The car tyres rumbled over one final cattle grid and soon after, we’d arrived. As a 9-year old, this felt like one of the longest trips I’d been on. I could hear excited chatter from a collection of houses in the compound. Some of the voices sounded like children which made this even more exciting! No doubt, I’d be playing with them soon.
My grandmother walked towards us as we disembarked from the vehicle and stretched our weary legs. Beyond the compound, the land was vast and if you looked hard enough, you might’ve even spotted cattle grazing in the distance.
“Mwabonwa!” It means welcome!
There was a lot of hugging and laughing as we filed seamlessly into one of the houses.
Grandma, known as “Ba Buya,” was a strong, resilient, and industrious woman. Born into a family of 9, she grew up in central Zambia. In her earlier years, her family were cattle ranchers. Later in life she turned to subsistence farming when she relocated north to the Copperbelt to be closer to her children.
As with anything she did, Ba Buya put her whole self into it. She maintained a field where, at various points, she grew maize, millet, sugarcane, groundnuts, pumpkins, potatoes, and vegetables. She had mango trees, pawpaw (papaya), guavas, mulberries, and bananas. As if that wasn’t enough, she also reared chickens and kept a few goats.
Despite not having received a formal education herself, Ba Buya made sure her children went to school. I admired her tenacity and even as a child, I could tell she was a woman with an indomitable spirit. In her latter years, even with failing sight, she continued the same pattern of hard work and refused to slow down.
When I think of strong Zambian women, I think of women like my grandmother and those of her generation; women who embody strong values, ambition, and an unshakeable spirit regardless of their circumstances. Ba Buya is a personal example from whom I benefitted first-hand. The qualities she passed down to her children and grandchildren are qualities that many Zambians identify with today.
Our experiences as Zambian women are vast and vary depending on different factors –where we were born (in towns, cities, or villages), who we were born to and their level of affluence, our education, literacy, marital status, entrepreneurial skills, etc. We range from Lunda to Luvale, Tonga to Ila, Bemba to Aushi, Namwanga to Tumbuka, to name just a few.
Spanning over 750,000 square kilometres of this country are the stories of women, many untold, who have long held up our society in different ways. Yet oftentimes women are overlooked, their contributions playing second fiddle to those of men. As a patriarchal society, the names of great Zambian men, leaders and chiefs roll off our tongues with ease. It is expected of men to be great. It is applauded, even strongly encouraged. Women on the other hand can be assumed irrelevant regardless of capability or achievement.
So, what does it mean to be a strong Zambian woman in our present world?
How did we get to where we are and how can we elevate the voices of more women?
It can be hard to reconcile the strong women we know with the reality that many women are victims of domestic, emotional, and sexual abuse. Like it or not, this impacts the way we view women as a society. Additionally, cultural conditioning places a disproportionate amount of expectation on females. Women also face unique challenges like high maternal mortality rates, HIV in pregnancy, and the stigma around being unmarried or childless.
In a quest to think of viable ways of amplifying women’s voices, I felt it was important to dig deeper into our identity as Zambian women. To do this, we must look back into the events that have led us to where we are today as a strongly patriarchal society. There’s no denying the disparities that exist when it comes to the genders and no doubt this affects women in a huge way.
***
When we think of Zambian history, many of us think back to British colonisation which formally began in the 1890s. That isn’t surprising. Colonisation was a huge part of our recent history and it’s also well-documented. We are familiar with Zambia in the colonial era, the struggle for independence, and post-colonial Zambia because these stories have been told. But what about Zambia’s untold histories during and before colonialism? What did society look like then and are these stories relevant to our understanding of ourselves as southern African women today?
These questions led me to The Women’s History Museum of Zambia which proved to be a gem of a find! The museum was set up to document and revive narratives of Zambian history with a specific focus on women. It was co-founded by two women, Mulenga Kapwepwe, an author, curator & historian, and Samba Yonga, a journalist & media consultant. The artefacts they collect and the oral histories they share tell a multiplicity of stories about Zambian women that are largely untold. Of particular interest to me were the stories on their podcast “Leading Ladies Zambia,” which speaks of women in terms we don’t always hear – leaders, warriors, military generals, secretaries of state.
