Bi-Election in Mufumbwe

We sure found out what an election can do to a village! In April 2010 there was a lot of campaigning going on because of a bi-election. The MP (member of Parliament) in our district died not too long ago so his seat was open. MMD has been the ruling party here for many years and the opposition party UPND has been campaigning hard recently. We even had a visit to our local village from the Vice President of Zambia. Often the campaigners will come thru the villages and give away things like hats, chitenges (womens wrap arounds), bikes and even money. So people are glad to receive these things but may not be loyal to the party giving them. We also had fighting in our village. Some members of the UPND party (most were from outside of our area) created a fire over our main road and then used catapults (slingshots) to shoot rocks at cars travelling over the road. They damaged a number of vehicles. So now the police come and use their weapons to fire into the air and they also used tear gas. Many of the locals were fearful so they ran into the bush (their fields) to hide. The police then went around thru the village looking for those who have been known affiliates of the opposition party and arrested them all. One of these was my neighbor. She was not involved in any fighting but was found in her house. She was taken away. Some days later there was more fighting in Mufumbwe, our Boma (27K away from our village). For safety and security reasons, Peace Corps came and picked me up to take me to our provincial house until after the madness ended. I really didn't feel threatened but things could have definitely got out of hand.