Zambia Social Science Journal Volume 5 Number 1 Volume 5, number 1 (April 2014) Article 4 Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement Mutumba Mainga Bull University of Zambia

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Zambia Social Science Journal
Volume 5
Number 1 Volume 5, number 1 (April 2014) Article 4
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
Mutumba Mainga Bull
University of Zambia
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Recommended Citation
Bull, Mutumba Mainga (2014) “Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement,” Zambia Social Science Journal: Vol. 5 : No. 1 ,
Article 4.
Available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/zssj/vol5/iss1/4
12
Reserved Area:
Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
Mutumba Mainga Bull
University of Zambia, Institute of Economic and Social Research

As part of the independence constitutional arrangements for Northern Rhodesia, in May 1964 in London, Kenneth David Kaunda, then Prime Minister at the head of the Self Government of Northern Rhodesia signed the Barotseland Agreement with the Litunga of the Lozi people Sir Mwanawina Lewanika III.

The Barotseland Agreement of 1964 recognised the Litunga of Barotseland (Bulozi) as the principal local authority for the government and administration of Barotseland, with powers to make laws of
Barotseland in respect to matters such as land, natural resources and taxation.

The Barotseland Agreement 1964 was abrogated and cancelled by the Zambian Republican
Government (GRZ) through the Constitutional (Amendment) Act of October 1969.

Some groups among the Lozi (activists) have been lobbying for the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 for over four decades. Some extreme elements have even called for secession.

The Barotseland Agreement activists include among others the Movement of the Restoration of Barotseland Agreement (MOREBA), the Barotse Patriotic Front (BPF) and Linyunga Ndambo. On 23rd October 2010 and 14th January 2011, the activists were involved in violent disturbances, which rocked Mongu and surrounding areas.

The 14th January riots resulted in fatalities, serious injuries, arrests and detentions.

The state came down heavily on the activists who were arrested.

Twenty-four detainees were charged with treason for seeking to secede Barotseland, now Western Province, from the Republic of Zambia, while others were charged with riotous behaviour or conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.

The nation was shocked by the violence and deaths. Concerned nationals, civic and church organizations, scholars, lawyers, political leaders and analysts from all corners of the country and in
the diaspora raised issues and concerns: What was the basis of the Litunga’s power? Was secession a viable alternative? And what geographical area was to be excised from Zambia? etc. etc.

This paper attempts to throw more light on the deep historical roots of the Barotseland Agreement 1964, going as far back as the 1900 Concessions/ Treaties which were negotiated and signed by Lubosi Lewanika ruler of the Lozi, the British South Africa Chartered Company (BSA Co.) and the British Government.

Introduction
The Barotse Reserved Area was established through the 1900 Concessions of Lewanika, the British South Africa Chartered Company (BSACo.) and the British Government.

It was extended in 1909.

1
The Reserved Area (Bulozi) was the central
1
The Barotse Concessions – Part II, T. W. Baxter – The Northern Rhodesia Journal Number IV December 1951 pp.38 – 43. The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia, T. W. Baxter Occasional
Papers No. 1 June 1963. The National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland pp. 13-23.
13 area of the Lozi Kingdom and the Lozi Kingship, centred on the Upper Zambezi
Flood Plain and westward to the Angolan boundary.

The Reserved Area was for the exclusive use of the Lozi people under their traditional ruler. Prospecting for minerals and white settlement were prohibited in the Reserved Area while land was
inalienable.
It was the Reserved Area, which became the Barotse District under the British South Africa Company administration.2
In 1935 the Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Hubert Winthrop Young, through Proclamation No. 5 of December 1934, divided Northern Rhodesia into five Provinces: The Barotse Province, Southern Province, Central Province, Northern Province and Eastern Province.

The Barotse Province comprised six districts namely Lealui (later Mongu-Lealui), Senanga, Sesheshe,
Mankoya, Kalabo and Balovale.3

The 1900 Reserved Area boundaries as extended in 1909, differed slightly from the boundaries of the 1935 Barotse Province in that Machile in the South was given to the Southern Province, and Dongwe in the north was given to the Central Province now North Western Province.

Furthermore in 1941 Balovale District currently Zambezi District was removed from Barotse
Province or the Reserved Area and joined to the then Central Province now North Western Province.4
During the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Barotse Province became Barotseland Protectorate with a Resident Commissioner instead of a Provincial Commissioner.

After independence Barotseland Protectorate became Barotse Province.

In August 1969 the name Barotse Province was changed to Western Province.

This study will attempt to show that Barotseland or whatever of it survived, managed to make the transition into the colonial era mainly due to the Reserved Area and the privileges and rights which the Lewanika Concessions conferred.

Furthermore, Barotseland developed isolationist tendencies due to their splendid
isolation in their stagnated Reserve.

The result was that all successive Lozi rulers from Lewanika (ruler 1878 to 1884, and 1885 to 1916) through to his three son-successors Litunga Yeta III (1916 to 1945 when he abdicated following a debilitating stroke), Litunga Imasiku Mwanaǹono Imwiko (1945 to 1948), and Litunga Mwanawina III
(1948 to 1968) all in their time petitioned for secession from Northern Rhodesia.

The culture of separation evolved due to the separation of the Reserved Area with the rights and privileges that pertained to it, limited though they might have been.

At the onset of nationalist politics and the struggle for independence the traditionalists were unaccommodating to the nationalists but in the end they were able to make the transition through another negotiated settlement.

The Barotseland Agreement 1964 was signed on 18th May 1964 in London by Kenneth David Kaunda, then Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia, on behalf of the Northern Rhodesia Government, and by Sir Mwanawina Lewanika III KBE, the Litunga of Barotseland, on behalf of
the Lozi people and the Barotse Native Government. The Rt Hon. Duncan Sandys,
2
The word ‘District’ was used in place of ‘Province’, see Your Friend Lewanika by
Gervas Clay. Chatto & Windus 1968 London p.119.
3
Proclamation No. 5 of 1934. The Northern Rhodesia Order-in-Council 1924. Article
13. Establishment of Provinces. RC/1521 National Archives Zambia (NAZ)
See 4 maps attached to this paper.
4
Proclamation No. 5 of 1934. The Northern Rhodesia Order-in-Council 1924. Article
13. Establishment of Provinces. RC/1521 National Archives Zambia (NAZ)
See 4 maps attached to this paper.
Mutumba Mainga Bull
14
MP, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and for the Colonies signed ‘Signifying the approval of Her Majesty’s Government’ in Britain.5

The purpose of the Agreement was (a) to ensure that Northern Rhodesia proceeded to independence as one country with Barotseland as an integral part of Zambia and that all its peoples were one nation. (b) ‘To enter into arrangements concerning the position of Barotseland as part of the Republic of Zambia to take the place of the treaties and other agreements hitherto subsisting between Her Majesty the Queen and the Litunga of Barotseland.’6

The Litunga of Barotseland was accorded recognition by the Government of the
Republic of Zambia under the Customary Law of Barotseland. Secondly, the Litunga
was to be the principal local authority for the government and administration of
Barotseland.7

In October 1969 however, the Zambian Government unilaterally abolished the Barotseland Agreement 1964 through the Constitution (Amendment) Act of 15^th October 1969. Some traditionalists and activists have campaigned and struggled for the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 for over four decades.

Some extremists have even demanded secession. Now, asking for the restoration of Barotseland Agreement 1964 is perceived as separatism, but secession is actual separation.

At this juncture, the study looks at how the Reserved Area, which was pegged and mapped, came about and how it shaped the survival of the Lozi kingship throughout the colonial period up to the time of the nationalist freedom struggle and independence.

The paper will also look at the privileges and rights, which were conferred by the Lewanika Concessions as well as the changes and reforms, which came with the new colonial administration.

In a separate paper, I have looked at the issue of Barotseland Agreement 1964 in great detail and how the struggle for the restoration of the Agreement has continued to highlight Barotseland’s separation and isolationist tendencies up to present day.

Delineation of the Barotseland Western Boundary Bulozi was caught up in rival European claims for territory in Central Africa during the last quarter of the 19th century. The Portuguese advancing from Angola in the West were attempting to establish their Sphere of Influence on the territory between their two colonies of Mozambique and Angola. They pointed to their historical attempts
to open a transcontinental trade route between their two colonies.8

