Founding Fathers of Zambia and Their Successive Leaders: A Comparative Analysis

There is great need for posterity to learn more about its ancestry in order not to be sincerely lost in the jungles of illiteracy compelled by greed, lust and self-deception. A nation whose descendants bother not to trace its origin is like a dead tree with dry roots. Such a country will have no direction and likely to have the majority of its citizens pander to the dictates of political clowns masquerading as champions of freedom of its citizenry inextricably tied to chains of perpetual servitude and treachery would be as normal as sunlight where people’s rights .would be brutally suppressed by elected dictators.

Our collective conscience must dictate to us to take precedence seriously in order to cultivate a great sense of patriotism and loyalty to selfless service and democratic constitutions. Zambia is now an aged nation whose nationals must learn from the founding fathers in order not to be led into an alleyway which would make it not better than a nation held hostage by a tandem of disgusting kleptomaniacs and hypocrites in priestly robes treading the corridors of power.

Colonialists never allowed black people and Asians, largely those from India, to participate in politics by forming parties to champion the freedom struggle. With the passage of time they allowed black people in Northern Rhodesia to form welfare societies. Before the welfare societies came about, the black theologians trained by missionaries, some of whom were agents of colonialism, started preaching a pan-Africanist doctrine of black emancipation from colonial rule. A radical Malawian preacher John Chilembwe John Chilembwe on 26th November 1914 volleyed salvos on the British when he said that the “Africans have had impostion of blatant and brutal laws upon them more than any other nationality under the sun.

They were ever underdogs at the mercy of the whites and the oppressor never wanted the black person to have a deep sense of humanity”. Chilembwe had expressed hope that in the mercy of the Almighty God, some day things were to turn out well and the colonial government would recognize the indispensability of the African and justice was to prevail. Chilembwe sowed the seeds of nationalism which germinated in stiff resistance to colonial rule using the the Industrial Providence Mission near Chiradzulu in the then Nyasaland. He instigated a rebellious uprising against the British in 1915. The first of the Northern Rhodesian sects, the Ethiopian Church of Barotseland was mooted in Lealui in 1900 when Chilembwe was pioneering the Industrial Providence Mission in Nyasaland.

The Barotseland Church was started by a Sotho Willie Mokalapa who had the confidence of the Paris Missionary Society. Mokalapa worked with Francois Collard the Huguenot missionary to enhance the cause of orthodox Protestantism among the people of Bulozi. Mokalapa and his black cohorts later resented the mistreatment the suffered at the hands of the missionaries who regarded them as inferior, sub-humans. He visited South Africa where he got inspired with the doctines of the African Methodist Episcopal Church founded by a black man in the United States Richard Allen. Rev Allen was vehemently opposed to the colour bar of the orthodox American Methodist Church and founded the AMEC in 1816. Nationalism and the struggle for black emancipation in Northern Rhodesia had also drawn its gem to fight racism from the early patriarchs of African emancipation such as Chilembwe, Willie Mokalapa and Elliot Kamwana among many others. The founders of the welfare societies in the colonial days were committed to liberation but not allowed to form political parties. The welfare societies were voluntary associations led by a combination of radical and moderate African nationalists.

In 1946, representatives of 14 welfare associations met in Broken Hill (Kabwe) and decided to form the Federation of African Societies of Northern Rhodesia. This body, though presented itself as non-political for fear of the wrath of the colonial administration, kick started the genesis of African expression on issues of their inalienable rights as people who were as human as any white person or Asian. Among the delegates who gathered in the town we call Kabwe were Dauti Yamba from Luanshya, Godwin Mbikusita Lewanika of Kitwe, Nelson Nalumango of Livingstone, N.S. Liyanda of Mongu, Sykes Ndilila of Kabwe, Joseph Y. Mumba of Lusaka and George Charles Kaluwa of Mazabuka. Kaluwa had made the first attempt to establish a branch of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa as a shopkeeper and became the organizing secretary of the Federation of African Societies of Northern Rhodesia.

Yamba was President and Joseph Mumba was its Assistant Secretary. For the next two years the Federation magnified and amplified the grievances and plight of the oppressed Africans in Northern Rhodesia. Early in 1948, Africans became very conscious of their political needs and demanded new means of expression to drive their points home to the Colonial Governor in Northern Rhodesia and his subordinate rulers. In special meetings convened by various welfare societies, many black Africans condemned the so-called responsible government” advocated by Stewart Gore-Brown and Rowland Welensky. Africans felt betrayed and opted to consolidate unity of purpose, subordinating narrow and shallow individual interests, to attain majority rule. By the end of 1948, African nationalists had found their voice. They created the Northern Rhodesia African Congress led by Godwin Mbikusita Lewanika in Livingstone.

