THROWBACK THURSDAY: THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES ZAMBIA AND ZAMBEZI #ZAMBIA@50 The territory of what is now Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia from 1911 to 1964. It was renamed Zambia on the occasion of its independence, at midnight on 24th october 1964 exactly 50 years ago today. The origin of the name Zambia comes from the mighty Zambezi River, the largest river in the territory and a river which is a bloodline for much of the country’s flora and fauna. The river itself derives its name from the Lunda name ‘Yambezhi’. The original traditional name for the Zambezi river was YAMBEZHI and this is the reason we have the Lunda greeting Shikenu Mwani Kunsulu ya Yambezhi which is a Lunda phrase, meaning, “welcome to the source of the Zambezi”. Instead of Yambezhi, the colonial whites wrote it in the easier form of Zambezi, the way they bastardised names such as Lusaaka into Lusaka, or wrote Mumbwa instead of Mumba, Mongu instead of Mungu etc. Our school knowledge about the Mighty Zambezi River states that it starts in Zambia, in Mwinilunga district of the North Western province, from the Kaleni hills some where near where the borders of Zambia, Angola and Zaire meet. But the truth is that the Kaleni Hills are a WHOPPING 48 kilometers from the source of the Zambezi. The source of the Zambezi River is in Nkakawami Village headed by Headman Nkakawami. However, maybe someone had difficulties in pronouncing the word Nkakawami and they chose the more easier name of Kaleni Hills. For many years the river was spelt Zambesi, with the now popular spelling of Zambezi becoming only widely used in the latter half of the last century. Coming back to the name Zambia, it is not universally known who first coined the word Zambia. Many contend that it was Simon Kapwepwe but records show Sikota Wina publishing a poem using the word Zambia early before the official use of the name ZAMBIA. It is widely agreed however that the name Zambia came into general and popular use on 24th October 1958, six years to the day before Zambia achieved independence. It was on this day that Kenneth Kaunda led his members out of a meeting of the national executive of the African National Congress and into Hut No. 257 in Chilenje township to found a new party. At first they named it the Zambesi African National Congress (ZANC), but at the suggestion of Simon Kapwepwe, then the partys newly-elected Treasurer-General, they changed it to Zambia African National Congress (ZANC) and in short Zambia. ‘‘We had wanted to call it Zambezia, but we settled for Zambia. When we chanted the name ‘Zambia Zambia!’ it sounded very nice and we all started dancing like little children,’ Mutembo Mpundu, who posed as the chain-breaker in the freedom statue, recalls. According to Mutembo the motto ‘’One Zambia One Nation was also coined at the same meeting which also marked the birth of the Zambia Africa National Congress (ZANC). By this time, the freedom fighters knew they wanted the new nation to be named Zambia after it had gained its independence. Newspaper cuttings from the pre-independence period at the Lusaka Museum refer to the party [ZANC] simply as ZAMBIA. The name ‘Zambia’ as earlier mentioned is thought to have been coined in 1953 by Arthur Wina, the future Minister of Finance, in a student poem.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 14:57:22 +0000
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