Similarly, the 5The Barotseland Agreement 1964. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State
for Commonwealth Relations by Command of Her Majesty. May 1964. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
CMND 2366. London.
6 Ibid
7
Ibid
8Portuguese Africa. James Duffy. Harvard University Press Cambridge Massachusetts,
1968 – pp.213-224 – Portuguese Expeditions in Zambia. Richard Hall in A Short History of Zambia.
Oxford University Press. Nairobi 1966 pp.128-134.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
15
Germans who occupied South West Africa (Namibia) in 1883 were desirous to
advance north through the no man’s land between their possessions in East Africa
and South West Africa. The British using the British South Africa Chartered Company
of Cecil John Rhodes dismissed Portuguese claims pointing out that according to the
Berlin Conference of November 1884 rules and regulations, ‘Sphere of Influence’ was
based on effective occupation and having Treaties and Concessions with local rulers.
The British argued that the Portuguese had not established effective occupation
anywhere in the interior, and Britain would therefore not prevent expansion from
her possessions in the south to parts, which Portugal claimed without legal basis.
Under the provisions of the 1889 Africa Order in Council of 15th October, the
British Sphere of Influence was defined as North of Bechuanaland, North and West
of the Transvaal and West of Mozambique. No western or northern geographical
limit was set. The British claimed special interests in Khama’s country, Lobengula’s
Matebeleland and Mashonaland, and Lake Nyasa through English missionaries. On
29th October 1889 the British South Africa Company was granted the Royal Charter
by Queen Victoria. Through the Royal Charter, the British South Africa Company
was granted powers, subject to the British Government’s approval, to make Treaties
and to acquire Concessions, and to maintain a police force. Initially the Chartered
Company’s sphere of operations was within the British Sphere of Influence as was
defined in the 1889 Order in Council, but excluded Nyasa District which was declared
a Protectorate of Her Majesty.
In 1891 the Chartered Company’s sphere of operations was, through an
Agreement between the British Government and the British South Africa Chartered
Company, extended to territories north of the Zambezi River. In actual fact however,
Cecil John Rhodes had extended the operations of the British South Africa Company
across the Zambezi River long before that. On 23rd December 1889, C. J. Rhodes
purchased on behalf of the British South Africa Company the Ware Concession by
which Lewanika granted to Harry Ware the sole right of mining for precious stones,
gold or other minerals in the Batoka country on 7th June 1889.9
And wishing to
extend the Ware Concession further, as well as to forestall Portuguese and Germany
expansion, Rhodes sent a Company representative, Frank Elliot Lochner to negotiate
a much broader Treaty with the Lozi ruler. Before Lochner knew the terms and
conditions of the Royal Charter, on 26th June 1890 Lewanika and the British South
Africa Company representative signed the Lochner Treaty.10
Lewanika’s choice was to be under the British imperial rule. On 8th January
1889, the Lozi ruler had written a letter through the missionary Francois Coillard
to the Administrator of Bechuanaland, Sir Sidney Shippard, stating that he wished
to be placed under British protection.11 In February 1889 Lewanika had another
letter written to the High Commissioner for South Africa, Sir Henry Brougham Loch,
inquiring about British protection. In April 1890 Loch urged the British Government
to include the Barotse country in the British Sphere of Influence. On 1st November
1890 Lewanika wrote to the Queen (Victoria) requesting the Queen’s protection.12
9
The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia, T. W. Baxter. – Occasional Papers No. 1
June 1963. The National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, pp.6-7
10 Ibid pp. 8-10
11 Coillard to Sir Sidney Shippard, Administrator of Bechuanaland, 8th January 1889 No.
115 Conf. 5918 Public Record Office London.
12 Lewanika to the Queen. 1st November 1890 Enclosure 3 in Colonial Office to Foreign
Mutumba Mainga Bull
16
Lewanika was given assurances that he was under the protection of the Queen.13
In November 1890 Portugal and Britain discussed the possibility of setting up
a temporary boundary line, a Modus Vivendi, to separate Portuguese and British
Spheres of Influence on the Upper Zambezi. In Article IV of the Treaty between
Britain and Portugal of 11th June 1891 it was specified that the entire Barotse
Kingdom would remain within the British Sphere and its limits to the West would
constitute the international boundary between the British and the Portuguese
Spheres of Influence.14 It was specified further that the limits to the west of
Lewanika’s kingdom would be decided by a joint Anglo-Portuguese Commission,
and in case of differences there would be a right to appoint one umpire for purposes
of arbitration.15
In June 1893 the Modus Vivendi was established setting up a temporary dividing
line between the Portuguese and the British Spheres on the Upper Zambezi. The
dividing line was the course of the Zambezi River from Katima Mulilo rapids to the
confluence of the Zambezi River with the Kabompo River, and then up the course of
the Kabompo River. The temporary boundary was originally intended as a two-year
measure only but it was extended in January 1896 to July 1898, and it was in place until
1905.16 Lewanika and his Council (Kuta) frequently expressed their disappointment
that the Queen’s Government had not been able to come to any settlement with
Portugal. The Lozi ruler complained that the Portuguese had encroached very
rapidly into the heart of his country pushing their forts, and encouraging slave trade.
Furthermore, the Lozi ruler wrote to both the British High Commissioner for South
Africa and Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom, protesting against any division of
his country between the Portuguese and the Germans.17
The unsatisfactory nature of the Modus Vivendi line was highlighted by the
BSA Co. which saw the dividing line along the Zambezi River and the Kabompo
River as depriving Great Britain of considerable and important territorial rights.18
Furthermore, the Modus Vivendi meant that the Lozi Chieftainship at Libonda in
present Kalabo district, then under Lewanika’s younger sister, Akatoka, fell under
the Portuguese Sphere in Angola! Similarly Kaunga Mashi Lozi Chieftainship, then
under Lewanika’s nephew Litianyana, was also in the Portuguese Sphere! The
western limits of Lewanika’s Kingdom was to prove a subject of serious contention
Office. 3rd August 1891 No. 119 Conf. 6178 Public Record Office, London. 13Knutsford to Sir H. Loch. 25th August 1891 Enclosure in C.O. to F. O. of 26th August
1891 No. 140 Conf. 6178 – Loch to Lewanika 18th September 1891 Enclosure 2 in C.O. to F.O. 14th March
1892 No. 50 Conf. 6337.
14 A History of Northern Rhodesia. Early Days to 1953. L. H. Gann. Chatto & Windus
London 1964, p.65 – BSACo. to High Commissioner 2nd August 1894 Enclosure I in Rhodes to Kimberley
7th December 1894 No. 1 Conf. 6688. 15 A History of Northern Rhodesia. Early Days to 1953. L. H. Gann. Chatto & Windus London 1964, p.65.
M.de.Castro to Salisbury. 7th September 1896 No. 56 Conf. 6911. 16 Foreign Office to R. T. Coryndon 8th April 1897 No. 101 Conf. 6968 17 Lewanika to the Queen. 22nd October 1896. Enclosure No. 3 in C.O. to F.O. 2nd April
1897 No. 96 Conf. 6968 Lewanika to H. Robinson, 22nd October 1896. Enclosure No. 2 in C.O. to F.O. 2nd
April 1897 No. 96 Conf. 6968.
18 C. J. Rhodes to Kimberley 7th December 1894. No. 1 Conf. 6688 – Dr. Harris (BSA Co.) to High Commissioner. 2nd August 1893, Enclosure 2 in C.O. to. F. O. 4th September 1893 No. 179 Conf. 648.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
17
between Britain and Portugal to the extent that the matter had to be referred for
arbitration.19
The missionary Francois Coillard writing from Lealui on 27th June 1890 during
the negotiations for the Lochner Treaty gave the frontiers of the Barotse Kingdom
as defined in a Council held by the King Lewanika, his Councillors and the principal
Headmen of the nation, held at Lealui on 25th June 1890. Coillard, before going into
greater details of the boundary lines and a list of 23 tribes, recorded that the general
boundary lines of the Barotse Kingdom were:
On the South the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers; On the West the 20
longitude E; On the North the watershed of the Congo and the
Zambezi Rivers; and on the East the Kafue River.20
In preparation for the delimitation of the permanent boundary between British
and Portuguese territories, the British Government in 1896 sent out an expedition
under Major Goold Adams in an effort to determine the ‘Western limits’ of
Lewanika’s kingdom.21 When Major Goold Adams asked King Lewanika to describe
the boundaries of his kingdom, the Lozi ruler reportedly replied ‘I do not know what
you mean by kingdom, but I will tell you where my people live’. Lewanika then went
on to list the tribes under his suzerainty. Ten of the seventeen tribes listed by the
Lozi ruler occupied territory to the West of the ‘Modus Vivendi’. Major Goold Adams
submitted his Report with a map showing the route he took through the country,
and also showing the total area, which Lewanika had informed him, comprised his
Kingdom.22 Goold Adams indicated that a large portion of Barotse country lay west
of the Zambezi and Kabompo rivers and west of the provisional Modus Vivendi line
of 31st May 1893. As a result of Major Goold Adams’ Report the British Government
declined to accept the line of the Modus Vivendi as definitive.23 Furthermore, they
requested the Portuguese Government that the area between the boundary of Major
Goold Adams and the Modus Vivendi line be regarded as neutral territory between
the two Governments until an award had been given by an Arbitrator. Major Goold
Adams outlined what he considered to be the ‘irreducible minimum’ of Lozi territory
in the West and North as: ‘The Chobe River from its junction with the Zambezi to
14½ latitude south, to Luchazi country and east to the Cubangui river and up its
source and north to the Lungwebungu and down this to the village of Dioma, to
the source of the Lumbala river, down to its junction with the Zambezi and up the
19 Goold Adams to F.O. 10th October 1897 No. 54 Conf. 7010 -F.O to C.O. 20th October 1897. No. 56 Conf.
7010 – C.O. to F.O. 11th June 1898 No. 81 Conf. 7074. 20 C.O. to F.O. 4th September 1893 No. 179. Conf. 6482 – Dr. Harris (BSACo.) to High Commissioner. 2nd
August 1893, Enclosure 2 in C.O. to F.O. 4th September 1893 No. 179 Conf. 6482. Original Memorandum
on Frontiers by Lewanika at full Pitso 26 June 1890 Enclosure 3 in C.O. to F.O. 4th September 1893 No.
179 Conf. 6482.
21 Major Goold Adams to Lord Rosemead. 21st October 1896 Enclosure 2 in C.O. to F.O.
6th February 1897 No. 38 Conf. 6968. 22 Goold Adams to Foreign Office 28th November 1896. No. 65, Conf. 6968 Goold Adams to Foreign Office,
24th August 1897 No. 35 Conf. 7010 23C.O. to F.O. 11th June 1898 No. 81. Conf. 7074 – F.O. to C.O. 1st July 1898 No. 1 Conf. 7143 – F.O. to C.O.
20th October 1897 No. 56. Conf. 7010.
Mutumba Mainga Bull
18
Zambezi to the source.’24
Further investigations and reports followed that of Major Goold Adams after
the British Government and the Portuguese Government failed to agree over Major
Goold Adam’s Report.25 In 1898 the Expedition of Major A. St. H. Gibbons followed.
The objectives of the 1898 Expedition included:
(1) to determine the geographical limits of Lewanika’s country, with which,
in accordance with the Anglo-Portuguese Convention of 1891, the British
boundary in the west is conterminous.
(2) to define the Congo-Zambezi watershed, as representing the Treaty frontier
between the British sphere and the Congo state.
(3) to make a hydrographical and ethnographical survey of the whole of Lewanika’s
territory.
Major Gibbons pushed the boundaries of Lewanika’s Kingdom further in the
west and north to the Kwito River and Kasai River respectively.26 Major Gibbons
also produced a map of the Upper Zambezi Basin showing the distribution of tribes
under the rule of the ruler of the Lozi people. The map was produced from surveys
and exploration by Gibbons and others on his Expeditions 1895-96 and 1898-1900.27
Later Reports in 1901 by Major Colin Harding and R. T. Coryndon came to
conclusions very similar to those of Major Gibbons and his Party. Coryndon, who in
1897 had been the first resident representative of the British South Africa Company
in Bulozi and who in 1901 was the Administrator for North-Western Rhodesia,
claimed that Lewanika had not told the full extent of his Kingdom to Goold Adams.28
Coryndon’s own recommendations were that the western boundary should run from
the Kwito River to its junction with the Okavango, to the junction with Cuanavare
and up this to the source, the watershed dividing the Kwanza on the west from
Lungwebungu in the east to the source of the Kasai to the Congo Free State border.
(Democratic Republic of the Congo).29
The Missionary Adolphe Jalla was in 1903 asked by the Administrator of North
Western Rhodesia to make a statement on what was the state of affairs before June
1891. Jalla could not give a detailed report since he was on his way from leave
and did not have any notes with him. He however gave the western boundary of
Bulozi/Barotseland as the Luvale and Lunda countries in the present North Western
Province of Zambia, to the source of the Zambezi in the north; Kwito River to the
Okavango in the west; the Chobe to its confluence with the Zambezi and along the
24Major Goold Adams to the Foreign Office 10th October 1897. No. 54 Conf. 7010. 25 Foreign Office to Colonial Office 11th June 1896 No. 139 Conf. 6851-BSACo. to Foreign Office 16th June
1896. No. 140 Conf. 6851.
26 Africa from South to North through Marotseland. Volume I. Major A. St. H. Gibbons
FRGS, RCI, John Lane London MDCCCCIV p.4. See also Volume II for the whole account.
27 See map showing the Lozi Kingdom at the end of the 19th Century by Major Gibbons
et alias here attached.
28 Coryndon to Salisbury. Lealui 29th December 1897 No. 40 Conf. 7074. 29 Coryndon to Salisbury. Lealui 29th December 1897 No. 40 Conf. 7074.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
19
Zambezi to the junction with the Kafue River in the south. Lewanika in an affidavit
in June 1903 pointed out his boundary to the north as the Kasai River and the
headwaters of the Zambezi River. He included the Luvale and Lunda countries. In
the West, Lewanika stated that his kingdom extended to the Kwito River and the
headwaters of the Lungwebungu River. He claimed the Mambunda country but
excluded the Chokwe area. In the South, Lewanika pointed to the Okavango River
and the area north of the Mangwe Kwanu River. The Lozi ruler went on to declare
that Lozi representative Indunas in these areas, and Indunas of the indigenous tribes
there could give evidence in support of his claim.30
Finally, the Colonial Office in a letter dated 15th September 1903 requested the
Director-General of Military Intelligence to draw up a map showing the whole of
Lewanika’s country ‘with a certain margin of the surrounding territories on the
scale 1:2,000,000’. The Colonial Office directed that the limits of Lewanika’s country
should be:
10º South latitude on the North
18º 25’ South latitude on the South, being the Southern Limit of
Intelligence Divisions Map No. 1541
29º East longitude on the East
17º East longitude on the West.31
The Colonial Office directed further that the western limit of the Lozi kingdom
should be the headwaters of the Quanza and its affluents; and the boundary in the
east, between Barotseland North Western Rhodesia and North Eastern Rhodesia
should also be shown on the map; the names of all the tribes mentioned in the
