Luapula Province Border Dispute - Putting All Together Now

Putting All Together Now

We can at a quick glance conclude that this border issue is a part of a long rich legacy of Chienge District, as we now know it. Chienge is an area in the Northern part of Zambia, on the white shores of Lake Mweru. Lake Mweru, a fresh water lake was described by the famous Dr David Livingstone as a huge water body where 'a black wall of mountains frowned its western side, but elsewhere its banks were flat. The Lualaba, (sic Luapula) a broad deep stream flowed into its southern end and escaped at its northern extremity much enlarged in volume'. Livingstone visited the Lake Mweru area in 1867 during his search for the source of the Zambezi. He spent a night at Chief Kalembwe’s village, some few kilometres from the tribal capital of now Senior Chief Puta of the Bwile people.

Following the 1889 Berlin conference and the ensuing Scramble for Africa by European powers, there was considerable interest by the Belgians, the Germans and the British in Southern and Central Africa to secure the area that covered the 4 Great Lakes namely, Lake Nyasa, Lake Mweru, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. In the early 1870s 2 Germans, Reichardt and Bohn, and later in 1878, a larger group of Germans led by Wissman had visited the area around Lake Mweru. The Belgians were already looking at colonising the Congo including the area south of Lake Mweru.

A young British employee of the Foreign Office by the name of Harry H. Johnston who travelled earlier in North Africa and saw the potential for expanding the British empire in Africa, wrote a moving article in the London newspaper introducing the infamous ‘Cape to Cairo’ concept that so many wrongly claim was Cecil Rhodes invention. His article was thought provoking, and as a result he was sent by the Foreign office to work in Southern Africa and set base with the African Lakes Company (ALC), which had its headquarters in Blantyre, Nyasaland (now Malawi). Scottish missionaries who were initially interested in stopping the slave trade by Arabs, and later engaged in trading with the locals had originally set up the African Lakes Company. Sir Harry Johnston, became Commissioner of the African Lakes Company, and immediately realized that he was going to have a hard time fulfilling the task given him by His Majesty’s Government in Britain, namely:

• Consolidating the Protectorate of His majesty’s Government over the chiefs
• Advising the local chiefs on their external relations with the locals and foreigners
• Securing peace and order
• Ending the slave trade

The Foreign Office was unable to provide adequate funds for his administering of the area under British rule, and therefore Johnston had to turn to Cecil Rhodes, who was the Chairman of the British South Africa Company (BSAC), and struck up a working relationship with him. He implored Rhodes to support his work by providing financial support. This Rhodes willingly did in return for Johnston’s representing the interests of the British South Africa Company in the areas that Johnston was to administer. Rhodes was interested in a future amalgamation with the African Lakes Company, as this would give the BSAC undisputed claim over Nyasaland. Rhodes thus fully funded the establishment of Johnston’s administration. Johnston played a major role in subjecting the area later to be known as North Eastern Rhodesia (NER) under British Crown rule. Sir Johnston was also instrumental in the setting up of the first form of civil service in NER, and which was later improved by his successors Alfred Sharpe and later, Robert Codrington.

Based in Blantyre, Sir Johnston was concerned about the influence of the Belgians and Germans in the Congo Free State north of Lake Mweru. He was aware that the 2 German expeditions had visited the area in the 1870s and that both were keen to take control of the area. In order to show British administrative authority and determination to prevent the absorption of NER by the Belgians or Germans, Sir Johnston decided to send a former hunter and now agent of the African Lakes Company, Richard Crawshay, to set up a permanent post on the shores of Lake Mweru in 1890. Crawshay found a spot at Puta, where Chienge stream enters Lake Mweru and set up residence there. The area north of Puta at Mpweto in the Congo Free State was under the administrative control of a Belgian named Captain Jacques. Although the Berlin Conference had more or less divided Africa up by colonial powers, there were no distinct boundaries between Congo Free State and North Eastern Rhodesia. As the Germans had shifted their interest to Tanganyika and Zanzibar where they had set posts, Sir Johnston therefore decided to meet with the only real threat, the Belgian administrator Captain Jacques, and together they agreed on a boundary that would be a line running from the northern tip end of Lake Mweru where the Lualaba leaves Lake Mweru to Cape Akalunga on Lake Tanganyika. This understanding while respected by the establishment of Chienge post, it was not formalised until four years later. The formal agreements on the boundary between the Congo Free State under King Leopold of Belgium and the British Crown of King George represented by Sir Johnston through the African Lakes Company was finalised and signed on 12 May 1894.

