What Does Lushanduko - the Rebirth and Renaissance of Bukalanga - Actually Mean Part I

Since the publication of my book, The Rebirth of Bukalanga, in August 2012, a lot of questions have been raised as to my real intention and what I mean by 'Lushanduko or the Rebirth and Renaissance of Bukalanga.  I have by some been accused of being a Zezuru/Zanu Agent out to "divide Mthwakazi/Matebeleland" to the benefit of Zezuru Imperialism. In this blog post I'd like to answer the question:What Does Lushanduko - the Rebirth and Renaissance of Bukalanga - Actually Mean? The following is an extract from my upcoming book, Lushanduko: The Rebirth and Renaissance of Bukalanga: A Manifesto for the Liberation of a Great People with a Proud History Part II. I hope that this post will answer all questions as to my real intentions. Your comments will be welcome.

Lushanduko - the Rebirth and Renaissance of Bukalanga - Defined

  

Lushanduko, in TjiKalanga, loosely translated ‘the Home Coming’, ‘the Rebirth’ and ‘the Renaissance’, simply means, like Zionism, a form of Bukalanga nationalism that supports and advocates the establishment of a Bukalanga Provincial Homeland transcending the borders of Zimbabwe and Botswana in a defined territory as the Homeland of Bukalanga (with South Africa excluded because the Venda in that country are constitutionally recognized as a distinct people group and have a recongnized Homeland). It supports and advocates that the historic  Bukalanga Peoples - Bakalanga, Vhavenda and Banambya (incl Babirwa/Sotho) - uphold historic their identity and opposes assimilation into other societies. It also advocates the return to Bukalanga by those in the Diaspora as a means for Bakalanga, Banambya and Vhavenda to be a majority in a Homeland of their own, and to be liberated from the exclusion, discrimination and persecution that has defined their history over the last 200 years.    

              

Lushanduko also borrows ideas and concepts from the African Renaissance Movement which advoctates that Africans overcome the current challenges confronting them and achieve cultural, scientific and economic renewal. Some of the areas of emphasis are Education, Entrepreneurship and Industrialization; Advancement in Science and Technology and Educational Reform with emphasis on Vocational-Technical Education and Training; Agricultural Revival and Growth; Good Governance and Integrity in Public Administration and Civil Service; and Federalism and the Devolution of Powers as a system of governanment with special emphasis on Self-Government and Self-Determination of all Peoples. 

Am Ha’aretz Bukalanga - Bukalanga The People Of The Land

As was indicated in the definition of Lushanduko above, the creation of a Bukalanga Homeland is one of the key issues that need to be addressed if we are to be free as a people. We have shown in previous chapters of this book that our Fathers have been in the land that we currently occupy for a continuous 2000 years, yet we find that land today bearing foreign names to who and what we are. We find the land of our Fathers now named Matebeleland and Botswana - Land of the Ndebele and Land of the Tswana. That set up has practically meant that our existence as a people is not acknowledged, for to exist in that land we first have to be Ndebele and Tswana. Thankfully, we are now recognized as a distinct people group in Zimbabwe, whereas in Botswana we are still not recognized in the Constitution of that country which only recognizes the eight Tswana-speaking tribes as the only legitimate owners of the country.

After all that has happened to us as a Nation over the last 200 years - the Ndebele Massacres, British Colonialism and the Gukurahundi Genocide, and the resultant driving of our identity, languages and cultures to the brink of extinction, there can be no doubt that now is the time to seek sovereign statehood. This does not necessarily mean a country independent from Zimbabwe, but means that we need to have own our Provincial Homeland where we will be self-governing and self-determining, free to promote our languages and cultures and to promote our development the way we see best. It means we need to have our own Province bearing a name of our choosing, preferably Bukalanga which we showed in Chapter one that it represents well Bakalanga, BaSotho and Vhavenda.

