Barotse National
YOUTH LEAGUE
BAROTSE NATIONAL YOUTH LEAGUE’S
SUBMISSION
TO:
HIS EXCELLENCY
PRIME MINISTER OF THE KINGDOM OF BAROTSELAND
P.O.BOX 910284 MUNGU
KINGDOM OF BAROTSELAND
DATE: 04TH MARCH 2012
REF: BAROTSE NATIONAL YOUTH LEAGUE’S RESOLUTIONS ON THE ABROGATION OF THE BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT 1964
Dear Prime Minister,
Your Excellency Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Barotseland.
We are indeed honoured and privileged that we have this rare opportunity to make this submission to his Excellency’s office and the Kuta.
Our submission is based on the Barotseland Agreement 1964 and the abrogation of the same by the Zambian government in 1969. Secondly, allow us to submit to his Excellency’s office our resolutions to resolve this outstanding dispute between the Kingdom of Barotseland and the Republic of Zambia once and for all.
Please allow us to state that we might face extreme negative repercussions from the Government of the Republic of Zambian, as has been the case in the past, but we assure you that we will not relent or be cowards because we are fighting for a Right, Just and Legitimate Cause,
”Mufa na saye ni muteeba, ta liokwe ni mufa na mbuyuyu mu kanwa,”
Meaning "Blessed is that who is prepared to die for his possession like a goose is ready to die with a grain in its gully."
The history of Barotseland Agreement of 1964 is a well known issue to all.
Before 1964 the territory called Barotseland Protectorate was a separate entity from the British colony called Northern Rhodesia and both were ruled by the current United Kingdom. In 1964 these two separate territories signed a legal document called the Barotseland Agreement 1964.
This agreement became part of the new constitution of a new created country called Republic of Zambia which was a merger of Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia occasioned by the Barotseland Agreement 1964. The Barotseland Agreement therefore is the only legally binding document which caused the people of Barotseland to become part of a unitary state which is today called Republic of Zambia.
Any breach to any of the provisions of the Barotseland Agreement entitles the State and Nation of Barotseland to rescind or terminate the agreement, just as a party to a contract which has suffered loss, due to a breach by the other party, under contract law has the remedy of rescinding the contract and sue for damages.
The direct result of this action was and is that the principal signatories to the Barotseland Agreement were and now are free to rescind the agreement and to revert to their earlier status or position in which they were before the Barotseland Agreement 1964 was signed. Barotseland therefore being the party that has suffered the effect of the breach has the right to claim for compensation from the Government of the Republic of Zambian for the suffering and loss occasioned by the breach or abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement.
From this background, it is very clear that the Government of the Republic of Zambian did with impunity abrogate the Barotseland Agreement 1964, thereby violating the spirit under which the agreement was signed. We wish to state that the violation of the Barotseland agreement was a purposeful and calculated move by the Kaunda government and also the subsequent governments to suppress the government of Barotseland and to keep its people poor, uneducated and without meaningful means of survival. This can easily be seen in utterances of the current Republic of Zambian President Michael Sata that was quoted in one of the Daily Newspapers.
“You are on the weaker side and you are not in the position to make any claims”
This was in reference to the Nation and People of Barotseland. He said this when he met representatives for the Barotseland activists at the Republic of Zambia State House in Lusaka.
In another statement of the Republic of Zambia President Sata upon receipt of the report and recommendations from Dr. Rodger Chongwe, chairperson of the commission of inquiry into the Mungu, Barotseland massacre on 14th January 2011, wondered from which resources the People and Nation of Barotseland would raise taxes from even if they were granted secession.
This statement by the Republic of Zambia President Sata about financial status of the Nation of Barotseland is accurate as this was and is the sole goal of the irresponsible and heartless Government of the Republic of Zambia to keep the people of Barotseland in a vulnerable position through wide spread poverty, unemployment, poor education facilities and illiteracy. The Government of the Republic of Zambia has shown no interest in the economic development of Barotseland. Many schools and hospitals that are in Barotseland were built by either missionaries or the Barotseland Native Government way back before 1964.
