Struggles for Independence

Struggles for Independence They fought as a band of soldiers; They died while fighting, as martyrs, Some are presidents if they lived, And others have scars to show for. BRIEF INTRODUCTION This chapter discusses the last of the five significant events before independence that would impact the political and economic direction of Zambia. It also discusses the struggles for independence in greater details, including the genesis of political organization in Zambia. MAJOR THEMES: History ≈ Politics Pre-Independence State African Political Organizations Central African Federation Plunder of Zambia’s Resources §6.1 The Resistance ambian independence was achieved through struggle. From the outset, the Africans knew that gaining independence from the colonial government would not be without resistance. Z The struggles for independence, and indeed, struggles for equality and freedom in general, are viewed from different angles by different players affected differently. For colonial Britain and the European settlers, agitations by the Africans were viewed as lawless propaganda against the legitimately legislated laws. For the Africans, however, fighting for freedom was unalienable right. There is no price to match the value of freedom. These assiduous men and women gave up all, including life itself, to liberate their people from slavery and colonialism. Their spirit is captured in two statements made by two of Zambia’s greatest freedom fighters. Brave Alexander Grey Zulu writes: “My love for Zambia and the African continent can only be surpassed by those who died during the struggle for independence.”1 This is the spirit that fought for Zambia’s independence as will be explained in the following pages. The Zambian fathers and mothers who fought for independence did not do so only because of the likelihood 1 1 Zulu in Memoirs of Alexander Grey Zulu, p. 462 Page that they would be leaders of an independent nation. But they also fought for the unlikelihood that they would live to see an independent nation. They were living martyrs and patriots at best.2 In Looking Back, An Extraordinary Life, the daring Mwaanga elucidates, “I held the view that the struggle for independence had of necessity to entail hardship and sacrifice on the part of those who were involved. No freedom fighter leads a comfortable life.”3 Zulu and Mwaanga expose the philosophy and spirit that enabled the Zambian fathers and mothers to soldier on in their freedom quest. A Catholic Landowner of Hungary orates, “Woe to the nation which raises no protest when its rights are outraged! It contributes to its own slavery by its silence. The nation which submits to injustice and oppression without protest is doomed.”4 There is no doubt that in Europe those who led expeditions to Africa and secured lands and territories are immortalized and celebrated. Indeed, they brought great wealth and prestige to the Empire and survived the harsh and dangerous terrain and predacious forests of Africa. To them, too, this Hungarian Oracle may apply. However, there is no continent or a people in recorded history who has suffered at the hands of other human beings like the Africans. Don Taylor in his book, The British in Africa5 has not found any comparison in all of history with all its barbarities and cruelties a major race of people separated from the rest of humanity, civilization and denied basic human freedoms, even to exist as a free people, like the Africans have. From the background given in the preceding paragraphs, the story of Zambia’s struggle for independence is written. It is also vital to mention that the Zambian freedom fighters had to contend more with the impistic6 resistance of the White settlers in Northern Rhodesia than with the Colonial Office in Britain. To solidify its base and ensure that the Africans did not achieve their independence objective, the White settlers resorted to the use of questionable political tactics and legal instruments.7 In letter as well as in spirit, it was the same colonial regime that had instituted apartheid in South Africa which oppressed the Africans in Northern Rhodesia. 2 We their brood their glory will save Never to forget the blood they shed, In their footsteps we fondly wade, Attesting to hearts strong and brave (“Heroes of Freedom,” from: Mwewa, Song of an Alien, p. 83) 3 Vernon J. Mwaanga, Looking Back, An Extraordinary Life (Lusaka: Fleetfoot Publishing Company, 2000), pp. 13-14 4 Zulu, supra., p. 1 5 Don Taylor, The British in Africa (New York: Roy Publishers, 1964) 6 Shaka, the greatest king of the Zulus was the first to invent a short-spear called Asegai. His soldiers who used the Asegai were known as Impis. “Impistic” is thus used in this fashion here, albeit in a negative connotation. 