Zambia’s Ambassador to the United States of America Dr. Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika has been honoured with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws in recognition of her exemplary public service and extraordinary commitment to peace and women’s and children’s rights
Dr. Lewanika was honoured by the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California Polytechnic State University during her convocation address to the 2009 graduands at the University.
In her address, Dr. Lewanika said Africa which has for a long time been perceived as a dark continent has made significant contributions to the development and progress of many nations in the world for the good of human kind.
Dr. Mbikusita said contributions such as human capital, mineral wealth and cash crops were produced at the expense of many poor families.
Dr. Mbikusita said countries in the world now have become dependant on each other than ever before such that the economic crisis which affected some parts of the world has also hit other countries.
She has however expressed appreciation at the education that she had received from the same university 45 years ago, which has mounded her into the kind of person that she was today.
This is contained in a press release made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today by first secretary Ben Kangwa.
Dr. -Lewanika, graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Home Economics and Education in 1964, and earned a Master of Arts degree in Education and Psychology in 1965 from the same University.
The California State University at San Louis Obispo is the institution from which George Makweti Isiteketo Lewanika, the current Senior Chief Amukena of Kaoma Diustrict, and the late Litia Mbikusita Lewanika, his immediate predecessor as Kaoma Senior Chief graduated in the 1960’s.
Ambassador Lewanika has long been a champion of peace and women’s and children’s rights. Her illustrious career includes roles as a teacher, lecturer, women’s rights activist, politician and diplomat. She currently serves as ambassador of the Republic of Zambia to the United States, a position she has held since 2003.
Dr. Mbikusita-Lewanika earned a Bachelor of Science degree in home economics in 1964 and a Master’s degree in education in 1965 from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in elementary education from New York University in 1980.
Early in her career, Dr. Mbikusita-Lewanika was a Lecturer at the Evelyn Hone College of Further Education and Mongu Teacher Training College in Zambia. She later held the position of Professor of Education and Teacher Training at the University of Zambia.
From 1980 to 1991, she worked for UNICEF, first as Regional Advisor for East and Southern Africa, and then as UNICEF’s Regional Advisor for West and Central Africa.
Her political career in Zambia began as a Member of Parliament, where she served from 1991 to 2001. From 2001 to 2002 she served as ambassador and special envoy for the Zambian president during his term as chairman of the African Union. In this capacity, she became involved in the Organization of African Unity, established to promote the unity and solidarity of African states and help the people of Africa achieve a better life.
Dr Lewanika was a founding member and later served as President of the Federation of African Women Peace Networks (FERFAP). That group has worked to promote the protection and rights of refugees; to cultivate and promote principles of democracy; to promote a culture of peace in Africa; and to participate and advocate for equal participation of women at the local, regional and national level.
Dr. Lewanika has been deeply involved in peace making. She led a peace mission to Burundi and Rwanda in 1995, the FERFAP peace missions to the Horn of Africa, and The Hague Peace Appeal in 1999.
ZANIS
Ahhhhhhhhhh paliba make-up, Thandiwe ulebamona abanobe? We such materials as first ladies. Congratulations mama Inonge and thats a very good degree
Congratulations, she is a hardy working lady and recognised world wide, keep selling zambia madam.
Well done mama , keep it up. You make me proud be Zambian
I salute you Bo Inonge Lundambuyu, mu yoyange mukwae!
Afternoon pipo. Pheeew. after a long time. its nice to be back. Just had a bouncy baby girl!
Well, am impressed, ShakaZulu, this is the first positive comment I have ever seen you post and just couldn’t resist to throw in a congratulations for you. Enjoy your day or is it now night in China there?
Congratulations mama Lewanika and you look great. If only TB could look and smile like you
You go girl! Positive stuff. On top of that she conducts herself with grace and dignity. Goes to show the wealth of education and high calibre of people that we have in Zambia.
Woman Power! This is good Congratulations. This is what we want to see about women and not criticisms on Dora.
Mu yoyange mukwae.
#5 Lady Chiza’ legs You surely have been blessed. Congratulations to you too.
#5 Congratulation to you as well.
