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THE LUNGA WE WANT




Two years ago, I grew a breed of small groundnuts we locally call Solontoni. So the yield could have been better that we had difficulties with what to do with them apart from pounding and using them in vegetables, kusashila. They were in a small sack, less than twenty-five kilos of shelled nuts. My wife hesitated to use all that for kusashila and asked me what else we could do with them.

“As a salesman, where do you think we can sell this to realize what we spent, even if it’s just to break even?” she asked.

It got me thinking. As a salesperson, she expected me to find a market. Who would buy them at a price that would give us some return on our investment?

“What if we roasted them, packaged them in small plastics, drop them at taverns so patrons can get them for some snacks?” I said.

My partner was thinking of doing the same but selling by the roadside. My idea was that if we sold them by the roadside, we would price our product less, especially if the packaging needed to be better. Ultimately, we roasted, peeled, packed them in clean plastic, and labelled them “peanut snack packs.”  We sold them for five kwacha per packet. We got all our money back!

We have a similar situation in Lunga. We have nothing but a mass of water around us. We are cracking our heads as the Unga family. What do we do with the abundant water? In it are fish and leeches. We have birds that feed on small fish. We have reeds and other water vegetation. Can we turn this into money?

First things first. We have agreed to come together and form an association that will look at these issues. We know that money is nothing but ideas. We are working on packaging our water, reeds, leeches, lechwes and fibre, plus our own culture, tradition and people. All we need is to sensitize our brothers living on our cherished islands that something is brewing. 

My book Isembe Talitwa, now on promotion as seen above, is aimed at talking to them and those in the great Bangweulu swamps  in a similar situation to take positive action to achieve our dream of a better life for all. Yes, that’s the Lunga we want!


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