SUPPRESSED ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN BAROTSELAND
The Noble and Heroic People of Barotseland will recall that prior to and up to 1964 many people from Barotseland were recruited to work in South African mines by WINELA (Witwatersrand Native Labour Authority). This exportation of labour brought much wealth to the people of Barotseland. Recruits were able to return with money, clothing, bicycles, carpentry tools and sowing machines with which they were able to engage in income generating and self sustaining activities. WINELA activities were banned soon after independence in 1964. According to the publication of the Times of Zambia dated 23rd September 1965 it was stated that:
"The greatest source of cash income is from the export of labour to the South African Mines every year. This brings in an estimated 250 000 pounds to the province every year. The Witwatersrand Native Labour Authority has depots in Mungu and Sinanga and runs several charter flights to and from South Africa each week."
This is evidence enough that Barotseland had a viable economic life line in the Winela project among other economic activities, but this economic life line was cut off by the heartless evil demons that occupied the corridors of power in Zambia.
The Zambian government never cared to create alternative employment for victims of the ban despite the fact that Zambia had copper mines, and as a result poverty and unemployment in Barotseland soar to higher heights while there were increased economic activities aimed at empowering tribes living outside Barotseland. Therefore this situation of extreme poverty in Barotseland is seating well with the Zambian Government to date.
We are also alive to the fact that currently the Zambian government has embarked on a malicious program in which cattle in Barotseland have been rounded off by vet officials and slaughtered with only a poultry amount of money paid to cattle owners. This is done in the pretext of combating cattle diseases but this is an under cover scheme aimed at wiping out the last remaining economic life line of the people of Barotseland. We all know that the wealth of a Lozi man and his survival depends on cattle.
While this evil is being orchestrated by Zambians against the People of Barotseland a scheme of Cattle restocking is running in other parts of Zambia to develop cattle farming in other parts of Zambia in order to increase economic activities in these areas.
EDUCATION
The ferrying of Lozis from Barotseland to Nakambala Sugar Estates to cut canes was another deliberate ploy to deprive young Lozis of the much needed education which is the backbone for development of any society. Young Lozi men were maliciously separated from school for five years or more and were only repatriated back home when they were past school age and had lost impetus for education. This act increased levels of illiteracy in Barotseland and again this was one of the intended and much sought goals of the Zambian Government.
The cut off point of pupils in Barotseland was maliciously raised higher than other parts of Zambia in order to deprive the pupils in Barotseland of the attainment of higher education.
This evil initiative was a discriminatory scheme introduced by the Kaunda regime and was also intended to disadvantage the People of Barotseland as follows:
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Students from other places in Zambia had 66% marks for boys and 56% marks for girls to get into secondary school. (grade 8)
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Students in and from Barotseland were and are still required to score 86% marks for boys and 76% marks for girls to be accepted into secondary school (grade 8)
The cut off point for girls in Barotseland was and is higher by 10% than the cut off point for boys in other parts of Zambia.
Meaning that the cut off point for boys and girls from outside Barotseland were and are in the range of Divisions (3) and (4) respectively. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in Barotseland where the requirements for boys and girls were and are pegged at 86% and 76% respectively which were and are in Division (1).
Besides a girl from Barotseland was and is required to beat a boy from outside Barotseland by 10%.
The result is that students from Zambia find it easy to get places into secondary schools because of the low percentage pass marks compared to their counterparts in Barotseland.
This situation is tantamount to discriminatory treatment against the people of Barotseland which is inconsistent with the constitution of Zambia.
Article 23 clauses (2) and (3) which states that subject to clauses (6), (7) and (8)
(2) A person shall not be treated in a discriminatory manner by any person acting by virtue of any written law or in the performance of the function of any public office or any public authority.
