LWIINDI CEREMONY

It was fascnating to witness the Lwiindi Ceremony held at Chief Chikanta's (Chungu) palace on 12th to 15th October, 2006.

The ceremony was attended by the the follwing: Paramount Chief Monze, Chief Chikanta, Chief Nyawa, Chief Hamusonde, Chief Simwatachela, Honourable Sikangombe Member of Parliament, Dundumwezi Constuence, council representatives from Kalomo district and His excellence the French ambassador Mr Francis Soudubray and the delegation from Radio Macha.

In simperative, Tradition is general defined as a long-standing beliefs, practices or customs that have been handed down from one generation to the next. Therefore, every culture, every race of people or group of people have their own rich customs and traditions.

Lwiindi is a Tonga Traditional Ceremony held every year as a thanks giving ceremony. During this event, people have to express their thanks for their previous harvest. The ceremony signifies a sense of unity,this is when the Tonga people  realise and appreciate that God is the one who gives enough rains, food and other natural occurances. During this ceremony God is described as the,"Grain Maker" because people have enough food to sustain their families throughout the year.Chief Chikanta urged the People that they should realise that culture is not an inborn thing, but a person becomes part of culture by being born in that particular society.

The most interesting part of the ceremony was the appearance of the tradition leaders who clad themselves in leopard skins, if a poacher happened to attend the ceremony, he would have short one of them thinking that he was seeing a real animal in the park.

Lwiindi Ceremony also decribes the importance of the African culture, that has been denied by its own people through the adaption of western culture.

During the ceremony,it was observed by the Tonga Paramount chief Monze that, African traditions and customes have have been declining since the 1970s due to the influence it has suffered from the western culture. He urged the young generation to embrace the African culture if they were to be Identified as true sons and daughters of the African soil

The following issues were pointed out by Tonga Chiefs as key elements to preserve our richest culture:Africans have to be orally taught about the importance of their own customs,in this aspect,traditional leaders can play an important role to teach their subject own subjects on preservation of culture.Chief Hamusonde urged the young generation to adquately use their knowledge to preserve culture. During the event, traditional Leaders proposed that school syllabus include african traditions at grassroot level, they condemned the current sallabus because it does not provide adquate information about Africa's richest culture. One distictive part of the african is the inhretence of the chiefteinship.

The Tonga paramount chief Monze strongly advised, fellow africans not barry their own culture instead they should preserve it. Monze urged people that culture is the glue that can hold the african people together and this should be instilled in every african. He went on to say , “tradition is at war with mordenity”

Fred Mweetwa, Station Manager for Vision Community Radio Macha encouraged the cheifs to keep the ball rowring.

ACTIVITIES

The Traditional Ceremony was characterised by dances,druming and singing. Somebody could tell by looking that the African culture is unique from all cultures around the glob. A person could smell the cerebrations from distance places, all sorts of traditional instruments were used during the ceremony. It was interesting to see people dancing like electrical machines, they danced as if they did not have backborns.

Chief Monze was accompanied by his own Traditional dancing group

FRENCH AMBASSADOR

His excellence, Mr Francis Soudbray who is the French ambassador accredited to Zambia and Malawi also attended the Ceremony. in the words of Mr Soudbray, he says, africans are not aware of the rich culture they have inherited from their ancestors. Because if you look at what is going on in design, fashion, in music, in dance in the western culture, its so strongly inspired by african cultures. He pointed out that it was shameful to see that africans are not proud enough of their cute cultures of their traditions and heritage.

He also mentioned that, even if these traditions and heritage tarry with human rights, africans should be proud of their unique culture, they should cherish, promote and give light to its genuine traditions. He urged Zambians that it was urgent and a priority for several reasons: He thinks that a person can not develop if he does not know the traditions , culture and heritage that the ancestors did. He Challeged africans who abondoned their cultures that, there is no future without past, if a person is not aware of the past, he can not avoid the mistakes the ancestors have been making if the past is ignored.

Thirdly, if Zambia wants to promote tourism and and achieve the  employment creation  in the hospitality industry  and widen the tax base in the country, the Zambiams should not rely on wild life which can go into extinction and instead    should rely mostly on human, on heritage, culture and on traditions which promote traditional ceremonies in the country and these should be a prioty for the government and the people of Zambia.

He observed that, the african tradition is not written, the information is orally transmitted from one generation to another. Hence its important to keep the recorded information for the future generation or to have this rich information documented.

He supported the idea of Community Radio Stations as a means to preserve the culture by recording the traditional ceremonies in the community later transmit them throughout the country.
Mr Soudbray was strongly of the idea of using Vision Community Radio Macha the means of using community radio stations to preverve the African culture.

Soudbray encouraged the Traditional leaders that the French government's policy was to promote dialogue and to preserve cultural diversity. He also told Zambians that they should realise that France is the friend of African Culture. So far, the French governnment has sponsored the following Traditional ceremonies: Likumbi lyamizi, Kuomboka the lunda, Ngoni, the Lenje, Lwiindi and ceremonies throughout Zambia subsdising them and pushing them to leave the western attairs and join the traditional ceremonies and coming back to traditional attairs, by waring skins, grass.

The ambassador was ashamed to see the african culture at ruin, its also disppointing to see traditional dancers in t-shirts and nice morden shoes. He is also ready to sponsor and encouregeit the organisers of the tradition ceremonies to forget about t-shirs and chitenge materials because they are not the genuine african traditional, instead, africans should go back to what their ancestors were waring and then join this traditional ceremonies, music, dances and traditional attairs.

He questioned parents on what kind of africa they would like to leave to their sons and daughers a spoiled africa with all the resoures taken by the outside world with your traditions barried, with your landscaped destroyed? and you can not handle the whole thing without taking into account what was left by your ancestors.

Conclusion

As station Manager for Vision Community Radio Macha, I would encourage all African Chiefs to Preserve their own culture for the betterment of the future generation.

I would also encourage fellow young Africans to document their own traditions since the olden days have passed when information was passed orally.