Congrats Doctor of Laws I.M. Lewanika (PhD, USA; emeritus Professor of UNZA in Zambia). However, I am surprised that the same university where you studied most of your degrees has honoured you with this Doctorate. Anyhow, it depends on the system.
As for your “In her address, Dr. Lewanika said Africa which has for a long time been perceived as a dark continent has made significant contributions to the development and progress of many nations in the world for the good of human kind“, good message indeed but make sure the Americans know about Zambia as a great Nation in particular and Africa as a nice Continent in general.
Continue serveing us Zambians well in the USA and keep it up on the good job you have done as reported here.
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Prevention is better than cure.
She still looks hot at her age.
Good Example
She still looks great and ver fit and suitable for hard consumption.
congratulations ba Inonge, your works and achievements are transparent and genuine. you are a shining example to the ladies and you make us proud as zambians. elo mwalisambilila sana. Not these corrupt lady plunderers with fake questionable qualifications.
#17 POLITICAL PROSTITUTE, do you have any names in mind,? you sound like you have some names , please let hear them.
Well done to you! Wll deserved
#1 women are not only meant to be first ladies- Congrats bo Inonge you are fit for presidency. you could do better than RB!
Inonge, your photo is superb. We needed people like you to be first ladies, not this joke of a first lady. Nangu kafwala bwino kwati kafuma mwibala. We salute you mama inonge well done.
CONGRATS MAMA
Nice CV bo-Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika However, it appears that whoever wrote the CV deliberately failed to inform the whole world that you came out number last with about 0% vote in the 2001 Zambian Presidential Elections.
Anyhow, the coming out of your CV at this point appears as a move to sell you to Zambians to stand for either President or Vice President of MMD and then Zambia in the near future.
I will keep an eye on the MMD’s moves as it may be going to a convention soon to elect leaders to lead it MMD to 2011 tripartite elections.
Have a blessed day you all.
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Prevention is better than cure.
Congrats, now she can come and be our president. She can make such a big difference compared to these old ngwangwazis we have now with weak brains and knees!
The problem with Zambians with Zambians is that we tend to be so naive. The institutions being referred to – the ones that have conferred the honorary doctorate to my older sister – are not even household names in the US where I spent the better part of my life. For some weird reason, some bloggers even think that’s reason enough for her to run for the Presidency in 2011. Surely is that how you choose your leaders? Just what’s wrong with us?
you zambians who is Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika?
For all her achievements, she is a worthy recipient of an honourary doctorate. However, what I find amazing is that Zambia must be just about the only country that addresses honourary doctorates as Dr so and so (e.g Chiluba, Kaunda, Mwanawasa, Edgar Ngoma etc). I have never heard Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Gerard Houlier etc referred to as Dr and yet the institutions that awarded their titles are much more significant than the colleges that award titles to Zambians…
# 27 Rogue Trader. You have hit a nail on its head. It’s surprising in Zambia the way they jump to Doctorates. Thats why there not even studying hard to be called doctors because they know once they get to plot one, one will think of throwing it on them. Very soon it will be Dr. Bwezani.
Well deserved. All well educated in their family.
I feel good to be a Zambian.
Once upon a time at an Oxford alumni meeting, the guest speaker was mingling with the members incognito. At one table sat distinguished academics. Each one waxed lyrical about their long lists of degrees. Turning to the man, they asked, ‘What of you Sir? which Uni did you attend? What qualifications and honours do you have?’ ‘I have never been to a Uni’ ‘Aaahh!’ Gasps from the dons. But I have 3 LLDs, 6 PhDs, several UN accolades and not to mention a Baronet.’ ‘All honorary, of course, but a result of a life long study in the University of life and not 5 years in a classroom or laboratory and plegiarised papers.’ Immediately after this, the Vice Chancellor called on his Lordship to address the audience!
These honourary Degrees are becoming a big deal in Zambia. Why can’t Zambians go to school and get proper qualifications. Look at “Dr” Nevers Mumba, Chiluba, Kaunda, Mwanawasa, and the list goes on, soon it will be “Dr” Banda? Yet look at Mandela, Former president Bush jr, Margret Thatcher and many more were honoured with these same degrees, but nowhere will you hear them addressed as docters. These are not documents we should be talking about.