7 Both Sir Evelyn Hone and Sir Roy Welensky had stakes in the continuity of the oppressive Federation and colonialism. Hone was born in Northern Rhodesia, and naturally felt he had the right to the land. Hone, in particular, did not take in well to the rising of UNIP; he adopted terror and intimidation techniques to cower the Africans from seeking for independence. He divided the African chiefs into superior and inferior categories so that those chiefs who refused to ban UNIP in their areas were removed from positions of power and privilege. Welensky, similarly, was adamant to the independence of Zambia. Using the concept of a “multiracial society” as a ruse, while reacting aversely to Macleod’s constitution, he devised ways and means of delaying independence. More importantly, Welensky knew of the strategic importance of Northern Rhodesia; it was the life- blood of the Federation through its copper mines. More than Hone, Welensky went even as far as doctoring knighting privileges on some selected African chiefs in order for them to denounce any African political party that would seek for the independence 2 of Northern Rhodesia. Indeed, it is strongly believed that the federal regime was responsible for the knighting of Sir Mwanawina so that he could ban UNIP from Barotseland (See Soko, “Independence for Zambia,” pp. 16-17). Page The regime, like in apartheid South Africa, passed laws like the Preservation of Public Security Act,8 the Public Order Act9 and the Emergency Act.10 These instruments were “administered brutally and indiscriminately.”11 Like apartheid South Africa, the regime of some “70,000 Whites [ruled] three million Africans interpreting [the Africans’] political ideals as communistic.”12 And, too, like apartheid South Africa, the regime allowed every White in Northern Rhodesia to own a gun or “encouraged [them] to purchase one. The Africans, on the other hand, [were] legally not permitted to own firearms.”13 Sadly, both UNIP and the MMD have used these same repressive colonial laws to limit political participation in the Second Republic and to quail dissidents in the Third Republic, respectively.14 Sadly, even in independent Zambia there are those who cannot exercise the political and human rights because those who govern are detached from those who are governed. The last significant event15 before independence that would impact not only the political direction of Zambia, but its economic survival as well happened in 1953. In that year, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Nyasaland (Malawi) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) entered into what is historically known as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.16 It was not only the naming of this Federation which was very important to the future of Zambia; it was also the role that each territory in the Federation played. For one, the Federation fused Zambia and Zimbabwe into one Rhodesia. For another, Zambia was used only as raw material supplier to operate the booming industry in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. Malawi supplied the much needed manpower to the Federation. Not only is the foresaid historic fact, it is a truth attested to by the British Colonial Officers themselves. Grant, for example, explains his first impressions when he first came to the territory then under the Federation, explaining, “As we crossed the borders...we were entering a new, recently-created, ill-fated political entity, the Central Africa Federation. This had been formed by the British government, amalgamating Northern and Southern Rhodesia with Nyasaland under the leadership of an ex-pugilist and former railway unionist, Roy (later Sir Roy) Welensky, against the clearly-expressed wishes of the Africans in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was to cause constant trouble.”17 8 Preservation of Public Security Act, Cap. 112 of the laws of Zambia 9 Public order Act, Cap 113 of the laws of Zambia 10 Emergency Act, Repealed by 5 of 1960 11 Goodson Machona, “A Harvest of Treason Trials.” <http://www.c-r.org/resources/occasional-papers/african-media-and- th conflict-part-four-machona.php> (Retrieved: June 11 , 2010) 12 Soko, “Independence for Zambia,” p. 16 13 Ibid. 14 The Chiluba government declared a State of Emergency under the Emergency Powers Act in March 1993. 15 See the first four in Chapter 5 16 Prior to 1891 when the BSAC set up a Company State, it had “discovered” Zambia’s copper and other mineral wealth. These motivated the formation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland also known as the Central African Federation. Under the federal structure, which came into being in 1953, despite vehement African opposition, the Capital City was located in Salisbury (Harare), in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The federal legislature and the government were in White-run Southern Rhodesia. Whites were a miniscule minority in the Central African Federation, but they were the political majority in the federal government and Parliament. White settlers wanted to use the Federation as the Boars had used the Union of South Africa to consolidate their power and load it over the Africans.

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