MANY of you distinguished readers are now aware of the existence of the Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Ng’ombe Illede in the outskirts of Siavonga, in the Lusitu area all because they are the most talked about.
Ndubi Mvula in this episode takes you on yet another discovery of the hidden treasure in Southern Province.
Southern Province is endowed with vast treasures hidden all over the place and only needs the touch of exploration to bring them to life so that people from all the corners of the world can marvel.
To some, life has been infused in them such that they rarely miss on people’s lips as they have now become the talk of the day. Here, you would think of the Mighty Victoria Falls, man-made Lake Kariba, Kafue National Park, and Luangwa South National Park just to mention but there is more that still needs to be brought for everyone to know where they are.
To start with, there is a place that lies astride the Great North Road about three kilometres north of Kalomo, which, I am sure, not many of the travelers know, holds some significant historical explanation.
The place is called the Kalundu Mound situated in Kalomo District. It marks the site of an Iron Age village and the 3-metre accumulation is as a result of the collapse of huts and the deposition of domestic refuse during an occupation, which lasted for many centuries.
According to historical findings, the site was originally discovered during the realignment of the section of the Great North Road and was excavated by a Mr. R.R. Inkskeep in 1957 and by Dr. B.M. Fagan in 1962.
Large amount of evidence was obtained which enabled the mixed farming economy of the inhabitants, which also included hunting as it played an important part in the lives of the Iron Age inhabitants.
The first settlement of Kalundu was by people of the Early Iron Age, perhaps as early as AD300 while the later occupants belonged to what archeologists called as the ‘Kalomo Tradition’ dated to about AD800 to 1300.
While in Kalomo, there is yet another historical feature which has since clocked 101 years old and is situated in the outskirts of the district about six miles northwest of the town centre. This is what is now referred to as the first State House when Kalomo was capital City of then Northern Rhodesia (Zambia).
Having been built in 1903-4, it served as the first residence of the British South Africa Company’s Administrator of Northwestern Rhodesia Robert Coryndon. Until September 1, 1907 after the completion of the Victoria Falls Bridge and the extension of the railway north of the Zambezi River, did Coryndon move the capital City to Livingstone.
The house, which is still standing to date with most of the fittings intact, is believed to have been the first brick Government house to be built in Northwestern Rhodesia and it remains in good condition with an intact swimming pool nearby.
In Monze, there is what is known as Fort Monze Cemetery situated west of the town and it was one of the earliest colonial posts established in the country. Major Harding and a force of British South Africa Police established the fort in about 1898 near the then village of Chief Monze.
Historical finds explain that the police went to the area at the invitation of Chief Monze to control the activities of Europeans who came to buy cattle after the Matebele rebellion. However, the cemetery contains graves of the BSA Police party which established the fort, among them that of William Harding, the Commanding Officer.
The memorial was erected in 1903-4. Now, a little bit of drift backwards to Livingstone, we come to a place known as the Old Drift Cemetery. This and the above-mentioned are all under the watchful eye of the National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC), which has declared them as heritage sites.
Situated on the banks of the Zambezi River about one and half kilometres upstream of the entrance to the Mosi-Oa-Tunya Zoological National Park, is the presence of an urban settlement owed to two major factors.
First, was the line of the main entry-route from the south into the then Northwestern Rhodesia and the proximity of the Victoria Falls and prior to the construction of the railway all goods imported into the area were carried by ox – or mule-drawn wagons and ferried across the Zambezi at the point, some nine kilometres upstream of the Victoria Falls.
The first settler F.J. Clarke arrived in 1898 and set himself up as a trader, hotel-keeper and forwarding agent and at that time the population of Europeans had grown to 68, including 17 women and six children.
In most years, it is understood that 20 percent of the settlers died and in 1903 the figure was considerably higher and many of them were buried in the Old Drift cemetery. However, by the end of 1904, a new town at what was known as Constitution Hill had been established and was to be known as the present-day Livingstone.
A walk to the Old Drift only brings you to the flat marshy and one-time malaria infested area where the remains of the early settlers’ rest in eternal peace as their fruits blossom on Constitution Hill.
Back on the road, this time you take a turn southwards on the Chirundu Road and at about 20 kilometres from Chirundu at the corner of the North Kariba Access Road lie an area selected for “proclamation”.
This is the Chirundu fossil forest, which belong to the Karoo period or secondary age and are approximately 150, 000,000 years old. It is noted that the law prohibits the removal of specimens as souvenirs, or for any other purpose and visitors are most requested to obey this requirement as simple as that.
The fossil trees scattered over the area are sparse Middle and Late Stone Age industries, indicating that the people sometimes made use of fossil wood for making stone implements.
Again, as a word of free advice, these historical relics are real. The characteristic of the fossil trees is that of a tree you can dream of but it has turned into a rock.
Then you take a ride up in the Lochnivar National Park where you will be greeted by the Gwisho Hot Springs situated on the southern edge of the Kafue Flats about one kilometre west of the Lochnivar Lodge and 40 kilometres from Monze. In the same area, there are drumming rocks, a place where you can compose music and as if this was not enough, there is the Sebanzi Hill about one kilometre west of Gwisho Hot springs.
On the summit of the hill is the site of an Iron Age village, which was inhabited for most of the past 1,000 years. Excavations conducted by Dr. D.M. Fagan and D.W. Philipson in 1963-64 yielded information on a long sequence of occupation by ancestors to the modern Tonga.
This is how far I can go; the rest you have to get there as I have said before. This is just a tip to what you expect to see and experience.