ZAMBIA LETTERS, 20

Detail from Twin Rivers Kopje, photo Hanna Sjöstrand

05/06/2025

Hanna finally found an opportunity to carry out her expedition to Twin Rivers Kopje. The site is a Stone Age settlement located on a hill with a view of the landscape in all directions. At the top of the hill there is a cave and pigments have been found there, produced by those who lived at the site around 350,000 years ago, so-called Homo Heidelbergensis.

This Zambian national heritage is located on a farm belonging to Patrick Roberts. He kindly agreed to arrange guides for us from the tribes that live nearby, men who are used to handling the Black Mambas that live on the hill. Black Mambas have a deadly and fast-acting venom. The snakes can show aggression towards humans and even pursue them. In the event of a bite, you have about 20 minutes to get an antidote, otherwise the mortality rate is 100%. Mambas can also spit up to about three meters. According to Mr. Roberts, there are several families of these snakes on the rocky hill.

The cave was explored by geologist Larry Barren in the 1950s. It was he and his team who concluded that the site was inhabited 350,000-400,000 years ago. At the time of the settlement, there was a larger lake in the area below the hill, which made life there possible.

Unfortunately, the entrance was blocked for them by a hard mineral (Breacciate?) and an American participant chose to blow up the cave opening with dynamite, which in turn destroyed much of the ancient remains that the team wanted to explore.

Hanna's goal with the expedition was to search for a tree that she could paint. When she told our friend Chowa about her plans, and the site, he kindly offered to drive her there. His enthusiasm and his interest in the importance of the national heritage inspired Hanna to reach out to more people and to look for more information from them. This enriched her project and caused it to grow considerably.

Staff from the National heritage commission gave her information and maps of the area. From here Hannas interest turned towards other issues, besides craft. It immediately became clear that all the surveys and excavations at the site, and indeed of many other sites in Zambia, were financed and initiated by foreign organizations or nations. So who has access to these sites and who finances the exploration of them, and to what end? 

NHC suggested she should bring an archeologist along and attempts were made to arrange for this, but in the end it didn’t work out. Also, dr Ghankanani showed a lot of interest in joining the trip but he was also unable to make room for it in his schedule.  

In the end, the team that left Lusaka consisted of Hanna, myself, Irpa, Chowa, Naoko, Uzi and Bruno. Uzi and Bruno are curators and administrators at LuCAC. Chowa is a good friend of both them and us. He has volunteered a lot in different situations and has shown us various parts of Lusaka. He lives near the residence and is training to be an engineer, but was raised in the Copperbelt. Naoko is a curator who was born in Japan but lives in Oban, Scotland. She also has a residency at LuCAC. The car left at 08:00 in the morning. We had arranged to meet Mr. Roberts and the guides at his farm at 10:00 and we arrived exactly on time.

A couple of men were already waiting for us. Patrick (Mr. Roberts), who is of British descent, introduced us to them. They were led by Mathias, Patrick’s farmhand. All were equipped with machete-like tools that were used both for the snakes and for cutting a path through the vegetation. Everyone was given a long walking stick, both for balance and for the snakes.

Patrick went on to explain how things would work. Everyone would walk in a line according to the formula every other visitor and every other villager. Mathias would lead the procession. When someone shouted "Njoka!" it meant "snake!". Then everyone would immediately throw themselves down on their haunches. The snakes only attack when they are returning from a hunt, Patrick explained, and they are more threatened by tall enemies than by short ones. So sit down and take it easy, and the men will finish them off.

With that, the team began its journey. The procession wound its way up the thorny mountain. I took a few pictures of the brave group and waved goodbye, possibly for the last time, and then I took Irpa by the hand and went with her into the house with Patrick for a cup of tea.

He showed us to his saloon, where he offered me a seat in an armchair. Mathilda brought tea with honey and milk, both for me and for Irpa, and returned to the kitchen. Irpa sat down and began to draw on a couple of drawing pads that I had brought for her while Patrick told me his story. I carefully wrote down everything he said. And so this is his story, word for word, as he told it to me, there at his coffee table at Twin Rivers farm, on Friday, July 4th, which is winter time in Zambia and all other countries south of the equator, between the hours of 1030 and 1430, in the year of 2025.