The moderate Godwin Mbikusita Lewanika had a very soft spot for colonialists and the young members of the Northern Rhodesia African Congress felt Mbikusita Lewanika was too weak and soft not to compromise with the whites. The young Congress leaders like Justin Chimba, Reuben Kamanga, Mungoni Liso and the Jew Simon ber Zukas called for the replacement of Lewanika with Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula just returned from the United Kingdom. In 1951 Nkumbula supplanted Lewanika. Nkumbula had commanded trust and confidence from among Africans as a learned person who articulately expressed himself and bore a militant mien. Nkumbula steered a more radical and profound course and asserted speedy acquisition of freedom from colonial rule. The ANC under Nkumbula failed to block the introduction of the white-imposed Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland comprising three states which later became Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Nkumbula did not have it easy as the young radical leaders felt having him at the helm would not lead black people to independence under majority rule and decided to form the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC) in 1958 led by Kenneth Kaunda who had initially shown reluctance to ditch his mentor and close associate Nkumbula. His boyhood friend who was dissatisfied with the compromising disposition of old Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula persuaded Kaunda to let go of the post of General Secretary of the Nkumbula ANC and he obliged. Radical youths like Munukayumbwa Sipalo, Kamanga, Zukas, Chimba, Dingiswayo Banda, Titus Mukupo and Sikota Wina worked closely with KK. ZANC was banned in 1959 and its leaders thrown into prisons far away from their home villages. KK was incarcerated in Kabompo, Kapwepwe in Mongu, Sikota Wina in Luwingu, and Grey Zulu in Mpongwe. Unity of purpose .worked wonders as the people in the respective rural points where the comrades had been rusticated organised food and other essentials to sustain the jailed freedom of heroes. Mathias Mainza Namukamba Chona founded UNIP which became a merger of what was called African National Independence Party (ANIP) and the United Freedom Party (UFP) .

The parties had gathered under a tree in Kamwala Location for many hours until a merger had been secured and guaranteed. KK took over from Mainza Chona Zambia’s first trained lawyer who pursued studies in the United Kingdom. Chona gracefully stepped aside for KK and gave him resounding moral and material support.
UNIP rallied all Zambians together and won political freedom for the country. KK was a key uniting factor and brooked no tribalism or hate speech. He was the major sounding board in the coinning of the national motto ‘One Zambia One Nation “. KK and his comrades strove and laboured even harder at uniting all the 73 ethnic groups in Zambia and during his reign tribalism was fought tooth and nail. It was criminal and dismissible for any public officer or politician in the top government echelons to make hate speeches or denigrate/ dimunitise fellow citizens. No tribe was superior or inferior to any other tribe.

The leaders KK had appointed to key cabinet portfolios were a medly of the highly schooled and the soberly educated. The fusion of such leaders worked wonders for the country as it strengthened national unity, decimated empty pride of arrogance and insolence and punctured nepotism out of action. Vestiges of ethnic favours were lying low but were easily exposed and culprits were brought to book and fired.

KK had introduced the Leadership Code which which forbade ministers and other appointed senior government officers not to dabble in politics. Ministers who aspired to be in the business world had to resign and get into full-time business fellows and this set a standard for leaders not to dip their fingers into the coffers and steal money from the people to champion narrow and greedy personal interests.

The ones who served the KK government from its genesis to its end in 1991 were to be men and women above reproach. Pocketing public funds was punishable by instant dismissal and prosecution of the culprits. KK never tolerated corruption and meant to serve the people of the country. He was very cautious of foreign investors and those who oppressed, exploited and suppressed the poor people were fairly dealt with. Some unscrupulous business people had their companies closed for mistreating the citizens. There was a deep sense of pride.