(3) In this Article the expression “discriminatory” means affording different treatment to different persons attributable, wholly or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, sex, place of origin, marital status, political opinion, colour or creed whereby persons of one such description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another such descriptions are not made subject or accorded privileges or advantages which are not accorded to persons of another such description.
This situation of poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy among the people of Barotseland are some of the many tools that the Zambian government has used to oppress and enslave the people of Barotseland such that we have been disadvantaged as well as reduced to beggars and economic refuges in a country that supposedly is our own.
ABROGATION OF THE BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT 1964
The abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 was taken contrary to the spirit of goodwill under which the agreement was signed, and contrary to the assurances by the then Northern Rhodesian prime Minister Kenneth David Kaunda at various foras and commitment in written quotations as follows:
Firstly, in an address to His Royal Majesty The Litunga and his council on 6th August 1964, Dr Kaunda had inter alia this to say;
“I should now like to turn to the Barotseland Agreement which was reached in London in May, and I wish to give an assurance that it is the government’s full intention that the Barotseland Agreement will be honoured fully after independence. I believe that the agreement reached in London was an honourable agreement from the point of view of both the Central government and Barotse government, I believe that the way to ensure that it is implemented to advantage us all is by means of a close personal relationship between the Litunga and the Prime Minister”.
Contrary to this assurance by Kenneth Kaunda the agreement has never tasted implementation, an act that worked to the advantage of Northern Rhodesia while disadvantaging Barotseland.
In another speech a few years later during an address to the United National Independence Party (UNIP) National Council held at Matero Hall, in Lusaka, on 11th August 1969 under the theme TOWARDS COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE, the then president of Zambia Dr. Kaunda had this to say,
“I shall now deal with other types of mineral rights. The Litunga’s rights, the Litunga holds rights to determine conditions of prospecting licenses, mining leases, etc, and to claim loyalty on minerals in certain areas. I am afraid I have to TERMINATE these rights completely and WITHOUT COMPENSATION. The rights of the Litunga should not be different to those of our other traditional rulers. The rights of the Litunga are not different to those of the Nation, and I and my government are elected custodians of the interests of the Nation. The Litunga can rest assured, however, that we shall exercise these rights in the best interest of the Nation as a whole.”
Country men and women it is common knowledge and known to all that the rights of His Majesty The Litunga as enshrined in the Barotseland Agreement were never exercised in the interest of the Nation as a whole but instead these rights were terminated from the Barotseland Agreement and in President Kaunda’s own words without compensation. When Kenneth Kaunda said The Litunga’s rights will be exercised in the best interest of the Nation he actually meant in the best interest of Northern Rhodesia without Barotseland.
In the same year 1969 the Litunga’s mineral rights were terminated unilaterally by the Zambian government and as president Kaunda put it without compensation.
The union of Northern Rhodesia and Barotseland was wilfully terminated by the Zambian Government in 1969 by the promulgation of the Zambian Constitution (Amendment No. 5), Act No. 33 of 1969 under which it was provided that;
"this section shall not apply to the Barotseland agreement 1964 (this is to say, the agreement dated 18th May, 1964, between the Governments of Northern Rhodesia and the Litunga of Barotseland which provides that it may be cited by that title), which agreement shall, on and after the commencement of the constitution (Amendment) (No. 5) Act, 1969 cease to have effect, and all rights, whether vested or otherwise), liabilities and obligation thereunder shall thereupon lapse."
Article 8 of the Barotseland Agreement 1964,provides that the government of the republic of Zambia shall take such steps as may be necessary to ensure that the laws for the time being in force in the republic are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Agreement.
The 1969 amendments were done without the consent of His Majesty The Litunga, The Kuta and without consultation with the people of Barotseland and therefore inconsistent with the provisions of the Barotseland Agreement 1964. This was a unilateral violation of the provisions of the Barotseland Agreement by the Zambian Government.