Reports to be used were to be inserted on the map; and the Reports to be used were
those of Major Goold Adams; Col. C. Harding and Major Gibbons and his companions.
Mr. Coryndon and Col. Harding were to assist in the preparation of the case for
border arbitration.32
The international boundary between the British and the Portuguese Spheres
was finally established on 23 June 1905, through the arbitration of the King of Italy,
King Emmanuel III. The King of Italy did not base his arbitration on legitimacy
claims. The area in dispute was simply divided into two equal parts between Britain
and Portugal. The new boundary was defined as follows:
The straight line joining Katima Rapids on the Zambezi to
the village of Andara on the Okavango as far as the point of
intersection with the river, Kwando, the eastern bank of that river
to the point of intersection with the twenty-second meridian then
the twenty second meridian to its intersection with the thirteenth
parallel, the thirteenth parallel to its intersection with the
twenty-fourth meridian, thence the twenty-fourth meridian up to
30 Reports on Lewanika’s influence 1903-1904 A2/2/3 Tag. 312 Loc 59 NAZ.
31 Downing
Street, September 15, 1903 – In Annex to NRG Despatch of August 1964 Re. Mineral Rights (Unpublished) Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd. Moor House London Wall London E.C.2 pp.152-156.
32 Ibid
Mutumba Mainga Bull
20
the frontier of the Congo Free State.33
Lewanika was disappointed by the decision,
it is not quite a good boundary is only to make us much disappointed,
how a boundary can goes like a zig zag … is not a boundary only a
joke indeed… How shall we do Sir to be cutted half and half.34
The British Government declared their inability to do anything. The High
Commissioner, Lord Selbourne wrote to Lewanika:
The territory awarded to King Edward VII is less than you and His
Majesty Government hoped to get, but His Majesty expects us to
respect and loyally abide by the decision arrived at after much
careful thought by an impartial King, a great friend of his to whose
arbitration he was glad to leave the decision.35
The missionaries of the Paris Missionary Society in Bulozi were also upset by
the decision.36 They however felt that without the recommendations of Rev. Adolphe
Jalla, who participated in the arbitration by the Italian King, the decision could have
been worse. In 1935 Adolphe Jalla was decorated by Britain with the Commander
of the British Empire (CBE) medal for his services to the country and for his
contribution in the boundary dispute.37
While the Portuguese saga was unfolding, the British and the Germans were
similarly engaged in negotiations to resolve their rival claims to territory in East
Africa and South West Africa. Through the Anglo-German Agreement of 1st July 1890
Article II the German and British Spheres of Influence in South West Africa were
delimited. The British were determined to see that Germany did not cross to the
East of the Zambezi River. A narrow strip of land, west of the Zambezi, the Caprivi
Zipfel, was extended to bring South West Africa (Namibia) to the Zambezi River.
This impacted on Bulozi to the extent that Litia (later Yeta III) Lewanika’s eldest
son whose chieftainship was centred at Kazungula at the confluence of Linyanti/
Chobe River and the Zambezi River had to be resettled in Sesheke while his subjects
were given the option to remain under Germany rule or move with Litia across
the new southern boundary of Bulozi into Sesheke.38 Lewanika was not party to the
33 Award of Boundary Arbitrator, 23rd June 1905 HC/1/2/4 2173/05. NAZ
– See also Your Friend Lewanika-Litunga of Barotseland 1842-1916. Gervas Clay. Chatto and Windus
London 1968 p.137.
34 Lewanika to Coryndon 19th July 1905, Your Friend Lewanika, Gervas Clay, Chatto
and Windus London 1968 p.137 also Note 15 p.180.
35 High Commissioner to Lewanika. 24th July 1905. Your Friend Lewanika, Gervas
Clay, Chatto and Windus London 1968 p.137 See also Note 16 p.180
36 Your Friend Lewanika. Gervas Clay 1968 p.138
37 The Spread of the Gospel in Barotseland. From the Paris Mission to the United
Church of Zambia. A Chronological History. 1885-1965. Edited by Phillippe Burger, Francois Escande
and André Honegger. DEFAP Paris 2010. p.34.
38 Selous to Rhodes 6th December 1894 on Barotse authority in Chobe area. Enclosure 2
in Rhodes to Kimberly 7th December 1894 No. 1 Conf. 6688.
Africa from South to North Through Marotseland. Vol. 1 Major A. St. H. Gibbons FRGS, RCI John Lane
London MDCCCCIV p.110
The Caprivi Strip during the German Colonial Period 1890-1914 Maria Fisch Out of Africa Publishers
Windhoek, Namibia 1999. pp.51-63
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
21
Anglo-Germany Agreement. At the outbreak of the First World War, Lewanika wrote
to the King in England requesting to get his ‘impis’ to go into Caprivi to drive the
Germans out. The reply came in the negative pointing out that it was a different
kind of warfare. All the same Lewanika sent £200 as his contribution to the war
effort.39 Furthermore, in 1915 he sent 2000 men to transport food between the
line of rail and the Tanganyika border.40 After the defeat of Germany Lewanika was
disappointed that the Caprivi Zipfel as part of South West Africa was handed over by
Britain to the Union of South Africa as part of the mandated territory. Later Yeta III
the son and successor to Lewanika petitioned the Imperial Government for return of
the Caprivi Strip to Bulozi.
The 1890 Lewanika Concession and the Quest for a Resident
While these developments were unfolding along the borders of the Lozi Kingdom,
parallel developments were going on inside Bulozi/Barotseland. As already seen
on 26th June 1890 Lewanika and the British South Africa Company representative
Frank Elliott Lochner signed the Lochner Treaty. Through the Lochner Treaty
Lewanika gave to the British South Africa Company ‘the sole, absolute, and exclusive
and perpetual right and power to search for, dig, win and keep diamonds, gold,
coal, oil and all other precious stones, minerals and substances over his entire
kingdom including any future extension thereof, including all subject and dependent
territory’.
41
In return the Company was to appoint and maintain a British Resident to reside
permanently with the king. There were also promises of development and a subsidy
of £2,000 per annum. The Lochner Treaty was as required by the Charter submitted
to the British Government for scrutiny before approval. The Treaty was found to
have overlooked certain areas and to have overstepped in others. For example,
under Section 26 of the Company’s Charter the Company was not permitted to set
up or grant any monopoly of trade, yet the Lochner Concession gave to the Company
‘the sole absolute and exclusive and perpetual right and power to carry on any
manufacturing, commercial or other trading business’. Secondly, the Lochner Treaty
did not give the Company administrative powers, which according to the Charter
had to be ceded to the Company by Treaty with Lewanika. The British Government
did not therefore ratify the Lochner Treaty and none of its terms and conditions was
ever fulfilled. Furthermore, Lewanika tried to repudiate the Lochner Treaty claiming
39 NR HC-in letters-A2/3/1 NAZ. See also A1/1/16 Tag. 698 LOC 162 NAZ.
40 Ibid.
The Spread of the Gospel in Barotseland: From the Paris Mission to the United Church of Zambia. A
Chronological History 1885-1965 edit. Phillipe Burger, Francois Escande and Andre Honegger DEFA,
Paris 2010. P.49
Your Friend Lewanika. Litunga of Barotseland 1842-1916 Gervas Clay, Chatto and Windus London 1968
pp.153-154
41 The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia. T. W. Baxter, Occasional Papers No. 1 June
1963. The National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Pp.8-10
See also Lochner’s Document Enclosure in Middleton (for Lewanika) to Lord Salisbury, Lealui. 27th
October 1890 No. 158 Conf. 6178
Mutumba Mainga Bull
22
that it was obtained by fraudulent means. The Lozi ruler protested that he did not
know that Lochner was in fact a representative of a commercial company, and that
he had granted a monopoly of the natural resources of his country to a commercial
concern. Lewanika claimed that he thought he was dealing with a representative of
the British Queen (Queen Victoria).42
For nearly seven years after the signing of the Lochner Treaty, there was no sign
of imperial or Company rule on the ground in Bulozi. Lewanika wrote to the Queen
amid fears that he was not under the protection of Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s
Government. The missionary Coillard wrote to the High Commissioner pointing
out the need to send a Resident to Barotseland.43 Initially it was thought that Bulozi
would be under the control of Harry Hamilton Johnston, Her Majesty’s Commissioner
and Consul-General for the territories under British influence north of the Zambezi
who was stationed in Zomba in Nyasaland, present Malawi.44 In a letter to the High
Commissioner Loch dated 25th August 1891 Knutsford (C.O.) instructed Loch to
inform Lewanika that Johnston the Queen’s Commissioner to Central Africa would
visit Barotseland to explain Her Majesty’s wishes and feelings in regard to the Chief
and his country. Knutsford went on to reveal that Mr. Johnston made arrangements
between the Foreign Office and the British South Africa Company for administration
of the territory. It followed therefore that Lewanika should communicate with
Johnston in future on all problems affecting his country.45
On 18th September 1891 Loch wrote to Lewanika to assure the Lozi ruler that
he was under the protection of the Queen and that Johnston H. M. Commissioner in
Central Africa would visit Barotseland. Furthermore he revealed that the Queen and
the BSACo. had arranged that Johnston should take over the administration of the
territory.46
Lewanika replied that he was very pleased but had nothing to say till the arrival
of Johnston before whom he would lay his complaints. Similarly Coillard declared
that he would be very happy to welcome Johnston as H. M.’s Representative and
introduce him to the king and the headmen of the nation.47
On 19th August 1893 Johnston wrote to Rosebery to inform him that he had had
consultations with Loch and Rhodes concerning his assignment with the Barotse
King. He reported that Rhodes had left it to his discretion as to when and how he
should proceed to take up the assignment in Barotseland. At the same time however
Rhodes promised to place £5,000 annually to be spent on the development of
42 Lewanika to the Queen. Sefula 1st November 1890 Enclosure 3 in C.O. to F.O. 3rd
August 1891 No. 119 Conf. 6178
Middleton (for Lewanika) to Lord Salisbury. Lealui 27th October 1890 No. 158 Conf. 6178 43 Coillard to Loch 4th July 1895 Enclosure 2 in C.O. to F.O. 6th December 1895 No.
176 Conf. 6784
44 C.O. to F.O. 3rd August 1891 No. 119 Conf. 6178
See also F.O. to C.O. 12th August 1891 No. 128 Conf. 6178. 45 Kuntsford to Sir H. Loch 25th August 1891. Enclosure in C.O. to F.O. 26th August
1891 No. 140 Conf. 6178.
46 Loch to Lewanika 18th September 1891 Enclosure 2 in C.O. to F.O 14th March 1892
No. 50 Conf. 6337.
47 Coillard to Loch Sefula 13th November 1891 Enclosure 4 in C.O. to F.O. 14th March
1892 No. 50 Conf. 6337.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
23
relations with the Barotse.48 Johnston however felt he should not embark on such
as expensive operation till the boundaries of Barotseland were defined. According
to Johnston the lower portions of Barotseland were not worth opening up – marshy
and exceedingly unhealthy.49 In the end Johnston was unable to go to Barotseland
and the arrangement fell through.
As already seen through the Treaty of 11th June 1891, Britain had claimed and
Portugal had agreed that the entire Lozi kingdom belonged to British Sphere of
Influence. Furthermore, Portugal had agreed that the western limits of Lewanika’s
kingdom would mark the international boundary between the British and Portuguese
Spheres on the Upper Zambezi.50
On 31st May 1894, the Foreign Office revealed that Johnston did not administer
Barotseland since there was no ratified Treaty with the Lozi ruler under the Charter
of the British South Africa Company.51 The Company was therefore requested to
renegotiate the Lochner Treaty in order to make Lewanika confer on the British
South Africa Chartered Company administrative powers in Bulozi. Furthermore, on
24th November 1894 an agreement was signed between the Foreign Office and Cecil
John Rhodes for the Company to undertake the direct administration of the British
Sphere of Influence north of the Zambezi over which its Charter had been extended
in 1891. Thus the responsibility to administer Barotseland was transferred from
Her Majesty’s Commissioner and Consul General in Malawi who was in charge of
British Sphere north of the Zambezi under the African Order in Council of 1889 to
the British South Africa Chartered Company on the basis of the Agreement between
the Company and the Foreign Office of 24th November 1894.52
The Foreign Office then suggested that the High Commissioner at the Cape
should confer with Rhodes as to the policy to be adopted towards Lewanika. The
Company selected H. J. A. Hervey to go to Lewanika to renegotiate the Lochner
Treaty to obtain administrative powers from the Lozi ruler. Hervey died of wounds
received in the Matebele Rebellion of 1896 before he could start for Barotseland.
Due to problems of the Matebele and the Shona resistance in present Zimbabwe
then Southern Rhodesia and due to the Jameson Raid fiasco of 1895 the British
Government chose to suspend the assumption by the Company of further
48 Johnston to Rosebery 19th August 1893 No. 225 Conf. 6482. 49 Ibid.
50 A History of Northern Rhodesia. Early Days to 1953. L. H. Gann Chatto and Windus
London 1964 p.65
Foreign Office to Mr. R. T. Coryndon 8th April 1897, No. 101 Conf. 6968. 51 Precis of Barotseland Correspondence Since 1889 – Enclosure 2 in C.O. to F.O. 16th
January 1897 No. 17 Conf. 6968
See also F.O to BSACo. 14th April 1894 No. 117 Conf. 6537 52 Precis of Barotseland Correspondence since 1889 Enclosure 2 in C.O. to F.O. 16th
January 1897 No. 17 Conf. 6968
The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia by T. W. Baxter. Occasional Papers No. 1 June 1963. The National
Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. p. 11.
Mutumba Mainga Bull
24
administrative responsibilities.53 But pressure from Lewanika and his missionary
advisors was such that even before a new Treaty was negotiated, the Foreign Office
in December 1896 asked the Chartered Company to nominate and send a ‘Resident’
to live in Barotseland and to assist Lewanika in maintaining order among persons
who were subject to Her Majesty’s jurisdiction i.e. white traders and concession
seekers. The Resident to be nominated by the Company had to be approved by
Her Majesty’s Government. Secondly, the Government had to know and agree to
instructions issued by the Company to him. Thirdly, the Resident would represent
both Her Majesty’s Government and the Company and he would go up to Barotseland
with a suitable escort which would include a few policemen.54 Thus in March 1897,
Robert Thorne Coryndon, a South African born officer of the British South Africa
police was nominated by the BSACo. and appointed by the Imperial Government
the first resident with Lewanika.55 Coryndon arrived in Lealui on 23rd October
1897, accompanied by his Secretary Frank Vigers Worthington and an escort of
five European policemen.56 As the ‘Resident’ initially Coryndon resided in the flood
plain near Lealui but in 1898 he moved his residency to the present Mongu site. By
February 1899 he had founded stations at Mongu, Kalomo, Kazungula and Monze.57
At this juncture Coryndon was responsible to the Imperial Government through the
Foreign Office as was stipulated under the 1889 Africa Order in Council relating to
British Sphere of Influence.
The British South Africa Company Administration
In a bid to regularise the administration of British territories north of the Zambezi
