ZAMBIA: Emulate Bishop Dupont, Archbishop Chama Urges Newly Installed Ituna Chief

Mwenya Mukuka

President of Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) Archbishop Ignatius Chama has asked they newly installed Senior Chief Mwamba, Luka Kangwa Mandosa, to model his leadership of Ituna Chiefdom on servant leadership in the footsteps of the late Bishop Dupont.

Mwamba Chiefdom is located in Kasama Archdiocese, in the Northern region of Zambia.

In October 1898, facing an imminent death, Chief Mwamba Mubanga Chipoya Chisala asked Bishop Joseph-Marie-StanislasDupont (23 July 1850 – 19 March 1930), to take care of the affairs of Ituna Chiefdom for the purpose of controlling fierce rivalries and wrangles that characterised succession of chiefs at that time.

Bishop Dupont served the chiefdom in the interim until the succession wrangles were settled.

Nicknamed ‘Motomoto’ (literary translating as ‘fire-fire’ to mean ‘Go-Getter’) by the Bemba people, Bishop Dupont was a French Catholic missionary bishop in Zambia’s Northern Province (then part of North-Eastern Rhodesia) from 1885 to 1911. He persuaded the Bemba, feared by the Europeans colonizers and by neighbouring tribes, to allow him to become the first missionary into their territory around Kasama.

According to a report on Lutanda Catholic Radio Station of Kasama Archdiocese, Archbishop Chama was speaking in his homily delivered during the sacrifice of Holy Mass he celebrated in Saint Gabriel Mwamba Sub-Parish Centre for the official installation of Senior Chief Mwamba, Saturday 17 July 2021.

Archbishop Chama advised the Chief to always look up to God in times of happiness and hardships.

He reminded the Christians that it is now 123 years since the Missionaries of Africa, known as the White Fathers, brought the Gospel to the people of Ituna Chiefdom.

Archbishop Chama took the occasion to indicate to the officially installed Senior Chief Mwamba that in Jesus Christ, leadership is about service to the people of God entrusted to his care.

Archbishop Chama advised Senior Chief Mwamba to look up to Bishop Joseph Dupont who was once entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the affairs of Ituna Chiefdom as an example of what it means to be a good leader.