Alice Lenshina

Zambian religious leader

Alice Lenshina (1920–1978) was a Zambian woman, prisoner of conscience and self appointed "prophetess" who is noted for her part in the "Lumpa Uprising", which claimed 700 lives. Lenshina founded and led the Lumpa Church, a religious sect that embraced a mixture of Christian and animist beliefs and rituals. The Lumpa Church rejected the authority of any "earthly government", it refused to pay taxes and it established its own tribunals. Shortly after Zambia became independent under President Kenneth Kaunda, she and her followers were engaged in the so called "Lumpa Uprising". The uprising was suppressed and she was detained, but the Lumpa Church was never entirely eradicated.

She was born Alice Mulenga Lubusha in 1920 in Chinsali district of the northern province of Northern Rhodesia. Alice was her baptismal name, while Mulenga was her traditional African name. Much information about her upbringing remains unknown. There are no further details on her mother beside her name, Musungu Chimba. Lubusha, her father, was a village policeman who fought for the British during World War I and was a messenger for the colonial administration. They were members of the Crocodile Clan, which was a distinguished clan of the Bemba kingdom. The new church rapidly joined the competition for souls against the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland. Lumpa was so successful that by the late 1950s it may have had up to 150,000 members in the northern and eastern provinces of Northern Rhodesia. The church's drive for membership was so aggressive that it was seen as a political threat by the colonial Northern Rhodesia government.

At first the Lumpa Church was close to the main Black organization fighting for independence, the Northern Rhodesia African National Congress (ANC). However, when Kenneth Kaunda left the ANC in 1958 and formed the more militant United National Independence Party (UNIP) there arose a competition for members between the new church and the new party. Villages were split as Lumpa leaders ordered their members to establish separate villages by moving out of villages where they lived alongside UNIP's members. The conflict between UNIP and the Lumpa Church reached a climax in July to October in 1964, just before Northern Rhodesia's independence. On July 24, 1964, a gunbattle broke out between UNIP and Lumpa Church members. The resulting riots were only quelled by the intervention of State troops, and the proclamation of a state of emergency by the new pre independence Prime Minister, Kenneth Kaunda. About a thousand people died in the clashes between Lumpa Church adherents, UNIP's members and the security forces. Approximately 15,000 Lumpa Church members fled and took refuge in Congo; some of them never returned to Zambia. The Lumpa Church was banned on 3 August 1964 and Lenshina surrendered to police a few days later. Hardly anyone faulted Lenshina for the violence that took place. This was evident when her biggest critic, Kaunda, never called for her trial in court. Even though she was the symbol for the Lumpa Church, she adamantly denied any involvement in the political disturbances. The political aspirations of her contemporaries took precedent over Lenshina's desire for a religious and cultural revival. Lenshina died on 7 December 1978 while under house arrest and was eventually buried at Kasomo village where the Kamutola Church stood. The Lumpa Church continues to exist to this day, though it is split and called by various names, the most prominent of which are Uluse Kamutola Church, under Chilemweni Nkonde (the biggest), Jerusalem Church, under Bubile (Daughter to Lenshina) and New Jerusalem Church, under Nkaya, in Kitwe's Chimwemwe Township.