over which the Charter was extended, the British South Africa Chartered Company
suggested and the British Government agreed that the country be divided into two
administrative units:- Barotseland North Western Rhodesia and North Eastern
Rhodesia.58 This was because at that time the Eastern and Western sections of the
territory had to be served by different routes from the coast, North Eastern via
Zambezi and Shire; North Western via Bulawayo.
The Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia Order in Council of 28th November
1899 established and defined Barotseland North Western Rhodesia while the North
Eastern Rhodesia Order in Council of 29th January 1900 established and defined
North Eastern Rhodesia. The two Orders in Council superseded the 1889 Africa
Order in Council. It was intended that the area covered by the 1899 Order in Council
53 Ibid.
54 C.O. to F.O. 16th January 1897. No. 17, Conf. 6968 55 Foreign Office to R. T. Coryndon 8th April 1897, No. 101 Conf. 6968
The Barotse Concessions Part II, T. W. Baxter The Northern Rhodesia Journal Number IV December
1951 p. 38
56Coryndon to Salisbury. Lealui 25th November 1897. No. 12 Conf. 7074 57 Africa from South to North through Marotseland, Vol. I. Major A. St. H. Gibbons,
FRGS, John Lane London RCI MDCCCCIV p.111
58 B.S.A. Co. to F.O. 6th May 1898 No. 59, Conf. 7074
see also F.O. to C.O. 14th May 1898 No. 63 conf. 7074.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
25
should be coterminous with lands which fell under Lewanika’s suzerainty although
the Western boundary was not yet determined.
The Barotseland-North Western Order in Council of 1899 in Section 3 defined
Barotseland North Western Rhodesia or the limits of the Order as:
… the parts of Africa bounded by the river Zambezi, the German
South West African Protectorate, the Portuguese possessions, the
Congo Free State and the Kafukwe (Kafue River) or Loengi river.
Such limits further include so much of any territory belonging
to the Mashukulumbwe tribe as may lie east of the Kafukwe or
Loengi River. The territory within the limits of this Order, shall be
known as Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia.59
Barotseland North Western Rhodesia was to be administered under the direct
control of Her Majesty’s High Commissioner for South Africa, acting under the
directions of the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the United Kingdom. It was
said that this was due to the fact that the frontier between North Western Rhodesia
and Portuguese West Africa (Angola) was still not determined, and pending the
boundary settlement Imperial authorities had to be closer. It could also be argued
that after the crises the Company found itself in with the Matebele War of 1893 and
the Shona and Ndebele rebellions of 1896, the British Government was hesitant in
its dealings with the Company. North Eastern Rhodesia on the other hand was to be
administered directly by the British South Africa Chartered Company officers under
the control of Her Majesty’s Commissioner at Zomba in Nyasaland (Malawi) acting
under the directions of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.60
Through the Barotseland North Western Rhodesia Order-in-Council 1899
the British High Commissioner for South Africa at the Cape, had full powers over
Barotseland North Western Rhodesia. He was empowered to make laws for
Barotseland North Western Rhodesia by Proclamation, for raising revenue and
generally for its government. The British South Africa Chartered Company was to
pay for the administration of North Western Rhodesia; the Chartered Company
could nominate administrative and judicial officials for appointment by the High
Commissioner. In other words Company officials worked under the control of the
High Commissioner in South Africa. As for Lewanika, the Colonial Office wrote to the
British South Africa Chartered Company on 8th May 1900 that:
‘The Queen’s authority had already taken place of that of Lewanika, and the
grants to be made by him will only be operative so far as they are ratified by
Her Majesty or are not inconsistent with the Order in Council.61
59 Richard Goodle to the Administrator. Salisbury. 26th October 1921 – Barotse Sphere
of Influence. Annex to NRG Despatch of August 1964 History of Mineral Rights of Northern Rhodesia
– Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd, Moor House London Wall London E.C. 2 (unpublished) January 1967
p.124
60 Foreign Office to the British South Africa Company. 11th March 1899, No. 30 in
Conf. 7310
61 Colonial Office to BSACo. 8th May 1900 Africa (South) 656 No. 65
Mutumba Mainga Bull
26
The 1900 Lewanika Concessions and the Reserved Area
Meanwhile a new renegotiated Treaty with Lewanika was central to all these
constitutional and administrative arrangements although the Treaty would have
to be ratified by Her Majesty the Queen.62 The responsibility to negotiate a new
Concession/Treaty with Lewanika was assigned to the newly appointed Resident.
It is reported that Coryndon possessed ‘all the attributes of a sound negotiatorskill, patience and tact’. The result was first the Lawley Concession of June 1898,
so named after Captain Arthur Lawley the Administrator of Matebeleland, who had
travelled to the Victoria Falls to represent the ‘Chartered Company in negotiations
with the Lozi ruler.63
After days of negotiations Lewanika did not sign the Concession and instead he
wrote to Captain Lawley on 25th June 1898 at Victoria Falls, making an unprecedented
request, saying that he would approve the proposed new Concession provided that
part of his territory was excluded from prospecting and white settlement to be
reserved for the exclusive use of his people under their traditional ruler.
I am writing you this letter which is to be attached to the new
Concession which we have been talking about for the past few days.
We are perfectly satisfied with everything that is written in the
new concession, and ready to change it for the one which is known
as the Lochner Concession, provided that a clause be added to the
following effect, namely:-
‘The British South Africa Company agrees to reserve from
prospecting the whole area of the country within the following
boundaries:-
Northern Boundary – from the headwaters of the Dongwe and
Kabompo Rivers, to the junction of the Kabompo and Zambezi
rivers.
Western and Southern Boundary – from the junction of Kabompo
and Zambezi Rivers along the Zambezi Rivers (n.b. Modus Vivendi
of 1893) to its junction with the Majili (Machile) River.
Eastern Boundary – from the junction of the Zambezi and Majili
Rivers, along the Majili River to its headwaters, then northward,
along the line of the watershed, to the headwaters of the Dongwe
River, as per map attached.64
Lewanika made one condition for the reservation to be withdrawn: if payable
gold was not discovered in the conceded area outside the Reserved Area. Secondly, he
stated that reservation did not imply the exclusion of traders and other travellers.65
The British Government however wished to have the Concession put on hold
62 Foreign Office to BSACo. 14th April 1894. No. 117 Conf. 6537 63 The Lawley Concession of 1898, Victoria Falls, 25th June 1898 – Enclosure 1 in
B.S.A. Co. to F.O. 11th October 1898, No. 73 Conf. 7143. 64 Lewanika to Lawley. 25th June 1898 Enclosure 2 in BSA Co. to F.O. 11th October
1898 No. 73, Conf. 7143.
65 Ibid.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
27
while the Imperial Government was preparing for the settlement of the matter of
the administration of Barotseland. Moreover, there were concerns that the terms
of the Concession should not be inconsistent with the proposed Barotseland-North
Western Rhodesia Order in Council, which was finally issued as already seen, on 28th
November 1899.
New and final Concessions with Lewanika comprising the Lawley Concession
and the Coryndon Concession were both signed by Lewanika and the British South
Africa Chartered Company on 17th October 1900. The British Government approved
the Lawley Concession as Concession ‘A’ on 8th August 1901, and the Coryndon
Concession as Concession ’B’ on 23rd November 1901. Both the Lawley Concession
and the Coryndon Concession included Lewanika’s request to reserve from
prospecting and white settlement the area which was specified in his letter of 25th
June 1898 to Captain Lawley. Through the 1900 Concessions Lewanika succeeded
in having the Central area of the Lozi kingdom centred on the Zambezi Flood Plain
reserved for the exclusive possession and enjoyment of the Lozi people.66 Due
to delays in settling the international boundary between the Portuguese and The
British Spheres of Influence, the Reserved Area was limited to the eastern side of the
Zambezi River as was determined through the 1893 temporary Modus Vivendi. After
the international border settlement the territory west of the Zambezi to the Angolan
border was added in 1909 to the Reserved Area.67
Through the 1900 Concessions Lewanika granted to the British South Africa
Chartered Company
the sole absolute and exclusive perpetual right and power to do
the following acts free of any royalty or deduction over the whole
of the territory of the said Nation or any future extension thereof
including all subject and dependent territory:
To search for dig win and keep diamonds, gold, coal, oil and all
other precious stones minerals or substances.68
In return and in addition to the Reserved Area, Lewanika through the 1900
Concessions/Treaties managed to win for himself and Bulozi terms and conditions
which were more favourable than any other indigenous ruler in present Zambia was
able to secure:
– A special Reserved Area (which was pegged and mapped), and inalienable land
within the Reserve for the exclusive use of the Lozi people under their traditional
ruler.
– Retention by Lewanika of Constitutional power or authority as Chief of the
Barotse Nation.
66 The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia. T. W. Baxter. Occasional Papers No. 1 June
1963. The National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. pp.15, 18
67 The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia. T. W. Baxter. Occasional Papers No. 1 June
1963. The National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. pp. 22-23
The Barotse Concessions Part II, T. W. Baxter. Northern Rhodesia, Journal No. IV December 1951 p.42.
68 The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia, T. W. Baxter. Occasional Papers No. 1 June
1963. The National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. p.13 (Concession A) p. 17 (Concession B).
Mutumba Mainga Bull
28
– Exclusive jurisdiction over cases between natives.
– All land (in North Western Rhodesia) other than that required by the British
South Africa Chartered Company for mining and trading purposes or that
granted as farms in Batoka and Mashukulumbwe countries.
– Certain named iron mines.
– Reservation of all elephants to the King as his exclusive property.
– Reservation to the use of the king and his people of all trees suitable for canoes
on any rivers running from the east into the Zambezi between Kabompo River
and Ngwezi River (30-40 miles above the Victoria Falls in the South).
– Unrestricted use of white granite for making anvils.
– The preservation (as far as the Company can) of all game in the Liuwa west of
Lealui and the Zambezi and South of Lower Lungwebungi, certain named game
on the Lower Luena River; certain other named game in the Barotse Valley
Proper.
– Protection from interference (as far as the Company can) of natives on the
Luanginga and Nyengo rivers (Western tributaries of the Zambezi) and those
between the Machile and Luena rivers (eastern tributaries of the Zambezi)
and those between the Zambezi and the ‘Waggon Road’ which runs west to the
Zambezi from Kalomo and then north to Lealui.
– A subsidy to Lewanika of £850 per annum.69
On 18th October 1900, a day after signing both the Lawley Concession and
Coryndon Concession Lewanika while fully aware of the Modus Vivendi, wrote to
the British South Africa Chartered Company requesting that that part of the country
west of the Zambezi river and the Modus Vivendi, be reserved for the exclusive use of
the king and his people:-
To the British South Africa Company,
Lealui, Barotsiland
October 18, 1900
We have seen Major Coryndon and we thank you for
sending him. We signed the Concession, and we kindly ask a strip
of country within these boundaries:-
From Lutembwe which is the tributary of Lungwebungo,
along to Luanginga, from Luanginga along to the Loowe. From
Loowe to Kutee, from Kutee to Kuando, and from Kuando down
to Kazungula.
We kindly asks this strip of country for our own exclusive use.70
69 Ibid pp. 16-19 See also Lawley Concession. 25th June 1898 Victoria Falls. Enclosure 1 in BSACo. to F.O.
11th October 1898 No. 73 in Conf. 7143. 70 Lewanika to the British South Africa Company, 18th October 1900, in Administrator,
North West Rhodesia to the Secretary BSA Company, 24th June 1901. History of Mineral Rights of Northern Rhodesia Part II Appendices. Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd. Moor House, London Wall, London
E.C.2 (unpublished) January 1967 P.121
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
29
The Colonial Office in a letter dated 17th June 1901 to the British South Africa
Chartered Company stated that ‘no rights of any kind beyond the line fixed by Article
V of the Agreement with Portugal of 1893, as the provisional boundary between
the Spheres of Influence of Great Britain and Portugal, can be recognised by His
Majesty’s Government, pending a final settlement of the boundary question between
His Majesty’s Government and the Government of Portugal’.71
On 24th June 1901, Coryndon, then Administrator of Barotseland North Western
Rhodesia wrote to the Secretary of the British South Africa Chartered Company
pointing out that ‘the great majority of this area is heavily populated and is in close
communication with the numerous important kraals in the valley. From it the King
and his Chief Indunas drive a large proportion of their animal tribute and many fine
canoes … several sorts of mats and household utensils which are extensively used
in the valley. Furthermore the area supplied a large number of workers for work in
the Barotse Valley.’72 On 23rd November 1901, when the Secretary of State confirmed
the 17th October 1900 Lewanika Concessions, he stated that the area asked for by
Lewanika on 18th October 1900 to be reserved for the sole and exclusive use of the
King and his people would be shut to prospecting if it were eventually found within
the British Sphere of Influence and not in that of the Portuguese.73
As already seen above, the King of Italy settled the international boundary
between Angola and Zambia in 1905 through arbitration. It was claimed however
that in return for having the land west of the Zambezi to the Angolan border added
to the Reserved Area Lewanika in 1909 agreed to give to the British South Africa
Chartered Company all land within his territory outside the Reserved Area! Yeta III
disputed this later.74
The eastern limit of Barotseland as already seen was the Kafue River and the
Mashukulumbwe (ILA) country. The Kafue River and the Mashukulumbwe (ILA)
country therefore became the boundary/dividing line between Barotseland North
West Rhodesia and North Eastern Rhodesia. It was the official policy of the Imperial
Government and the British South Africa Chartered Company that the dividing
line between Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia and North Eastern Rhodesia
should be coterminous throughout its length with the eastern boundary/limit of
Lewanika’s kingdom and its subject territory. It therefore followed that whenever
the boundaries of Barotseland-North, Western Rhodesia were altered and extended
to cover new territory Lewanika’s kingdom and the Lewanika Concessions were
71 Colonial Office to the British South Africa Company 17th June 1901. History of
Mineral Rights of Northern Rhodesia Part II. Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd. Moor House, London Wall
London. E.C.2 (unpublished) January 1967. Pp.121 -122
