Barotseland, an unrecognized african country

Barotseland is a region in Zambia which has historically been a nomad kingdom and home to the lozi (which we honour in one of our collections). This is due to the changing waters of the Zambezi river, which after the humid season they find their way through the zambian pastures and making their inhabitants to seek for higher lands.

Such migration is celebrated each year with a ceremony known as "Kuomboka", which literally means "to get out of the water" in Lozi. When there is a full moon during the wet season, some drums are heard in the distance, marking the beginning of such event, and summoning the royal rowers, who are recognized because they wear red berets. They head towards the capital and this is a sign to the people in those villages to leave their houses and carry their belongings with them to their canoes and joining the fleet. This event has been happening for ages and ages.

This kingdom's history is known for at least five centuries. During the colonial times, Barotseland was a british protectorate which had much more autonomy and freedom than the rest of the colony which it was part of. Northern Rhodesia (nowadays Zambia) was colonized, and Barotseland was too although to a lower degree.

When in the early 60s the independence of this region was inminent, like most of the rest of african countries, the Litunga (king of the Lozi people) was convinced to accept that Barotseland would become a part of what would be Zambia, but with the condition that they would keep their own form of government.

It was here when the Litunga, the government of Northern Rhodesia and the british government signed a treaty which let the Litunga dictate its own rules regarding a lot of local topics like taxes, hunting and the supply of beer. The only problem is that it was never implemented, and even though the governments in Zambia were compromising to do so, none of them allowed that autonomy to happen. This is whi in 2011, the Litunga announced that they were leaving Zambia, promising a pacific separation, but such movement was seen by the zambian capital; Lusaka, as an act of treason. 

To this day, Barotseland is still officially a region of the Western Province of Zambia.