Finally the Kuomboka ceremony is graced us as usual in April this year.
Kuomboka is one of the colourful traditional ceremonies for the Lozi people of the Western Province of Zambia. Kuomboka, meaning coming out of the water onto dry land will took place in April this year. It is a yearly movement of people, their livestock from the flooded plains to the edges of the plain.
The ceremony originally started with the people moving their then reigning King (the Litunga) from his first capital in the Barotse plain (Lealui) to high ground (Limulunga) is known as the Kuomboka ceremony has become a prestigious ceremony that has attracted tourists.
Despite many researchers and historians have failed to find records establishing the exact year exact when Kuomboka as ceremony started. Lozi historians believe that at one time, there was an exceptional flood that covered the vast plains and killed all animals and washed away their crops.
People could not escape the flood in their leaky canoes because they feared drowning, it was that time when high god Nyambe, ordered a man to build the first great canoe Nalikwanda which means ‘for the people’ in order to evacuate the Litunga, his people and livestock. It is believed that the then Litunga made Kuomboka a pageant and quite a colourful move.
At that time a wise Induna called Nakambela advised the King to evacuate from the flooded palace together with his subjects and property. A big boat was constructed from local fibers (Makenge) and other materials such as wooden planks collected from all-over Barotseland. The evacuation was successful.”
The royal barge, the Nalikwanda, which carries the Litunga is a huge wooden canoe painted with black and white stripes, white symbolising purity in spirituality and black for people and their rich natural resources – black people, dark rich clouds and dark fertile soils.
Each paddler on the Nalikwanda wears a head-dress of a red beret with a piece of lion’s mane, and a knee-length skirt of animal skins. It is considered a great honour to be one of the paddlers on the Nalikwanda, as it requires a person with expertise as it very demanding or being traditionally versed in certain traditional requirements.
credit:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZjDjEq2Gms