72 Administrator, North Western Rhodesia to the Secretary, BSA Company 24th June
1901 paragraph 6 History of Mineral Rights of Northern Rhodesia Part II. Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd.
Moor House, London Wall London E.C.2 (unpublished) January 1967 p.119
73 See Para. 5 in Conditions of Colonial Secretary’s approval of Concession B. 23rd
November 1901 in Appendix F in Your Friend Lewanika, Gervas Clay, Chatto & Windus. London. 1968.
74 The Barotse Concessions Part II. T. W. Baxter. The Northern Rhodesia Journal No.
IV December 1951, pp.42-43.
Yeta’s Petition to Privy Council, 2nd July 1923. B1/2/8 220 LOC NAZ
Yeta’s Petition to H. H. Prince Arthur of Connaught 1921. B1/2/6 Tag 862 LOC 220 NAZ
Mutumba Mainga Bull
30
similarly ‘extended’ and Lewanika was required to sign supplementary treaties to
the 1900 Concessions in order to cover the newly added strips of territory.75
On 21st October 1903, the British South Africa Chartered Company wrote to
the Colonial Office expressing dissatisfaction with the Barotseland-North Western
Rhodesia and North Eastern Rhodesia boundary from the Kafue Hook to the East.
It was said among other several reasons that the Kafue River divided a mineralised
area and caused some mines to be in North Eastern Rhodesia and others to be
in Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia. On 24th June 1904 the British South
Africa Chartered Company wrote again to the Colonial Office asking for a further
adjustment of the boundary to the Pedicle, the narrowest part of Northern Rhodesia
between Mozambique and the present Congo D. R. The reasons for moving the
boundary to the Pedicle were many and varied. First of all with the coming of the
railway line from the South across the Victoria Falls, through Kalomo, Broken Hill
to the Copperbelt, it was felt the territory along the rail line could be more easily
and economically administered from Kalomo than from Fort Jameson (Chipata) in
North Eastern Rhodesia. Secondly, the new boundary would be of minimum length,
easy and cheaper to maintain. Thirdly, the new boundary would bring the principal
mining properties under one administration and under the Lewanika Concessions.
The Chartered Company would thus gain stronger economic rights “more easily
susceptible of strict proof in case of need than the similar rights in North-Eastern
Rhodesia.”76
On 29th September 1905, the adjustment of the boundary between BarotselandNorth Western Rhodesia and North Eastern Rhodesia to the Pedicle was gazetted
in the official Gazette of the High Commissioner for South Africa and in the London
Gazette. The boundary line in the High Commissioner’s Notice was defined as:
a line drawn from the point where the Congo-Zambezi Watershed
is cut by the meridian which passes through the point at which
the Luapula River leaves Lake Bangweolo to the headwaters
of the River Mlembo thence along the centre of the channel of
the River Mlembo to the junction of that River with the River
Lukasashi thence along the channel of the River Lukasashi to the
junction of that River with the River Loangwa and thence along
the centre of the channel of the River Loangwa to the junction of
that River with the River Zambezi.
77
The adjustment of the border to the Pedicle ‘extended’ the Lozi ruler’s
chieftainship over a vast area, in current terms, equal to the Western Province, North
Western Province, the Copperbelt Province, Central Province, Lusaka Province and
Southern Province, all put together! It is however necessary to point out that this
75 The BSACo’s claims to Mineral Royalties in Northern Rhodesia, Government
Printers 1964 pp21-23).
76 The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia. T. W. Baxter, Occasional Papers No. 1 June
1963 pp. 23-24.
The BSACo.’s Claims to Mineral Royalties in Northern Rhodesia Government Printer 1964 para. 47 p.20
77High Commissioner’s Notice No. 88 of 1905. Johannesburg, 29th September 1905.
Signed C. H. Rodwell, Imperial Secretary – HC1/2/20 Tag 567 LOC123 NAZ
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
31
arrangement lasted only between 1905 and 1911. The 1911 Northern Rhodesia
Order in Council repealed both the Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia Order in
Council of 1899 and the 1900 North Eastern Rhodesia Order in Council and created
Northern Rhodesia. The dividing line was no longer applicable. On the other hand,
Lewanika’s rights and the BSACo.’s rights under the 1900 and 1909 Lewanika
Concessions were recognised in the Order in Council.78
The Lozi ruler received 10% of all the annual payment from the Native Tax
Revenue of the entire North West Rhodesia up to the Pedicle in lieu of tribute.79 The
Native Hut/Poll Tax introduced in 1904 was by 1913 paid by all Africans in North
Western Rhodesia. The Lozi share of the Native Tax was paid into the Barotse Trust
Fund for the benefit of the King and the Lozi people.80 On 21st September 1905 the
High Commissioner for South Africa wrote to Lewanika:
It has been settled that every year a tenth part of the money
collected shall be put on one side. The part which is set aside will
be called the Commission … Every year, after the Commission has
been set aside, £1,200 will be taken from it and paid to you and
you will keep this for yourself. This will be your share. I have made
your share of £1,200 because this is the sum which it has been the
custom to pay to the Paramount Chief in Basutoland.
In the following years I expect that the Commission will be more
than £1,200 so that there will be some money left after you have
received your share. The money, which is left over, will be spent
for the benefit of your people, in building schools, or improving
the villages, or making roads, or in any other way that is good and
useful for the natives.81
In 1925 after Her Majesty’s Government had taken over the administration of
Northern Rhodesia from the British South Africa Chartered Company administration
the 10% of native tax collected in North Western Rhodesia was converted into 30%
of the native tax collected within the Barotse Province and paid by Lozi taxpayers
everywhere. In December 1938 the Barotse Trust Fund was liquidated and £4,484.37
was paid into the Native Treasury Account following the introduction of the Barotse
Native Authority and Native Courts Ordinances to Barotseland.82
78 HC1/2/52 Tag 600 LOC133 – NAZ
79 The Barotse Concessions Part II. T. W. Baxter Northern Rhodesia Journal No. IV
December 1951 pp.43,44
Colonial Office to High Commissioner The Earl of Selbourne, 11th August 1905 HC1/2/20 Tag 567 LOC.
123 NAZ
80 The Barotse Concessions Part II, T. W. Baxter. Northern Rhodesia Journal No. IV
December 1951 p.44
The Barotse Trust Fund 1905 June 6 – June 24. A3/5 Tag 327 LOC 63 NAZ
81 The High Commissioner to Lewanika. 21st September 1905 in the Barotse
Concessions Part II. T. W. Baxter, Northern Rhodesia Journal No. IV December 1951 p.44
82 1938 Barotse Annual Report. Sec 2/71 Vol. 4B. NAZ
1933-36 Re-organisation of Barotse Trust. SEC2/360 NAZ
1936-38 Barotse Trust Fund and Barotse Native Treasuries matters and Proposed Merger SEC2/366
NAZ
Mutumba Mainga Bull
32
Furthermore and in keeping with the 1900 Concessions, Lewanika had the right
to Game in North Western Rhodesia. In 1924 this entitlement was commuted for
cash payment of £350 annually. Similarly, the Lozi ruler had the right to the ground
tusks of ivory found in North Western Rhodesia. In 1924 Litunga Yeta III gave up
the right to the ivory in return for an annual payment of £500. Through the same
arrangement in 1924 in return for voluntarily giving up the right to tribute in the
form of free labour which Yeta III and his Indunas were entitled to exact, it was
agreed that the Lozi ruler would be paid an annual sum of £2,500 to be shared with
the Mulena Mukwae of Nalolo and Indunas. This however was considered to be
inadequate by the recipients.
Areas of conflict between the Lozi rulers and the BSA Co. Administrators
The Company Officials were however, not happy with the Lozi ruler’s continued
authority and influence outside the Reserved Area. Contrary to the terms of the 1900
Concessions, in November 1904 Lewanika was persuaded to surrender powers of
Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction over Africans in the area outside the Reserved Area.
Furthermore, in a move calculated to diminish the Lozi ruler, in 1907 Lewanika was
officially deprived of the title ‘King’ and came to be officially recognised as merely
‘Paramount Chief’. The directive to withdraw the title of ‘King’ from Lewanika was
sent to the District Commissioner, Mongu, on 3rd October 1907. The Secretary for
Native Affairs wrote ‘His Honour the Administrator directs that Lewanika shall be
officially designated as the ‘Paramount Chief of the Barotse Nation.’ The title of
‘King’ as applied to Lewanika, and that of ‘Prince’ to Letia are to be discontinued and
discountenanced.83
The Company administration officials committed themselves to reducing the
Lozi ruler’s authority and influence in the territory outside the Reserved Area to
the minimum. L. A. Wallace Administrator in Livingstone wrote on 21st November
1918 to the Magistrate, Mumbwa, who had earlier written to him to complain about
Barotse interference in Native Affairs in Kafue District, that when he visited the Lozi
ruler ‘Litia asked what was his position outside the Barotse District with regard to
Native Affairs. I told him that he had no position at all and that he must not interfere
at all in any matter:
this is the attitude we have taken for some years and there is no
doubt that the Khotla has been at the same time trying to maintain
its influence especially in the Balla country. Their claim is based
on the Agreement of 1900 where all Native Affairs are reserved
for Lewanika. It is only by custom that we have confined him to
the Barotse District and by passing laws we have confirmed the
custom, but if he claimed his privileges under the Concession, I am
inclined to think a great deal of trouble would arise and that we
might need a Special Order in Council taking away his rights. We
should hardly be likely to get this in face of the 1900 Agreement.84
83 Secretary for Native Affairs Livingstone. North Western Rhodesia to the District
Commissioner, Barotse District Mongu. 3rd October 1907, KDE 2/34/17 NAZ 84Barotse interferences in native affairs in Kafue District 1909 March 20 – 1921
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
33
Another area of conflict between the Lozi ruler and the British South Africa
Chartered Company administration concerned Land. In the 1900 Concessions with
Lewanika immigration was only allowed if approved by the King, and there was no
general provision for granting land to settlers. The Charter did not give power to
the Company to make land grants unless they had such powers from the Lozi ruler.85
The King on behalf of his people held all land. The British South Africa Chartered
Company was however given the right to land for mining and trading purposes. The
Company was also given the right to make grants of land for farming purposes in
any portion of the Batoka or Mashukulumbwe country to white men approved by
the King.86
Subsequently, the Company pressed the Lozi ruler to give them more land
through Land Concessions of 1904, 1905, 1906 and in 1909 reportedly in return for
having the land west of the Zambezi river to the international boundary with Angola
added to the ‘Reserved Area’, Lewanika gave to the British South Africa Company all
land within his territory outside the Reserved Area. All the money realised from the
sale of such land was to be treated as commercial income for the Company.87
The Company acquired land for the railway, for the work of the mines, for
plantations of the Company itself and for settlers, and the development of townships.
The Company’s land policy caused friction between Africans and Europeans as the
former were removed from land intended for European settlement. The Company
justified its position by arguing that ‘it holds its land assets under valid concessions
which it was authorised by its Charter to acquire and hold and which had been
approved by a Secretary of State, that its title to these assets is wholly independent
of its administrative position and that it has full rights of ownership.’88
Thus Lewanika, knowingly or unknowingly, gave away the land and mineral
rights in the whole of North Western Rhodesia outside the Barotse Reserved Area
to the British South Africa Chartered Company. L.A. Wallace the Administrator for
North Western Rhodesia commented “In reality I think that Lewanika and his Council
have made up their minds for some time that the eastern part of North Western
Rhodesia is nothing to them; they exercise no control, almost no influence outside
the Barotse Valley.”89 Similarly, the High Commissioner of South Africa at the time,
described the 1909 Lewanika Land Concession as practically abandoning all North
Western Rhodesia outside Barotseland Proper to the Company.90
October 26 – B2/1/4 Tag 545 LOC 116 NAZ
85 C.O. to F.O. 29th September 1897 No. 49 Conf. 7010 86The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia. T. W. Baxter, Occasional Papers No. 1 June
1963 p.17
87 The Barotse Concessions – Part II. T. W. Baxter, The Northern Rhodesia Journal No.
IV December 1951 pp. 41 – 42.
See The Concessions of Northern Rhodesia, T. W. Baxter in Occasional Papers No. 1 June 1963. The
National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland pp.19-22
88 Colonial Office to Law Officers 6th May 1920. Position of the BSA Co. regarding the
ownership of Land and administrative deficits. Para.10 in A History of the Mineral Rights of Northern
Rhodesia (unpublished) Part II Appendices. Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd. Moor House, London Wall,
London E.C.2 January 1967. P.294
89 Wallace to High Commissioner, November 1909. HC1/2/9 NAZ
Your Friend Lewanika. Gervas Clay, Chatto & Windus London 1968 p.145
90 C.O. to Law Officers 6th May 1920. Para. 7. In A History of the Mineral Rights of
Northern Rhodesia (unpublished). Part II Appendices Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd, Moor House London Wall. London E.C.2 January 1967 p.293
Mutumba Mainga Bull
34
Soon, differences began to emerge between the Lozi on one hand, and the
Company on the other as to the real meaning and significance of the Land Concessions
given by Lewanika. In 1910 during consideration of the Draft 1911 Order in Council
for the then proposed amalgamation of Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia and
North Eastern Rhodesia, Lewanika and his Indunas explained that they did not allow
the Company to sell land nor to own it.91 Furthermore, it was subsequently argued
that the extension of the Reserved Area to the Angolan border could not be made
a condition for obtaining the 1909 Land Concession, since the extension had been
promised by the Secretary of State in Britain, when he confirmed and approved the
1900 Concession in 1901.92
By 1909, the Lozi ruler had lost his title as King; he had lost his mineral rights;
his rights of civil and criminal jurisdiction over natives which he surrendered in
1904; and rights over substantial territorial land in the area outside the Reserved
Area. Lewanika’s dissatisfaction with the British South Africa Chartered Company
was such that on 18th November 1907 he had written to the Secretary of State for
the Colonies stating that he did not want to be under the Chartered Company any
more, but under the Imperial Government as a Protectorate Native State.93 The High
Commissioner of South Africa H. C. Selbourne proposed complete partition of the
Reserved Area and the rest of North Western Rhodesia. He proposed direct imperial
protection for the Barotse Reserved Area on the lines of Basutoland and other High
Commission Protectorates. The British Government however turned down the
proposal on grounds that the Company would not agree to the proposal, and due to
questions of financial self-sufficiency.94
When the issue of amalgamation of North Western Rhodesia and North Eastern
