Zambia excitement

Our next country after Botswana was Zambia.

Now I have to say that when 'Zambia' is mentioned, many things – logical, illogical, random, strange, silly, questionable? spring to mind. These do not necessarily make any sense whatsoever, and no doubt give away my age, my race, my origins, but here are some of them:– formerly Northern Rhodesia, the land of Kenneth Kaunda, the Copper Belt, the Caprivi Strip, the mighty, green, greasy, mystical Zambezi river, the place where so many of our young South African men went to fight and lost their lives, the bridge over the Zambezi where the 'peace treaty' was signed on the Blue Train, Lusaka where some persistently brave people went to force the end of apartheid, Lusaka where so many exiles from South Africa found succour, Kitwe and Broken Hill and crocodiles in mine slimes dams, tiger fishing, sunset cruises, the great white hunter and pink gins at sunsets, terrorists and freedom fighters, --- amazing how memories flood back and how hugely Zambia forms part of my own history.

“What?? You call dead grass and dry bush and burnt trees beautiful??” exclaimed Orm when I made the comment that the morning's drive was easily one of the most beautiful we have had since we started the journey back in March. His response took me by surprise. And I suddenly – once again – realised that you probably have t0 be African to appreciate Africa. Yes, the bush was dead and dry and mostly leafless – except where the acacias – the sweet thorn and the camel thorn and the knob thorn trees had started to show off their splendid green spring finery. Yes, much of the veld was burnt at this time of the year – the end of the winter when everything is dry and so flammable – either on purpose to encourage new green growth for grazing (a surprise to realise there are in fact still people who do this and have not learned that this old-fashioned system destroys the natural composting process and re-nourishment of the soil) or by accident where either lighting, or the sun magnified through a piece of broken glass – or the ubiquitous cigarette butt carelessly thrown out of a passing vehicle window. Yes, the colours are from the whole spectrum of brown and beige and ochre and orange with the occasional spring green thorn tree or the reds of new leaves on some of the deciduous trees. Yes it is a winter landscape. But to me – and I know my African friends will agree – the winter landscape holds a beauty that is sensational.

We had started at four o'clock that morning and drove into the dawn – the sky a spectacular red canvas, the sun sitting like a fat red ball on the horizon and slowly accentuating the colours of the African bush as it rose in the east. The area that I had particularly referred to was where we went through the rocky hills and mountains and valleys of Malumi Pass. For once this entire area had not been burnt and the rich golden and copper colours of the winter bush were at their most beautiful. So yes, Orm – this dead grass and dry bush to me is indeed beautiful!

Later in the day we drove into Lusaka – an experience in itself. The elections had taken place a couple of days before on on this day the results were announced. We had picked up along the way that the opposition party had come in and our impression was – from the vehicles brandishing flags and blaring music and hooting their horns and the screaming and shouting and singing, that in this part of the country at least, the results were very much welcomed. But when we drove into Lusaka, it seemed that no one had been too sure what the outcome would be nor the reaction to the outcome: everything was closed, the shutters down, not a soul on the streets, not a car on the roads. This big hub in the heart of Africa looked like a ghost town! Eerie. Strange. In a way quite disturbing...

According to the Time magazine of this same week, the election in Zambia, which we witnessed first hand, was all about ...China.

They report that "the presidential race has transformed into a referendum on the ubiquitous presence of Chinese interests throughout this copper-rich southern African country. At the time of the writing, votes were being counted for the incumbent Rupiah Banda and the challenger Michael Sata. (Sata won - sic)Under Banda's watch, Zambia was designated a middle-income nation by the World Bank, a feat spurred in part by significant Chinese investments in business and infrastructure projects. But the opposition claims that China's influence does not benefit the common man and has led to corruption"

I found this so interesting. Zambia was in fact the first country where we had NOT seen a marked Chinese presence. Back in June I reported on my shock and horror of the Chinese presence in the west African countries and my concern that a new colonialism is very much in the process of happening. But in Zambia I yet thought to myself: what a pleasant change -- no Chinese to be seen anywhere! When I talked to a couple of the locals, they were all expressing their wish that Sata would win "because he will chase the Chinese out and that will make more jobs available for us". "Big promises", I said. "Yes -- but promises we like", they replied.

So it was with surprise that I realised only later that, in reality, Chinese investment has, as in so many other African countries today, changed the face of Zambia. Whereas the total Chinese trade with Africa last year stood at $115 billion, the bilateral trade with Zambia alone stood at nearly $3 billion. The Chinese companies have stakes in everything there -- from copper mines to retail shops to chicken farms, Time reports. So great is their presence, in fact, that Zambia was the first African country to offer banking services in the Chinese Yuan, and two of China's six Special Economic Zones in Africa are in Zambia.

It will indeed be very interesting to watch Sata's actions over the next few months; will he keep his Big Promise and push out the Chinese to make jobs available for the Zambians? Let's wait and see!...