Lunzua Takes Its Seat Among the Bwile

“Uwa kwensha ubushiku ba mutasha ga bwacha”, loosely translated as the one who walks you through the night is thanked at daybreak, is a proverb packed with symbolic wisdom for an investor setting up in a new home. It teaches about companionship in difficulty, and about gratitude that is only fully understood in hindsight.

This was the theme for the 2026 Builile traditional ceremony of the Bwile people of Chienge in Luapula Province, where Lunzua Power Company is preparing to make a home through its upcoming 244MW Kalungwishi hydropower project. With the Republican Vice-President Dr. W. K. Mutale Nalumango in attendance as guest of honour, Lunzua participated in its first Builile ceremony, which served as an introduction to the culture, traditions, and history of one of the project’s host communities.

Projects the scale of Kalungwishi require land, sustained goodwill, and the confidence of traditional leadership held together across years of development and operation. Starting early to build relationships earns the people’s confidence in the company’s intentions for the future of the community.

The project is positioned to turn Luapula and Northern Provinces into hubs of industrial and economic activity – unlocking mining, agriculture, manufacturing and value addition, and lifting livelihoods at household level – better delivered when the investor is part of the community, not apart from it.

Speaking for Lunzua, the company’s Head of Hydropower and Thermal, Eng. Yanda Hamilemba, restated its commitment to the development. “Lunzua Power Company is already actively investing in this area, particularly in developing the 244-megawatt Kalungwishi Hydropower Project, which is gathering renewed momentum.

Set along the Kalungwishi River, the project is poised to transform Luapula and Northern Provinces,” said Eng. Hamilemba. Builile is the annual ceremony that honours the ancestors of the Ansa clan, marks the close of the harvest season, and preaches self-reliance, literally experienced by the opening of the Chayenkuwo food storehouse, from which attendees are fed.

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