# 27 @ Max, a university anywhere, be it in Zambia or in the USA is a household name in itself. California State University and California Polytechnic State University have produced high quality graduates who have made huge contributions world wide… check your facts straight. But degrees aside, you fail to acknowledge the actual work that Dr Inonge Mbikusita has done over the years. Few Zambians would achieve a fraction of what this lady has done thus far in her life. She’s not defined by education degrees but her actual work record. Give credit where due its due bro and stop finding faults.
That said I think it’s time as Zambians that we started using our human resources wisely. I believe she could be better utilised in a different role than ambassador. And oh she really looks good!
Sorry, I think that was #25 @ Max, and not #27… my bad!
I find it very difficult to understand my fellow Zambians who make comments on topics or issues they hardly understand. Anybody that knows Zambian history well will tell you that, the likes of the Lewanikas (Inonge, Aka and the rest of the so called Lozi royal family) were given free scholarships with all expenses paid to study in the west with the support of Britain and other western governments. That is why our friends have lists of degrees to their names. But I don’t think that makes them intelligent or wiser than others in their generation because others were not given the same opportunities to gain western education. If fact, if one reads history in western province, one would find that the Lozi royal family deliberately chose only their so called royals to get English education.
cont’d from #35
The policy was to make the lozi royal family educated while making sure other royals from western province who were not lozi were denied any form of education or even denied access to the same scholarships which were given out by Britain. The went out of their way to make sure their ‘traditional competitors’ were denied the same access because they (lozis) feared that if other royals from other tribes in western province got the same education as them, it would only be a matter of time before they would be challenged on many issues. For example, between the 1940s onwards, there was an influx of missionaries in western province.
The missionaries realised after a whileof living in the province, that there was a delibarate policy in place to deny others access to education while the Lozi royal family members were spoon with scholarships. The Nkoya royal family with the help of certain christian missionaries came up with the idea to build some home grown education so that they could educate themselves seeing that British scholarships in western province were conveniently and strangely reserved only for Lozi royal family members and those close to them. The missionaries started building schools and learning material produced in the Nkoya language to help them (Nkoyas) educate themselves in the would- be post colonial environment .
cont’d from #37
When they Lozi royal family realised that they Nkoya royal family were ’empowered’ with home grown education, envy, jealous and feared gripped the Lozi royal family. Around the early 1960s, after some good 20 years or so of producing learning material, the Lozis organised what can only be termed as ‘tribal militias’ to find all the produced learning material and destory it. Indeed in the early 1960s, somehow, with the colonial British government turning a blind eye to such atrocities and crimes against humanity, all material that had been produced with the help of missionaries was burned to the ground because they Lozi royal family wanted to be the only bearers of western education so that they can be better positioned with securing jobs in the post colonial era.
Jealous will kill you
from# 38
The character been referred to as Chief Amukena in the article, a relative of Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika, is not a Senior Chief or even a chief for that matter. The fake chieftainship first appeared in present day Kaoma District in 1937 (which was then known as Mankoya District named after the Nkoya people who have been in the areas since the 6th century using the Gregorian calendar).
The brother of the Lozi senior chief in Limulunga at that time was sent to Kaoma (Mankoya) to act as an agent to collect village or hut tax on behalf of the British South Africa Company (BSC) owned by Cecil Rhodes and later on the British colonial government. When he arrived in Mankoya, he settled at a village called Naleile with the help and security provided by the colonial forces.
After some years at Naliele village, the character started claiming he was a chief representing the Lozi royal family and started agitating the colonial administers to have him recognised as a chief together with the two indigenous Nkoya chiefs Mutondo and Chief Kahare both of Kaoma or Mankoya as the area was known then.
However, the colonial government refused to have him listed as chief but recognised the individual as a representative of Lozi royal family living at naleile village only. This angered the lozi royal family back in Limulunga. In the coming years from the 1930s onwards, they went about setting their eyes of having their relative recognised and listed as a chief in Kaoma by the central Government in Lusaka.
From the 1940s to 1964 at the time of Zambia’s independence against British Colonial rule, the occupier of Naliele village was not recognised as chief.
