24/10/2024
INDEPENDENCE!
When I was growing up, Independence Day was a day to look forward to before it arrived, and a day to remember after it was gone. And this was mainly because it symbolised food and dance!
A week before the 24th of October was called Humanism Week. During this time, pupils from Kasenga were tasked with performing humanitarian duties in the surrounding villages such as Nyambo, Mgubudu, Bauleni, Israel, Kamchiliko, and others. During this time also, we were doing piece works to fundraise for mealie meal and pork. Well, and some goat and chicken for those allergic to pork, either for religious or physiological reasons. By this time, each grade was well underway rehearsing for their performances, be it dance or drama.
In 1987, while I was in Grade 1, we were rehearsing to perform a dance; for those around my age, this was similar to Jusi Kwatae. Now you know exactly what it entailed. Boys line up on one side, facing girls lined up the opposite side, and one by one, a boy goes in the direction of the girls, towards his preferred girl, dancing while wriggling the waist, and the girl would reciprocate the gesture. In my case, it was Ruth Nkhoma from Mgubudu village. I think such dance was encouraging bad manners imagination mwe! The song went like, “Naile mukupa, naile mukupa naile mukupa, naile mukupa. Naupwa ubushimbe, Naupwa ubushimbe Naupwa ubushimbe, Naupwa ubushimbe”. Honestly, I didn’t know what the song meant as I could not understand the language of some shapeless people whose King rides on a wooden crocodile during their fake annual ceremony! Elo this King’s dress code is far below that of our own Njengembaso Ka Pontino Jere, the swaggest of them all!
On the actual day, pupils came to school with a cup and a plate. For the boys, the tradition was that the cup be tied in the waist, while the plate was stuck at the back, between the shirt and the skin! (There was no bombasa then, as far as I can remember, mainly because we could not afford to wear two pieces of cloth covering the same body parts at once, as this considered a waste of resources! Well, even underwear was a luxury, even for us children of teachers. I remember my first underpant was bought for me in August 1984, as we were about to go for holidays to the village, and it was rainbow coloured! What a precious moment that was!
The day started with a march past, as we sang songs of praises for our great leader, “Zivute zitani ndife a Zambia, tili pambuyo pa Kaunda. A Kaunda eeee a Kaunda eee a Kaunda mama tili pambuyo pa Kaundaaa!” The school actually had a band, led by Kaluma. And on the big drum was Abram, he himself big and light in complexion. I so admired Kaluma that I wanted to be him when I grew up! Plus I was already as dark in complexion as he was, only younger and more handsome. Don’t argue, you just don’t look at me properly.
We then gathered at the arena for the performances to commence. And they were done grade by grade, in ascending order, until it moved to the villages who performed Chimtali, Chitelele and Nyau. Around 10hrs, an announcement, “A Grade 1 katoleni thobwaaaa!” Prrrrrrruuuuu we ran to queue up for thobwa (a traditional beverage similar to munkoyo but without the roots). And it went on till all the grades were covered. At lunch, another announcement, “A Grade 1 katoleni nsimaaaaa!” Prrrrrruuuu we ran and queued up, except this time, two queues were required, those who did not eat pork formed their own queue, and these were very few, and the rest of us pork eaters formed the longer queue. I felt a little embarrassed as it was obvious from the size of pieces handed to my plate that I was being favoured for being mwana wa a ticha. It’s called ‘white privilege’!
The afternoon was for sports. First, netball, then football. Usually, there would be a guest school that was invited, and our favourite rivals were Tamanda. They had two fierce footballers, Yeriko and Blackie. Yeriko was short and fast, Blackie was, as his name suggests, black, so black that it looked like navy blue, huge in stature and powerful in performance! Even as they arrived, Tamanda sang intimidating songs, and one such song had a message like ‘Who told you to touch fire’. But we also had our heroes. We had Monday (Brighton), our top scorer, then we had Major (Richard), our master dribbler, and Printer (Reuben), who teamed up with Buffalo (Kabendama) notorious for rough soccer. And, our goalkeeper was Kilometer. This was his real name though. We just called him ‘Kilo’. We always had victory over Tamanda, as far as I can remember, and whether this memory is biased or not is not my problem right now.
Now, despite being allowed to rehearse and practice, on the final day, mom did not allow me to participate in the performances. “Monga Mboni, sitimachita za mtundu uyu!” I was devastated, but complied nonetheless. I just relegated myself to the terraces as a respectful observer.
By the end of the day, I was both tired, and thankful for the events of the Independence, and wondered what a great guy Kaunda was!