   

The Broundaries and Districts of the Provincial Homeland of Bukalanga

To create the Provincial Homeland of Bukalanga, I hereby propose that we take advantage of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe which maps the country into 10 Provinces and allows for a redrawing of the Provincial and District boundaries and ‘takeover’ a portion of what is presently Matebeleland, that is, the Matebeleland South Province, and turn it into an unquestionable Homeland of Bakalanga, BaSotho and Vhavenda - all of them having their historic origins in Bukalanga - and rename the Province BUKALANGA.[1] This is a Homeland in which Bakalanga, BaSotho and Vhavenda are an undisputed majority and any of the Ndebele-speaking people in the region are Bakalanga, BaSotho and Vhavenda whose languages and identity were destroyed since the conquest days of the Ndebele and excercebated by the assimilationist policies of the British Colonial and post-independence governments.

Indeed, as long as other ethnic or languages groups have their own Provincial Homelands - Mashonaland for the Shona, Manicaland for the Manyika, and Matebeleland for the Ndebele - then we also deserve our own Provincial Homeland named after our own historic identity. In fact, a Provincial Homeland named Bukalanga will pull the rug from under the justifications for our marginalization and the Gukurahundi Genocide as all this tends to be justified through the accusations that the “Ndebele (used with reference even to us) are recent intruders from Zululand who stole Shona land, cattle and women”. We of Bukalanga have found ourselves stuck up in that feud and accused of all sorts of evils when in actual fact our ancestors have continuously settled this land for about 2000 years. Now is the time to disabuse ourselves of that kind of treatment and reclaim our heritage, our identity and our languages and cultures and demand self-government and self-determination in our own undisputed Provincial Homeland - Bukalanga.

To Bukalanga Province (that is, the present Mat’South) would be added that portion of the Umguza District where is located the Khami Ruins, a historic work of our Fathers. Up to this day that historic site, being in a typically Ndebele region, has been totally neglected as the Ndebele clearly have no connection with it whatsover and see no value in its preservation and revival. There is no doubt that only we of Bukalanga can take positive developmental interest in that site. The TjiKalanga-speaking Tjolotjo District would also be added to Bukalanga Province so as to bring all Bakalanga in Zimbabwe into one Province.

Also to be added to the Bukalanga Provincial Homeland of Bakalanga, BaSotho and Vhavenda through international lobbying and negotiations will be the North-East and North-Central Districts of the so-called Botswana, both strong TjiKalanga-speaking regions in Botswana, a country with a Constitution that recognizes the eight Tswana-speaking tribes as the only true and legitimate owners of the country as already indicated above. This obviously is an attack on Bukalanga and is an unsustainable situation, and it has to change.

The change will mean that the current borderline is moved from where it currently is to include all Bakalanga areas in that country to Bukalanga. The border line would run through the North-Central District along the Mocloutsi River on a straight line touching on the south-western corner of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. Rounding the Salt Pans on the west the border line would run up north, touching on the current Zimbabwe border line just to the north of the Nata River.[2]

The above means that Bukalanga Province would become a linguistic confederacy of three languages of Bukalanga - TjiKalanga, Sesotho and Tshivenda, with Sotho being an adopted language of Bukalanga without a history of violence and conquest like IsiNdebele. The Province would be partitioned into three broad regions thus:

BULILIMA-MANGWE - typically Bakalanga area, it would be made up of the following TjiKalanga-speaking districts: Tjolotjo, Bulilima, Mangwe and Matobo Districts in Zimbabwe (including those Kalanga or Jawunda-speaking parts of Gwanda as well as the Insiza and Umzingwane Districts); and the North-East and North-Central Districts in Botswana. Historically, this whole region was called Bulilima-Gwa-Meng’we, or Bulilima of Meng’we - corrupted to Bulilima-Mangwe. Meng’we was one of the greatest Mambos of Bakalanga before the Ndebele conquests of the 18th century.[3]

VENDA- typically and historically a Venda region, it would be made up of the Beitbridge District and the Venda-speaking parts of Gwanda as the Homeland of Vhavenda in Zimbabwe, and having Tshivenda as its main languages. All of the Jawunda (TjiKalanga)-speaking parts of Gwanda would be part of Bulilima-Mangwe as indicated above.

LENTSWE LA BASOTHO - this land would encompass all the Sotho (Sebirwa), SeTswapong and Setswana areas of Gwanda South and the southern tip of the Matobo and Mangwe Districts, as well as all that part of the present Botswana that speaks Sebirwa and SeTswapong that is north of the Mocloutsi River. It would be a typically Sotho-Tswana Homeland within Bukalanga Province. Lentswe, or ‘the Land of’ in SeTswapong, is meant to balance both the Sesotho and SeTswapong dialects in the naming of the region.       