One woman named Loongo (nicknamed ''the Warrior'' on the podcast), ruled the Sala people of Mumbwa area in the 19th century. Loongo is known to have formed an all-woman army to fight against Makololo invaders from the south. (The image that comes to mind when I hear about Chieftainess Loongo is that of the women warriors, the Dora Milaje, in the movie Black Panther. I remember how inspired we all were to see black women cast as strong, naturally beautiful, feminine, and warriors, all at once. The Dora Milaje are fictional of course, but even more inspiring is the fact that they point to real African women who lived before our time.)
It would appear that what we know as present-day Zambia wasn’t as strongly patriarchal as it is now. Before colonialism, tribal kingdoms adopted different approaches to life and rulership – some patriarchal and others more matrilineal. It is unclear if one system overshadowed the other however, societies were likely more gender-egalitarian with both men and women having power in the running of institutions, according to their skills and talents.
Historians such as Dr Kathleen Sheldon of UCLA suggest that patriarchal ideals were heightened with the coming of colonial rule. Mulenga Kapwepwe also states that many women chiefs were either ignored or not recognised by the colonial government who were now keeping the historical records. The paper ‘History lessons for gender equality from the Zambian Copperbelt, 1900–1990’ by Dr Alice Evans of Kings College London suggests that as colonialism spread, women were pushed out of certain roles which, over time, created “an economic climate that largely enabled men to financially provide for their families. Reliant upon husbands for status and economic support, many urban women had little conjugal bargaining power. Gender divisions of labour also meant that people lacked first-hand evidence of women’s equal competence in employment and politics, who they thus often underrated and overlooked. Such perceptions seem to have perpetuated women’s exclusion from prestigious positions – a pattern sustained by macro-economic circumstances in the early decades of independence.”
There is a startling contrast in the way women are portrayed in the shadow of patriarchy versus the women in our ‘forgotten’ history. What would it do to our view of women as leaders if we learnt more about the strong, female leaders in our history who helped shape the Zambian landscape we have today? They weren’t docile or downtrodden, they were fully capable and played just as important a role as men.
As well as looking at our past, there is much to be said about men championing women in the present. We often hear in conversations about racism that the oppressed cannot fully elevate themselves without the help of those with privilege. And so it goes in a society like ours. Patriarchy can often lead to misogyny which in turn keeps women at the bottom of the pile. We cannot elevate women without the participation of men. This applies to all arenas – in politics, homes, and schools.
As it stands, Zambia has twenty-eight female MPs; that is 17% female representation in parliament, the legislative body of government. While this is down to a combination of factors, women who put themselves forward often lose out to preferred male candidates. It should be normal for women to have a voice in key areas of decision making such as parliament, policing, and local government, in similar numbers to men.
What we teach boys is also important. The boys we raise today will have a direct impact on the women of the future. If they grow up being reminded not to do things “like a girl,” they are learning to see women as weak and incapable. These are the future decision makers and we should teach them to respect women as equals and not be intimidated by female success. We need to normalise the idea that women making more money, for example, doesn’t take away from their masculinity in any way.
Also, it goes without saying that female empowerment doesn’t mean male disempowerment. For women to excel in a society like ours, men must be comfortable with taking a back seat. Women are leaders too and we should train them up as such.
***
It could be that herein lies the answer to some of our problems – a move away from male dominance to a more balanced society where the needs of all Zambians are represented, thus elevating more women.
We have seen that the women of our past played a key role in shaping our country. I for one draw courage from this.
Yes, our lives have been defined and redefined for us but we are now seeing, through a fresh lens, what it means to be a Zambian woman. And about time too.
About Zed Essays
Founded and edited by writer and journalist Chipo Muwowo, Zed Essays seeks to become the home of intelligent conversation about Zambian life and culture on the internet. We’ll publish six articles every quarter. Subscribe today and get each issue directly to you inbox! 👇🏿
“ Also, it goes without saying that female empowerment doesn’t mean male disempowerment.”
What a beautiful and thoughtful sentiment this is - not to mention 100% truthful. All debates which focus on uplifting the disenfranchised and powerless groups share this at their core. It seems like there is always a fear that when we look to redistribute power, those in power understand this to mean a weakening of their position. This is simply not true and it is so brilliantly communicated here.