Transparent honesty in the use of public funds and fiscal discipline enabled the country to build the grand University of Zambia, the mega fountain of knowledge for research and development, two years after independence. Selflessness and humility of purpose characterized the leaders we can affectionately call founding fathers and mothers. They put the country first and subordinated personal and family interests. The children of KK, Kapwepwe, Chona, Elijah Mudenda, Dingi Hyden Banda, Justin Chimba, John Mwankatwe, Lewis Changufu, Munu Sipalo, Nalumino Mundia, Wina brothers, Grey Zulu, Solomon Kalulushi, and Peter Matoka among many others went to schools within the country with the exception of those who went into diplomatic service at Zambia’s foreign missions. Ministers exercised self- discipline and hard work. KK condoned no laziness. He also brooked no drunkenness among his ministers while on national duty. Leaders were predisposed to die much more for Zambia though others can contend that they had died a little. Sacrificial leadership is what KK, Kapwepwe, Kamanga, Chona and their associates had espoused. Through sacrifices made, we were able to attain political independence at the right time and invested wisely and widely in development of infrastructure which saw the country having a teachers college in every province, nursing schools in all provincial centres, secondary schools in nearly every district, and trade institutes were found in every province to equip young Zambians with skills required for both economic and social development. The servant leadership now being preached by many management theorists in academia was there under Super Ken.

Kaunda promoted love and living to love each other as Zambians. He did not do it singularly, he worked collectively with his own ministers and governors to ensure that they were on course and not overtaken by the trappings of power. The socialist policies KK had espoused well-meant to serve the people were hated with perfect hate by the Capitalist West. So were the policies of Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere his lifelong political associate in the sphere of Pan-Africanism. The One Party State he introduced was meant to unite the people of Zambia but later had to degenerate into some kind of purposeful dictatorship in the face of apartheid leaders who wanted a divided Zambia with parties fallen to their whims, dictates and caprices. A united Zambia supporting liberation movements was not good for Johannes Balthazar Vorster or Pieter Botha in racist South Africa. The two big-mouthed racist Hardcores desired wholeheartedly to have a divided Zambia and other countries rendering unwavering support to the leaders of liberation movements such as ZANU and ZAPU in Zimbabwe, ANC in South Africa, SWAPO in Namibia, FRELIMO in Mozambique and MPLA in Angola. All these freedom movements in South Africa had the fullest backing of Zambia and Tanzania as the grand torchbearers of Pan Africanism in Southern Africa as a sub-region. Do you ever imagine what would have become of the aforementioned countries had there been no KK or Mwalimu Julius Nyerere? Imagine the like of Ngwazi Hastings Kamuzu Banda and Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Mulopwe Wazabanga leading the Frontline states with Lucas Mangope and Kaiser Matanzima under their leadership! Your imagination may tally with mine.

President Frederick Chiluba came with the New Culture politics of liberalization assisted by men who were once KK’s close associates Arthur NL Wina, Sikota Wina, Humphrey Mulemba and Vernon Mwaanga. A number of these were not hateful of KK but simply wanted the reversion to multiple party politics to replace the tyranny of one partyism. Arthur Wina and Humphrey Mulemba differed with Second Republican President Frederick Chiluba and formed the National Party which later plunged into waters of dissolution and extinction. Even founders of the MMD such as Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika and his older sister Inonge, Baldwin Nkumbula and Benjamin Yoramu Mwila had to go their own way into other political parties as they got dissatisfied with the politics of Chiluba had to leave. Some opted to have Chiluba given a third term in order to accomplish his vision to go beyond 2001 but the veteran unionist and harebrained Chiluba was stopped in his tracks and Mwanawasa got the reigns of power. The New Culture with liberalized politics and economics also brought about misuse of public funds by some people though Chiluba acted positively and negatively in the management of public funds. Chiluba was a man of sartorial instincts and lived to love expensive suits and shoes from foreign tailors where KK and his ilk depended on Seroes in Luanshya for safari suits as well as business suits. Many of the leaders got obsessed with grand stylistic fashions and measured their greatness and importance through the costly suits and ties they wore.

Remember the siphoning off of money in trunks from the Bank of Zambia! Not for government projects but for opulent and magnified party use under the MMD leadership. Mwanawasa did his very best to restore sanity during the era of Chiluba who handpicked him as his successor to the chagrin of Michael Sata who left the the MMD and formed the Patriotic Front as an admirer of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The economy improved tremendously under Mwanawasa who had a big-brained Minister Ng’andu Peter Magande whose legacy still remains unsurpassed in the Third Republic Magande’s hard work and tight fiscal discipline brought us a great deal of international pride where we walked tall with heads high. We reached the HIPC completion point. It was not so easy. Chiluba left a very sound economy and Mwanawasa added more value to it. Politics of suppression of dissenting views had taken a short leave but got back. Dean Mung’omba and BY Mwila, supposedly an uncle, cousin and grandfather to Chiluba who bankrolled the formation of the MMD together with Emmanuel Gabriel Kasonde , Ephraim Chibwe and others. Power got sweeter and sweeter and Chiluba was tempted to go for Third Term in 2921. It was hit by a fiery storm. Chiluba was disgraced and let go of the presidency of both the republic and PF.

