The Fourth President, Rupiah Bwezani Banda was a Chewa from the Eastern Province.
In the years after the MMD took power in 1991, it was accused numerous times of promoting Bemba over other regional languages in the country.
[4] They include Chishinga, Lomotwa, Ngoma, Nwesi, Lala, Luunda, Mukulu, Ng’umbo, and Unga, which is spoken by Twa pygmies and sometimes considered a separate language (Nurse 2003).
In common with other Bantu languages, as affixes are added, combinations of vowels may contract and consonants may change.
However, tone has limited effect on meaning as the number of words that would otherwise be confused is small.
Stress tends to fall on the prefix, when it exists, and can lead to subtle differences of meaning (see the verb forms below).
Many of the main features of Bemba grammar are fairly typical of Bantu languages: it is agglutinative, depends mainly on prefixes, has a system of several noun classes, a large set of verbal aspects and tenses, very few actual adjectives, and, like English, has a word order that is subject-verb-object.
By one convention, based on the plural, they are arranged as follows (most alternate forms are caused by phonetic considerations): The prefixes in class 9 essentially indicate case: 'ku-' corresponds to 'to' or 'from', 'mu-' to 'in', 'into', or 'out of', and 'pa-' to 'at'.
As is common in Bantu languages, adjectives follow the words they qualify, and take the adjectival concord prefixes, but there are not many of them in the strictest sense.
Descriptors are placed after the noun, with the particle '-a', and the relevant pronoun prefix between them: chintu cha nomba, 'new thing'.
The numbers from 1 to 10 are: The numerals 1-5 take adjectival concord prefixes (except for class 1 singular: muntu umo, 'one person').
'Ikumi' has the plural 'makumi', which can be used as a noun with 'na' (and, with) to form all numbers up to 99: for example, makumi yatatu na pabula, 'thirty nine'.
Verbs have simple forms, usually ending in '-a' (everything before the 'a' being the 'stem', 'root' or 'radical'), and are agglutinated according to person, number and class of subject and object, tense, mood, voice, aspect and whether they are affirmative or negative.
They come after the subject and object prefixes, and before the verb stem, except for the recent, completed or historic past in 'na-', which appears at the very beginning.
However, the precise rules are more complex, and the forms depend more finely on tense, aspect and mood.
Some of the notable writers in Bemba include Stephen Mpashi, Chongo Kasonkomona, Chishimba, Paul Mushindo, Bwalya Chilangwa, Mwila Launshi and Kambole.
Moreover, there seem to be many talented writers who would like to write in this language but could not because of the reasons that have been given above and others[clarification needed] that are related.
Classic Bemba books include Uwauma Nafyala, Pano Calo and Imilimo ya bena Kale.
Balikwata amano nokutontonkanya, eico bafwile ukulacita ifintu ku banabo mu mutima wa bwananyina.