{UAH} ZAMBIA LOSES OIL RESERVES AND RIGHTS TO BRITISH OWNED TULLOW OIL – FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS!
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ZAMBIA LOSES OIL RESERVES AND RIGHTS TO BRITISH OWNED TULLOW OIL – FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS!
By Mainda Simataa, General Secretary ELA
15.08.17
Lusaka, Zambia
It was Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe (MHSRIP), freedom fighter and Zambian Independence winner, who once warned us that colonialism is like a chameleon, it does not go away but only changes its colours. Today a new form of colonialism, better known in revolutionary circles as neo-colonilism as ably expounded by the Great Kwame Nkrumah, is beckoning on our door, and our leaders: either too corrupt to care, or simply blind not to see, cannot see this hand of latter-day British colonialism upon us in this latest scramble for Zambian Oil. They had our copper, they still have it anyway, and now they have our oil for the next 100 years! This cannot be sheer coincidence! It is planned!
It is also said that those who forget history are bound to repeat it, and indeed, history is repeating itself in Zambia all over again with embattled Zambian President Edgar Lungu authorizing and even praising yet another British colonial adventure into block 31 area in Zambia's Luapula Province to explore for oil reserves (and oil is indeed there you can bet on it).
Of course at the President's side during the launch of the exploration project in Kasama, was the conspicuous and familiar presence of the local representative of her Majesty's government and the British Imperial crown – British High commissioner to Zambia, Mr. Fergus Byet, OBE (Order of the British Empire), who in his speech paid glowing tribute to a new mutually beneficial partnership that would benefit Zambians – create employment, reduce poverty – blah blah blah… the usual diplomatic rhetoric, as if we don't know our past hostilities with the British from which many Zambians suffered and died, and our wounds have not even dried. Please!
Anyway, the curious thing about this British-Zambia imperialist oil transaction is that the exploration area in question awarded to Tullow Oil is this: some other Zambian company already laid claim to it! In fact papers had been filed into court to restrain Tullow Oil from staking out any exploration works in the area. But of course, it is now clear to see that Tullow Oil has a cozy relationship with the ruling Zambian government and is already in bed with them it appears. This is normal cut-throat business as usual in the corrupt capitalist world. However, what is disturbing is that the president claimed, through his mouth-piece for press of course, one Amos Chanda, that he didn't know about the other company's claim on that block!
That pronouncement that he, the President did not know, when he is the one man who must know everything, rang a historical bell when our Kings and Chiefs who signed away their Kingdoms and chiefdoms claimed later on that they did not know what they were signing. But we can forgive the chiefs because indeed, many of them were unlearned, unsuspecting and uneducated in the formal sense of British ways; but how can you excuse a president with a Law degree and an entire intelligence service at his command, how can he not know unless he is an accomplice in this robbery of our resources?
It appears that the PF regime is decided in repeating history all over again, selling out Zambia's future interests to foreign investors who have shown they are only interested in profit maximization, and not alleviating the poverty of our people – a poverty of which they are the chief architects. And to get that profit, they are ready and willing to break if not bend the law to have their way, and this time around, such corrupt acts are being done with the full knowledge and consent of the state.
Let remember and never forget fellow Zambians, Africans, that a little over a hundred years ago, Cecil Rhodes sent his pioneering explorers and henchman led by a man named Lochner to negotiate mineral rights in Barotseland now in Zambia, and Matebeleland now in Zimbababwe.
To cut the long story short, King Lewanika signing on behalf of Barotse, and King Lobengula signing on behalf of the Matebela, signed off their own kingship rights over their territories and peoples and handed them over to Cecil Rhodes British South African company – a company established by royal charter, which means the plundering of BSA Company had the blessings of the British Crown! Later the crown would take over the territory under BSA company for itself, formerly colonize Zambia then named Northern Rhodesia, named after the same mineral thief Rhodes.
When King Lewanika and King Lobengula learned of the trickery, gravity and depravity of the Lochner concessions against their people, they were shocked and grief-stricken to realize that they had been tricked by a group of white men who claimed to have been sent by the queen herself, and were only interested in grazing lands. They were shocked to learn that out of their own free will and free hand, they had been tricked into signing away their lands and the rights of their unborn children (us the Zambian of today) for the next 100 years, but it was too late to reverse the tide of colonial plunder, history was working its course, the damage had been done, and later in 1964, that damage was repaired by our freedom fighter, our fathers.
But have Zambians learned anything from history, do they care? I do not think so. But that is no reason why a few of us should not care. Indeed we have the historical task to liberate our country from the last vestiges of colonialism, and to swear never to forget the past, or to risk future generations of Zambians by repeating the mistakes we are seeing again today.
It is a fair estimate that no Zambian alive today will live to see the day when the exploration and mining license/concession offered to Tullow Oil expires, but we can change that fate by acting today, by resolving to reverse privatization and replace it with nationalization so that all that is on our land and under our land, will belong to Zambians – all of it!
Down with British imperialism!
Down with Capitalism and neo-colonialism!
Economic power to the People of Zambia!
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