Sudan inspires separatist movements

The most recent examples are in Mali, which recently experienced a coup and Zambia right here in Southern Africa.
This past week, the Barotse Royal Establishment’s District Courts announced they were ready to secede from the rest of Zambia.
Barotseland covers a significant proportion of the country, which is now known as Western Province.
The timing of the announcement appeared to coincide with President Michael Sata’s absence, as he was in India at the time.

However, Vice-President Guy Scott, cabinet, ministers, the clergy and other senior officials — including some representing ethnic groups in Western Province — have all slammed the move.

The Home Affairs Ministry has indicated the attempt at secession is “treasonous”, while a senior official in President Sata’s Office told The Southern Times that the security apparatus stands ready to deal with any “malcontents” that try to use arms in this “ill-fated bid”.
The Barotse Agreement of 1964 paved the way for Northern Rhodesia’s independence from Britain while incorporating Barotseland in the unitary Republic of Zambia.

The secessionists claim former President Kenneth Kaunda and all his successors have ignored concessions made to give the leaders of Barotseland some small measure of autonomy over local matters.
On 27 March, the Barotse Royal Establishment’s district courts, claiming to represent the views of all people in Western Zambia, demanded the immediate and total independence of Barotseland from Zambia in view of the “unilateral abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement by Kenneth Kaunda’s government”.

The resolutions were made after a two-day consultative meeting of the seven district traditional courts before the Barotse National Council.
VP Scott told MPs the following day that the Barotse National Council was being “irresponsible” and their demands were unacceptable.
He said some illegitimate leaders of the chiefdom were bent on creating anarchy but the state would ensure peace and stability.

He pointed out that the Lozi, the historical inhabitants of Barotseland, were actually more in number elsewhere in the country than in Western Province.
“Government will not abdicate its responsibility as custodian of the interest of all our people who live in the territorial space called Zambia,” he         said.
According to government, the Barotseland Agreement was adopted to give comfort to  Lozi-speaking people and not to advocate              secession.
The Nkoya Royal Establishment, which has lived in Western Province since before colonialism, has dissociated itself from the secession   bid.

Senior Chief Mukuni of the Toka Leya in Kazungula near the border with Zimbabwe appealed to the Barotse Royal Establishment to have dialogue with the state to avoid splitting the country and plunging it into civil strife.
During his presidential campaign, then opposition leader, President Sata pledged to “restore” the Barotse Agreement of 1964, signed and witnessed by, among

others, founding President Kaunda.

Ex-President Kaunda’s rallying call has always been, “One Zambia, One Nation”.
Zambia has 10 provinces, 73 districts and 72 ethnic groups in its 13-million strong  population.
Separatist movements have plagued Africa since the decolonisation project started in earnest in the 1950s.

This has been attributed to the fact that diverse ethnic groups with their own cultures and histories were bound together in national boundaries by colonial governments following the 1884 Berlin Conference.
The question that has always arisen, though, is how possible it is to ignore the administrative boundaries nearly 150 years later.

Many separatist movements have been led by opportunists seeking political capital or room to exploit natural resources within their localities for their own personal gain.
The recent coup in Mali has been linked to the handling of the war being waged by the Taureg who want to create an Islamic State.

Political analyst, Professor Jonathan Moyo, says the problem stems from individuals  who use ethnicity and tribalism for their own  ends.
“If you look at most of these instances there are no groups or communities calling for secession but politicians and individuals among certain groups that think they can make their careers using ethnicity and regionalism.
“We must distinguish between true  community sentiments and those of individuals, these are politicians who stoke fires of ethnicity and

tribalism to claim national space,” he said.

Prof Moyo believes current geo-politics do not favour secessionist politics but rather a “deconstruction of boundaries”.
“In 2012, all thinking Africans will know  that there is greater possibility of their  territories becoming part of an African Union government than of a village becoming a state,” he asserts.

He points out the momentum that has been gathered in promoting unity through regional blocs such as Sadc and Ecowas cannot accommodate secessionist movements.
Prof Moyo, however, advises that it is  important for African states to allow people to celebrate their cultures and diversity within their nations.

“We have to find ways of celebrating the traditions and cultures and our own spirituality as Africans and not use ethnicity to separate  people.
“There is nothing that stops you from being a Lozi and a proud Zambian at the same time; or being Shona, Ndebele or any other culture and not be a proud Zimbabwean.

“That is where we are failing as Africans.”
The political scientist says the issue of The Sudan and South Sudan is different from most separatist calls. The Sudan issue, analysts have said, had much to do with resource-control and clear cultural differences between a largely Islamic north and a mainly Christian south, among other distinguishing factors.

The Barotseland issue is not the only secessionist headache in Southern Africa.
The Bas-Congo Pressure group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is proposing the creation of a Kingdom of Kongo.
Other secessionist groups in the DRC are the Katanga Political parties the Confédération des Associations de Katanga Tribales and the Union of Independent Federalists.

Add to them republican militant organisation the Mai-Mai community-based militia groups operating in Kwili, Kivu and Bukavu.
Namibia has recently concluded a long-running trial of Caprivian separatists who were found guilty and await sentencing for  seeking to create a Free State of Caprivi Strip/Itenge.

They are led by the Caprivi African National Union, which has a now-disabled military wing, the Caprivi Liberation Army.
In South Africa there is the Freedom  Front Plus pressure group that wants an Afrikaner state.
They have a militant wing called the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging/Boeremag, which has often threatened armed insurrection in addition to disrupting the 2010 Fifa

Soccer World Cup by bombing black townships.
The Thembu people in Cape Town want to establish a Thembuland.
In Zimbabwe, the Mthwakazi Liberation Front wants a separate Ndebele State in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.
The group has in recent years tried and failed to mobilise any significant following through social network sites and their activities have been limited to flag-burning and issuing press statements. — The Southern Times.

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