THE CITY OF GWANDA - just like the City of Johannesburg in South Africa, the City of Gwanda will serve as the Provincial Capital Territory where all the three langauges of the Province - TjiKalanga, Tshivenda and Sesotho, will converge. The City will not be under the jurisdiction of any single ethnic group but will be administered bythe Provincial Government.

In the case of Bulilima-Mangwe, as a way of certifying that this is indeed Bakalanga area, all the Bulilima-Mangwe Districts would have to change their names to Bulilima-Mangwe, only differentiated by their points on the campus. As such the Districts would have to be renamed thus: Far East Bulilima-Mangwe (the present Umzingwane and Insiza Districts combined into one); Bulilima-Mangwe East (the present Matobo District plus the historically TjiKalanga-speaking parts of Gwanda District); Bulilima-Mangwe South (made up of the present Mangwe District), South-West Bulilima-Mangwe (made up of all Bakalanga areas in the present Botswana south of the Francistown-Orapa Highway), North-West Bulilima-Mangwe (all the Bakalanga areas north of the Francistown Orapa Highway); Central Bulilima-Mangwe (that is, the present Bulilima District) and Bulilima-Mangwe North (made up of the Tjolotjo District plus that portion of Umguza District that we will add to Bulilima-Mangwe). The central campus point that is being used here is the City of Plumtree, which would, being centrally located between Insiza, the North-East, Tjolotjo and Ingwizi, would be suitable as the political, economic and cultural Capital of Bulilima-Mangwe or Bakalanga in general.

In addition to the City of Gwanda as the Provincial Capital, Plumtre and Francistown which are already major towns, other future cities of the Province will be the District Capitals of Tjolotjo (Bulilima-Mangwe North), Madlambudzi (Central Bulilima-Mangwe), Tutume (North-West Bulilima-Mangwe), Francistown (South-West Bulilima-Mangwe), Ingwizi (Bulilima-Mangwe South), Maphisa (Bulilima-Mangwe East), Esigodini (Far East Bulilima-Mangwe), and Beitbridge - which will all have to be well developed and given sufficient powers of self-government and self-determination for the districts to run their own affairs and be free to promote their own development their own way. It will also mean that a Trade and Communications Corridor made up of a Railway Line, Broadband and Highway will have to be built running from Beitbridge to Gwanda to Maphisa to Ingwizi to Plumtree to Madlambudzi to Tjolotjo and on to Hwange and the Victoria Falls. As for Khami and Francistown there already exists a Highway and Rail Line.

Renaming of all these districts as Bulilima-Mangwe will not only be a restoration of our history and heritage as Bakalanga but will also do away with the slander that says “this is Matebeleland and therefore everyone is Ndebele and has to speak IsiNdebele”, which, as history has shown us, is one of the primary causes for the death of our language, culture and identity. We cannot as a people continue to be identified by a false identity, especially one that leads us to be accused of all sorts of atrocities and evils that our Fathers were never involved in like “being recent intruders who stole Shona land, cattle and women”, and having people from Mashonaland come into our region and telling us that we “have no land in this country, for this is Shona land” as the incident concerning the invasion of the Matobo Njelele Shrines of Mwali by ‘war vets’ in 2012 showed.[4] We know that the people now called Shona have never settled in the land now called Matebeleland at any point in history, land that has always been Khoisan/Bukalanga land. Our Fathers have lived in this land for a continuous 2000 years. 

