Qualla: Chambeshi Monument https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Chambeshi Monument https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument Chambeshi Monument: Introduction https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument/ Photo credit Carrol Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0. At 7:30 on the morning of 14 November 1918, on the bank of the Chambeshi River in what was then Northern Rhodesia, a British district commissioner named Hector Croad walked up to General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck under a white flag and handed him a telegram. The general read it. He ordered his soldiers to stop firing. The First World War, which had ended in a railway carriage at Compiegne three days earlier, was now finally over for the undefeated German East Africa Schutztruppe and the British, South African, and - most of all - African troops who had been chasing them for four years across half a continent. A stone pillar stands on that spot today.

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Image: Carrol Fleming | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/kwn1-chambeshi-monument-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Chambeshi Monument: The General Who Would Not Quit https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument/ Photo credit Carrol Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0. Lettow-Vorbeck commanded what was probably the smallest and most effective force of the First World War. Starting with about 14,000 men - the majority of them African askari soldiers serving under German officers - he had tied up ten times that many Allied troops by refusing to s...

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Image: Carrol Fleming | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/kwn1-chambeshi-monument-the-general-who-would-not-quit.mp3 0:06 2 full Chambeshi Monument: The Men at Chambeshi https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument/ Photo credit Carrol Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0. The British defenders of the Chambeshi line were not much of a line. Kasama's tiny European population had already evacuated north to Mpika, leaving nine volunteers to hold the river crossing. They had two Maxim guns and no one who knew how to fire them. One of the nine, Charlie ...

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Image: Carrol Fleming | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/kwn1-chambeshi-monument-the-men-at-chambeshi.mp3 0:06 3 full Chambeshi Monument: The Telegram https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument/ Photo credit Carrol Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0. The message that ended the war in East Africa came from General Jacob van Deventer, the South African officer commanding Allied forces in the region. It read, in essence: the English Prime Minister has notified us that an Armistice was signed on 11 November, and that fighting on ...

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Image: Carrol Fleming | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/kwn1-chambeshi-monument-the-telegram.mp3 0:06 4 full Chambeshi Monument: The Soldiers the War Used Up https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument/ Photo credit Carrol Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0. The plaque beside the main inscription, in Bemba, ends with a line that the English version does not quite match: Twapela umuchinshi kuli bonse abashipa abalwile mu nkondo iyi - we honor all brave soldiers who fought in this war. The Bemba inscription matters because the majority...

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Image: Carrol Fleming | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/kwn1-chambeshi-monument-the-soldiers-the-war-used-up.mp3 0:06 5 full Chambeshi Monument: The Stone on the Riverbank https://qualla.com/chambeshi-monument/ Photo credit Carrol Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Chambeshi Monument was unveiled on 14 November 1953, thirty-five years to the day after the event it commemorates, while Zambia was still Northern Rhodesia. It is a large stone platform with the plaques set into a stone pillar, beside a cannon of the First World War era - tho...

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Image: Carrol Fleming | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/w/n/1/chambeshi-monument-wp/kwn1-chambeshi-monument-the-stone-on-the-riverbank.mp3 0:06 6 full