——

“We are blessed in having a rather peaceful history. The Bemba, Chewa, Lozi and Tonga live in relative peace with each other. There were battles between the Senga, Matabele and Chewa during the period when the Matabele broke away from the Zulu nation and settled in Zambia, but otherwise the tribes have lived in relative peace.

We are also blessed with rivers that flow in a west-east direction and thus fertilize the country. There are many natural lakes, especially in the northeast. Lake Tanganyika is very deep. Therefore, those who lived here early were blessed with a rich wildlife and they lived, among other things, on fish.”

“For the Bembas, the Mukuyu tree is sacred. They do not cut it down. The tree has a slightly yellowish bark and it bears fruit. For them, the tree is a place of worship and a place where they meet. The tree sends its seeds with the wind. The Bembas believe that it only takes root where moisture comes from the ground and therefore the trees have led them to places that are good for settlements.”

"The first administrative British presence arose when King Lobengula of the Matabeleland signed an agreement with the British South Africa company, which laid the foundation for Southern Rhodesia. Unlike Southern Rhodesia, which eventually became Zimbabwe, Northern Rhodesia, which developed into Zambia, was never a colony but a protectorate. The difference is that a colony has a democratic system with a prime minister and parliament, while a protectorate has a first minister who answers directly to a minister in London.

Southern Rhodesia had, among other things, its own police force. It had its own prospectors and surveillors for farms. However, European influence led to armed conflict when the local population realized that the agreement restricted their freedom of movement and the movement of livestock. These uprisings led to a massacre of women, children and men. A patrol was called to put down the uprising, but it was also massacred.”

-”We actually have a very similar situation in Sweden, and Norway.”

”Do you?”

-”Yes, we have en indigenous population, the Sami. They are reindeer herders traditionally. Not all of them but largely.” 

I told him briefly about the colonization of Sapmi, the moving of the entire town of Kiruna and the challenges faced by the Sami community today. He was clearly moved by this, and quite upset. He returned to it several times, telling me he was sorry to hear about it. I believe that for him this was connected with a very positive disposition towards Norway, as an ally to Britain during WWII. He felt, I guess, disappointed. 

“You should go to the library in Lusaka, the National Library. There you can browse books that describe this period directly. I always recommend organic books, you should not rely on Google and those kinds of sources on the internet. There is something about having a real book in your hands.”

“Have you heard of Chitambos village? Dr. Livingstone’s heart is buried there. The missionaries were extremely important during this time, during the race for the colonies. Mkushi… The missionaries were adventurers. They came to Lobito Bay in Angola and walked with 70-80 porters who carried their tents and their equipment through the lands until they arrived at Mwinilunga. Dr. Livingstone disappeared and was not heard from, so an expedition was organized to find him under the leadership of Mr. Stanley. It was he who coined the famous phrase Dr. Livingstone, I presume? There were no other white people in the area at that time. So…”

”A Dr Fischer, from the UK, a woman, sat up a mission at Mwinilunga, and a school, training the tribes. The Fischers have a long history with Zambia and they are still here. Peter Fischer still farms in the flatlands. He knows all about the history of the missionary work in Zambia. The placid attitude of the Zambian tribal mentality provided a good reception surface for the missionaries. The Fischers are good friends of our family, very nice and friendly people, I am sure they will accommodate you if you visit them, they will probably let you stay at their farm. You should definitely try to go see them.”

”They (the tribes) were trained in sustainability and economic continuity. Management of resources, That is: how to improve the harvesting of honey, the management of cattle and goats.”  

”Now, the Moringa tree… it gives tea, pills… It is exported today for its health benefits. It is being researched how it can be cultivated more efficiently. Also, fish is very important in this land. The best one is caught in the lakes, because it is not being fed anything…. anything… chemical.” 

-”Yes, we have that in Norway too, large nets in the fjords where salmon is being grown. But It is being fed chemicals and sometimes also minced fish taken from polluted seas like the Baltic.” 