Earlier in 1965 the Local Government Act No 69 of 1965 was enacted and had the effect of taking away the powers, privileges, and rights of Barotseland contrary to the provisions of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 which had upheld and affirmed those rights which he and the people of Barotseland enjoyed prior to the effectual coming into force of the agreement. Section 113 of Act No. 69 of 1965 had the following provisions;
113. “The provision of this Act shall apply in Barotseland and the powers contained here may be exercised in relation to Barotseland notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other written law as or in the Barotseland Agreement 1964.”
The Western Province (Land and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No 47 of 1970 drove the last nail in the coffin for the purposes of abrogating the Barotseland Agreement 1964 and the total dismemberment of Barotseland by taking away the residual powers of His Majesty The Litunga vested in his majesty through various enactments such as those of Forests, Lands, Fishing, Wildlife and National Parks, and all these became vested in the President of Zambia, contrary to the provisions of the Barotseland Agreement. Section 2 of the Act provides as follows;
“ All land in the Western province is here by vested in the President as a Reserve within the Meaning of and under the Zambia ( State Lands and Reserves ) Orders 1928 to 1964.”
WHAT REMEDIES DOES BAROTSELAND HAVE IN VIEW OF THE ABROGATION
What remedies, therefore, are available to us as the people of Barotseland in view of the unilateral violation of conditions of the Barotseland Agreement by the Zambian Government?
Your majesty kaongolo ka Nyambe, His Excellency Sope, The Kuta, the Barotse National Council as a whole, distinguished guests of this very important and historical event;
We as the Barotse National Youth League wish to draw your attention to the provisions of the VIENNA CONVENTION on the Law of Treaties.
It has been widely spread and debated in both electronic and print media at different foras that the Barotseland Agreement 1964 does not contain provision for secession and therefore, Barotseland cannot secede.
This position goes on further to show the ignorance of those that argue in this manner, therefore their argument FLIES IN THE TEETH OF THE LAW, because there is no piece of law that operates in isolation. Every piece of law is complemented by several other pieces of law. The law of contracts, the international law on treaties and agreements are such other pieces of law that very clearly can solve silent issues in the Barotseland Agreement. where an agreement does not contain provisions for a term or condition in the contract, treaty, or agreement such term can be implied into the contract, treaty or agreement by law.
Secession, therefore, can and shall be implied into the Barotseland Agreement 1964 by invoking Article 56 of the Vienna Convention.
Article 56 of the VIENNA CONVENTION on the law of treaties provides for DENUNCIATION of or withdrawal from a treaty containing no provision regarding termination, denunciation, or withdrawal.
Article 56 (1) provides that; A treaty which contains no provision regarding termination and which does not provide for denunciation or withdrawal is not subject to denunciation or withdrawal unless;
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It is established that the parties intended to admit the possibility of Denunciation or withdrawal; or
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A right of denunciation or withdrawal may be implied by the nature of the treaty.
Article 60 of the same Vienna convention provides for termination or suspension of a treaty as a consequence for its breach.
Article 60 (1) provides that; a material breach of a bilateral treaty by one of the parties entitles the other party to invoke the breach or is a ground for terminating the treaty or suspending its operation in whole or in part.
Article 60 (2) (b) states that; A material breach by one party entitles, a party especially affected by the breach to invoke it as a ground for suspending the operation of the treaty in whole or in party in relations between itself and the defaulting state.
Under sub- Article (3) of Article 60 of the Vienna convention on the law of treaties, it is provided that; a material breach of a treaty, for the purposes of this Article consists in,
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A repudiation of the treaty
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The violation of a provision essential to the accomplishment of the object or purpose of a treaty.
