NKOLE MULAMBIA, Ndola
THE township of Kawama in Ndola, closely located to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Sakania area, was legally established in 1969 by the Ndola City Council (NCC).
Over the years, the township has become home to many people whose livelihoods largely depend on farming activities, some of them across the DRC border.
When Kawama Township was gazetted four years after independence, many people shunned the place because it was a forest and its proximity to the DRC border discouraged potential settlers.
Seventy-four-year-old Lason Chibale, one of the early inhabitants in the area, says Kawama Township was named with a belief that it would develop and become attractive for human settlement.
“When this township started in 1969, by the Ministry of Local Government in the United National Independence Party (UNIP) Government, many people avoided the place, but a team of people thought of naming the township as Kawama, derived from the Bemba phrase kukawama (to imply that the place would eventually become beautiful), because they were very hopeful that the place will develop eventually,” he said.http://epaper.daily-mail.co.zm/