"Hm… yes. It’s no good, is it? So, during WWI the Germans threatened lake Tanganyika and the Brits were called in to safe guard North Rhodesia, which was still being governed by the British South Africa Company. At that time rail roads were being built to connect the Copperbelt to the Cape Town. Rhodes wanted a rail road going all the way from the Cape Town to the Suez, and only running through British colonies, and he nearly succeeded! He nearly succeeded. He opened the mines I Zimbabwe and the gold mines in Johannesburg. He developed cattle farm and started a large scale export to Europe. Tobacco was important. It was being produced in South Rhodesia and was of a very high quality. During this time the British company brought in settlers, all were welcome.” 

-”I guess there were big differences between how the British, the germans and the French managed their colonial empires?”

”Well, in the beginning the British got along very well with the tribes but later racial problems began as the societies developed and they started oppressing the tribes. There was a slight, very mild, form of apartheid also here in North Rhodesia. In the grocery shop, for example, black Zambians were not allowed even to enter. They could not use the main entrance. They had to order through a counter built into the wall. It was awful, just terrible, all form of apartheid is horrible. Here, if you allow the locals to help you, they will help. You will end up being given their knowledge. They will show you how to prosper in this landscape.” 

”Their family ties are very tight. You need to work with it. For example in Chikupi village, where Mathias is from. His auntie is head woman of a certain part of the village. The villages is very big, it has up to 8000 inhabitants, and she is the head woman of a part of it, so she is an important person. She calls family meetings and when she does, it´s usually on Sundays after church, he has to go. And they draw strength from this. You mustn´t interfere, you need to work with it. Like funerals. When a person who was a good friend dies, everyone will show up and display how important this person was. It can go on for days. And when someone has to go to hospital the whole family, also very distanced family, is expected to come and to show their support. They can take days off to only to go to a funeral.” 

”There was a surveyor, his name was Stuart Gore Brown, and he was employed to survey the boundaries with Congo, Tanganyika and Angola so he was employed to camp in Northern province in Mbale and he spent years in the bush. His notes had to be sent to London and then referred with Belgium before they were accepted. After, the government gave him a settlement. He set up a citrus orchard and a resting place for travelers on the road to Tanganyika. It built up the confidence of people living there. HIs grandchild, Charlie Harvey, exported the essence of citrus to France for the making of perfumes. He also conserved wildlife. He lived a kingship sort of lifestyle. His dining room was adorned with pictures of kings and queens and he always changed for dinner, wearing his full uniform and all the regalia. A bachelor. When he died Kaunda, the first president, attended his funeral. He represented the sort of relationship this government likes.” 

”After independence there was pressure on the government to take over he mines of the Anglo-American mining. It was portrayed as Zambiazation. The mining had been an important industry all through, producing shells and bullets for WWII. The first mine was discovered by a man from Broken hill in Australia, he discovered Zink sills. The town was named in his memory.” 

-”How did your family end up in Zambia?”

”In 1929 my grandmother and my father, they were very poor, arrived in (Wanna Mukupwa?) to build a new future. My grandmother started a shop making and selling hats, so she was a milliner. My father learned Bemba, Chewa and Nyanja and was employed in the personell department in the mine, working as a translator. When one of the workers needed to go away because of grievances or family business, he translated for them as the management didn´t understand what the men were asking."

”During WWII the Germans overran part of Tanganyika. A regiment, the Kings African Rifles, was formed. My father joined and engaged the Italians in Somalia. At the outbreak with Japan the regiment was shipped to Asia. The Japanese were invading Burma and Malaya and so the Indian border was threatened. 1,5 million men were withdrawn and sent there. They fought under very hard conditions in the jungles and swamps of Burma.” 

”My mother joined the WVS, the Women’s royal voluntary service, and she was posted to Ceylon, receiving letters from GI´s in that region and forwarding them. There she met my father when he was on leave.” 

”The war with Japan ended on the 12th of august 1945 and they sailed home. They were married and sailed for Capetown, where my father answered an advert for a position as a farm manager in Malawi. The owner came down and interviewed him and three others and he got the job because he was fluent in Nyanja. In the words of his employer: If you can’t speak with the labour force you’re done. They worked in Malawi for two years before starting a tobacco farm In Kabwe.” 

