Mbizo Chirasha
Kalinga- linga
A daughter of revolution fed on rich political
nutrition
With a smile bandaging scars of the streets
and falsehood by political demons
Fingers burnt in pseudo democratic pans of
West, what a political humor
I see you smelling love through the thick
dew of corruption and robots
True heroes and heroines swallowed up in the
deep silence of chingwere and uzambwera*
Leopold hill shadows faking dances to the
throbbing rhythms of vumbuza drums
Kalinga- linga- your rising sun will soon
spread the beauty of its fingers in the skies of Afrika
*Cemeteries of the poor (Translator's note)
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| Kalinga- linga
Eine Tochter der Revolution, gefüttert mit reicher politischer
Nahrung
Mit einem Lächeln verbindet sie Narben der Straßen und Falschheit
politischer Dämonen
Finger verbrannt in pseudodemokratischen Pfannen des Westens, welch
politischer Humor
Ich sehe dich Liebe riechen durch den dicken Tau von Korruption und
Robotern
Wahre Helden und Heldinnen verschluckt in der tiefen Stille von chingwere
und uzambwera*
Leopold-Hill-Schatten täuschen Tänze vor zu den dröhnenden
Rhythmen der vumbuza Trommeln
Kalinga-linga – deine aufsteigende Sonne wird bald die Schönheit
ihrer Strahlen verbreiten in den Himmeln Afrikas
* Friedhöfe der Armen
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Sources found for the term “kalinga”:
1. “Kalingalinga is a low-income, high-density settlement east of Lusaka,
in Zambia.”
“It was one of Lusaka's earliest squatter settlements. By the late
1960s, many of Kalingalinga's residents were lured to Chainama Hills (later
renamed "Mtendere"), a newly opened development that promised "water, good
roads, schools, and a clinic". Those who left for Chainama Hills were mostly
supporters of president Kaunda's UNIP, leaving behind a population
with considerable support for the opposition Northern Rhodesian African
National Congress. By the late 1970s, assistance from the Deutsche
Gesellschaft f+r Internationale Zusammenarbeit in the form of a major urban
upgrading project provided a school, water, street lighting, and other
necessities, such as loans and legal assistance in applying for land ownership.
According to a report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme,
by 1991 the urban upgrading of Kalingalinga "enabled 4400 low-income squatter
households to obtain improved houses, services and security of tenure".
It noted, on the political situation, that progress initially had been
slow because the population mostly supported the political opposition,
but also that local organizations had been quite effective in the initiation,
planning, and execution of the improvements.”
2. Statement on the internet (commercial advertisement): “find serious
like-minded Zimbabwe Kalinga Diploma Grooms looking for marriage.”
3.“Zuka Kalinga had been safe in a British detention centre, awaiting
his forced return to Zimbabwe” [Zuka Kalinga = name of a
person from Zimbabwe]
4. A map of Southern Africa in ca. 1750 shows the territory
of the Kalunga people. Note the similarity of Kalunga, Kalanga
(the Kalanga religion) and Kalinga.
Cf. also the information regarding the Kalanga (or Kalinga?) religion
in this website: http://kalanga.org/
See also Ntandoyenkosi Dumani (Development practitioner and cultural
activist), “Role of culture: the missing link in sustainable development”
Nov. 30, 2015, in: http://kalanga.org/news/role-of-culture-the-missing-link-to-sustainable-development/
Ntandoyenkosi Dumani is the coordinator at the Kalanga Development Centre
and is also the Secretary of the Kalanga Language and Cultural Development
Association (KLCDA). He writes in his personal capacity. He can be
reached at yalilahwehhu@gmail.com
N. Dumani states very clearly that “[t]he approach to development which
views communities from a ‘half full’ and not from a ‘half empty’ perspective
would yield more positive results” than a pessimistic and paternalist approach
chosen by many outside “experts”. It matters to respect communities and
accept and encourage their self-emancipatory abilities. “This is the kind
of approach which does not view poor and marginalised communities as problems
that need to be solved or blank slates that need to be written. It rather
acknowledges that communities have their own assets, knowledge, skills,
values and systems of responding to and coping with various challenges
which they face from time to time. The assumption that communities are
some ‘desperate Israelites’ that need to be saved is myopic because it
means that without the intervention of the development practitioner, the
people will perish from the disaster of challenge which they have resiliently
faced for decades be it drought, floods, environmental degradation, gender
disparities or poor service delivery. This greatly undermines the body
of values, knowledge and wealth embedded in the culture of the particular
society which has seen them survive decades of marginalization, poverty
or natural disasters. The fact that these communities have survived the
problem for a long time speaks to certain skills, knowledge, values and
practices.”
These insights by the coordinator of the Kalanga Development Centre
are similar to those voiced by the Egyptian cultural sociologist and comparatist
Magdi Youssef. (See the article on Magdi Youssef in Wikipedia.)
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