No land, no existence, no prosperity
By: Peter Qeko Jere
Land is the one vital treasure that identifies African people and brings meaning to their existence. In everything we do, it becomes meaningless if we don’t have land. Infact as African people, we get united to our land as someone once said that you don’t separate African people from their land because these two (land and its people) are tightly bounded together like that unbroken cord. In this paper, we shall show the relationship between land and African people and its heritage in relation to the bible.
To begin with, before, European colonialist came, various chiefs and kings rule in the many parts of Africa. These were well-established tribes and kingdoms some of which still exist today. In southern Africa such great kings and African leaders included Shaka the great, Mzilikazi, Soshangaane, Zwangendaba, Changamire, Lewanika, Chitimkulu, Kazembe and Kalonga to mention but a few. However by 1884-85’s Berlin conference, the African people had established themselves in the various parts of the continent. Now the main reason behind the 1884-85 Berlin conference was land, the very heart of African people. Thus this conference was the illegal grabbing of African land the legacy of which is still felt in the many parts of Africa today. Europeans illegally grabbed and took the African land, which didn’t belong to them. The same Europeans who advocated for rights and freedoms, forgot that African people had the right to land ownership and that their actions were illegal as far as both natural and their own laws were concern. Thus many African people lost their lives in trying to defend their only resource, very identity and rich heritage. Now someone may ask as to why European had interest in African land and what was their problem? Colonialist scrambled for land full of gold, copper, coal, diamond, zinc and its fertile soil like the garden of God.
While Europeans took over African land by force, in the late 1940 and 950s, the wind of African nationalism broke loose where Africans resented white people illegal grabbing and occupation of African land. This was led by the so-called African nationalists. Strategically African nationalist were fighting for independence, freedom and land. Land was a major issue because independence without land was regarded as meaningless and useless. It was from land where African had their riches hence the grabbing of land meant snatching the very heart of African people.
Having looked into land in African context, we also need to note that this issue was a very critical, crucial and serious one during the bible times. To begin with, it was from the soil (land) where God formed man. The same God called Abraham from UR to go and stay in the Promised Land of Canaan. God prepared inheritance for his children, which was the land of the promise. The many Old Testament wars and battles were about land and in another words, God’s children did everything under their power to go and possess their God given inheritance. In this regard, the Promised Land could not be separated from God’s children because this was their identify and the heart of their existence. Even today, there is the Israeli-Palestine conflict over land. In the same line of thought, all over the world, the wars that we hear about are about land and nothing else because all world riches are in land. The wars in Congo, Dafour, Somalia and others are all about land because each group would want to control the land from where riches are.
It’s because of their cruel approach in land grabbing that many lives was lost in the process of repossessing the land. Just as lives were lost in the bible, the same thing happened in Africa. In addition to this, it was because of land that Naboth was stoned to death by Jezebel. The bible says that Naboth refused to hand over his land to King Ahab and Jezebel because this was his only inheritance which he was given by his ancestors. Ahab had no regard to the fact that Naboth though poor had the right to own land. Thus after he refused to hand over this inheritance, Jezebel planned to have Naboth stoned to death after which the land was to be illegally grabbed. Like African people, Naboth looked at land as his very heart and identify and it was unthinkable for him to hand over that which he had as his very property. King Ahab and Jezebel in this regard, abused their office as King of the land by misusing their power to grab land from the land something, which reminds us of what Europeans did during the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885.
With this therefore, as African people, we need to realize that anything to do with land automatically affect us. We thus need to realize that land is our very existence because land is all that we are. For instance, when we talk of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, Kitwe, Bulawayo, Kigali, Maputo, Zanzibar, we at the same time talk of the land, from where we have roads and beautiful buildings. Also when we talk of Malawi we mean the piece of land that stretches from Chitipa to Nsanje and from Mchinji to Nkhota-kota hence you cannot separate the name Malawi from the land because this is the very heart of what Malawi is and without which the nation cannot exist. Also when we talk of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa, we mean the land which we have in the southern part of Africa. What we mean is that nations in African can not exist without land and the two can not be separated. When we talk of Africa we don’t necessarily mean the beautiful infrastructures that we see around but the beautiful land from where our riches are extracted, the land which is our very identify and heritage.
