Revealing deep waters: continuing the literary history of Namibia

Abstract

Chililabombwe. But it is still a good account of life in Luanshya and might be taken to be representative of the whole Copperbelt. There are also serious historical inaccuracies: for instance, the claim that a university union on the Copperbelt forced Kaunda to declare early elections in 1991 (p. 26). It could not have been the Copperbelt University Students’ Union or the Copperbelt University Lecturers’ Union, both of which were small in 1989. Rather, it was the bigger, more vocal University of Zambia Students’ Union (UNZASU), which played a significant role in the fight for the return of multi-party politics to Zambia, together with the bigger workers’ unions, such as the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ), the Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) and the National Union of Building, Engineering and General Workers (NUBEGW) (to which Chiluba had belonged), all of which were under the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which was led by Chiluba. Moreover, the assertion that ‘Copperbelt residents increasingly turned to foraging mushrooms, caterpillars (known as ifinkubala), and fruit for food from the nearby forests ... and that this pragmatism also enters Copperbelt residents’ conception of themselves and their position within a changing world’ (p. 33) is not entirely accurate. It would not be correct to see the foraging for edible forest products as a new pragmatism for Copperbelt urban dwellers. This is because Zambians, even those living in urban areas, have always loved mushrooms and ifinkubala, and this was not about bringing the village to the towns. It was just a question of eating familiar foods. If these views are taken as criticisms of the work, they should not detract from the fact that this is a good piece of work. The use of sources is good and it has an impressive bibliography.