Welcome to ZBEX

This is the online home of the Zasya Buntu Trade Exchange, aka ZBEX, which is both a trade exchange and a Private Members Association, as such subject to the rules and regulations of such entities.

 

Originally set up in 2010 and called 'Zambia Barter Exchange', ZBEX is the pioneer of complementary-currency mediated reciprocal trade in Zambia; ZBEX's rebranding in 2022 is reflective of the evolution of its principal and of the times we now find ourselves in as the human family.

 

"Zasya" is a Ciila word for "to make a fire blaze", " to help to build, cause to build, to build with"

"Buntu" means "humanity"

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Zasya Buntu is a call to action; to remember the core meaning of being human that is summed up in the Zulu phrase "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu", which literally means that a person is a person through other people, an English equivalent of which is the phrase "I am because you are"; a call to not forget that once we stop putting in a conscious effort into keeping our humanity blazing by remaining aware of what being human is, we lose that sense of humanity, that awareness of our divine spark, that warmth of our flame.

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'Zasya Buntu' thus translates to 'Build humanity' or 'set humanity ablaze', and expresses the highest aspirations of the originator and sponsor of this rebranded platform, Mwami Munyati wa Mbeza and the Mbeza Royal Establishment of the Baila people of southwestern Zambia, which include, on one hand, the strengthening, uplifting, and preservation of the best parts of our Ila-speaking peoples' communities, culture and way of life, and on the other, the bold embracing of the power of technology to provide us with leverage for cultural survival, betterment of life, and growth towards an empowered future, not only for ourselves but also for all of humanity.

 

One key approach to fulfilling this vision is through the rolling out of a community-wide deployment of an inclusive, participatory economic model that takes cognizance of every individual's ability to contribute whatever they have, e.g., their talents' skills, products, services, time, and energy to a dynamic, people-centered marketplace called ZBEX; an exchange that uses its own complementary currency - one we are calling 'Zuba' (meaning 'sun') credits - as a way of mediating trade and eliminating the barriers to trade caused by the limitations of cash.

 

This 'abundance-as-default' marketplace runs parallel to the 'scarcity-by-default' fiat national currency-based marketplace and creates capacity for the local community's economic expansion through the free flow of goods and services that move back and forth, within and around the community, without the restrictions and limitations imposed on buyers, sellers, consumers and producers by the fiat cash currency-based economic model and its marketplace, by this very means redefining 'poverty'.

 

ZBEX aspires to 'set (our) humanity ablaze' and 'build up (our) humanity' by encouraging the mutual sharing of each person's energy (in various forms, including the 'stored' form of goods or the 'encrypted' form of a business) in a context of dynamic, natural exchange. We don't all have the same thing. We don't all lack the same thing. Remembering how we all can have what we need or want, by our bringing what we each have to a common marketplace that deliberately eliminates the most common barrier to another's being able to access it, i.e., money, reminds us of the essence of community, which is this: In a true community, no one goes without on account of not having money. In a true community, people share value with each other in myriad forms, and the things bought by some with money still somehow find themselves in the hands of people who may not have paid for them with money, simply because they are the ones who need them. ZBEX wishes to remind us of all of this; to fire up the spirit of our humanity as expressed in energetic exchange, and to keep it blazing.

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And because we operate in a larger context - that context in which there is no 'us' without the 'we' of humanity - and in recognition of the fact that 'tradable value' is universal and cross-border (of every ilk and tenor) trade is essential for the building up and prosperity of any collective, we have opened up our marketplace to people outside of our hyperlocalized community.

 

Thus, while ZBEX runs primarily as an initiative to economically empower the people of the first nation of Munyati and the Chiefdom of Nalubamba in Mbeza, Zambia, membership to it is open to all who connect with its vision, no matter where they are, and who are open to being of service to other ZBEX members within the dynamic community we are forming, and who wish to contribute to the building of a more equitable society all round.

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