It is clear and evident that all the provisions of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 that have been violated are essential to the accomplishment of the object or purpose of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 and therefore entitles the Government of Barotseland and its people to turn to the principle of law of implying a condition into a contract , treaty or agreement and therefore imply the provision of succession in to the Barotseland Agreement in accordance with Article 56 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
The people of Barotseland also have the option of Terminating the Barotseland Agreement in accordance with Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which provides for termination of an agreement, were there is a material breach or abrogation of a treaty or agreement by one party.
Furthermore, Article 70 of the Vienna convention gives consequences of termination of a treaty as follows; unless the treaty, otherwise, provides or the parties agree, the termination of a treaty under its provisions or in accordance with the present convention;
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Releases the parties from any obligation to, further, perform the treaty.
Even if the Agreement was not abrogated by the Zambian government, the people of Barotseland by law are permitted to exist as a people outside the realms of Zambia. The people of Barotse land have the right to secure the status of self - determination, in order to liberate themselves from the current relationship of master and servant, a situation that has existed for 47 years.
Some of the international statutes that permits the people of Barotseland to take this route of self determination include the following;
Article 20 of the African Charter on Human Rights provides that:
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All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self – determination. They shall freely determine their political status and shall pursue their economic and social development according to the policy they have freely chosen;
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Colonized or oppressed peoples shall have the right to free themselves from the domination by reverting to any means recognized by the international community;
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All peoples shall have the right to the assistance of the state parties to the present Charter in their liberation struggle against foreign domination, be it political, economical or cultural. Article 21 of the African Charter on Human and Political Rights states that:
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All peoples shall freely dispose off their wealth and natural resources. This right shall be exercised in the exclusive interest of the people. In no case shall a people be deprived of it;
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In case of spoliation, the dispossessed people shall have the right to the lawful recovery of its property as well as to an adequate compensation;
SUMMARY
Backed with the provisions of the international law as shown above, we the people of Barotseland are protected to move away from the shackles of bondage, servitude as well as slavery, without any one indicting us for the frivolous and vexatious charges of secession and treason, because we are protected by the international law.
Since our friends from northern Rhodesia are uncivilized we call upon his Excellency The Prime Minister of Barotseland to invite the United Nations, European Union, NATO, AU and SADC to put up measures that will protect we the people of Barotseland should the government of Zambia think of massacring us. Because we are very much aware that the Zambian government is not pleased with the current situation in Barotseland concerning Barotseland Agreement 1964, prevention is better than cure because the Zambian government doesn’t mean well as far as this matter is concerned.
CONCLUSION
Since the Zambian government decided to abrogate the Barotseland Agreement 1964 unilaterally contrary to law of contracts, treaties and agreements, we therefore demand for no other than TOTAL INDEPENDENCE immediately.
Furthermore, we humbly urge the Barotse Royal Establishment through his Excellency the Ngambela NEVER to entertain or allow any negotiations with the Zambian Government over the Barotseland Agreement 1964 KAKULI BALUBONI BUKUBA for a long time, for over 47 years we have been trying to negotiate with them to restore the Barotseland Agreement 1964, but they have never shown any interest in the matter.
To add salt to the injury on 14th January 2011 the Zambian government brought police to kill our own brothers in Barotseland for wanting to convene a meeting in order to discuss the way forward over the abrogation of Barotseland Agreement 1964.
From the conduct of the two parties to the
Barotseland Agreement 1964, which is Northern Rhodesia and Barotseland, it
was intended that a breach of any of the provisions of the Agreement and the
betrayal of the spirit of goodwill under which the agreement was signed
permits or allows Barotseland to INVOKE this implied term of
SECESSION in accordance with the provision of Article 56 of VIENNA
CONVENTION and by the nature of this Agreement to DENOUNCE or
WITHDRAW with immediate effect from BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT.
KINAKOOO YAMUZIBA HABO !!!
Yours faithfully,
For BNYL
SIGNED
THE INTERIM CHAIRPERSON
THE INTERIM VICE CHAIRPERSON
THE INTERIM SECRETARY INTERIM VICE SECRETARY