Having secured the British post, and boundary, Sir Johnston chose to change the name of Puta and instead called Puta station Rhodesia, after his colleague and financial mentor Cecil Rhodes, also making it the first place historically to bear that name. Crawshay stayed at Rhodesia from 1890 to 1891 when he abandoned the station and returned to Blantyre in Nyasaland.

The peoples living under the administrative control of the Africa Lakes Company in the Lake Mweru region included the Ba Bwile or Ba Ansa under Chiefs Mpweto, Puta, Kalembwe, and Mwabu. Their neighbours to the west were the Shila under Chief Mununga, Nkula and Nshimba, there were to the South the Swahili and the Tabwa under Nsama and Katele. There were also regular visits from the Arabs of the east coast of Africa who were involved in trading in guns, gunpowder, and slaves. For the African Lakes Company, the most important posts were Abercorn on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and Rhodesia on Lake Mweru’s shores, but of similar importance were Sumbu and Kaputa. The people of Kaputa specialized in salt making and bought food from more fertile areas. Johnston was concerned that Crawshay had left the Rhodesia station hastily, and asked Cecil Rhodes to fund a special tour of the area by his second in command to assess the situation there. Cecil Rhodes obliged and Alfred Sharpe, Johnston’s second in command undertook a tour of the area.

When Alfred Sharpe toured the major posts in the Lake Mweru region including Rhodesia (Puta post) and Kaputa, he found that Abdullah bin Suleiman, (known by locals as Selemani) a Swahili chief who lived 60 miles from Kalungwishi, had driven out the people there and was demanding salt tribute from other villages. There was also evidence of slave traders harassing the inhabitants mercilessly. On his return to Blantyre, Sharpe gave a detailed report to Johnston. Sir Johnston decided to reopen the station and sent 2 agents, Kidd and Bainbridge to take control of Rhodesia and continue to show British administrative authority. However, Kidd and Bainbridge did not go to Rhodesia, but instead built a new post at Kafulwe some twenty kilometres from the Puta post on the shores of the Kalungwishi river where it crossed the old road to Kazembe, some 3 miles east off Lake Mweru. They decided to adopt the name of Rhodesia for this post as well, seeing as the old post had been abandoned. Kidd and Bainbridge remained at their new post until 1894 when they both died. It was rumoured that they were poisoned. The local people during this time were given protection by the collector at Rhodesia against the Arabs. Mkula, also known as Nsama after his father, and 4 African soldiers were recruited to assist the collector.

In 1896, Hubert T. Harrington, locally known as Chiana, was given charge over Mweru district. He was transferred where Dr Blair Watson was in charge as collector. Harrington described Kalungwishi as a strongly built Boma with four bastions. Beneath its flagstones were buried Kidd and Bainbridge. He built a barge called the Scotia or Mandala boat, which was written off in 1919 and abandoned at Chienge in 1922. The Boat used to travel between Chienge and Kilwa Island. There is oral evidence that Hube Harrington was a relation of the famous Harrington family that settled in the Western province of Zambia and are accredited with the skills of building the first Nalikwanda, the boat of the Litunga of the Balozi. In 1899, Nasoro bin Suleiman, nicknamed Chisesa and a cousin to Abdullah bin Suleiman, was harassing the Ba Bwile and Shila peoples. Harrington arrested Abdullah bin Suleiman and kept him in Kalungwishi prison.

The Rhodesia station was closed after the death of Kidd and Bainbridge and was not reopened until 1907, possibly due to lack of staff. The station was returned to its original post at Puta, Chienge as a Boma. The collectors who reopened this Boma were J. F. Sealy and GT Wenham and they stayed there for the next 3 years. In 1908 the station was temporarily closed due to tsetse flies. In 1909 - 10, Dr JD Brunton, Dr WG Jollyman were sent by Alfred Sharpe to Chienge to help with the sleeping sickness campaign.