”At that time, any servicemen who wanted to farm in the colonies received a 500 grant of land and 500 for machinery. The situation was difficult. The Russians had taken over the parts of Germany that had grain production and didn’t share it with the West. Several hundreds came down from Europe during the 40´s and the 50´s and they still farm here, many of them.” 

”The tribal friendliness is the mainstay of this country and it extends to overseas visitors. There is no racism. It’s not like Zimbabwe or in South Africa. This is the second garden of Eden.”

”The Kaunda government socialized all land. With them Zambia went from freehold to leasehold.   Everyone pays a fee for owning land, a very reasonable sum. It is based on it´s location and other factors and it is a form of rent to the government. A leaseholder holds the right to lease the land for a period of 99 years, staring back in 1979, so the current hold extends to 2078. ”

”The government may recall the land. Everything. The mineral rights are protected. People can use what is in top of the land but everything below, in the ground, belongs to the government.” 

”In Zimbabwe, with the railways, South Rhodesia received settlers and they also settled in Harare. The Shuna tribes there were at war with the Matabele. They have a rich heritage, with beautiful palaces and extraordinary carvings, held to be sacred. You can visit but may not touch them. There, European farming became dominant, due to the immigration.” 

”In North Rhodesia and Malawi there were First ministers. South Rhodesia was a colony and had a Prime minister. These countries were formed into a federation called ”The federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.” The independence of these countries started with Hastings Banda, from Malawi. He was educated in Britain and as he returned, he pioneered the liberation of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.” 

Here Mathilda reenters, preparing a new pot of tea for us.

-”It sounds as if this is something positive, in your opinion.”

”Yes! Yes, very positive. A necessary and important development. All over the world, the history of nations… yes, very positive.” 

He himself graduated in England. He worked with EM Heart, which produced glass, including in Sweden, and with them he travelled around the world and introduced the so-called IS machine, which helped revolutionise glass production. He helped develop this and sold these machines before he retired and started a consultancy firm that assisted others in managing their businesses. He retired in time, before the company stretched too far for its own well-being. It made a series of poor personnel choices and the development led to it finally being taken over by the banks.

”There is a saying I am found of, and I used it in my speech as I quit the company: Greed is the seed of doom.”

”During the Victoria regime a mistake was made. An area in Zambia called the Barotseland, it extends over a quite significant part of the nation, was given separate rights. It extends from the Zambezi, over to Kariba and Chirundu. At the independence it should have granted administrative rights, as a consequence, but it wasn’t. Now there is an independence movement there, but it’s very low key. The British signed a deal with their monarch but then they ignored it, unfortunately, and it creates trouble today.” 

-”Is the government hard on the separatists?”

”Yes, they follow a long and proud African tradition of slamming down very hard on any form of uprising or any sign of rebellion. I would say so. They are are very hard, I would say, on any sign of… of….”

”The Tanzanian president, a woman, swayed the Zambian president towards communism. He, Kaunda, nationalized, built dams, built factories for assembling cars. Excellent companies grew out of this, like Rover Zambia. They were very successful. So for a period of 20 years industries and farms were nationalized, but private farms and companies were allowed to continue. However, in the system industries had no competition and in the end the system created lines and riots. Prices rose and malcontent.” 

”A movement, the MMD (Movement for multi party democracy) started in the Copperfields. It was led by a union leader, Chiluba. In 1991 the Government was forced to drop the one party system and Chiluba won a landslide victory. He lifted foreign trade restrictions and created a competitive free market.” 

”Before that farmers had to sell to a government agency. They sat the price, a good price. And it was a brilliant system. It was swept away and after that farmers had to sell to the milling industry. It was upsetting. The price between the millers and farmers was not regulated and now the price has gone up for two years due to poor rain.” 

”The Food reserve agency, a new agency, has sold excess maize stocks to other countries. Now there are no stocks left.” 

”In the early 70´s, when the Copper price fell and oil prices went up, the economy was hit for the first time. It became hard to import. But now, after 1991, you don’t have to fill in thousands of papers only to buy spare parts. Or wait for months to receive them.” 