Coming to the languages and cultures, in Venda Tshivenda will reign supreme, whilst in Bulilima-Mangwe will reign TjiKalanga, (of course with a special zone for Khoisan). Sesotho and the other Sotho-Tswana dialects will also reign supreme in Lentswe LaBaSotho. All these languages will then converge in the Provincial Capital - the City of Gwanda - just like the eleven official langauges of South Africa converge in the cosmopolitan City of Johannesburg.  Because this will not be some kind of closed system, through day-to-day interaction, communication and the obvious mutual intelligibility of most of our languages, citizens across the Bukalanga Provincial Homeland will be able to learn each others’ languages, as well as through the media. This will enable one who speaks TjiKalanga to converse easily with one who speaks Tshivenda without any need for one of them to switch their language to that of another. There can be no better way of preserving the languages of Bukalanga than this, and celebrating our own internal diversity as Bukalanga peoples.[5]    

Now, I am not so naïve as to think that the realization of the above will be an easy process. There will be stiff resistence, especially from Bakalanga in the Matobo, Gwanda, Insiza and Umzingwane Districts who now think of themselves as AmaNdebele, as well as from some of the imperialistic elements in the Governments of Zimbabwe and Botswana. We will be accused of tribalism and regionalism, but we must soldier on and act boldly and courageously. We just need to be persistent in the teaching of our history, heritage and languages in those regions so that the people there understand their historic identity and the great glory associated with it. After all, we showed in The Rebirth that Matobo District was the religious heartland of Bukalanga where is located the Njelele Shrines of Mwali, just as Tjolotjo and Gwanda recently became ‘Ndebele’ less than a hundred years ago due to the continued errosion of TjiKalanga at the hands of IsiNdebele. In fact, the City of Gwanda itself is named in TjiKalanga, just like one of its oldest townships, Jawunda, is named after Bakalanga. In all these regions we still have elders who speak TjiKalanga, which is evidence enough that indeed these are Bakalanga areas.[6] 

I must say that I am very glad that I find a lot of support in this posture on the restoration of languages to their historical regions from the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ). The Law Society represents all the lawyers in Zimbabwe. Its role, under section 53 of the Legal Practitioners Act, is to represent the views of the legal profession and to promote reforms in the law. In February 2009 the Council of the LSZ decided to participate in the Copac Constitution-making process of Zimbabwe which began with the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which ushered in a Government of National Unity. It began the process by discussing constitutional issues with its members at the Winter School in July 2009. In August that year the Society commissioned researchers to study the seventeen thematic areas that had been identified by an All-Stakeholders’ Conference organized by Copac, the Constitution Select Committee. After much work and debate, these themes were discussed at a conference held concurrently with the Society’s Summer School in 2009. The Society was assisted in the debates and discussions by constitutional experts from inside and outside Zimbabwe, among who were Professor Christina Murray of the University of Cape Town, Professor Jeffrey Jowell Q.C., Professor Geoffrey Feltoe of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, Mr. Patrick  Mtshaulana, a South African advocate and Mr Mkhululi Nyathi, a lawyer.    

In regards to the issue of languages, the Society proposed that: The official languages of Zimbabwe are English, Kalanga, Nambya, Ndebele, Sena, Shangaan, Shona, Sotho, Tonga and Venda. It further stated that an Act of Parliament must provide that within ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, every official language is a language of record, alongside English, where it is predominantly spoken and has been predominantly spoken for the past one hundred years; and within 25 years from the commencement of this Constitution, all the official languages must be recognised as languages of record alongside English.

It is beyond any reasonable doubt that TjiKalanga has been spoken in Matobo, Gwanda, Insiza and Umzingwane Districts within the last 100 years and is actually still being spoken today, although under the threat of extinction at the hands of IsiNdebele. As already pointed out, a look at the histories of such people as the great nationalists Dr Joshua Nkomo, Lazarus Nkala, JZ. Moyo, and others who were born in Mat’South shows that they were born in Bulilima or Bukalanga. Most of these nationalist leaders were founding members of the Kalanga Cultural Society (KCS) in the 1950s, which is indeed testimony that TjiKalanga was the predominant language of Matobo, Gwanda, Insiza, and Umzingwane as late as 50 years ago. It therefore follows that a restoration of TjiKalanga in these districts is actually in order as proposed by the Law Society of Zimbabwe and as argued in this book.