Rupiah Bwezani Banda came on the scene as successor of Mwanawasa. He was an afable, accessible, approachable and jovial man of the people though he had, at times, an explosive, peppery temper. Raised up politically by KK who sent him abroad as a career diplomat, RB sought the counsel of Chiluba who had once sent him to police cells over the Zero Option attributed upon KK’s late son Wezi Kaunda and other UNIP leaders also linked to Black Mamba. Rupiah was a finely tuned politician who was multi lingual character and spoke so many languages fluently. His immense political acumen transcended that of Chiluba and Mwanawasa by many leaps. He abandoned some policies of Mwanawasa and campaigned for Frederick Chiluba who had a number of cases bordering in plunder and squander of national resources to appease his allies and friends. Rupiah wanted to make use of Chiluba’s organisational abilities in grassroots politics only beaten by Michael Sata. Alas! Chiluba joined the heavenly choir before the September 2011 elections which brought a crushing, stunning defeat which made RB weep as he was assured of victory over Sata. Nafuti Nafuti was forced into retirement. However, he tried his best to lead in emulation of his mentor KK though the voters sunk his boat though he never got drowned to extinction until cancer of the colon robbed us of this friendly career diplomat whose record can only be beaten slightly by Vernon Mwaanga.

Michael Chilufya Sata was an engmatic politician from the background of policing in the colonial days. He later joined trade unionism on the Copperbelt with his age mate Leonard Adrian Chilufya Mpundu who once served the government of KK as an MP for Roan Constituency as well as Luanshya Central where KK appointed him as Kitwe Senior Governor when Rupiah Banda was Lusaka Senior Governor. Sata was a naturally brusque and brashy politician with deep love for the people. His looks and his voice could scare the naturally timid and fearful people. He called a Spade a Spade. He had immense organisational abilities at the grassroots and could go to any place walking and chatting with nobodies. He had a razor sharp memory of knowing people he interacted with and those he saw from afar who looked peculiar. Sata was an accomplished politician who served as a section leader in Kabwata Constituency where he also served as ward councillor and later Member of Parliament. Under KK, he served as MP and later appointed as Senior Governor for Lusaka. Before the advent of plural party politics, Sata even became Minister of State for Decentralisation and began the journey to transform local authorities across the country. He made Lusaka City Council the richest municipality in the country owing to his strictest supervision and forthrightness. He was appointed Minister of Local Government and Housing when MMD got into power under Frederick Chiluba. He also served as Minister of Health, Labour and Social Security and Minister without Portfolio. He became national secretary of MMD in December 1995 upon being elected at an emergency national convention held at Mulungushi International Conference Centre which also elected Sikota Wina as national chairperson of MMD when old Elias Marko Chisha Chipimo did not seek re-election. Sata could have had a number of glaring demerits but he stood tall above shoulders of his contemporaries as a man of action. Wherever he served, he attained monumental milestones which earned him the admiration of many hard working Zambians. Sadly as fate would have it, he died in London in October 2014 when Zambia had just celebrated her golden jubilee. He had aimed at transforming Zambia into a great nation of hard work but answered the appointment of death. He was succeeded by Guy Scott briefly as a constitutional requirement who acted for less than three months until Edgar Chagwa Lungu was elected President in January 2015. Sata single handedly formed the Patriotic Front with the help of Guy Scott. Their power base was very broad as it was in the ghettos and mega townships where the broad masses lived.

