Kanona Power Company To Establish Solar And Coal Energy Plants In Mukuni

By Esnart Siloka

Mukuni Chiefdom is once again becoming a center of investment following a proposal by Kanona Power Company Limited to establish two major power generation projects: a 300-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant and a 150MW solar power plant.

The coal project will occupy more than 200 hectares of land located behind the Mukuni Substation, while the solar plant will be set up on 67 hectares of land across the road from the same substation.

During a public consultative meeting held at Simukale Royal Shrine, Kazungula Town Council Secretary Lubinda Mwala represented by Director of Planning, Martin Munyinda expressed the local authority's full support for the project.

Project Consultant Maxwell Chibanga explained that the project will require the construction of a 5.5-kilometre railway line to facilitate the transportation of raw materials such as coal from Zimbabwe, as well as a 9.5-kilometre water pipeline from the Zambezi River to the project site.

Mr. Chibanga outlined several benefits of the project, including job creation for skilled, semi-skilled, and casual workers, with a strong emphasis on gender sensitivity.

Meanwhile, Chiefdom Prime Minister Patrick Malake, who officiated at the event, reiterated his call for honesty from developers during the implementation process.

Mr. Malake also warned subordinate authorities against selfishness, particularly regarding the employment of local people.

A ward official, McMillan Mukwamandi, raised concerns about the welfare of animals in the area, particularly grazing land and access to water, appealing to the developers to ensure adequate alternative grazing areas and water resources for livestock.

The projects are set for May 2026. 

Source: Kanona Power Company To Establish Solar And Coal Energy Plants In Mukuni (14/11/2025)

Ancient Rulers Of Victoria Falls

In the beginning, long before Dr Livingstone, the Victoria Falls area was ruled by a girl. A descendant from the Rozwi Empire.

The beauty and wonder of the falls spoke to this 13th Century Toka-Leya high priestess called  Bedyango, who erected shrines around the falls and built her village where Mukuni Village stands today. Perfectly perched on a hill, overlooking the spray from the falls.

Over the next four centuries the Bedyango performed rituals to avert disaster during wars, droughts or epidemics. This strong female reign would continue here until the end of the 17th Century when a man arrived from the Luba- Lunda Empire of Kola in the present day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mukuni N’gombe was quite a figurehead. A statesman, diplomat, conqueror, pacifier, possessor of supernatural powers and empire builder, he had been forced to escape the turbulence engulfing his father King Mulopwe’s Bayeke Empire. Along the way, he installed his sisters, sons and daughters throughout the Central and Southern Provinces of Zambia. He allowed his sisters to get married to Gawa Undi of the Chewa people in the Eastern Province where Nyanje and Sandwe is now found. He travelled all the way to Zimbabwe but encountering raging battles there he ended up in Victoria Falls.

He too fell in love with the area and maybe even more, with the woman he found ruling there. Bedyango and Mukuni first met at Simukale, a shrine where a podium was erected to ensure that everyone could keep a beady eye on the newcomer. A deal was struck.

A wedding would take place, followed by a dual monarchy that featured a female ruler with exclusive powers over agriculture, land, culture, birth and death rites and a male ruler in charge of all political, economic, defence and judiciary matters. Bedyango would also assume all powers in the absence of the chief and during a transitional period.

She officiated and still does, during births, marriages and deaths. To this day the Bedyango has a final say on the choice of a new chief. Talk of absolute power!

The Simukale shrine still stands.

The Mukuni and Bedyango empires still rule the area together.

Source: Ancient Rulers Of Victoria Falls (10/10/13) 

Zambia's Mukuni Royal Dynasty celebrates ancient journey of paramount king.

The sun rises on Gundu village, in Mukuni, south-east of Zambia's tourism capital, Livingstone.

Built on a sandy knoll with a population of 10,000 inhabitants, this village is home to the founder of the Royal Mukuni dynasty; Paramount Chief Mukuni Mulopwe, who settled here among the Leya people having travelled from the Congo in the 18th century.

Mukuni village lies just 7 kilometers from the majestic Victoria Falls, known by the indigenous Leya people as Nsyungu Namutitima or Mosi-oa-Tunya - the smoke that thunders.