Rhodesia was raised the Colonial Office stated that there was ‘no question … of
establishing for the (Barotse) Reserve any other system of government than that
provided for the rest of Northern Rhodesia by the Order in Council.’ The Special
Status of the Barotse Reserve under the 1900 Concessions was safeguarded by two
clauses in the 1911 Order in Council. One clause provided for the non-alienation of
the land in Barotseland. The second clause confirmed the rights and obligations of
the Lozi ruler and the Lozi people under the Concessions/Treaties of 1900.95
Lewanika died in 1916 and was succeeded by his son Litia who became Litunga
Yeta III.96 Yeta III was convinced that his father had been cheated into signing away
91Administrator North Western Rhodesia to the Secretary BSACo. 9th December 1910
in History of the Mineral Rights of Northern Rhodesia (unpublished) Part II Maxwell Stamp Associates
Ltd. Moor House, London Wall, London E.C.2 January 1967 pp.272-273
92 Yeta’s Petition to the Privy Council. 2nd July 1923 Lealui Barotseland –B1/2/8 Tag.
862 LOC 220NAZ Yeta’s Petition to the H H Prince Arthur of Connaught 1921 – B1/2/6 Tag 862 LOC 220
Conditions of Colonial Secretary’s Approval of Concession B. at Appendix F in Your Friend Lewanika,
Gervas Clay, Chatto & Windus London 1968
93 Complaints by Lewanika against the BSACo. 1907-1908 HC1/2/30 Tag.578 LOC126
NAZ
94 Selbourne to Secretary of State, 17th June 1907 – HC1/2/6 NAZ Barotseland: Survival of an African
State. E. Stokes, The Zambesian Past edit. E. Stokes & R. Brown Manchester University Press 1966 pp.
289, 290
95 1911 Northern Rhodesia Order-in-Council – A1/1/13 NAZ
See also HC1/2/52 Tag 600 LOC 133NAZ
96 B1/2/4 Tag. 860 LOC 219 NAZ
HC/1/3/29 Tag. 1115 LOC 277 NAZ
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
35
his rights through the use of documents, which he did not fully understand.97 He
expressed unhappiness with the British South Africa Chartered Company as a
commercial concern and its preoccupation with the acquisition of minerals, and the
sale of land. ‘All our Concessions with the Company and Agreements with it should
be repealed and new ones made with a perfect knowledge that we are dealing with
a Commercial Company.98
As to the future administration of Barotseland, Litunga Yeta III petitioned that:
Whatever change of Government will take place, the territories
defined as Barotseland-North Western Rhodesia in the Order in
Council of 1899, as these territories had been put under the British
Protection by neither conquest nor annexation but by the free
will request of the Barotse people, should be put under the Direct
Rule of His Majesty the King and His Imperial Government, as a
Protectorate Native State with a British Resident Commissioner to
reside permanently with the Paramount Chief.99
The British Government did not accede to the request for the cancellation of the
Lewanika Concessions. They notified the Lozi ruler that the British South Africa
Chartered Company’s administration of Northern Rhodesia would terminate from
1st April 1924. The Company would then cede to the Crown all rights and interests in
land acquired by virtue of the Land Concessions with Lewanika. The Company would
similarly cede to the Crown all administrative and commercial rights granted to the
Company under Lewanika Concessions. The mineral rights which were granted
to the Company under the same Lewanika Concessions would however neither
be cancelled nor transferred, and the Company would continue to pay the annual
subsidy of £850 to the Lozi ruler as was provided for in the 1900 Concession.100
On 29th September 1923 just before the British South Africa Chartered
Company’s Government ceased, the British Government and the Company signed
the Devonshire Agreement. The British Government reaffirmed the British South
Africa Chartered Company’s claim to mineral rights in Northern Rhodesia. Clause
3(G) of the Agreement provided that:
the Company shall retain and the Crown shall recognise the
Company as the owner of the mineral rights acquired by the
Company in virtue of the Concessions obtained from Lewanika in
North Western Rhodesia.101
97 Yeta’s Petition to H H Prince Arthur of Connaught. 1921 – B1/2/6 Tag. 862LOC 220
NAZ
98 Yeta’s Petition to Prince Arthur of Connaught 1921– B1/2/6 Tag. 862LOC 220 NAZ
99 Yeta’s Petition to Prince Arthur of Connaught 1921-B1/2/6 Tag. 862 LOC 220
100 Letter from the Secretary of State to the High Commissioner, South Africa. 20th
October 1923 in the History of the Mineral Rights of Northern Rhodesia Part II (unpublished) Maxwell
Stamp Associates, Moor House London Wall, London E.C.2 January 1967 pp.315-316
101 The BSACo’s claims to Mineral Royalties in Northern Rhodesia 1964 Government
Printer. Lusaka Paragraph 62, p.26)
See Agreement between the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the British South Africa Company for
the Settlement of outstanding questions relating to Southern and Northern Rhodesia dated 29th September 1923. Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty. November 1923. London. Published by
His Majesty’s Stationery Office. In Annex to NRG Despatch of August 1964 RE. Mineral Rights. Maxwell
Mutumba Mainga Bull
36
Barotseland under Colonial Office Rule 1924 – 1964
The Northern Rhodesia Order in Council of 1924(a) 1924 No. 324 came into
operation on 1st April 1924 and it revoked the 1911 Order in Council. The British
South Africa Chartered Company’s administration of Northern Rhodesia ceased and
the Governor was put in charge of the territory on His Majesty’s behalf. Northern
Rhodesia became a Protectorate through the Colonial Office with a partly elected
Legislative Council and an Executive Council of Senior Civil Servants responsible to
the Governor. The special status of Barotseland within the Protectorate of Northern
Rhodesia was recognised in Clause 41 of the Northern Rhodesia Order in Council of
1924:
Clause 41 (1) It shall not be lawful for any purpose whatever,
except with the consent of the Chief of the Barotse and with the
approval of the Secretary of State, to alienate from the chief and
people of the Barotse, the territory reserved from prospecting
by virtue of the Concession from Lewanika to the British South
Africa Chartered Company, dated 17th day of October 1900 and
the 11th day of August 1909.
(2) All rights reserved to or for the benefit of natives by the
aforesaid Concessions as approved by the Secretary of State
shall continue to have full force and effect.102
In 1932 at the Colonial Office proposals were presented to the Governor of
Northern Rhodesia Sir James C. Maxwell whether it was possible at that moment
to make Barotseland a separate administrative unit, managing its own finances,
making its own laws, and employing its own civil servants subject only to some
such control being exercised by the Resident and the Governor as was exercised
in Basutoland by the Resident and the High Commissioner for South Africa.103 Sir
James C. Maxwell felt the Barotse were at that moment unfitted to be entrusted
with the financial responsibility which they would have to bear if Barotseland was
immediately constituted into an independent native state, even with the assistance
of European officers. He instead succeeded in persuading the Colonial Office
officials to apply to Barotseland the Native Authority and Native Courts Ordinances
‘modified in agreement with the Paramount Chief to suit the special circumstances
of Barotseland.’104 According to David Mulford in his book ‘Zambia Politics of
Independence 1957 – 1964’, when in 1936 the Government established the Native
Authority system, the Barotse Native Government was granted wider powers and
a greater degree of local autonomy than the Territory’s other Native Authorities.105
Stamp Associates Ltd. Moor House London Wall London E.C.2 (unpublished) p.331
102 A1/1/52 NAZ
See also the Northern Rhodesia Order in Council 1924(a) 1924 No. 324 in A History of the Mineral
Rights of Northern Rhodesia (unpublished) Part I. Maxwell Stamp Associates Ltd Moor House, London
Wall, London E.C.2 January 1967 p.337
103RC/1243.NAZ 104 RC/1243.NAZ 105 Zambia Politics of Independence 1957 – 1964 David C. Mulford Oxford University
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
37
Barotse Province was initially excluded from Native Authority Ordinances for
the territory reportedly due to essential differences and out of deference for the
expressed wish of the Paramount Chief.
The Barotse Native Authority Ordinance No. 25 of 1936 was promulgated in
November 1936, while the Barotse Native Courts Ordinance No. 26 of 1936 became
law on 1st January 1937.106 The introduction of the Ordinances recognising Native
Authorities and Native Courts in Barotseland was a stipulation of the Agreement
signed on 21st September 1936 between the British Crown and the Litunga Yeta III.107
The Kuta at Lealui under the Paramount Chief became the Superior Native Authority
for the Province. Seven Subordinate Authorities were appointed at Nalolo, Libonda,
Mwandi, Sesheke, Kaunga, Nawinda in Balovale and Naliele in Mankoya. The seven
Subordinate Authorities were appointed at Kutas, which were already in existence
per Lozi tradition and under a chief or chieftainess in each of the six districts of the
Province.
A Native Authority with the approval of the Governor could legislate and make
Rules on any matter providing for the peace, good order and welfare of the natives.
But such Rules were subordinate legislation only and could be held to be ultra vires
unless they were reasonably necessary for peace good order and welfare of the
natives.108 Similarly a Native Authority or Subordinate Authority could make Orders
for the purposes specified in sub-sections to Section 8 of the Ordinance. All Orders
however had to be reported at the earliest possible time to the Native Authority to
which it was subordinate as well as to the District Commissioner. The Provincial
Commissioner or the District Commissioner could order an Order to be revoked or
refrain a Native Authority from enforcing an Order. The Superior Native Authority at
Lealui could make Rules and Orders for all districts in the Province.
The Barotse Native Courts Ordinance recognised the Paramount Chief’s Court
at Lealui as the first Superior Court and Nalolo as the second Superior Court. The
District Kutas were recognised as First Class Courts and they were courts of first
instance and appeal except for courts at Nawinda and Naliele, which had appellate
jurisdiction only. This was to allow the local courts under indigenous chiefs (non
Lozi) to hear cases in their respective areas and come to the District only on appeal.
Second Class Courts were recognised at the Kutas of Silalo Indunas. The District
Officer in his capacity as a holder of a Subordinate Court had wide powers of
review in criminal cases. He could suspend, reduce, annul or modify any sentence
or decision of a native court. In criminal cases appeals from the Superior Court at
Lealui went to the Provincial Commissioner, while in civil cases appeals went to the
High Court.
Authority to establish a Native Treasury was provided for in the Barotse Native
Authority Ordinance. Therefore a Central Treasury was established at Lealui. Five
Sub-Treasuries were established one in each of the Districts. (Mongu-Lealui did not
Press 1967 p.212
106 SEC2/71 NAZ. Also SEC2/400 NAZ 107 1936 Annual Report, Barotse Province Sec 2/71 NAZ 108 SEC 2/1268 NAZ
Mutumba Mainga Bull
38
have a sub-Treasury until later). Sub-Treasuries received local revenue i.e. fines,
fees, licences. They conducted the necessary local payments and all monies were
accounted for to the Central Treasury at Lealui. The Central Treasury’s main sources
of revenue included: (a) 30% Native Tax collected from the Barotse nationals (b)
Government Subsidy (c) Mineral Rights (£850) paid by the BSACo. (d) Timber
Royalties (e) Fines, fees, various licences and rents.109 The main items of Expenditure
were: (a) Education including grants to Missions110 and the upkeep of the Barotse
National School established in 1907 (b) Upkeep of Lealui and District Kutas (c)
Personal emoluments to the Paramount Chief and allowances to his family.111 The
Native Treasury allocated revenue to particular public subheads and provided for
the separation of the Litunga’s personal income from public revenue.
The Provincial Commissioner initially supervised the Native Treasury. The
Provincial Commissioner signed all vouchers for payments made by the Native
Treasury, while cheques signed on behalf of the Native Treasury by the Paramount
Chief and the Ngambela were countersigned by the Provincial Commissioner. A
Native Treasury Clerk was attached to the Provincial Commissioner’s Office where
the European Chief Clerk taught him his work.112
The Quest for Local Autonomy
In 1948 the Barotse Native Government presented a petition to the Northern
Rhodesia Government. It was pointed out that the Litunga’s power as presented
to him by the early Treaties had suffered a sharp and progressive decline with the
introduction of such instruments as the Barotse Native Authority and the Barotse
Native Courts Ordinances of 1936. The Litunga’s prestige was affected through
the influence exerted by Government on the manner the Native Treasury was
conducted and its annual estimates settled. The Litunga was also unhappy about
the control the Northern Rhodesia Government exercised over the appointments
and dismissals of members of his courts. The Barotse Native Government petitioned
that powers lost should be restored and rights and privileges should be reaffirmed.
The Northern Rhodesia Government was quick to assure the Litunga and the Council
that the status of Barotseland was enshrined in the Treaty of 1900 and in the Order
in Council of 1924 and interests of Barotseland were fully protected.113
In July 1951 the Litunga, the Ngambela and two Indunas were invited to
Government House in Lusaka to examine the grievances in the 1948 petition. The
Government pointed out that it was impossible for Government to relinquish all
supervisory control much as they wished to leave the Litunga completely unfettered,
but where agreement could not be reached with the Paramount Chief, (Litunga)
the matter was to be reported to the Governor.114 Richard Hall in his book ‘Zambia’
109 1938 Annual Report, Barotse Province SEC 2/71/ NAZ 110 Four Missionary Societies in the Province were: The Paris Evangelical Mission, the
Seventh Day Adventists, the Christian Missions in Many Lands and the Capuchin Fathers.
111 1938 Annual Report, Barotse Province, SEC 2/71 NAZ 112 1938 Annual Report Barotse Province. SEC 2/71 NAZ 113 1951 Annual Report Barotse Province SEC2/71/NAZ 114 Ibid
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
39
recorded that on three occasions between 1945 and 1950 the British Government
had given assurances that no constitutional changes affecting Barotseland would
be made without full consultations with, and the prior consent of the Paramount
Chief. Hall recorded further that in 1958 the Colonial Secretary, Lennox Boyd, gave
a similar assurance.115
The Native Authority System was in place until 1965 when the United National
Independence Party (UNIP) Government through the Local Government Act (No.
69), 15th October 1965 repealed the Native Authority Ordinance and established a
new local government administrative structure based on Local Authorities directly
under the control of the Central Government.
Barotseland’s Special Status
Throughout the colonial period the British Government upheld the Special Status of
Barotse Reserved Area as contained in the 1900 and 1909 Concessions with Lewanika.
Where and when modifications were necessary the Litunga and his Kuta were
usually consulted or informed. Thus in 1924 Sir Herbert Stanley the first Governor
of Northern Rhodesia concluded Agreements with the Lozi ruler Yeta III that were
confirmed by the Colonial Offices concerning Forced Labour, Game Licences and
Ivory Trade (see above). Similarly on 1st September 1936 an Agreement was signed
between His Majesty King Edward VIII, (the Governor Sir Hubert Young signed on
