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CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 19, June 2021 Page 1

Online Article

Reflecting on Kaunda’s Political legacies

Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, died on 17 June aged 97, the last of the generation of African freedom fighters who had ushered in independence on the continent. He fiercely fought minority rule in the region, which was a major factor in the eventual fall of in South Africa and the delivery of freedom to its oppressed black majority.

n his tribute1 to Kaunda, for- ver of power is still a fresh story mer Nigerian President Oluse- almost thirty years to the day. Reginald Ntomba gun Obasanjo harkened to the I Tackling the Freedom Ques- past to bring to mind the other gi- , ants who had worked alongside tion: Kaunda on the Frontline Kaunda to free the continent from Finally, August of 1978, we the yoke of colonialism and apart- was through a gruelling fight that landed in Lusaka with no small heid. Obasanjo said, resulted in a bloodbath in which amount of relief. It was a great Zambia was caught up, being at the Let all Africans and friends of honour to be greeted so warmly centre of the region. Africa take solace in the knowl- by President Kaunda and the people of Zambia. None of us edge that President Kaunda has Kaunda’s legacy will inevitably be had experienced anything like it gone home to a well-deserved divided into two: rest and to proudly take his place before. We were treated as VIPs beside his brothers such as Jomo First, that of a tough and un- of the highest calibre, met with a Kenyatta of Kenya, Kwame Nk- compromising anticolonial, anti- delegation on the tarmac and cer- rumah of , apartheid, freedom-for-all activ- emoniously walked from the foot of , Habib Bourguiba of ist and Pan-African advocate, of the plane straight into a wait- Tunisia, Léopold Sédar Senghor who believed in building region- ing motorcade of diplomatic ve- of Senegal, of al and continental solidarity and hicles. Everyone involved was as Nigeria, Ahmed Sékou Touré of consensus to achieve freedom friendly as they were courteous. Guinea, Félix Houphouët-Boigny and peace. It is here where his liberation credentials shine to the Those were the words of the Zim- of Côte d’Ivoire, Patrice Lumum- high heavens and remain a source babwean Jesuit priest, Father Fidel- ba of Congo, of of great admiration among the is Mukonori, in his memoir Man in South Africa, to name but a few. international community. the Middle, recalling the reception his Catholic Commission for Jus- Kaunda was the last man standing Second, as a domestic politician from his generation of freedom who courageously led his coun- tice and Peace (CCJP) delegation fighters who had delivered inde- try to a negotiated settlement of was accorded in Lusaka, as part of pendence to Africa. For the out- independence, then centralised the shuttle diplomacy for the coun- side world, their remembrance of power around himself, shrank try’s independence that came two Kaunda will always be in relation the democratic space and jailed years later. to his contribution to the freedom opponents and critics, but one The welcome that Father Muko- project. Zambia’s path to indepen- who, to his eternal credit, read the nori describes had become a leg- dence was through a negotiated times correctly and bowed to the endary practice. Kaunda extended settlement with Britain, unlike that masses’ final call to leave the seat it to many visitors to Lusaka who of most of its neighbours, which of power. His peaceful hando- were in search of freedom or mere- CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 19, June 2021 Page 2 ly transiting through this city of bique. The guerrilla fighters even- Freedom Radio, the ANC propa- peace, which, apart from hosting a tually prevailed and triumphantly ganda station, was based in Lu- chain of freedom movements, was marched to independence in April saka and broadcast its messages also a venue for peace talks. 1980. Zimbabwe was free. from there to energise the exiles and freedom fighters inside South After gaining independence for In the south-west, the Germans Africa, much to the chagrin of Zambia from Britain in October had long departed Namibia, but the the minority apartheid regime. In 1964, Kaunda’s next task was to apartheid regime in Pretoria had its his resignation speech on 14 Sep- help liberate the rest of the south- hands on Windhoek until March tember 1989, then South African ern African region. This was not 1990, when independence dawned. President Pieter W. Botha angrily a matter of choice but necessity. In , the only other country claimed: ‘The ANC is enjoying the Apart from his philosophical and that became independent in the protection of President Kaunda and political belief that Zambia’s po- same year as Zambia, and which is planning insurgency activities litical freedom would be meaning- should have helped in providing against South Africa from Lusaka.’ less if the rest of the region were support to other freedom fighters, He was stating the obvious. still under colonial rule, Zambia’s its leader, Hastings Kamuzu Ban- geopolitical position made it un- da, refused to have anything to do By hosting the liberation move- avoidable for Kaunda to tackle the with the liberation wars of the re- ments, Zambia was in the firing freedom of southern Africa. gion. He was thus isolated in that line from the colonists and suf- eastern corner as a puppet of the fered reprisal attacks that led to a Zambia is surrounded by eight apartheid regime. colossal loss of life and property. countries, which it relies on to bombed Zambia several provide channels for trade. Hav- So, given that scenario, it was times in retaliation to its hosting of ing these countries under colonial Zambia under Kaunda’s leader- the Zimbabwean guerrilla fighters rule made it difficult for Zambia ship and Tanzania under Nyerere who were launching daring raids in to trade and operate on a regional (and later Mwinyi) who midwifed their push for the fall of the Rhode- scale. The racist regime in Rhode- the freedom of southern Africa by sian regime. But for Kaunda, there sia and its apartheid counterpart in providing a base from which all the was no price too heavy for Zam- Pretoria were determined to stran- liberation movements could organ- bia to pay to liberate the region. It gle and punish Zambia economi- ise and prosecute their wars of in- was a worthy sacrifice, which the cally for supporting the libera- dependence. But, given its proxim- country is still praised for to date tion movements of the region and ity to the warfront, it was Lusaka and for which Kaunda duly takes blocked trade to the south. With where everyone congregated and the credit. Some of the people who the southern route shut, Kaunda plotted their freedom. are now presidents and ministers had to turn to Nyerere’s Tanzania, Under the OAU Liberation Commit- in various African countries took which has access to the sea. On the sanctuary in Zambia and were edu- western and eastern flanks of Zam- tee, the Liberation Centre in Lusaka hosted Namibia’s South West Af- cated there. For instance, Zimba- bia, and were bwe’s President Emmerson Mnan- still waging a war of independence rica People’s Organisation (SWA- PO), the People’s Movement for gagwa stayed in Mumbwa, a town against the fascist regime in Lis- 150 kilometres west of Lusaka, and bon. Both achieved independence the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total served as youth secretary of Kaun- in 1975, although soon after they da’s United National Independence would both fall into a long-running Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Zimbabwe African National Party (UNIP) before he joined proxy civil war. Trade through ZANU in Mozambique. His prede- them was near impossible and, Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), the cessor, stayed and instead, Zambia had to host thou- taught at Chalimbana, a teacher sands of refugees fleeing the wars. Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO), the Pan African- training college just outside Lu- Even though the government of ist Congress (PAC) and the Unity saka before he joined the struggle Ian Smith in Southern Movement (UM) of South Africa, in Mozambique. Mugabe’s coun- held sway, it was under the double and the mother of all liberation terpart in the struggle and future onslaught of the African guerrilla movements—the African National Vice President was movements that were launching in- Congress (ANC)—whose headquar- based in Lusaka, from where he cursions from Zambia and Mozam- ters were in Lusaka for thirty years. commanded ZAPU and survived CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 19, June 2021 Page 3 assassination attempts by Ian For many years, the ANC despised Kaunda the Zambian Leader Smith’s forces. Future Namibian talks with the apartheid regime and South African presidents, Sam and believed freedom would be The youngest of eight children, Nujoma, and Jacob won solely through armed strug- Kaunda was born on 28 April 1924 Zuma, respectively, all stayed in gle. Similarly, the minority regime at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali Dis- Lusaka during the difficult days of vowed never to talk to a group it trict in then , the liberation struggle, as did Oli- considered ‘murderers’. But, in to missionaries of the Church of ver Tambo, who led the ANC until 1985, Kaunda staged a diplomatic Scotland who had migrated from his death in 1993, just a year be- coup when he organised a meeting the former (now Mala- fore the fall of apartheid. Tambo’s of the two camps at his private re- wi). He became a teacher, like his former house in Lusaka is now a treat in the South Luangwa Nation- parents, but being born and raised national monument unveiled by al Park, in the east of the country. in an area that was a hotbed of the President Jacob Zuma while on a That effectively opened the flood- freedom struggle had left its im- state visit on 13 October 2017. gates for discussion and by the print. In 1951 he joined the fight time of Mandela’s release, in Feb- for independence under the African By the fall of apartheid in 1994, ruary 1990, there were no less than National Congress (ANC)—not to when the region became com- a hundred meetings taking place as be confused with the South Afri- pletely independent of colonial various South African government, can one—led by Harry Mwaanga rule, the dividends were flowing church, business, student and trade Nkumbula. In 1958, Kaunda and in—as seen in increased cross-bor- union delegations flowed into Lu- a host of other radicals broke off der trade among nationals of the saka, according to South African from the ANC, accusing its lead- region—and several of the exiles historian Hugh Macmillan, in his er Nkumbula of not being mili- who had stayed and studied in Lu- book The Lusaka Years: The