Every year, members of the Mukuni Dynasty's 33 Mornarchs that stretch across Congo, Central Zambia, Northern Zimbabwe, Eastern Zambia, converge here for a ceremony to remember their past and celebrate their culture.

"Zambia, most of the tribes actually, have arrived in Zambia either from South Africa, or from.... largely from Congo in the last four hundred years, so they've held... they've now been running for something like two or three hundred years," said His Royal Highness, Senior Chief Munokalya Mukuni, a direct descendant of the Mukuni founder.

Known as the Bene Mukuni Ceremony, it also celebrate the converging in Livingstone of the Bene Mukuni Royal Houses and to commemorate the pre-colonial and historic Mukuni Mulopwe's journey.
Each Chief is a descendent from the family of the Paramount Chief Mukuni.

The ceremony is one of the most important for Mukuni followers. Dignitaries come from across Southern Africa.

It begins with the washing of the Chief's feet in the blood of a 'beast', symbolic of when the first chief chose oxen blood to wash mud off his feet.

His brother chose human blood. This was regarded as unwise and he disappeared on their journeys never to be seen again. The lighting of the fire symbolises the light of Mukuni's reign.

The ashes from the fire are then used to honour all the chiefs present, each represented by a young girl from their tribe.

Historically these ceremonies were very private affairs. According to Chief Mukuni it is necessary to make them more public otherwise their culture may not be sustained. It is to remind the youth of where they have come from.

Grand Chief of the Cree Indians, Matthew Caan Comb travelled from Canada to witness the Mukuni ceremony.

Known internationally for his work to protect the traditional way of life of his people, he said the Mukuni people, like his own, were struggling to protect valuable traditions and resources.

"Society are consumers. Hungry for the use of ores, material things. Very materialistic. They've lost their way. Where now they focused on development. Where man thinks now it's my creation. He walks on cement, he makes big buildings. Then he forgets the creator. He forgets to protect the land," he said.

"In the USA, I visited a lot of Red Indian tribes and so on and, very strange, although we are separated by oceans and so on, I found that in essentials we are completely the same people. It was so amazing for me," said chief Mukuni. The journey of Mulopwe Mukuni from the Congo was guided by his sister Kaseba who rode an elephant and was known as Kaseba-Mashila 'clearer of paths'.

Chief Mukuni owns a wildlife adventure business called Mukuni Big 5, that offers elephant rides, close up encounters with cheetahs and walks with Lions.

Source: Zambia's Mukuni Royal Dynasty celebrates ancient journey of paramount king. (19/09/13)

Promoting Zambia's unique cultural identity

The Post, Zambia
By Edwin Mbulo
16 April 2013

Senior Chief Mukuni of the Tokaleya people of Kazungula district says Zambia's biggest tourism draw card is the many cultural ceremonies which can be extended to Livingstone for tourism purposes. Speaking when students from Ndola's Nsansa Trust School paid a courtesy call on him at Lumpasa Palace, chief Mukuni said unlike wild animals which were the same in the southern African region, cultural ceremonies among the 73 ethnic tribes were only unique to Zambia.

"Culture is our biggest draw card, we are very lucky that we have 73 ethnic tribes as it makes culture our most important tourism draw card. Lions are the same in Namibia, Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe but the Mutomboko, N'cwala, Likumbi Lyamize and Kuomboka are only unique to Zambia and what we have done is that the Bene Mukuni cultural arena [in Livingstone] has been surrendered to the rest of Zambia so that in July and August, those cultural ceremonies organising committees that feel that they can showcase miniature ceremonies can use it. Zambia is endowed with so many cultural ceremonies that no other country has, so this is a biggest draw card we have than any other country," Chief Mukuni said.

He urged youths to look after Zambia's cultural values as this was what made a Zambian unique. "In Africa to show respect one goes down and in Europe they have to stand up, we move in two different directions. But I urge you to look at what is actually yours that makes you unique, and until you travel you realise how special and unique we Africans are. Our friends in Europe live almost like animals; to visit your brother you have to be in a hotel," Chief Mukuni said.

He said despite sharing the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls, Livingstone was poised to be a major attraction during the UNWTO general assembly in August because it had many cultural and natural attractions.

Read full article here.