JOHN CHAAMBWA
Lusaka
LIKE many other African countries, Zambia has over the years basked in various unifying traditional attires, with the renowned one being the musisi/siziba.
Made from a chitenge, the attire is neatly sewn and tacked in a way that allows it to sit loosely on the body.
Mostly worn by the Lozi people of Western Province, it has grown to become a widely respected traditional attire countrywide, siziba for men and musisi for women.
Elegantly worn like a bird, siziba traces its origin back to 1902 when King Lewanika visited England to attend the coronation of King Edward VII.
While in London, the king, in appreciation, was given the famous King Edward’s uniform.
“From that moment, the rest of the people wanted to identify themselves with King Lewanika, hence came the famous attire, the musisi for women and siziba for men,” explains University of Zambia postgraduate assistant director Francis Simui.
The traditional attire, in essence, unifies the people of Western Province and also those who wear it with pride.
It is a sign of unity and cultural pride.
It is mainly worn during the Kuomboka ceremony of the Lozi people, when the king leaves the flooded plains for the upper lands, but it is now also seen at weddings and other celebratory occasions.
The Kuomboka ceremony is held annually at the end of the rainy season, usually in late March or April, when the Zambezi River floods the Bulozi Plain, signaling the Lozi King (Litunga) to move from his floodplain palace (Lealui) to the dry-land summer palace (Limulunga).
“The musisi came in when the local people had contact with the missionaries and traders in the 1700s, at first they were putting on animal skin, so when the wives to the missionaries the British their wives used to put in clothes so the lozis where calling the those women “bo misis” coming from Mrs, so that’s how they adopted the musisi,” says Precious Chisanga, keeper of ethnography at Lusaka national museum.
Ms Chisanga says the attire carried dignity value that’s why the local people adopted it and modernised it to the current one.
“When you attend Kuomboka that’s when you will know how the traditional attire brings the people together despite the Lozi people a composition of 38 ethnic groups. For us we attach the culture, the norms, identity, even when you walk we pride ourselves in the traditional costume,” says Ms Chisanga.
For over 120 years of keeping Zambian communities united, the siziba is now widely worn on various celebratory occasions.
Prof Simui said the attire is a conduit through which Zambian people have the opportunity to celebrate their identity as a people.
“We do not necessarily borrow. We can manufacture our own clothes. That is very important if we are to talk about decolonisation. We should be original and not copy and paste from others, and that is what musisi and siziba are telling the people,” he said
The Author is a Journalist.