By this time, the Nkoya royal established had appealed to the British colonial government from the 1940s onwards until 1964 to have him officially expelled from Kaoma as he was causing trouble posing as a chief. The colonial government however failed to act on this particular issue because of lobby by the Lozi royal family back in Limulunga.
From 1964 to 1991, the UNIP government of Mr. Kaunda also refused to recognise the occupier of naleile village as a chief in Kaoma.
From 1991 to 2001, the government of Mr. Chiluba also refused to have the occupier recognised as a chief.
However, when the late Mr. Mwanawasa became President and Akashambatwa lewanika, who is of course Inonge’s brother returned to government together with Inonge lewanika herself, in 2003 Mr. Mwanawasa decided to recognise the so called Chief Amukena not only a chief but also as senior chief in Kaoma. This is despite a court injunction applied by the Nkoya royal establishment to stop such recognition in the Zambia High Court.
It later became clear that the late Mr. Mwanawasa was manipulated by exploiting his weak popularity in certain parts of the country.
Inonge, her brother Akashambatwa and other relatives in government jobs promised to deliver western province in terms of votes during the 2006 elections if Mr. Mwanawasa’s government recognised Amukena as Chief in Kaoma and made a few job appointments in senior government jobs especially that of Vice President.
As the 2006 elections can testify, western province produced most votes that kept the mwanawasa government in power; it was also in western province that MMD got the most MPs if compared to other provinces in the country.
It was again in western province, were voters voted on the day after the election date thereby bringing into doubt the authenticity of the vote results of the province. It was also in western province that allegations of vote rigging were reported after locals reported that government was issuing national registration cards which are used to obtain voters’ cards to mainly Angolan refugee populations at Mayukwayukwa refugee settlement in Mangango, Kaoma district and other areas in western province.
If the university had any history research departments to talk about, they would not recognise this woman for anything because she represents everything that is wrong with Zambian politics today. She is a product of corruption, crime, lies and deception. Even in moderate countries, individuals like her would never be appointed to do diplomatic jobs because there is nothing diplomatic about her or her family’s political activities.
At the rate things are going, it is very likely that she and her relatives will end up at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer to charges of various kinds.
No offense intended, history has to be told as it happened with facts that can be verified.
This is a very interesting analysis though i have many doubts about the credibility or authenticity of someof the issues attributed solely to the Mbikusitas.
For example,it is common knowledge in the Lozi circles that there is or was some friction between the current Litunga and a couple of other royals possibly due to the campaigns that took place for the Title of Litunga when Ilute Yeta died.
To attribute the sway of the MMD vote in Barotseland to the Mbikusitas without acknowledging the role of the BRE is simply naive.
It is also common knowledge that tribal voting patterns are now more prevalent in Zambia especially among the Lozi,Tonga and Bemba tribes.
Madam Inonge is a woman of substance and integrity and please look at her as an individual rather than compare her with brother…
There individuality can only be expressed clearly when, bwana historian,you can recall that Bo Aka and Inonge stood against each other during the formation of the National Party.
We must also acknowledge the divisions brought about by the colonial govt. which used divide and rule tactics among the people of Rhodesia and Barotse land and indeed the entire Africa by partitioning villages through artificial borders.
Suffice to say that the resentment of conquared and conquarers will always be there be the Mfecane or Luba Migration and integration.
43/4 Historian greetings and hats off. Such information is what Zambia needs in order to have a good future as experience is needed to learn from it.
48/9 Makweti M greetings too and good stuff.
Have a blessed day you all.
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1P 3 + KJV Bible:
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
its high time she retired..she’s too old for public office..good CV but age has caught up with her!
Iwe chi No. 14. The picture is an old one. It was taken in 2004 when she had just arrived and spent a few months in the U.S. Nabakota ino nshita. Have you seen her of late? Unless you have an obsession for abakote. She is 64 years by the way and she is due for retirement any time from now. Boma nayena is just good qwith using recycled material.
Iwe chi 14, you are looking at an old photo taken in 2004 when she had just arrived and was a few months old in the States. She is now old (64), just met her recently pa airport in L.A. She is due for retirement any time-Levy’s appointee. Recycled material syndrome………..
#35#36#37,Who are you to judge us? My great grand father realised the value of education.
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