The following are the administrators that manned the Chienge Boma thereafter:

1910 S Hillier 1912 G H Jones 1917 PCJ Reardon and wife (January) Reardon went mad and ended up in an asylum. 1917 VR Anley and wife (August) 1918 ACJ Elworthy (October) 1919 S Hillier (December) 1920 Matthews (March) 1920 CP Oldfield (September) 1922 Wickins and wife (April) In November 1922, the station was closed due to lack of funds. In April 1925 G H Morton reopened the station

1926 FO Hoare (December) 1927 G H Morton (October) He went mad and was sent to Cape Town asylum 1929 FO Hoare (January) 1929 March, Hoare contracted black water fever and died at Kafulwe on his way to Kawambwa. 1929 JB Thomson (June) 1930 SL Langford (January) 1932 EGF Thomson (March) 1932 SL Langford (September) In 1933, the Chienge station was closed for lack of staff and funds and the lake Mweru region was amalgamated with Mporokoso.

In 1941, the African Lakes Company surveyed 2010 acres (8 km²) of land in Chienge. The ALC had a farm at Chienge where it was said that there were traces of Copper. The District was geologically surveyed by Luangwa concessions, a mining company but they retained no claims and no mines were opened.

Two Seventh Day Adventists Ellingworth and Lewis, missionaries from Chimpempe, visited Ponde mission, which was established in 1933 originally at Kalembwe. They drowned in Lake Mweru and were buried at Ponde on 31.8.1952.

Chienge was after 1933 administered from Mporokoso, later from Kawambwa and in the 1970s, Nchelenge. The current Senior Chief Puta (Kasoma) was christened as Hillier after the administrator Mr S Hillier. Senior Chief Puta Kasoma was born in 1910 and installed as Chief Puta in 1937 after the death of Puta Mulolwa.

Chienge was re-established as a sub-Boma in 1973 under the Kaunda UNIP government’s administration.

Before the end of the first term of President Frederick J.T. Chiluba’s MMD government, a quiet but effective lobby for Chienge to become a full District was mounted Dr Katele Kalumba a nominated member of Parliament and Deputy Minister of Health from November 1991 to May 1996 and full Cabinet Minister of Health thereafter, paid off. Dr Kalumba motives were clear. He had an eye, since joining government, on standing as a Parliamentary candidate for Chienge. A Circular No. 25/96 issued by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local government and Housing dated 30 October 1996 declared Chienge a new District Council pursuant to Section 3 of the Local Government Act No. 22 of 1996. At the time, Bennie Mwiinga was a Minister of Local government and Housing.

The narrative following the 12–13 December 1996 Nchelenge Council meeting defined the new Chienge as the area ‘Starting from the mouth of Kefulwa River on the Lake Mweru, the boundary follows the Kefulwa river in a straight line up to the confluence of Kasinga stream. The Boundary runs in a straight line in the north-easterly direction up to where it meets the Kapako stream; thence the boundary runs in the northerly direction along the stream up to where it meets the Kaputa-Nchelenge administrative boundary; thence it follows along the Kaputa-Nchelenge administrative boundary in the northerly direction up to the Zambia-Zaire international boundary; thence the boundary continues in the westerly direction from the Musungwishi river along the Kaputa-Nchelenge administrative boundary; then it runs in a straight line along the Zambia-Zaire international boundary up to the mouth of Lualaba river where it flows out of lake Mweru. The boundary thence follows the Zambia-Zaire international boundary along the lake Mweru up to the mouth of Kefulwa River, the point of starting”.

Chienge was reborn again after 106 years of its first opening. It was inaugurated on Friday the 20 December 1996 witnessed by the newly elected Member of Parliament for Chienge and Minister of Health Dr Katele Kalumba and scores of Party and Government officials. Sitting as a councillor of Chienge, Dr Kalumba, accompanied by the Commissioner of Town and Country Planning in the Ministry of Local Government Dr Khonje, the Director of Health Planning and Development, Mr Vincent Musowe of the Ministry of Health, and presided over by Mr T.S. Phiri, Council Secretary for Nchelenge, witnessed the election of Mr Mwanda of Senior Chief Puta’s area as the first Council Chairman of the new Chienge, while Mr Bowa from Senior Chief Mununga’s area was his Vice Chairman.