behalf of His Majesty King Edward VIII) and the Lozi ruler Yeta III to provide for
the recognition of Native Authorities and to bring Barotse Native Courts within
the Judicial System of Northern Rhodesia. In 1954 an Agreement was entered into
on 29th April between Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Litunga Mwanawina III.
The Agreement acknowledged and reaffirmed the traditional ruler’s authority over
the Barotse area’s wildlife and natural resources. In respect of the registration of
Africans the Agreement made it not obligatory for natives residing in Barotseland to
apply for an identity card (Chitupa). In 1941 when the Lozi Kuta of Nawinda, which
was established in Balovale in 1932 under Daniel Kufuna the eldest son of Litunga
Yeta III, was wound up, and the Balovale District was removed from Lozi jurisdiction
and transferred to the then Kaonde-Lunda Province (the present North Western
Province) the Lozi received compensation. The Barotse Native Government was
awarded £8,000 as compensation. The amount was broken down as follows: £6,000
for loss of rights to land, timber and minerals in Balovale District; and £2,000 for loss
of rights to game, ivory and fish.116
Similarly, Lozi concern to safeguard the special status of Bulozi was evident
during the debate of the proposed Amalgamation of Northern Rhodesia and
Southern Rhodesia. The Lozi including Litunga Yeta III himself told the Bledisloe
Commission of 1938-1939 that Bulozi should either secede and be made a full
Protectorate or should continue in its special status within Northern Rhodesia under
115 Zambia. Richard Hall. Pall Mall Press London 1965 p.238 116 Balovale Dispute 1936 – 1940 KDE 2/3/1 NAZ
Separation of Balovale from Barotse Province. SEC2/361 NAZ
Balovale Settlement Compensation Fund uses SEC2/374 NAZ
Mutumba Mainga Bull
40
the direct protection of the British Crown based on the 1900 Treaty.117 The Bledisloe
Commission showed considerable sympathy for the Lozi position. In its report the
Commission recalled and reaffirmed the British Crown’s Treaty obligations to the
Lozi ruler.118
Zambia’s Struggle for Independence and Barotseland’s Special Status
Meanwhile significant changes were taking place among the African population
in Northern Rhodesia. The first political party was formed in 1948 when the
conference of Welfare Societies met at Munali School and renamed the Federation of
Welfare Societies as the Northern Rhodesia African Congress with Godwin Mbikusita
Lewanika as President.119 In 1951 Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula was elected President
of the Northern Rhodesia African Congress which in 1952 was renamed African
National Congress. The African National Congress mounted a vigorous campaign
to thwart the imposition of the Federation comprising Southern Rhodesia, Northern
Rhodesia and Nyasaland but to no avail. In 1953 the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland was imposed against the wishes of the majority of the African people
especially in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.120 The Lozi declared that they would
not object to the Federation provided:
(a) Rights under the Lewanika Concessions were preserved by an appropriate
provision in the Federal Constitution.
(b) Bulozi or Barotseland should be styled or declared by Order in Council as
the Barotseland Protectorate.121
The British Government’s response to the Lozi demands was very sympathetic
and supportive. In the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Constitution) Order
in Council of 1st August 1953, Article 33(2) repeated the provisions concerning the
non-alienability of land in Bulozi as was contained in both the 1911 and 1924 Orders
in Council. Article 44, is a provision binding the Federal Government to observe
the terms of any Agreement affecting any of the three territories comprising the
Federation by which Her Majesty’s Government was bound. Furthermore when
Litunga Mwanawina III was in the United Kingdom in May 1953 on the occasion
of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen made an Order-inCouncil, the Northern Rhodesia (Barotseland) Order-in-Council 1953, providing
117 A History of Northern Rhodesia. L. H. Gann, Chatto & Windus 1964 p.275
1935 – 52, Annual Reports on Native Affairs of the Barotse Province. SEC2/71 NAZ
118 A History of Northern Rhodesia. L. H. Gann, Chatto & Windus 1964 p.275.
The Elites of Barotseland 1878 – 1969. A Political History of Zambia’s Western Province. Gerald L. Caplan , C. Hurst & Co. London 1970 p.155
119 Memoirs of Alexander Grey Zulu by A. G. Zulu. Times Printpak Zambia Limited,
Ndola 2007 p.65, 66
120 See Stiffening the Opposition to a white Federation by Simon Zukas in Chapter Five,
Into Exile and Back. Bookworld Publishers, Lusaka 2002 pp.59-80
See also Zambia, Richard Hall Pall Mall Press, London 1965. Pp.153-159
121 1935 – 1952 Annual Reports on Native Affairs of the Barotse Province. SEC2/71
NAZ, The Elites of Barotseland, Gerald L. Caplan 1970 p.177
The Politics of Independence 1957-1964 David C. Mulford, Oxford University Press 1967. p.19
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
41
that Barotseland be called the ‘Barotseland Protectorate’, while the Provincial
Commissioner was given the new title of ‘Resident Commissioner.’122
The imposition of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland on the African
majority in 1953 turned African nationalist movements into mass movements as
they fought to dismantle the Federation. On 18th December 1958 in Accra Ghana
while attending the All-African People’s Conference, Mr. Harry Nkumbula of the
African National Congress in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Mr. Joshua Nkomo of the
African National Congress in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Mr. Kenneth David
Kaunda of the Zambia African National Congress in Northern Rhodesia, Dr. Hastings
Banda of the Malawi African National Congress in Nyasaland (Malawi) and Gordon
C. Chindele of the Northern Rhodesia Trades Union Council, signed what they called
‘The Charter of Unity.’ The declaration on the ‘Charter of Unity’ read:
We, the representatives and leaders of organisations in our countries do here in
Accra December 18th, 1958 declare that we are unalterably opposed to the Central
African Federation a fraudulent and bogus scheme, imposed on us by the British
Imperialist Government. On this issue we are all united. We have therefore agreed
among ourselves to use this unity of purpose to establish a broad based united front
linking up the various anti-colonialist organisations in our respective countries and
also to coordinate our activities with those in East Africa to win Self Government and
national independence for our people now.
123
African nationalists pushed for constitutional advancement and more effective
and larger representation. In the African National Congress Circular of 30th April
1956, party members, organisers and sympathisers were urged to speak of African
Freedom and self-determination. In 1958, the Governor of Northern Rhodesia Sir
Arthur E. T. Benson met African National Congress leaders to consider constitutional
changes whereby eight seats were given to Africans, while Europeans were given
14 seats in the Legislative Council.124 Radical elements in the African National
Congress choose to boycott both the constitution and subsequent elections which
were scheduled for 20th March 1959. The radicals in October 1958 split away from
ANC to form the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC). The leadership of ZANC
comprised Kenneth David Kaunda, President; Munukayumbwa Sipalo; General
Secretary; and Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe as General Treasurer. ZANC mounted such
a formidable campaign against the registration of voters for the 20th March 1959
elections that the government feared the nationalists would interfere with the actual
elections. ZANC was banned on 11th March 1959 and all its leaders were arrested
and sent into detention in remote rural districts.125
The Barotse Native Government participated in the 20th March 1959 territorial
elections, which were boycotted by the radical nationalists of ZANC. The candidate
122 A History of Northern Rhodesia. L. H. Gann. Chatto & Windus London 1964 p.439 123 The Charter of Unity Published by Oxford University Press and Neczam. Printed by
Associated Printers Ltd. Zambia
124According to the 1958 Census of Population, there were 72,000 Europeans and
2,220,000 Africans in the Northern Rhodesia territory
125 Northern News. Friday 13th March 1959
See also Memoirs of Alexander Grey Zulu by A. G. Zulu. Times Printpak Ndola 2007 pp.105, 115-116.
Mutumba Mainga Bull
42
of the Lozi traditionalists defeated two other candidates who stood as independents.
That same year, the Litunga Mwanawina Lewanika III was included in the Queen’s
New Year Honours List. He was knighted and became Sir Mwanawina Lewanika III,
KBE. The Governor Sir Evelyn Hone went to Limulunga, the Litunga’s winter capital
in May 1959 to present Mwanawina with the insignia of knighthood. When leaders of
the banned ZANC came out of prison, Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda was elected President
of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which was the successor to ZANC.
Dr. Kaunda recalled that in early 1960 soon after he was elected President of UNIP,
he travelled to Mongu in the then Barotseland Protectorate with a large delegation
of new UNIP leaders to pay a courtesy call on the Litunga Mwanawina Lewanika III,
KBE. The Litunga did not only refuse to receive the UNIP delegation, but he invoked
Order 8 of the Barotse Native Government Orders and Rules to ban the delegation
from holding any public meetings.126 Order 8 relating to Public Meetings stated that
‘No person shall hold a public meeting of any kind whether for religious or other
purposes unless such person has first obtained written permission from the Native
Authority (District Kuta) to do so’. This particular Order was used by the Barotse
Native Government to deport, arrest and imprison nationalists in Barotseland. In
their isolation the Lozi traditionalists although suspicious of white settler politics
and intentions did not make any effort to accommodate the nationalist forces.
In anticipation of the Federal Review Conference, which was due in December
1960, UNIP decided to boycott the Monckton Commission, which visited the
Federation in early 1960. UNIP called for immediate self-government as a way of
putting pressure on the colonial regime. The Federal Review Conference produced
inconclusive results. The February 1961 Constitution which was drawn up when
lain Macleod was Secretary of State for the Colonies was modified in March 1962
following a violent campaign (Cha Cha Cha) by UNIP from July to October 1961.
UNIP and ANC together with the UFP accepted the March 1962 Constitution and
participated in the subsequent territorial elections of October 1962.
Faced with the prospect of the collapse of the Federation, in 1960 the Barotse
Native Government asked Britain to allow Barotseland to secede from Northern
Rhodesia and the Federation. They requested to be proclaimed a Protectorate directly
under the British Government on the lines of the High Commission Territories.127 In
April 1961 Sir Mwanawina III flew to London to demand secession from the British
Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod. The Ngambela Imasiku told Macleod that the
Paramount Chief, the Barotse Native Government and the people were unanimous
in demanding a separate state. Secession was denied but the British Government
reaffirmed Britain’s previous commitments and proposed to entrench the Lozi
special rights in Orders in Council. It was also announced that the Lozi ruler would
be officially styled the LITUNGA- ‘Earth’ i.e. owner of the land of the Barotseland
126 Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda former President of the United National Independence
Party 1960 – 2000, and the first President of the Republic of Zambia, 1964-1991. Interview at his Office
in Kabulonga, Lusaka. 10th May 2007 127 The Elites of Barotseland. A Political History of Zambia’s Western Province. Gerald
L. Caplan, C. Hurst and Co. London 1970 p.193
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
43
Protectorate.128
The Barotse National Council accepted the new 1962 Northern Rhodesia
Constitution but the Council decided to fight the October 1962 territorial elections
on a separate ticket from that of the nationalists. The Lozi traditionalists created
a traditionalist political party – the SICABA Party. The Sicaba Party reaffirmed the
policy of separate existence and opposed the United National Independence Party
(UNIP) on the grounds that UNIP threatened to destroy the Lozi kingship, depose
the Indunas, and integrate Barotseland into Zambia. The Sicaba Party would free
Barotseland from UNIP rule. UNIP on the other hand reassured the Lozi traditionalists
that a UNIP Government would not interfere with the Litunga’s personal position
and with Barotseland’s protectorate status, but Barotseland would remain within
the new Republic of Zambia. Great economic benefits for Barotseland within the
Republic were listed, and these included more schools, agricultural development
centres, more and better roads including a railway line from Mongu to Lusaka.129
In the October 1962 elections UNIP won 14 seats, ANC won 7 seats while
the white settler dominated UFP won 16 seats. In Barotseland UNIP candidates
defeated both the Sicaba Party and the African National Congress candidates. In
December 1963 UNIP and ANC came together in a Coalition to form the first African
Government. In January 1963 the ANC/UNIP coalition submitted to R. A. Butler,
First Secretary of State who was also Minister in charge of the Central African Office
in London when he visited Northern Rhodesia, a joint Memorandum requesting
the dismantling of the Federation and demanding a new Constitution for Northern
Rhodesia. On 19th December 1962 Nyasaland had been allowed the right to secede
from the Federation.130 The nationalists in Northern Rhodesia pressed for the right
to secede for Northern Rhodesia. In March 1963 R. A. Butler invited a delegation
from Northern Rhodesia to go to London for Constitutional talks and at the end
of those talks Northern Rhodesia won the right to secede from the Federation of
Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In June 1963 a Conference was held at the Victoria Falls
on the reversion of Federal Government functions to territorial governments. On
5th November 1963 the Chief Secretary was authorised by the Secretary of State
to make a ministerial statement in the Legislative Council concerning the new
Constitution for Northern Rhodesia to proceed to internal Self Government. The
new 1963 Constitution replaced the Executive Council with a Prime Minister and
a Cabinet; an enlarged Legislative Assembly with seventy five members replaced
the Legislative Council; the franchise was based on Universal Adult Suffrage; the
new Constitution had a Bill of Rights, the Public Service Commission and the Police
Service Commission.131
128 Zambia. Richard Hall, Pall Mall London 1965 p.240 129UNIP Policy by UNIP Party. P. O. Box 302 Lusaka 1962 130 Welensky’s 4000 Days. The Life and Death of the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland, Sir Roy Welensky. Collins London 1964 p.355
131 Zambia, A Generation of Struggle. Elijah Mudenda SAPES Books, Harare 1999 p.27-
28
Mutumba Mainga Bull
44
The British Government was however anxious that before a new constitution for
Northern Rhodesia to proceed to internal Self Government could be introduced the
question of Barotseland’s future had to be resolved. In January 1963 senior officials
from the Central African Office in London had met with the Chief Secretary and the
Minister of Native Affairs to discuss the Barotseland issue. On 26th January it was
agreed that the ultimate aim was to integrate Barotseland into Northern Rhodesia.132