”There was an incitement from the communist regime. If you increased production with 5% you would receive that 5% in foreign currencies, put into your account. It was fantastic! Everyone wanted to increase their crops. My brother was almost done with his planting and just about to achieve that goal when his tractor broke down. He asked everyone for help but no one had any spare parts. But there was one old farmer who said he had had the same problem earlier. It was the front wheel bearing that was broken, so he needed a new hub cap. The farmer said if you can find a tin can from the kitchen and mash grass, very hard, and grind it, and fill the can with it, together with grease, then it will work. And it did! For two hours, then it needed to be redone. He used Fray Bentos pie cans as hub caps, and they fit perfectly for his Peugeot.”

”The idea of communism planning is beautiful, but it takes away the potential for young men and women, it strips them of their inventions, their fantasies, their abilities, their entrepreneurial drive.” 

”Today the situation is becoming very tense. The Americans have built a good rail system from Dar es Salam to Lobito bay. Now, based on my studies of WWII, I believe that the Chinese wants that route, just like the US, who export lithiums. The Chinese wants copper going the other direction. There can be an eruption in terms of overtaking territory here. It would be very sad.” 

”Zambia is not careful enough. We might be exposed to military infraction. China has built large hovercraft that can disembark tanks weighing 50-60 tons, from ships. Where do they plan to use them? I think in Tanzania. There is gold there.” 

”China has a lot of influence and a good reputation in the Zambian government. They have built fantastic bridges and invested in turbines. They built a dam in the east, the Chisimba, they put up solar panels and power lines in Lusaka.” 

”The current president, Hakainde Hichilema, has entered an agreement with Tanzania to use two of the turbines that are not being used by them in the Tanganyika.  The Chinese were commissioned to build a power line from there to the Copperfields. This is the lifeline of the nation for the moment. Luckily, there has been rains and the Kariba dam is beginning to rise again. The new power line will be done by August. Then all the problems of Zambia should be over permanently.”

”There is hope. Young men, they run businesses along the road, setting up auto shops and so on, they go together and buy generators and share them between themselves. You use it one hour, then I use it one hour and so on. They do engineering work along the roads for companies and private people. Everybody, all of them needs electricity. Bakeries. Everyone.” 

”You might want to read Mining industry in Zambia from 1975, it is an A4 book. I recommend it.” 

-”Thank you so much for your time and for sharing everything you know, and for sharing your story.”. 

-”Oh don´t mention it, that is what Christianity is about, sharing Sharing you knowledge, it is a Christian principle. Are you Christian?” 

—-

At this point Hanna and the others returned from their expedition. Mr Roberts kindly gave us farewell gifts. He gave me and Irpa a game of ”Battleship” that he and his son used to play when his son still was a child. And he gave Hanna a book on Ancient cultures and masks. Mathilda gave us a loaf of newly baked bread, which we consider a very special gift as she only makes one a day. She also gave us a bag of flour from their mill. We, in turn, gave them two clay sculptures Hanna and irpa had made from clay that we had found at the farm during our prior visit. We also gave Patrick and Mathilda a painting inspired by their sprouts of wheat. We payed the guides for their assistance during the hike and took our final farewells. As we drove out, Mr Roberts waved us off. 

On our way back in the car I asked the others about their experience. They told me they had been frightened all the way up to the top, a walk that took about 45 minutes, but that they hadn´t encountered any snakes. The view had been magnificent. The entrance to the cave was very small and the inside of it had been quite shallow so they didn’t go in, out of fear for the snakes. Hanna had found two trees she became fascinated with and she collected bark from them. On the way back down they had been more careless, almost too carefree in Hannas opinion, but everything went well. 

We discussed the farm and our impression of the guides. Mathias had clearly been experienced with snake hikes, but it was a general conclusion that the other men probably were not. They asked me about my conversation with Mr Rboerts and I told them we had a good conversation, that he was very knowledgable and generous towards me. 

