Shiwa Ngandu
Encyclopedia
Northern Province, Zambia
Northern Province is one of Zambia's nine provinces. It covers approximately one fifth of Zambia in land area. The provincial capital is Kasama. The province is made up of 12 districts, namely Kasama , Chilubi, Isoka, Chinsali, Kaputa, Luwingu, Mbala, Mporokoso, Mpika, Mpulungu, Mungwi and Nakonde...
of Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, about 12 km west of the Tanzam highway and half-way between Mpika
Mpika
Mpika is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, lying at the junction of the Great North Road to Kasama and Mbala and the Tanzam Highway to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It also has a railway station on the TAZARA Railway about 5 km away. Mpika is situated between the Muchinga Escarpment to...
and Chinsali
Chinsali
Chinsali is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, and is headquarters of Chinsali District. It lies 15 km west of the Great North Road and about 180 km north-north-east of Mpika...
. Its name is based on a small lake nearby, Lake Ishiba Ng'andu
Lake Ishiba Ng'andu
Lake Ishiba Ng'andu is a picturesque lake very close to the watershed between the Luangwa and Chambeshi River basins in the Northern Province of Zambia, and just on the Chambeshi side. Its name in the Bemba language means 'lake of the royal crocodile'...
which in the Bemba language
Bemba language
The Bemba language, ChiBemba , is a major Bantu language spoken primarily in north-eastern Zambia by the Bemba people and as a lingua franca by about 18 related ethnic groups, including the Bisa people of Mpika and Lake Bangweulu, and to a lesser extent in Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the...
means 'lake of the royal crocodile'. The house itself is also known as "Shiwa House". It was the life-long project of an English aristocrat, Sir Stewart Gore-Browne
Stewart Gore-Browne
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, DSO, , called Chipembele by Africans, was a soldier, pioneer white settler, builder, politician and supporter of independence in Northern Rhodesia .- Early life :...
who fell in love with the country after working on the Anglo-Belgian Boundary Commission determining the border between Rhodesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Decision to Settle at Shiwa Ngandu
From his boyhood, Gore-Browne had an ambition to own an estate like that of his aunt, Dame Ethel Locke King, at WeybridgeWeybridge
Weybridge is a town in the Elmbridge district of Surrey in South East England. It is bounded to the north by the River Thames at the mouth of the River Wey, from which it gets its name...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Although comparatively wealthy himself, he could not afford such an estate in Britain. Land in Northern Rhodesia was very much cheaper for white settlers. At the boundary commission he had come to admire the Bemba workers
Bemba people
The Bemba belong to a large group of peoples mainly in the Northern, Luapula and Copperbelt Provinces of Zambia who trace their origins to the Luba and Lunda states of the upper Congo basin, in what became Katanga Province in southern Congo-Kinshasa...
and so he travelled to their country looking for a site. Arriving at Lake Shiwa Ngandu
Lake Ishiba Ng'andu
Lake Ishiba Ng'andu is a picturesque lake very close to the watershed between the Luangwa and Chambeshi River basins in the Northern Province of Zambia, and just on the Chambeshi side. Its name in the Bemba language means 'lake of the royal crocodile'...
in April 1914 with his Bemba servants and porters, he knew he had found it. World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
intervened but its horrors only increased his desire to return to Shiwa Ngandu and achieve his dream. He also harboured the ideal of establishing a patrician regime of the kind whose time was ending in Britain after the war.
Construction of the Estate
Construction of the mansion began in 1920 when Zambia was the British protectorate of Northern RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
. The site was 400 miles from the nearest railhead, a journey of many days over rivers and swamps. At that time there were no roads to the area. As well as building the estate's access roads and bridges, Gore-Browne built roads and bridges for the local colonial authority. Almost everything had to be made on site, including every brick used in the construction. Hundreds of labourers were employed, and with the help of oxen to haul the bricks in scorching heat, a substantial house was constructed within a few years. However, the building work did not stop until the late 1950's; an imposing gatehouse, a tower, colinaded porticoes, courtyards, additional rooms all added to its size and stature.