Indeed, in the spirit of nation-building and unity in diversity, it is only right that we restore this Bukalanga Provincial Homeland to Bakalanga, BaSotho and Vhavenda inasmuch as the eastern Districts of Matebeleland - Lupane, Nkayi, Bubi, Umguza, and the Ndebele-speaking parts of the Midlands Province - will be the Homeland of the Ndebele and Xhosa, whilst Hwange and Binga will constitute the Homelands of the Nambya and Tonga respectively, which in actual fact is not different from the present arrangement. The only difference will be that now there are clearly defined Homelands for the various ethnic groups and Ndebele rule-by-conquest will be over. As to the question of whether we will not be creating closed Bantustans as some allege, we will come to that in a later chapter. 

Are We of Bukalanga Dividing Matebeleland or Mthwakazi?

Now, there are those who will claim that we of Bukalanga involved in the Lushanduko movement are aiming at dividing Matebeland or uMthwakazi and destroying that which Mzilikazi built. Perhaps yes, for who said that the name Matebeleland is a true representation of who we are? In any case, we may ask: Is Mzilikazi God that it can be said let no man put usunder that which God has joined together? After all we of Bukalanga never voluntarily chose to join the Ndebele State, we were forced into it through violent conquest and at assegai-point. The choice for us was submission or death. But like anything built on conquest, Matebeleland can no longer exist everywhere, it can only be a portion of Zimbabwe that is predominantly Ndebele. Conquest whether by a black or white is conquest and is still wrong. Inasmuch as we overthrew British conquest, so must we overthrow Ndebele conquest, although this time not through the arms of war as we overcame British Conquest. Now we have to overthrow all kinds of conquest through all lawful political means and not violence.

Reversal of British and Ndebele Colonial Conquest would not be our only victory with the establishment of a Bukalanga Homeland. We will also have won a great victory against the encroaching Shona and Ngwato-Tswana Imperialism which is threatening our existence as a People. As the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka once put it, it does not matter if the leg wearing the boot of oppression is black or white, oppression remains oppression. As such, it has to be overthrown. Those European, Zezuru, Ndebele and Tswana people who choose to come and live in Bukalanga will have to do the only honorable thing: that is, adapt and integrate into Bukalanga and learn at least one of our languages - TjiKalanga, Sesotho and Tshivenda - just as we adapt and integrate into their societies when we go to their regions. Perhaps it is only right that we address the Ndebele, Zezuru, Ngwato-Tswana and Europeans in the following wise words of former South African President Thabo Mbeki that he delivered at the University of Natal on a similar issue. He observed:

*******

There can be no gainsaying the fact that the realization of reconciliation among the different national groups in our country is among the most noble of our objectives. This has, as one of its elements, respect for the language, culture and identity of each of the national groups on the basis of equality. The achievement of these goals would be both an expression of the objective of national reconciliation and an instrument for the accomplishment of this aim. The question must be posed: Is it possible to achieve reconciliation between the former two official languages [English and Afrikaans] and the rest of the languages of our country without also effecting a transformation in the relationship among all these languages? If the answer is no, then we have to deal with the question of how to end the relationship of domination of the two over the others, so as to ensure the termination of the conflict which is inherent to the relationship of domination on the one hand and subservience on the other. This clearly has to be done in a manner that does not undermine but enhances the other objective we have already stated, of respect for the language, culture and identity of each of our national groups on the basis of equality. I believe it would be dishonest to pretend that the process of achieving an equitable relationship among our languages can be achieved without the former official languages feeling some pain, if we can put the matter thus. But similarly, no reconciliation among our languages can take place unless the old relationship among them is changed and transformed (Mbeki 1998, 43-45).

*******

Indeed, the Ndebele and Zezuru will have to make painful sacrifices and accept the fact that IsiNdebele and ChiZezuru can no longer be taught anywhere else apart from Matebeleland and Mashonaland, in this case Matebeleland excluding the Homeland of Bukalanga, the present Mat’South Province. These languages will have to be replaced by the languages of Bukalanga when it comes to our region, inasmuch as they will have to be replaced by Tonga in Binga and TjiNambya in Hwange. The only place outside Ndebele and Zezuru territory where their langauges will have to be taught in the schools will be in the Metropolitan Provinces, the cosmopolitan cities of Bulawayo and Harare just like all the other languages. This indeed is the only way we can truly talk of nation-building, otherwise anything else that involves forced assimilation as we have had over the last 33 years is imperialism, and as such, it has to be fought and overthrown by all lawful means.  My next post answers the question of whats the point in reviving our langauges - TjiKalanga, Sesotho, and Tshivena.