I asked Chowa about his impression of the farm. He said it was a complicated experience for him. In his opinion these white settlers, or expats, represent a problem for the nation. When we returned to the venue we sat down and had a drink together with the others. Chowa asked himself if Mr Roberts would have let him, Uzi and the other black people in our team onto his property if there hadn’t been any white people with them. He asked me and Hanna what we thought about that. It is very difficult for us to say. If I would go by Mr Roberts own words, then yes. He spoke with warmth and in positive terms of the tribesmen and their cultures and he also spoke out against apartheid, so I would assume that he would be just as welcoming to an all black group as he was to us. But the other members of the team had noticed that the men who were assisting us were clearly used to being told what to do. When we left they hung back around at the farm, waiting for work opportunities. So the different positions held by everyone in the hierarchy of the context may of course contain many injustices and prejudices going far beyond what I saw. ”He may even have beaten me for entering the farm if I came by myself”, Chowa said. 

My immediate reflection was that it was exaggerated. Sure, Mr Roberts represents coloniality and there is a lot violence connected with that, but it doesn’t necessarily say anything about what goes on inside his heart. I have no reason to believe him to be a violent or vicious man. On the contrary, he gave a considerate and kind hearted impression, even if he was clearly shaped by his context. 

Chowa insisted, however, saying he had seen many occasions of violence by white settlers. Indeed, his own father had once entered a private property in order to ask for the way to a place he was heading, this was in the Copperfields, but the landowner just jumped him and started beating him up, in front of Chowa. The man had had been screaming, accusing his father of being a thief involved in illegal copper mining on his property. Chowa had witnessed the whole thing. Afterwards, they went to the police and made a complaint but in the Copperfields the police is very corrupt, so it was a hopeless case from the beginning. 

According to Chowa, Zambia is not free. The land is still being owned by whites and it’s difficult to do anything about it. ”They tried in Zimbabwe”, he said, ”but it resulted in sanctions and the people of Zimbabwe are suffering because of it.” 

Uzi commented that Zambians are cowards. ”We avoid conflicts”, she said, ”anything that is difficult. If it can create problems we always prefer not to knock on the door.” She went on saying this is the reason Zambians don’t visit Twin River Kopje, except for the local tribesmen. ”The only people ever going there are the Americans or the Europeans.” 

I came to think about dr Ghankanini. During our conversation he said that the idea of a culture prerequisites an outside perspective. Perhaps he is right. And maybe a colonial, or a global, involvement is necessary for any form of comparative cultural studies to be of ones interest. 

Uzi went on to exclaim that this land is theirs but that they don’t value it. ”Zambians would never have thought off going here, or even relating to the site, if it wasn´t for Hanna.” When she was at top of the site, Uzi had made the same conclusion. ”It takes a white person for us to come here!”

On my way back to our lodge I ran into Naoko Mabon. She said she experienced that Mr Roberts had softened up considerably when she told him she was living in Scotland. I commented that his father had fought the Japanese and I told her it might have something to do with it. She considered it, and admitted with sadness that many atrocities were committed by Japan during the war. This lead us to a discussion about Japanese culture and it’s relation to modernity. I said that to my understanding it was the peculiar mixing of modernity and animism that triggered the Japanese imperialism and it’s cruelty. ”It showed to be a perverted combination”, I said, ”but it was also forced upon them by western interests. The Meijiregime was a reaction to pressure from modernism and industrialism. Many other countries also lost their mind during that period. In itself, a spiritual connection to land is not necessarily a bad thing." 

This led Naoko to reflect that there was no notion of art in Japan before it’s contact with the west. Once the concept had entered the Japanese mind, though, everyone tried to imitate and reproduce it´s institutions and expressions. The nation wanted art schools, but didn’t understand the term. ”That is why Mishima is so interesting”, I said and to my happiness, she was also interested in him. ”He is complex”, she said,” and difficult to pin down. A very intelligent man, not afraid of walking his own path. This double sidedness of his personality and his project”, she said, ”the fact that he was rejected by both the queer and the nationalists, but identified with both, makes him political in the true sense of the word.”

-”Yes, and his suicide is a statement you just simply cannot ignore. He took the consequences of his art, his writing, of aesthetics, all the way and put it above any other concern.”

”He is more Shinto”, Naoko said, ”than western.”

In line with this I remembered reading something about the Japanese term for art, somewhere, in a book or something, but I cannot remember what it was.