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It was 1955. Sumbawanga District in Tanganyika bordered upon Abercorn
District in Northern Rhodesia. Officials in Sumbawanga had to pay regular
visits to Abercorn to pay to the bank NR currency used to pay taxes. Rumours
were heard that the DC in Abercorn had been murdered. This was not true but
there was unrest in that District.
The unrest was due to an increase in their tax and had been fomented by a
member of the NR African Congress whose name was Windy. He had urged some
villagers not to pay their tax. As a result the DC went to the village with a police
sergeant and a few constables. He found the villagers, led by Windy, armed with
spears. Stones were thrown, injuring the sergeant, and the DC had to withdraw.
DC Abercorn then called in a riot squad and a fully armed platoon of motorised
police was deployed. Their presence caused the villagers to scatter into the hills
around the area. Windy and some of his supporters went up to Mpulungu on the
NR shore of Lake Tanganyika. There, Windy took a canoe going up the Lake to
Kasanga, the first village (and steamer port) on the Tanganyika side. There he
was arrested by the chief who notified his DC in Sumbawanga. In the meantime
the NR armed police used the District motorboat to follow Windy to Kasanga. The
chief told them that he had Windy under arrest and was awaiting instructions from
his DC.
The NR police ignored the chief, threatened him, seized Windy and took
him back to NR. The chief was incensed and immediately notified his DC who,
realising that this incident could prove exceedingly embarrassing throughout the
District, leapt into his pick-up truck and went to Abercorn. The Abercorn DC had
already realised the consequences of the invasion and the illegal arrest of Windy.
The Tanganyikan DC returned to Sumbawanga with Windy who was then dealt
with appropriately and deported. The DC returned him to the border where he
released Windy to whatever NR justice had in store for him. The chief at Kasanga
was delighted that his honour had been upheld.
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