---

[1] From here onwards we shall turn our attention to Bakalanga, BaSotho and Vhavenda who inhabit the present Mat’South Province. Whilst the Nambya would be in a different Province, we will work together to realize Lushanduko and since we will share Provincial boundaries, one expects that a process of natural convergence will take place and ensure the rebirth and renaissance of TjiNambya in the Hwange District. This may actually also mean that one way or the other the Nambya and Tonga will have to unite and pursue a change of the name Matebeleland North to one that is more representative as that Province is not just “Land of the Ndebele” as the name Matebeleland suggests. The name Matebeleland may as well be re-appropriated to some district in the middle of Zimbabwe where the Ndebele originally settled in the 1800s upon their arrival in Zimbabwe and violent conquest of Bukalanga.

[2] See the Leopard’s Kopje Culture and the western frontier of the Monomotapa, Togwa and Lozwi Kingdoms in Chapters One and Five. This same land only became part of Botswana, the then Bechuanaland, in 1911, having been conceeded to the British by the Ndebele King, Lobengula, in 1893 as part of the Tati Land Concessions.

[3] I propose a restoration of the name Bulilima-Mangwe for this region because its destruction has been one of the chief reasons for the death of TjiKalanga. Because the same region is called Matebeleland, the assumption has tended to be that only the Ndebele are found in the region, which is very false. In any case, the region was called Bulilima-Mangwe up to the 60s. A look at the biographies of such people as the late nationalists Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, George Malani Silundika, Lazarus Nkala, Mlobiseni Rolek Bhango, John Landa Nkomo, etc shows that they were born in Bukalanga or Bulilima-Mangwe. Looking at the details of the actual areas they were born in then referred to as Bukalanga or Bulilima-Mangwe one finds such areas as Matobo (Dr J.M. Nkomo), Filabusi (Lazarus Nkala), Plumtree (JZ Moyo and TG Silundika), Tjolotjo (John L. Nkomo) etc. In fact, just to prove that Umzingwane District is Bakalanga area, one needs just to look at the place names, most of which are in TjiKalanga. Not only that, the top nationalist from that District, Lazarus Nkala from Filabusi, was himselves a stuanch and founding membe of the Kalanga Cultural Society (KCS) in the 1950s with the likes of JZ Moyo, Mhale, Ngwenya and others. If he were not Kalanga and coming from a Kalanga area, then one has to ask what he was doing in the KCS. In any case, his surname, like those of the majority of the people of Insiza and Umzingwane, is a Kalanga surname.  

[4] Alleged war vets who are former Zanla fighters came all the way from Mashonaland ellegedly to conduct cleasing ceremonies. Whilst there, in response to protest by the Matobo/Bukalanga Community, they told locals that they “do not have land in this country” as the land “belongs to Shona people.” This of course, as we have shown in The Rebirth and previous chapters of the present book, is a Goebbelsian Lie. 

[5] Whilst there is a low level of mutual intelligibility between TjiKalanga and Sesotho, there can be no doubt that migrations over the last 300 years into Gauteng has helped many Bakalanga master Sesotho. So has been the influence of the SABC of South Africa on the Province, which has tended to shape a similar worldview for the people of the present Mat’South.

[6] We can also take advantage of the fear of some Mashonaland nationalists that the region presently and erroneously called Matebeleland will one day seceded from Zimbabwe. By establishing a non-Ndebele Province - Bukalanga - that takes half of Matebeleland, we would have ensured that effectively only one Province can still be controlled by the Ndebele, and as such they would not have much power nor the numbers to seek secession. This I say because it is beyond any reasonable doubt that the secessionist project is being pushed by the Ndebele themselves, although there may be some misguided Bakalanga elements in the Mthwakazi movement. Of course it needs to be understood that this is not in anyway a relaxation on our commitment as Bukalanga to self-government and self-determination. In fact, if need be we may have to setup for ourselves and turn our Provincial Homeland into an independent state as long as our rights are trampled upon and not respected by the government in Harare and if it refuses to implement real devolution, or better still as we shall see later, Federalism.