Meanwhile the UNIP/ANC Coalition Government in order to make the Barotse
Native Government more receptive to political change set in motion measures to
reform it. The Katengo Kuta of the Barotse National Council with 25 seats was
to become a wholly elected body. In the Katengo elections of 15th August 1963
UNIP won all the 25 seats with seven of them unopposed. In September 1963
the Litunga with a delegation of 13 Indunas, five of whom were elected, met with
UNIP representatives comprising Mr. Arthur Wina and Mr. Simon Kapwepwe, at
the Victoria Falls in an attempt to resolve the issue of the future of Barotseland.
To the UNIP delegations’ disappointment even the elected members of the
Katengo Kuta in the Litunga’s delegation refused to compromise on the question
of Barotseland’s special status! The Indunas wanted Barotseland to be ‘part and
parcel of Zambia’ but with Barotseland’s special status intact and enshrined in
the Zambian Constitution.133 In December 1963 the Barotse Native Government
presented a memorandum to the Coalition Government in Lusaka setting out its
ideas for the future relationship of Barotseland and Zambia. They requested that the
traditional institutions of Barotseland should remain intact, and that Barotseland’s
special status should be written into the Zambian Constitution. Furthermore, they
requested that the territorial Government should formally accept responsibility for
the financial support and economic development of Barotseland.134
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved at the end of December
1963. Northern Rhodesia held territorial elections on 20th and 21st January 1964
under the new 1963 Constitution based on Universal Adult Suffrage. Three major
political parties contested the elections – the United National Independence Party,
the African National Congress and the National Progress Party the successor to the
United Federal Party, which was disbanded when the Federation was dissolved. In
the election campaign UNIP promised:– to abolish racial discrimination; to increase
job opportunities; to improve wages; to provide more and better schools; more
hospitals; cheaper food; and better living conditions after independence.135
UNIP won a landslide victory with 55 seats, which included all the seven seats in
Barotseland. ANC won 10 seats, while the NPP won 10 seats. Kenneth David Kaunda
132 Zambia Politics of Independence, David C. Mulford. Oxford University Press 1967
p.312
133 The Elites of Barotseland. Gerald L. Caplan C. Hurst & Co. London 1970 pp.203-204 134 The Elites of Barotseland, Gerald L. Caplan C. Hurst & Co. London 1970. Pp.204-
205
135 Teacher Politician Lawyer: My Autobiography. John Mwanakatwe. Bookworld Publishers Lusaka
2003 p.167. Mr.
Mwanakatwe was a UNIP candidate in the January 1964 Elections.
See also When UNIP becomes Government Publicity Bureau UNIP 1964
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
45
became the Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia at the head of Self Government
of Northern Rhodesia. Preparations were on for talks on the Constitution for
independence. John Mwanakatwe in his autobiography wrote that at the beginning
of 1964 the colonial government allowed the Northern Rhodesia Government to
consult with leaders of major political parties and chiefs in the country to prepare
a draft independence constitution. Leaders of major political parties then were
Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda of the United National Independence Party; Mr. Harry
Mwaanga Nkumbula of the African National Congress; and Mr. John Roberts of the
National Progress Party the successor to the United Federal Party. The Governor set
up a Committee of Colonial civil servants and members of the Legislative Assembly
chaired by the Attorney General and supported by legal draughtsmen from the
Ministry of Legal Affairs to draft a new independence Constitution for Northern
Rhodesia. Each of the three political parties nominated two members from their
representatives in the Legislative Council to sit on the Committee. Dr. Kaunda
nominated Mr. James Skinner and Mr. John Mwanakatwe on the basis of their legal
qualifications to represent UNIP on the Independence Constitution Committee.136
Subsequently at the Independence Conference in London which began on 2nd
May 1964, the Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia, Kenneth Kaunda was able to
state that “it is with considerable satisfaction, Mr. Chairman, that I am able to inform
you that as a result of discussions that I and my colleagues have had in Lusaka with
leaders of the African National Congress and of the National Progress Party, and
with a Committee of the House of Chiefs, general agreement has been reached in the
type of Independence Constitution we want for our country”.137 The Independence
Constitution introduced a republican form of government in Zambia.138
The Litunga Sir Mwanawina Lewanika III KBE found himself under pressure
from both the traditionalists who were anxious to maintain Barotseland’s special
status, and the nationalists who wanted Barotseland to remain an integral part of
the future independent Republic of Zambia. Traditionalists of the ‘Barotse Patriots’
and ‘Barotse Democratic Party’ were quick to warn the Litunga in March 1964 not
to succumb to pressure from UNIP. In a letter dated 30th March 1964 to the Litunga
they wrote:
Your Highness
As you have been reading in newspapers there will be
constitutional talks in Lusaka between leaders of the three political
parties and it is rumoured that your representative may be invited
to come. As you are also aware Barotseland is a separate state
under your leadership and your sending representatives to the so
called constitutional talks is in fact curtailing your powers …
136Teacher Politician Lawyer: My Autobiography. John Mwanakatwe. Bookworld Publishers Lusaka 2003
pp. 454
and 455
137 Zambia Independence and Beyond. The Speeches of Kenneth Kaunda. Edited by
Colin Legum-Thomas Nelson. London 1966 p.83
138 Ibid pp.83-85
See also Zambia. Richard Hall. Pall Mall London 1965 pp.301-303
Mutumba Mainga Bull
46
“We therefore suggest that instead of your sending
representatives to Lusaka talks as being planned by UNIP, you
should now arrange to have some unbiased Lozis chosen who
will represent you only at London Constitutional talks. As UNIP
will be fully represented, your representatives should only consist
of traditionalists and members of such organisations as Barotse
Patriots and Barotse Democratic Party or any other political party
that may be formed …
“The relationship between Barotseland and Britain must
remain as it is now when Northern Rhodesia becomes independent.
Barotseland’s relationship with Northern Rhodesia must be on
federal basis – Barotseland can send its representatives to Northern
Rhodesia Parliament but she must keep her identity as a separate
state … This must be the stand of the Barotse representatives when
in London at the Constitutional talks.
“It would appear from the various speeches of the
governing party that they are bent on going into independence
without any further elections. Barotseland will not be part and
parcel to independent Northern Rhodesia unless elections under
the new constitution are held so that Barotseland can send her
representative …139
The Barotseland Agreement 1964
On 16th April 1964 Litunga Sir Mwanawina Lewanika III KBE and the Prime Minister
of Northern Rhodesia Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda concluded a Provisional Agreement,
under the chairmanship of the Governor, that Northern Rhodesia and Barotseland
would go forward to independence as one country.140
Secondly, while agreeing to recognise the special status of Barotseland the UNIP
Government declined to incorporate this into the new Republican Constitution. It
was proposed instead that a separate formal treaty would be drawn up and the
British, the Lozi and the Northern Rhodesia Government would sign the treaty. In
May 1964 the Litunga was invited by Duncan Sandys who had replaced R. A. Butler
at the Central African Office in London to send a delegation to London to participate
in the Independence Constitutional talks. The Government delegation led by Prime
Minister Kenneth David Kaunda was already in London as were the delegations of
the African National Congress led by Harry Nkumbula, and National Progress Party
led by John Roberts. The Provisional Agreement of 16th April was replaced with
a permanent agreement. The Barotseland Agreement of 1964 was signed at the
139To the Litunga of Barotseland Sir Mwanawina III KBE. Letter from Barotse
Democratic Party and Barotse Patriots. BSE1/10/95 File No. 2/11/13 Vol. II LOC 5045, NAZ
140 See Appendix the Barotseland Agreement 1964. Presented to Parliament by the
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations by Command of Her Majesty. May 1964. Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office. CMND 2366.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
47
Commonwealth Relations Office in London on 18th May 1964.141 The Litunga was
recognised as the principal local authority for the government and administration
of Barotseland.142
On 24th October 1964 Northern Rhodesia became the independent Republic
of Zambia. Soon after independence factors, which appeared to undermine the
Barotseland Agreement 1964, began to appear. The Chiefs’ Act of 4th October 1965
and the Local Government Act (No. 69) of 15th October 1965 directly affected the
Litunga and the Barotse Native Government. The Chiefs’ Act gave the President
unilateral authority to recognise or withdraw recognition from any chief in Zambia.
The Litunga of Barotseland was explicitly mentioned as falling under the provisions
of this Act. The President was further empowered under the same Act to determine
subsidies to be paid to any chief ‘for the purposes of enabling him to maintain
the status of his office and to discharge the traditional functions of his office …’ In
Barotseland the President’s Office became the source of the Litunga’s own annual
income of £10,000 and salaries of the royal family and the Litunga’s household staff.
The Local Government Act of 15th October 1965 on the other hand introduced the
repeal of Native Authorities’ Ordinances and the abolition of Native Treasuries.
Through the Local Government Act of 1965 the Central Government established a
new local government administrative structure with local authorities and District
Councils under the control of the Central Government through the Minister of
Local Government. In Barotse Province, district councils were established in
Mongu, Senanga, Kalabo, Sesheke and Mankoya (now Kaoma). Funds held in the
Barotse Native Treasury were transferred to the newly established Barotse Local
Government Fund under the control of the Minister of Local Government. On 1st
November 1965 the Barotse National Council was abolished as most of the functions
of the National Council were transferred to the District Councils. The Barotse Royal
Establishment and the traditionalists accused the Central Government of breaking
the 1964 Barotseland Agreement.
On 26th August 1969 the President announced at a Press Conference that the name
of Barotse Province was to be changed to Western Province, and its traditional rulers
would have their authority over the area’s wildlife and fishing rights terminated.143
This was a direct negation of the Barotseland Agreement 1964. In October 1969
the Government unilaterally cancelled the Barotseland Agreement through the
Constitution (Amendment) Act of 15th October 1969. Through the Act all the rights,
liabilities, and obligations, which attached to the Barotseland Agreement 1964 were
abolished. The Lozi Royal Establishment and traditionalists had unsuccessfully
141 The Barotseland Agreement 1964. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State
for Commonwealth Relations by Command of Her Majesty. May 1964. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
CMND 2366.
142 The Appendix – The Barotseland Agreement 1964. Presented to Parliament by the
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations by Command of Her Majesty. May 1964. Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office. CMND 2366.
Zambia Independence and Beyond. The Speeches of Kenneth Kaunda. Edited by Colin Leguin. Thomas
Nelson. London 1966 p.90.
143 Reforms in the Barotse Province. The Text of a Speech made by His Excellency the
President Dr. K. D. Kaunda at a Press Conference held on Tuesday 26th August 1969.
Mutumba Mainga Bull
48
petitioned the President personally to drop the Bill. On 15th October the Second
Reading of the Bill was overwhelmingly passed by Parliament in which the ruling
United National Independence Party had an inbuilt majority of 81 seats compared
to 23 seats for the opposition African National Congress. Since 1969 however, some
activists and traditionalists have campaigned and struggled for the restoration of the
Barotseland Agreement 1964. In the encounter between activists for the restoration
of Barotseland Agreement 1964 and security forces on 14th January 2011 there were
violent disturbances, which rocked Mongu and surrounding areas. There were
fatalities and serious injuries. The police used live ammunition. The nation was
shocked and stunned by the violence and deaths.144
On 15th January 2011 just before the 20:00 hours radio news broadcast the
then Minister of Home Affairs Mr. Nkhondo M. Lungu delivered a short statement
concerning what happened in Mongu. On 16th January 2011 the Head of State then Mr.
Rupiah Bwezani Banda announced that he was saddened by loss of life in the Western
Province during riots by activists for the restoration of Barotseland Agreement
1964. The Head of State went on to warn that no one should take advantage of the
volatile mood in the Western Province. He cautioned ‘friends and leaders’ not to fish
in troubled waters. He concluded by revealing that no negotiations were going on
over the Barotseland Agreement 1964 ‘which was done a long time ago’ although
government was talking to the leaders and people in the province.145
On 17th January 2011 the Minister of Home Affairs revealed further that more
than 100 people were arrested in Mongu during the riot. Twenty-four of the arrested
activists were charged with treason and these included the then ‘ailing’ 92 year old
former Ngambela of Barotseland Mr. Maxwell Mututwa.146
References
Caplan, Gerald L. 1970. The Elites of Barotseland 1878-1969, A Political History of
Zambia’s Western Province. C. Hurst & Co. London.
Chipungu, Samuel N. ed. 1992 Guardians in their Time Experiences of Zambians under
Colonial Rule 1890 – 1964. Macmillan Press Ltd, London.
Clay, Gervas. 1968. Your Friend, Lewanika, The Life and Times of Lubosi Lewanika
Litunga of Barotseland 1842 to 1916. Chatto and Windus, London.
Gann, L. H. 1964 A History of Northern Rhodesia, Early Days to 1953.
Chatto and Windus, London.
Burger, Phillippe, François Escande and André Honegger, eds. 2010 The Spread of
the Gospel in Barotseland from the Paris Mission to the United
Church of Zambia. A Chronological History 1885-1965. DEFA P. Paris.
144The Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Radio II. News Network
carried the report on the same day, 14th January 2011 at both 13:15 hours and 20:00 hours. 145 ZNBC Radio II News Network 13:15 hours. 16th January 2011. 146 The full record and account of Barotseland Agreement 1964 activities and protests
since 1969 is the subject of another paper already produced by Dr. Mutumba M. Bull.
Reserved Area: Barotseland of the 1964 Agreement
49
Legum, Colin. 1966. Zambia Independence and Beyond. The Speeches of Kenneth
Kaunda. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, London.
Mainga, Mutumba. 1973 Bulozi Under the Luyana Kings. Political Evolution and State
Formation in Pre-colonial Zambia. Longman Group Limited,
London.
Mulford, David C. 1967. Zambia, the Politics of Independence 1957-1964.
Oxford University Press, London.
Mwanakatwe, John. 2003. Teacher Politician Lawyer: My Autobiography.
Bookworld Publishers, Lusaka.
Mutumba Mainga Bull