The house was surrounded by nursery gardens, tennis courts, a walled ladies' garden and much more. The estate followed in the tradition of 19th century utopian model villages like Saltaire
Saltaire
Saltaire is a Victorian model village within the City of Bradford Metropolitan District, West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal...
and Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village, suburb and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Between 1894 and 1974 it formed part of Bebington urban district within the county of Cheshire...
. The estate had its own schools, hospitals, playing fields, shops, and post office. Workers lived in brick-built cottages and the estate was ruled as a benevolent autocracy — though by a man with a temper ferocious enough to justify the local nickname of Chipembere which means 'rhinoceros'. He was also a very formal man who always wore black tie for dinner, at a table set with family plate and silver - whether he had guests or not.
The Estate in Gore-Browne's Later Life
Shiwa Ngandu's remoteness and isolation from white settler society in Northern Rhodesia's southern half and in Southern RhodesiaSouthern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
gave Gore-Browne a perspective on black Africans which led him to believe the country should develop in a more collaborative direction than the settler-ruled and segregationist Southern Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. He involved himself in politics as detailed in his biographical article
Stewart Gore-Browne
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, DSO, , called Chipembele by Africans, was a soldier, pioneer white settler, builder, politician and supporter of independence in Northern Rhodesia .- Early life :...
.
The estate never managed to make consistent and steady profits. The soil was too acidic for most crops, and after trying various other sources of revenue, they found a more stable income in the production of essential oil
Essential oil
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove...
s and citrus blossoms especially when the Second World War closed off supplies of essential oils from the rivieras of France and Bulgaria. However, his projects were heavily subsidized by Dame Ethel Locke King, with whom he was obsessively attached and corresponded from his childhood until her death. This source of revenue ended in 1958 when the citrus trees were attacked by a blight.
Stewart Gore-Browne
Stewart Gore-Browne
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, DSO, , called Chipembele by Africans, was a soldier, pioneer white settler, builder, politician and supporter of independence in Northern Rhodesia .- Early life :...
died in Kasama
Kasama
The toponym Kasama may refer to:* Kasama, Ibaraki , Japan* Kasama, Zambia* Kasama Project- See also :Related toponym:* Kazama * Kazami* Kazemi* Hazama...
, Zambia in 1967, and to this date is the only white man to have been given a state funeral
State funeral
A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition...
in the history of Zambia, with a eulogy given by then President Kenneth Kaunda
Kenneth Kaunda
Kenneth David Kaunda, known as KK, served as the first President of Zambia, from 1964 to 1991.-Early life:Kaunda was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia...
.
Fame and Tragedy
After his death the estate was managed by one of his daughters, Lorna, and her husband John Harvey. They had four children, who grew up at the estate. They were filmed by the British Broadcasting Corporation travelogueTravel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
series Pole to Pole
Pole to Pole
Pole to Pole is an eight-part television documentary travel series made for the BBC and released in 1992. The presenter is Michael Palin, this being the second of Palin's major journeys for the BBC. The trip from the North Pole to the South Pole went via Scandinavia, the Soviet Union, parts of...
, which included actor Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
's visit to the estate. But only six months later in 1991, Lorna and John Harvey were murdered in Lusaka by three men who were caught and convicted. They were ANC
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
members living in exile in Zambia. The ANC disavowed any prior knowledge and condemned the murders, and although some property was stolen, possible motives remain speculative.
In the years following the murders the house fell into disrepair.
The Present Day
Recently Shiwa House has been partially restored and has opened five rooms for paying guests under the name Shiwa Ngandu Manor House. An airstrip has been built for charter flights. The estate's remote beauty is once more accessible to visitors. The grave of Sir Stewart is at rest in the extraordinary African paradise he created. Lorna and John Harvey's sons have reintroduced wildlife, and established a large cattle ranch. Poaching is under control, and the estate is proving to be a significant source of employment in the area.Photographs of the estate can be seen at the Shiwa Ng'andu website.