Tribute to Michael Sata:Lost to us a Legendary Politician

By Hjoe Moono

Michael Sata: Lost to us a Legendary Politician

I saw from afar the procession leading to the final resting place of Zambia’s fifth president, Michael Charles Katongo Chilufya Sata. For a while, my humanity took over, and shed a tear for a man who though I briefly knew in person, whose policy work I have in the past heavily criticized.

Today, as a Zambian, I offer my eulogy to a statesman at his passing.

As he was being put to rest in a manner befitting a man of his stature, I couldn’t help but marvel and shed a tear of admiration for a man who lived life to the fullest, a man who set goals above mediocre, a man whose personal aims, convictions and beliefs became the aims, convictions and beliefs of a nation. In Sata, we all see, and have lived to see, a man whose ambitions are bigger than life itself, a man unmoved and unyielding in his work and aims. Until it came to pass, a man that worked day and night to nurture, invent, re-invent and innovate ways of politics in modern day Africa.

I remember lining up along roads leading to Lusaka Remand Prison, AKA Chimbokaila where he had spent 40 days and 40 nights of incarceration under the MMD regime. On his release, I saw a man with a full grown white beard, gallantly flashing the PF symbol. And like Christ after his temptations, Sata was unstoppable after his prison stint. Indeed, what kind of man was he? Yes, many of us did not believe in his work, but surely, it would be a lie that we did not secretly admire his approach and resolve in attaining his aims.

I met him once at Rhodes House when I was a student at Oxford University. I remember chatting briefly, and his asking who I was and what I was doing. I never got to know him more beyond that, and never saw him again, bet I won’t, not on this earth.

I can confidently say that most, if not all of our people, the Zambian people loved their president. His strong yet kindly nature and lovable traits of character and his amiable consideration for all who believed in him will long be in the minds and hearts of his countrymen. They will certainly be in mine and the family of the Hjoe Moono. Mr. Sata dearly loved his countrymen in return with such patriotism and unselfishness that in the hour of their grief and humiliation, when rumours of his death circulated, he jokingly said: I have died many times. I guess, staunch catholic he was, he would also say unto them privy to his privacy when in grief that: “If it is God’s will; I am content.” Indeed, content he must have been, for he had lived life to the full.

For me and mine, and I guess for many Zambians too, if there is a lesson in the passing of Mr. Sata, let it be taught to those who still live and have the destiny of this great country Zambia in their keeping. These may be the current leaders in the PF or indeed those in the opposition. That lesson should, among others, be selflessness, motivation and uncompromising determination in the attainment of society goals. That we shouldn’t settle for mediocre outcomes even when the tide is heavy against us. That we should, like a bull, face our challenges head on with all our might until our last breath. Mr. Sata worked himself until the last day, unyielding to calls to step down. I guess there is a lesson here: Never settle, keep moving, keep aiming, keep working!

Let us therefore, furthermore, then, as our dear leader is buried and out of our sight, seek for the lessons that may be suggested by the life of Mr. Sata. The man, Mr. Sata, who is today put to rest and has been universally mourned the past weeks achieved probably the highest distinction which his great country can confer on any man, and he lived a useful life. While not probably the most highly educated, he was not deficient in education either. But with all you will hear of his grand and celebrated career, and of his services to his country and his fellow citizens, you will not hear that either the high place he reached or what he accomplished was due entirely to his education. No. He was a man of action, not of papers!

Make no mistake. Mr.Sata was a most distinguished man, a great man, a useful man—who became distinguished, great and useful because he had, and retained unimpaired, the qualities of heart which I fear most of his followers sometimes feel like keeping in the background or abandoning. I pray that as we reflect on his life, especially those in the patriotic front, that we do not betray his beliefs, aims, teachings and priorities in his death. The lessons to learn from Mr. Sata are neither obscure nor difficult. They teach the value of mental dedication and training and perseverance, but they teach more impressively that the road to usefulness and to the only success worth having, will be missed or lost except it is sought and kept by the light of those qualities of heart—of selflessness, giving up all for the greater all of society of our nation, Zambia.

With our leader’s passing, we cannot all refuse to join in the battle against the tendencies of anarchy. Anarchy should not be tolerated by all peace loving Zambians. And by the memory of our departed president, let us resolve to cultivate and preserve the qualities that made him great and useful; and let us determine to meet the call of patriotic duty in every time of our country’s need.

Farewell, your Excellency. From the grimiest of places you made it great and became the great among the greatest. Soon, the years slowly draw on us when your name shall be counted among the illustrious of the great nation of Zambia.

Lost to us, but not to his God. Lost from Earth, but entered heaven. Lost from all the labours, toils and perils, but entered into the everlasting peace and ever- advancing progress. Blessed be God, who gives us hope in this hour of pain and mourning and enables us to triumph, through him who hath redeemed us.
Rest in Eternal Peace, Your Excellency, Micheal Chilufya Charles Katongo Sata.