YSWNPY-Zine 20, final - Flipbook - Page 30
Zambian Youth
Have Protested
“
The youth provided much-needed
morale to the physical fight against
oppression. This fight was worn by
the working class and ordinary
Zambians. The formation of Black
trade unions, especially in the
Copperbelt Province of Zambia
where Black mineworkers saw racism
and colonialism up-close, changed
the direction of a nation.
Today, Zambian youth are dealing
with a similar government,
record-setting youth unemployment
rates and corruption cases that get
swept under the rug with no
explanation to citizens. For example,
last year the Zambian
Anti-Corruption Commission found
48 houses listed as owned by one
person with a paper trail linking the
houses to corruption. The case was
closed with no one prosecuted.
Zambians still have no idea who the
houses belonged to.
Photogrpaher Unknown, source: zambianreports.com
Fiske Nyirongo (she/her) is a Zambian writer of both
fiction and nonfiction. She is a 2020 PenPen African Writers Resident.
Twitter: @chimikacha and Instagram: @fiskaniwrites
The youth have risen to protest
occurrences like this in the past.
Michael Burawoy writes about the
history of student/youth protest in
Zambia in his 1976 British Journal of
Sociology article titled
Consciousness and Contradiction: a study
of student protest in Zambia.
Present-day examples of youth
protests have popular faces attached.
One of these faces belongs to
Fumbani Chama, popularly known
as Pilato to most Zambians. Pilato
has been jailed countless times since
he started protesting the Zambian
government. He and other
Zambian youth know that protesting
the Zambian government is deadly
with a police force that is usually
eager to assault protestors.
Therefore, I like most youths, were
surprised when Zambian opposition
party leader Nevers Mumba released
a video saying the opposite.
In the 11-minute video, the
Movement for Multi-Party
Democracy (MMD) leader says, “this
video is dedicated to every young
Zambian between the ages of 15 and
35...I wish to state that you represent
the largest group of cowards, yes,
cowards that Zambia has ever
produced. You have proved over
time to be absolutely spineless, you
have watched the country that you
are going to manage in a few years
get wrecked and still you remain
silent.”
He goes on to say that he wants to
make the youth angry with his words.
He was successful. I was angry when I
first watched the video. My anger has
now turned into introspection about
why I should care for words uttered
by a man who was fired as Vice
President for having a loose tongue.
To me, Nevers Mumba is like any
other political leader in the world,
they blame the ordinary citizen for
problems created by greed,
corruption and underqualified
leaders. The race to a country’s
most prestigious address loosens the
tongues of politicians. His words are
not revolutionary, youths around the
world have been called lazy,
inadequate and other derogatory
words because of a perceived
disinterest in their country’s future.
For Zambia, a recent protest sparked
a question of whether protest by any
means is a wise decision. The
Zambian police practice police
brutality. Their role, like any other
police force on earth, is to protect
the ruling class. On 22 June 2020,
Zambian musicians including Pilato,
Wezi Mhone, Maiko Zulu and others
led a protest which took place in a
bush a few kilometers outside of
Lusaka City. They feared for their
lives because they had been tipped
that the Zambian Police was coming
to the protest with riot gear.
Pilato’s advice was this to the
Zambian youth, “protest from your
backyard, your bedroom because
this is your voice.” The protest had
over 90,000 youths gathered online.
Protest can look different from how
previous generations protested. It
does not mean that the current youth
are cowards. The Zambian youth of
the 1950s fought a different
adversary, the current youth are
fighting the Zambian youth and
children of the 1950s. We are bound
to be infantilized by the people who
think they know better because they
earned their rights to the country by
sweat and birthright. Zambian youth
have protested for a better Zambia,
a person who thinks otherwise must
have lived under a rock all this time.
31
YOUR SILENCE WILL NOT PROTECT YOU 30
By: Fiske Nyirongo
There can be no peace
without justice.” This quote
has rung true in 2020 as
people have protested police
brutality, gender-based violence,
state-sanctioned violence, and
corruption around the world. For
Zambia - a country in Southern
Africa - protest has been a language
used by its citizens from when the
country was known as Northern
Rhodesia to the decades following its
political independence on 24
October 1964, after clashes between
freedom fighters and the British
colonial government came to a head.