By: Peter Qeko Jere
Land is the one vital treasure that identifies African people and brings meaning to their existence. In everything we do, it becomes meaningless if we don’t have land. Infact as African people, we get united to our land as someone once said that you don’t separate African people from their land because these two (land and its people) are tightly bounded together like that unbroken cord. In this paper, we shall show the relationship between land and African people and its heritage in relation to the bible.
To begin with, before, European colonialist came, various chiefs and kings rule in the many parts of Africa. These were well-established tribes and kingdoms some of which still exist today. In southern Africa such great kings and African leaders included Shaka the great, Mzilikazi, Soshangaane, Zwangendaba, Changamire, Lewanika, Chitimkulu, Kazembe and Kalonga to mention but a few. However by 1884-85’s Berlin conference, the African people had established themselves in the various parts of the continent. Now the main reason behind the 1884-85 Berlin conference was land, the very heart of African people. Thus this conference was the illegal grabbing of African land the legacy of which is still felt in the many parts of Africa today. Europeans illegally grabbed and took the African land, which didn’t belong to them. The same Europeans who advocated for rights and freedoms, forgot that African people had the right to land ownership and that their actions were illegal as far as both natural and their own laws were concern. Thus many African people lost their lives in trying to defend their only resource, very identity and rich heritage. Now someone may ask as to why European had interest in African land and what was their problem? Colonialist scrambled for land full of gold, copper, coal, diamond, zinc and its fertile soil like the garden of God.
While Europeans took over African land by force, in the late 1940 and 950s, the wind of African nationalism broke loose where Africans resented white people illegal grabbing and occupation of African land. This was led by the so-called African nationalists. Strategically African nationalist were fighting for independence, freedom and land. Land was a major issue because independence without land was regarded as meaningless and useless. It was from land where African had their riches hence the grabbing of land meant snatching the very heart of African people.
Having looked into land in African context, we also need to note that this issue was a very critical, crucial and serious one during the bible times. To begin with, it was from the soil (land) where God formed man. The same God called Abraham from UR to go and stay in the Promised Land of Canaan. God prepared inheritance for his children, which was the land of the promise. The many Old Testament wars and battles were about land and in another words, God’s children did everything under their power to go and possess their God given inheritance. In this regard, the Promised Land could not be separated from God’s children because this was their identify and the heart of their existence. Even today, there is the Israeli-Palestine conflict over land. In the same line of thought, all over the world, the wars that we hear about are about land and nothing else because all world riches are in land. The wars in Congo, Dafour, Somalia and others are all about land because each group would want to control the land from where riches are.
It’s because of their cruel approach in land grabbing that many lives was lost in the process of repossessing the land. Just as lives were lost in the bible, the same thing happened in Africa. In addition to this, it was because of land that Naboth was stoned to death by Jezebel. The bible says that Naboth refused to hand over his land to King Ahab and Jezebel because this was his only inheritance which he was given by his ancestors. Ahab had no regard to the fact that Naboth though poor had the right to own land. Thus after he refused to hand over this inheritance, Jezebel planned to have Naboth stoned to death after which the land was to be illegally grabbed. Like African people, Naboth looked at land as his very heart and identify and it was unthinkable for him to hand over that which he had as his very property. King Ahab and Jezebel in this regard, abused their office as King of the land by misusing their power to grab land from the land something, which reminds us of what Europeans did during the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885.
With this therefore, as African people, we need to realize that anything to do with land automatically affect us. We thus need to realize that land is our very existence because land is all that we are. For instance, when we talk of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, Kitwe, Bulawayo, Kigali, Maputo, Zanzibar, we at the same time talk of the land, from where we have roads and beautiful buildings. Also when we talk of Malawi we mean the piece of land that stretches from Chitipa to Nsanje and from Mchinji to Nkhota-kota hence you cannot separate the name Malawi from the land because this is the very heart of what Malawi is and without which the nation cannot exist. Also when we talk of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa, we mean the land which we have in the southern part of Africa. What we mean is that nations in African can not exist without land and the two can not be separated. When we talk of Africa we don’t necessarily mean the beautiful infrastructures that we see around but the beautiful land from where our riches are extracted, the land which is our very identify and heritage.
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