Glossary
Bayuni /ba-ˈyu-ni/ *noun*
The plural of Muyuni, meaning “birds.” Bayuni evoke freedom, guidance, and interconnection between sky, land, and river.
Example: Bayuni balaseka nga bwacha*, meaning “The birds laugh at dawn.”
Radical etymology: Bayuni signify mobility, relationality, and the capacity to navigate multiple worlds. They are teachers and witnesses, linking human and non-human life across Zambezian landscapes.
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Internal Restitution / External Restitution
restitution /ˌrɛstɪˈtjuːʃən/ *noun*
The act of memory and sentiment restored. It is the reconnection of lost threads of understanding and the return to natural or original states of being, which were impacted, often negatively, by external interventions.
Radical etymology: From Latin *restituere*, meaning to restore or set up again. In a Zambezian frame, restoration relates to ancestral roots, communal continuity, and riverine and botanical systems of return and repair.
External Restitution
The standard museum definition of restitution is the process by which cultural objects are returned to an individual or a community. Paired with **Repatriation**, the process by which cultural objects are returned to a nation or state at the request of a government. Both contain intrinsic asymmetries that uphold Western institutions, often sidelining the individuals and communities at the centre of their own histories.
Internal Restitution
Internal Restitution is a counter-theory and practice challenging asymmetries in global debates about African objects and histories. It shifts focus from **Dead History** to **Living History** by turning reflection and action inward and prioritising the agency of communities and individuals to whom these histories belong.
Dead History
Dead History refers to narratives constructed around objects that have been dislocated through conquest or removal from original communities. Knowledge production becomes mediated by foreign beliefs, and objects are often divorced from indigenous truths, presented in clinical or fictionalised ways.
Living History
Living History exists in proximity to the place of nascence, retaining connections to ancestral truths even as materials and forms evolve. Objects remain living histories through continued practice, use, and engagement. They are not merely objects but also subjects and teachers, producing and transmitting knowledge. For example, a Tonga **nongo** (clay pot) functions as a vessel, a tool in marriage and initiation rites, and as a teacher. Living Histories centre Indigenous communities as active sources of knowledge and value.
Radical framing: Internal Restitution, Living History, and the distinction from External Restitution and Dead History provide a framework for reclaiming agency over memory, knowledge, and cultural expression. Objects and practices are understood as relational, alive, and capable of teaching, challenging Western-centric archival and museum systems.
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Kaliba / Kariba
Kaliba /ka-ˈli-ba/ *noun*
A place that existed before the dam. In ciTonga, Kaliba means “trap” and referred to a rock at the gorge now submerged beneath the reservoir. Legends say it was the home of the river god **Nyaminyami**.
Example:Kaliba was revered as the dwelling of Nyaminyami, meaning “The rock was the home of the river god who guarded the gorge.”
Radical etymology: Kaliba embodies rootedness, ancestral presence, and spiritual authority. It signifies connection to riverine memory, pre-colonial landscapes, and the continuity of the Zambezian psyche.
Kariba Dam / ka-ˈri-ba/ *noun*
A hydroelectric structure built between 1955 and 1959 that flooded the valley, submerging Kaliba. The dam symbolises colonial ambition and caused ecological and social displacement.
Example: The Kariba Dam reshaped the river and local lives, meaning “The dam created both power and loss for local communities.”
Radical framing: The dam represents physical, cultural, and spiritual displacement, underscoring the need for Internal Restitution and Living History.
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Katanga-tanga /ka-tan-ga-ˈtan-ga/ *noun*
The stamen of a flower. Having a name for this reflects ancestral intelligence and botanical knowledge. The plural form is **butanga-tanga**.
Example: Bakajana tutanga-tanga tunji tulamfu a tuluba tu tuba tuba*, meaning “They found many long little stamen on the whitish flowers.”
Radical etymology: Katanga-tanga embodies recognition of the smallest yet essential elements of life and knowledge. Naming the stamen reflects ancestral attention to detail, relational understanding, and ecological intelligence in Zambezian botanical systems.
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Mulonga /mu-ˈlo-ŋa/ *noun*
In ciTonga, Mulonga means “river” and refers to a living ancestral force that sustains life, carrying memory, voice, and movement.
Example: Twakazyalwa mpo italikila mulonga*, meaning “We were born where the river begins.”
Radical etymology: Mulonga is a living system, a connective thread across generations, places, and practices, embodying riverine intelligence and continuity as a source of identity and collective memory.
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Musampizya** /mu-sam-ˈpiz-ya/ *noun*
A plant (*Laggera decurrens*) used medicinally and spiritually. It treats coughs and colds and its smoke is believed to chase away harmful spirits.
Example: Ndakaijana musampizya mu syokwe olo musampizya yakandijana mu syokwe*, meaning “I found the musampizya in the forest, or rather the musampizya found me in the forest.”
Radical etymology: Musampizya represents the entwined worlds of health, spirituality, and ancestral knowledge. Its agency reminds us that plants are active participants in Zambezian systems of care, protection, and memory.
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Pixel Positionality
**pixel** /ˈpɪks(ə)l, ˈpɪksɛl/ *noun*
The smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed on a digital device. Pixels combine to form complete images, videos, text, or any visible content on a screen. Also known as a picture element (pix = picture, el = element).
Radical etymology: Just as pixels form images from tiny units, our perceptions of history and identity are built from discrete fragments of information. Each pixel represents a possibility for reclamation, correction, and reimagination of Zambian cultural and historical narratives.
**positionality** /puh-zish-uh-nal-i-tee/ *noun*
The social and political context that shapes your identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status, and how that identity influences and potentially biases your understanding of and perspective on the world.
Radical etymology: Positionality reflects our rootedness within social and historical frameworks. In a Zambezian context, this includes the ancestral, riverine, and ecological roots that inform perception and the interpretation of memory, heritage, and selfhood.
**Personal definition:** Pixel positionality is a conceptual framework for interrogating and correcting the representational errors in cultural and historical narrative construction. Western museums and ethnographic collections often house Zambian objects and artifacts outside of their original physical and metadata context, presenting stories from external, fictionalised, or improvised perspectives. Pixel positionality seeks to reclaim narrative authority, enabling communities to tell their own stories in spaces that are comparatively more democratised or neutral, primarily the internet.
Technoscapes and digital contexts: Digital platforms and technoscapes provide valuable arenas for the reorientation of meaning and identity. By leveraging these spaces, pixel positionality allows for community-based counter-archives that challenge hegemonic archival frameworks and societal biases in the framing of Zambezia.
Radical framing: Pixel positionality actively addresses errors in perception and representation, especially in the historical lens through which Zambian history has been presented, often an Occidental lens rather than one rooted in Zambian realities. It is both a methodological and emancipatory practice, a way to critically reassess historical trajectories, reassert control over the writing of one’s own story, and engage in a digital, community-centered reclamation of memory, meaning, and identity.
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Radical Reimaginative Archiving
**radical** /ˈradɪk(ə)l/ *adjective*
Far-reaching or thorough change at the level of foundations.
Radical etymology: from Latin **radix** “root.” Within this glossary the root is read in two directions at once, as the ancestral line beneath us and as the botanical root systems of Zambezia whose intelligence anchors soil, water, memory, and continuity.
**reimagine** /ˌrē-i-ˈma-jin/ *verb*
To conceive again or anew.
*Forms:* reimagined, reimagining, reimagines, reimaginative
**archiving** /ˈɑːkaɪv/ *verb* (gerund or present participle)
To place or store something in an archive