Edgar Lungu is a lanky politician with looks of humility and sincerity. He came from the background of law as a legal practitioner. He is an amiable and generous politician who a novice learning the ropes from Anderson Mazoka before he was poached to PF by Comrade Michael Sata. His rise to power was so gradual and unexpected. He served under Vice President Scott as Deputy Minister with young Harry Simon Kalaba whose father was a seasoned politician in the UNIP days. Lungu was elevated to the Ministry of Home Affairs and later, after the dismissal of Winter Kabimba the radical PF Secretary General and Minister of Justice by the ailing Sata who could have been ill-advised, ECL became the Minister of Defence, Justice and Secretary General replacing the fired Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba at Defence. Lungu had the onerous responsibility to serve as a politician with three heavy glamorous portfolios as Defence, Justice and Secretary General. His softer lines mistaken for weakness by cunning politicians in PF fearful of Sata earned Lungu great favour. He expressed no ambition to become President of Zambia after Sata since he never thought the cobra would not finish his first term. Since Sata left instruments of power in his hands and not Dr Guy Scott when Comrade Sata was flown to United Kingdom to undergo very special treatment. He never came back alive and the battle for the soul of the PF ensued. Lungu had an upper hand though Sata, according to some sources, sought the presence of Winter Kabimba who was fired by himself. It could be that the President was not in his real frame of himself when he dismissed Winter.

All aspirants like Miles Sampa, Chishimba Kambwili and GBM were frustrated when they dared to challenge him at Mulungushi Rock of Authority. Lungu was voted by show of hands in the midst of confusion during the elections overseen by national chairperson of PF Mama Bo Inonge Wina. Willie Nsanda, Nkandu Luo, Tutwa Ngulube and Kelvin Bwalya Fube fast-tracked the candidature of Lungu and blocked all other aspirants. Fear was instilled in party loyalists who wanted a large platform of choice of Sata’s successor. ECL became the sole PF candidate and nobody blocked him. The schemer shrewd distraught political PF MP for Roan then was dribbled and fixed by the ECL for life faction. The battle for the soul of Zambia became even rough. Lungu had all the state machinery at his disposal as Minister of Defence and Secretary General of PF. He flew to nearly all the provinces of Zambia to campaign followed by a number of thickset merciless party commanders with the wrath and might of Gestapo ruthless militants in Hitler’s Germany.

The lawyer ECL had his field day when he got many empathy and sympathy votes from the voters who elected him President to fill the remaining months close to two years Sata left. He was given another term in 2016 which made him rule for five years in which his loyalists became more powerful than the laws of the country and introduced PF rule by absolutism where the jovial man with a fixed Colgate smile had surrounded himself with sycophants who could not advise him properly but enjoyed throwing clean bank notes from the mint to crowds at shopping malls and some had to brutalise the ones who could not respond to the song: Alebwelelapo pa mupando which almost became the new PF anthem or campaign song. ECL a smiling man became mute and almost non-committal to warning and punishing in no uncertain terms the malevolent brutes in green attires who whipped, punched and kicked people like inanimate objects in a grand Christian nation. The silence of ECL on the wicked acts of some cadres was scaring and heartbreaking.

All citizens regardless of political affiliation turn to the President Commander-in- Chief for protection and defence through the police and the military when under attack. Even Comrade Given Lubinda an unquestionable loyalist of Lungu who is ever following him as like a wagon tail was once beaten by some two cadres at Kabwata Market. That was disgusting and nauseating. Party cadres beating up a senior PF leader and going unpunished by the leadership. ECL had all the power to bring the violent cadres to book and throw them out of the PF. The nation will remember ECL as a man who bothered little about the brutality of cadres and hoped that they would refrain from violent acts of their own volition. Eventually, the end troubled and annoyed Zambians turned up in large numbers and in their quietness at polling stations on 12 August 2021 people found a rare opportunity to set themselves from PF cadre violence.

Even non-PF youths with deficit of good morals and Christian values took advantage of the reigning chains of brutality and could attack people at markets, bus stations, on the streets and at shopping malls clad in PF regalia. It was real sad and I felt for ECL because those surrounding him thought the best way to force Zambians into supporting the them was by beating them mercilessly and with Gestapo intensity. Some youths found PF as a jackpot for earning free money as they were at the disposal of the mighty bulldozer Bowman with his NATO forces and unquestionably did his biddings as a ruthless commander of his own obedient accomplished savages. Fear of the return of PF despicable acts of savagery was on the ballot on 12th August 2021. One can, to some extent, express gratitude and appreciation to ECL for the overhead roads decongesting the city of Lusaka where envisioned and planned by Levy Mwanawasa and Ng’andu Peter Magande. Sata had pledged to honour and implement the mega projects Levy Mwanawasa had left unfinished and promises unfulfilled. Sata died “prematurely” and what he had promised to be fulfilled left on the the drawing board by the MMD whose government he loyally served under President Frederick Chiluba was implemented by ECL.

