Lewanika

Lewanika was born Lubosi, around 1842, a member of the Lozi royal family of Barotseland, in what is now western Zambia. In 1876 the Lozi rose up against the king Sepopa, who was murdered by his own people, and in 1878 Lubosi was crowned Litunga. He took the name Lewanika, a name given to him by the Mbunda that is said to mean unifier.

His early reign was unstable. In 1884 he was deposed in a revolt and went into exile, and in 1885 he returned and regained the throne, which he held until 1916. The Lozi kingdom was governed by the Litunga, the Kuta, or national council, and the indunas, the ministers and governors, who controlled districts and resources, and Lewanika had to work with this system of power.

In the 1880s French missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Mission, led by François Coillard, settled in Barotseland. With the advice of King Khama of the Bamangwato, and as the Scramble for Africa advanced, Lewanika asked Queen Victoria for British protection, and in 1890 he agreed terms with the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes. Further agreements followed in 1898 and 1900, including the Lawley Concession, as the Company extended its control.

The result was a lesson in the limits of such deals. Lewanika came to feel that he had been tricked, since the Company defaulted on many of its promises, and the land became part of Rhodes's Company territory, as North-Western Rhodesia. Yet he kept his kingdom largely intact, together with its own institutions. He abolished the slave trade in Barotseland in 1906, and founded schools and workshops to encourage practical trades.

In 1902 he travelled to London for the coronation of King Edward VII, where he was received with respect, and asked by The Times what he would discuss with the king, replied that when kings meet, they always have plenty to talk about. He also attended the 1911 coronation of George V. He died in 1916 and was succeeded by his son Litia, who became Yeta III. He is remembered in Zambia as a shrewd statesman who protected his people's independence as long as he could.