Victims of Choices 16 06 2026

The seed of this book was sown in me by events from my youth days that up to today have defined not only my life but also for those millions of people through their families, tribes and clans across Africa who have endured the frustrations, harassment, deprivation, split and silent pain in their daily lives by being victims of colonial boundaries. The boundaries were drawn as though the continent was not inhabited by human beings. In their quest for raw material and cheap labour, the colonialists drew lines that cut through families, tribes and clans into two or three different nations, the Lunda empire stands as a living example as it was divided into three portions and each belonging to Angola, Congo and Zambia. The attainment of self-rule in Africa was supposed to be a catalyst that could have worked in redressing these anomalies, yet to the contrary, it worsened the suffering of the people. Victims of the nations’ boundaries have suffered silently at the hands of their African leaders worse treatment than their colonial predecessors. They have never recognized the existence of these atrocities and turned a blind eye and yet concentrating on the so-called promoting national unity within the boundaries of their sovereign states. The United Nations need to be made aware of the plight of these people who under any common situation must enjoy the benefit of dual citizenship or reconnect themselves to their original families.

When I started putting up the material for the production this work, there were many individuals who came forward and gave me some valuable information that made my work more authentic. I am deeply indebted to all these people of goodwill and more so to my late father and grand father whose testimonies imparted on me in my early days that have enabled the production of this book. Many nights of seating in front of the computer never demoralized me neither dampened the spirit in my quest of exposing the injustice meted on innocent citizens through not of their fault.

The arrival of colonial settlers in Africa created a legacy of permanent separation within many nations that were made up of clans and tribes. Without understanding how these nations were connected, settlers drew boundary lines across families, tribes and clans. This was the same method used by the Congo Free State authorities headed by then Belgian king Lepold II and the British South Africa Company formed by Cecil Rhodes. The southern part of Katanga known as the Pedical, the area in a form like a boot and almost dividing Zambia into two portions was defined in the same colonial modi operendi. By 1911, the boundaries were drawn, hence dividing tribes of my paternal family along Luapula river into two and my maternal family on the copperbelt also in two.

For someone who grew up in the interior of the country and had never experienced the life of living along the border area of two countries and having families members on both sides of the boundary, could be excused for the pleasure and pride of having a single citizenship.

How about those of us probably in millions; real victims of colonial boundaries, with divided families and national loyality. People whose ancestors were tricked into signing European treaties that were never explained or partly explained and sometime forced into submission at gunpoint and later led to the demarcation of the boundaries. The Ndebele king Lobengula and Mwata Kazembe of the Luapula valley after discovering that the treaties were never honestly explained to them and refused signing found themselves cornered and paid heavily.

By the time our ancestors realized the implications of the treaties, it became too late for them to do anything as the settlers had already established governing authorities with an army and police at their disposal. The promise they made of ending slave trade, which was so much rampant by then and conducted by Arab traders, was fulfilled partially only to be replaced by another slave bonding of colonialism.

This was also the case of how the pedicle enclave was created and added to the rest of not only Katanga but to what presently is called Democratic Republic of Congo.

The pedicle’s existence has always remained at the mercy of the Kinshasa government situated more than 3000 kilometres away, as such left to fend for its self at the mercy of soldiers and government officers. In the absence of a properly coordinated central authority, neither from Kinshasa on national level or from Lubumbashi on provincial level, the inhabitants of the pedicle have over the years endured the most humiliating, abusive treatments at the hands of the state apparatus. The state of affairs is not sanctioned directly by the government, yet its failure to manage a big country such as Congo is the major cause.

The pedicle rule was very negligible during the colonial rule, because it later transpired that there are no minerals there....