The current New Dawn government is being observed by all Zambians who cannot be blindfolded by anybody. It inherited huge debts from the PF which over borrowed huge sums of money and has done its best to negotiate rescheduling of the debt payments in order to give the country a breather to attend many critical economic problems besetting the poorest of the poor. Cadre violence is minimal though we cannot rule out that some UPND cadres may want to go it the PF way by courting violence in order to have the opposition, particularly PF, feel its weight. The UPND leader HH has already thrown caution to the wind over the devastating and criminal nature of cadreism which ECL avoided at every turn.
Infrastructure is being developed and the promise of free education is fulfilled with swarms of children learning in overcrowded classrooms which actually calls for more teachers and more construction of new schools and expansion of classroom blocks at sites with more space big enough to build another huge school. What Zambians are waiting for is appreciation of the now ever depreciating Kwacha.

Donor confidence is guaranteed but the issue of addressing the stomachs of the poorest of the poor in Zambia barely able to see ends meet is what many Zambians are expectant to see. Many Zambians are cognisant of the fact that mealie meal is the weapon political parties use to get into power. Drought has had a devastating effect on our food security and rising price of mealie meal is a king-size headache to starving Zambians unable to see ends meet. Such a crisis of drought does not need blame to be heaped on government as a natural disaster. It calls for casting aside partisan interests and taking feeding all Zambians a national priority. What shall it profit a political party to have Zambians starve to death in millions all in the name of discrediting the party in government? Drought which handicapped us as a tragedy emanating from the 2023/2024 rain season must bring us closer to each other at all levels because hunger knows no political loyalty or partisan interests. We all have a part to play to serve and save the country from hunger or famine. No sane political leader can delight in seeing hundreds of people starving to death as a result of drought. This should bring us closer to each other in the true spirit of Ubuntu and find collective solutions to our food insecurity and skyrocketing prices of essentials in the shops. There are no shops for the rich only. We buy from the same shops. The poorest of the poor bears the brunt of the economic hardships and we must acts collectively as Zambians to stem the tide of hunger and nip it in the bud.

The country did not attain freedom on a silver plate. No one tribe or ethnic group brought political freedom to this country. If we get deep into history, we will discover that the early African Christian leaders championed the fight against colonial rule and racism. The black theologians of the late 19th century and the early 20th century were unhappy with racism and dehumanization of the black person by the white missionaries who were mostly agents of colonialists. They laid the foundation for the genesis of black emancipation from colonial rule. Welfare societies run by black people inspired thousands and later political parties were formed which brought freedom.

The freedom patriarchs and matriarchs in Northern Rhodesia were selfless and humble. They put political independence top priority and this went with great sacrifice to be attained. Nkumbula, Nabulyato, Kaunda, Kapwepwe, Grey Zulu, Elijah Mudenda, Arthur Wina, Sikota Wina, Lewis Changufu, Peter Matoka, Solomon Kalulu, Munu Sipalo, Nalumino Mundia, Mainza Chona, Justin Chimba, Reuben Kamanga, Dingiswayo Banda, Mungoni Liso, Nephas Tembo, John Mwankatwe, Alexander Chikwanda, Vernon Mwaanga, Zongani Banda, Jethro Mutti, Alfred Musonda Chambeshi, Kapasa Makasa, Bessie’Chibesa Kankasa, Julia Mulenga Chikamoneka, Mary Fulano, Christina Mulundika, Lilly Moonze, Betty Chilunga, Esther Banda, Princess Nakatindi Nganga, Axon Soko, Shadrach Soko, Andrea Masiye, Alick Nkhata, Simon Hamuchemba, Batolomeo Bwalya, and many others who were front runners in the struggle in our country put the nation first.

They subordinated their personal interests in order to win freedom for the country. They had to forego and abandon lives of luxuries, comforts and good jobs and businesses in order to help liberate the country. They could not compromise their principles on an altar of expediency and selfish gain. Freedom for the people of Northern Rhodesia mattered more than anything in their lives. They joined hands in all humility and sacrifice to bring colonial rule to an end. Even upon attaining independence the freedom patriarchs and matriarchs did not get overwhelmed with the luxuries of being chauffeur-driven in sleek Mecerdez Benz vehicles as official cars with flags flying and flapping. Attainment of political independence and sekf

Author : Shaddon Chanda Luanshya based historian and academician