Monze Education Fund

and Guide to Monze

Stamps posted from Monze 1916		Monze Post Office 2003

Railway - Follow this link for more information

Airfield - Follow this link for more information

Telephone - The area code for Monze is 32

Road - Monze is on the main Great North Road. With one significant B road at the Northern end leading off in a Westerly direction to: Lochinvar National Park, Chitongo and Namwala

With the help from Jesuit Missions and many other organisations, Chikuni Praish, has raised over £100,000 to set up and operate the first Radio Station run by the Batonga people for the Batonga people.

The Jesuit community of Chikuni has a long established connection with Monze, recalled in the diary of Fr. Prestage of 1902 after the meeting with Chief Monze. On 14th July 1905 Chikuni was founded by Fr. J. Moreau S.J. with Chief Monze's son Bbinya as well as three other young boys Haatontola, Jahaliso and Jojo all from Monze's community. Chikuni has grown into a flourishing educational community where many of Zambia's leading citizens started their education.

Radio Chikuni first transmitted in October 1999, and operates on 91.8FM over a radius of 60km to an estimated audience no less than 250,000.

The majority of the
Courtesy of Radio Chinuki programmes are in the local Chitonga language and are aired at times that are most suited to the people. They are aimed at the subsistence farmers that eek out a living in the dry and desolated land that is their ancestral home. Everyone is encouraged to submit programme ideas and is invited to participate in the broadcasts as much as possible. To ensure that this is possible, each of Chikuni's 21 centres has their "News Gatherers". Their role is not just to gather important news but also to give detailed and constructive feed back on programmes , content and style, and to identify people in their areas that might take a more active role in the station.

Filling the information vacuum, the topics covered by the programmes are agriculture, health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, education culture, justice, family, women, youth, profiles of local talents, local issues and events. The radio has become a neutral forum where people are able to openly discuss taboos: property grabbing, sexual abuse of young girls, witch hunts and so on. A signifiant amount of airtime is used to support local music artists, as music is the traditional medium of passing on wisdom. Other important projects of the radio are: Radio School (Taonga Market), Tonga Concert and Tape Production.

Monze had an established public mail service by 1901. Coryndon recorded details of Monze as part of the network in June 1901. Prior to this, private messengers were used both by the various chiefs, mining companies and BSAC officials.

The public service was largely focused within the area bounded by the Zambezi and Kafue Rivers, with mail being sorted at Livingstone for forwarding to Bulawayo to the South, or North of the Zambezi.

Mail bags were sealed and hand carried by messengers from Bulawayo to Livingstone. Here they were opened and sorted. The two principal routes were to the North East, up to Monze, and beyond. At Kalomo mail was fowarded direct to Nanzela, the other to the North West, up to Sesheke and then to Lealui. Separate routes were introduced to speed up delivery, mostly between Lealui and Nanzela, and Nanzela and Monze.

The 370 mile journey took 18 to 25 days. North of the Zambezi mail deliveries and collections typically worked to a fortnightly cycle.

There were at that time (June 1901) established seven postal stations, each with a Postmaster or Postal Agent:

Messengers employed to cover these routes were provided with a distinctive khaki uniform, belt and fez. The tunic had the motive 'BSAC Mail' embroided in red.

Messengers travelled in twos. One carried a Martini Rifle for protection against wild animals such as hyenas and lions.

Occasionally; police officers would carry important or urgent mail. It was not unusual for them to carry regular mail despatches when the regular services could not cope.

The following illustrates the logistics for this early public service: