lamb on the altar of regional integration when colonial boundaries in other countries have been made intangible and to date no decisive push to regional integration has been recorded in the SADC region?

The Anglo-German Treaty of 1st July 1890 was not a border demarcation Treaty but rather established spheres of influence which granted Germany a passage to the Zambezi River from its protectorate. A British sphere of influence was a notice to foreign nations that they must not interfere but was not a declared protectorate.

The sphere of influence did not imply the existence of any British or German jurisdiction or protectorate in such a territory and therefore the political boundaries that exist today in Southern Africa are erroneous and should be revisited so that Zambesia as a country can be become a reality again.

Zambesia is an old country that was established long before the two protectorates of both Bechuanaland and the German Protectorate of South West Africa came into being. It is our firm belief and conviction that English people came to southern Africa first to introduce the word of God, they were our guests, strangers, visitors and at best fortune seekers in southern Africa and therefore had no right whatsoever to try and abolish Zambesia through bogus political boundaries.

In conclusion, the power or the cunning of European visitors, strangers, etc. on the African continent (Southern Africa) is demonstrated by the fact that people resident on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River were made citizens of former German South West Africa. In a similar vein, people resident on the Zambezi River banks are made to share drinking water with people living on the banks of Molopo River deep in the south far beyond the great Kalahari Desert.

Botswana and Namibia sees this as a perfect situation which should be maintained at all costs (for eternity) in order to justify political boundaries which were initiated recently by former apartheid South Africa, which was not even a colonial power, in order to justify the current political boundaries as opposed to colonial boundaries set at the Berlin Conference.