{"id":1615,"date":"2012-07-27T08:59:08","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T08:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/php7.innershed.com:10000\/virtual-server\/link.cgi\/212.71.245.84\/http:\/\/www.connectafrica\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2012-11-03T12:42:43","modified_gmt":"2012-11-03T12:42:43","slug":"roosters-are-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/?p=1615","title":{"rendered":"Roosters are chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the chill of the winter night, Prince Lloyd put some more logs on the campfire, building them up tight in the centre, to create a hot fire.\u00a0 \u201cThis way, we will still have fire in the morning\u201d he said softly, as the rest of the crew were settling into their sleep bags for the night, like sausages packed next to each other under the shelter.\u00a0\u00a0\"Prince<\/a><\/p>\n

[Photo: Prince Lloyd showing me the creedo he works by, in his Connect Africa office in Mumbwa]<\/p>\n

Chief Moono had graciously allowed us to camp a few hundred metres from his Palace, next to the community borehole.\u00a0 Every day when we returned from our exploring of the community, we\u2019d find a large gathering of noisy, smiling and inquisitive children playing<\/a> around the borehole, waiting for us.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d interact a little bit, playing touch, or taking jumping photos, before we\u2019d take out our laptops and start typing away about the days anecdotes, while others prepared our supper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is told that a few Chiefs before this current Chief Moono, was in rule of this area.\u00a0 Do you see those mountains there?\u201d Prince Lloyd pointed to the silhouette of the mountain range in the distance, which we had wondered about when we first drove into our camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chief of that time would go and climb up into those mountains, and when he reached the top, he would make a big fire, like this one.\u00a0 The smoke would be seen from far away, and people would know to not come here.\u00a0 The Chief was the authority and he was telling all the other chiefs and headsman that this was his chiefdom\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c And so, we will build this fire up to burn through the night, to also claim our authority here, so no animals will disturb us\u201d explained Prince Lloyd.<\/p>\n

Our conversation moved to explaining how a person becomes a chief in Zambia.\u00a0 Each tribe and each Chiefdom within the tribe has their own way.\u00a0 A chief is always chosen from within the family lineage, and can either follow the paternal or maternal line.\u00a0 Some Chiefdom\u2019s follow the criteria of eldest born within the lineage, like in Prince Lloyd\u2019s family, where his elder sister, born of the same father, is the Chieftainess of Kabulwebulwe, with Prince Lloyd next in line.<\/p>\n

Whereas in the neighbouring Chiefdom of Chief Moono, the family choose the chief based on the family member\u2019s character and leadership characteristics, like his humbleness and transparency, before they looked at age or followed the paternal or maternal criteria.<\/p>\n

\"prince<\/a>With the initial blaze of the flames dying down to just the glow of the coal from the wood, I bid Prince Lloyd goodnight, and headed to my tent, knowing that we had claimed our authority of our campsite, and would not be disturbed.<\/p>\n

[Photo: Prince Lloyd and Telana sitting with the elders of the Chiefdom Kabulwebulwe]<\/p>\n

Waking up the next morning, I wondered if our smoke signals extended to noise disturbance too, as the 23 or more roosters in the area had obviously not taken heed, and started in the early hours their cock-a-doodle-doo sequence, each taking a turn to claim their authority of the dawn.<\/p>\n

(PS- see more photos here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Written by Telana Simpson
\nDate of fire-side conversation: \u00a0Tuesday 24 July 2012<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Connectivity sponsored by\u00a0MTN Zambia<\/a>, using their Huawei Wifi Modem<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the chill of the winter night, Prince Lloyd put some more logs on the campfire, building them up tight in the centre, to create a hot fire.\u00a0 \u201cThis way, we will still have fire in the morning\u201d he said … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[52,53],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1621,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions\/1621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}