Mwinilunga: A beautiful Zambian town and a special town for me

Mwinilunga! Mwinilunga is 856 km from Lusaka and 256 km from Solwezi the North-Western provincial capital. It is famous for pineapples and honey. But most interestingly it is 67 km away from Ikelenge where the source of the Zambezi river is. Zambia is named after the Zambezi river. Mwinilunga has the Lunga river running through it.

It is here that my dad Josiah met my mum Betty. An unlikely place for a couple like them to meet considering that they both hailed from very far away. Dad hailed from Choma which is 1,035 km away and mum from Mutoko which is 1,485 km away. Mum told me that dad was persistent in his marriage proposal. Her close friend encouraged her to accept the marriage proposal. She added "Wamene uyu kapokola ndiye azakusunga" which means "This same police man will look after you".

Mum at the time was working as a nurse at the Mwinilunga General Hospital while Dad was working as a policeman. So this was a meeting of two public service workers who met and started a love relationship far away from their families. They later got married in Kitwe in November 1967. I was their first child born in February 1968 followed by late Linda was born in March 1971 followed by Catherine and Kenneth in June 1972 and late Tendai in July 1983.

Whenever, I visit Mwinilunga, I am reminded that is where my dad's and mum's love story began. An unlikely place and yet a lovely place. It is amazing to see how God brings two people together from different backgrounds from distant places.

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