ANC tant enough. They formed a new saka were now running their own in Exile in Zambia 1963–1994. party called Zambia African Na- governments. By then, Kaunda tional Congress (ZANC), later re- was out of power, somewhat ful- It was Lusaka that Mandela vis- named United National Indepen- filling a Greek proverb about old ited on 27 February 1990, just dence Party (UNIP). But in 1959, men who plant trees in whose sixteen days after leaving Robben Kaunda and his group were arrest- shade they will never sit. Island, his first foreign trip since ed by colonial authorities for their 1962. Ever the diplomat, Kaunda militancy, with Kaunda imprisoned As chairman of the Frontline was chief host and pulled a mas- for nine months in the north-west States, Kaunda was committed to terstroke by assembling the en- of the country and in Salisbury. the freedom of the region so much tire region to welcome Mandela. On his release from prison in that sometimes he ran the risk of Apart from Kaunda himself, there , he took up leader- being misunderstood even by the was Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), ship of UNIP. people he was helping. For in- Joachim Chissano (Mozambique), stance, in the 1970s, he initiated Quett Masire (), Jose Following the 1962 election, contact with the same apartheid Eduardo Dos Santos (Angola), Ali Kaunda’s UNIP and Nkumbula’s regime he was against and without Hassan Mwinyi (Tanzania), Yow- ANC formed a coalition govern- the knowledge of the ANC. Two eri Museveni (Uganda), and, not ment that lasted through the inde- weeks after Botha’s resignation, to be outdone, Palestine Liberation pendence talks with Britain at Lan- Kaunda met FW De Klerk, Botha’s Organisation (PLO) chairman Yas- caster House. After the elections of successor, in the Zambian city of ser Arafat, as well as a whole col- , UNIP won a major- Livingstone. De Klerk described lection of ANC exiles. ity and Kaunda became prime min- Kaunda as ‘an earnest Christian ister. With talks completed, Zam- who has thought about the position Through his uncompromising bia’s independence arrived on 24 of southern Africa’. fight for freedom, Kaunda raised , and Kaunda became his name and that of the country president of a new nation called Had Kaunda sold out? ‘God is high. His immense contribution to Zambia, whose name was coined hearing me. I can never sell out the freedom of the continent is his from the vast Zambezi River. Africa. Never! Not me, not these lasting legacy. boys and girls here. We are men Back in 1958 when UNIP was and women of principle,’ he said formed, the party had an opportu- in a fiery speech in Lusaka. nity to choose as its leader a fire- CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 19, June 2021 Page 4 brand, a provocateur who greatly petition and have the nation ‘pull If the politics was a mess, the econ- appealed to the masses with his in one direction’, as it were. In omy was worse and is the singular fiery speeches and strong denun- Kaunda’s case, he gave the raging factor that hastened his departure. ciation of the colonial regime. His wars in the region as an additional In 1968 and 1969, Kaunda an- name was Simon Mwansa Kap- justification, saying internal politi- nounced a government takeover wepwe, Kaunda’s childhood friend cal competition would only distract of the retail and mining sectors, from Chinsali. But instead it was the country from the mammoth respectively, with the aim of ef- agreed that Kaunda, the moderate task of fighting the enemy. Thus, in fecting greater state control of the and unifier, be assigned the role. December 1972 Kaunda changed economy. But the parastatal sector Given the task that would later be- the national Constitution and made overemployed, grew increasingly fall Kaunda in rallying the entire UNIP the sole political organisa- inefficient, relied on state subsidies southern region to fight for free- tion in the country. and was feeding the party in typical dom, it is generally agreed that he socialist style as businesses were was a good choice in that regard, Thus began the democratic slide dominated by party functionaries. with his tough yet diplomatic de- that would last the next seventeen meanour and disposition. Kaunda years. Kaunda kept a tight lid on The fall in copper prices and short- was just the leader the country dissent, ruthlessly deploying his age of basic commodities all com- needed to shepherd it through Eastern Europe-trained security bined to create a toxic cocktail and some of its most intractable politi- wings to foment a climate of fear an economic fallout. By the mid- cal situations. in which Zambians were not free 1980s, food riots were common and to discuss governance issues. He pressure was mounting on Kaunda Post-independence, Kaunda’s gov- became increasingly paranoid and to either fix the economy or leave. ernment worked hard to deliver the at every turn detained and tortured The cookie was crumbling. fruits of the struggle. With vast cop- political opponents under a per- per reserves and a zealous crop of petual State of Emergency, which Following the fall of the Berlin nationalists eager to demonstrate ran until he left office. As he closed Wall and the emergence of a new the benefits of self-rule, Kaunda and the political space, removing him democratic wave sweeping across his group got to work and put up by force became the only option the world, a pro-democracy move- national infrastructure, such as pri- for those seeking a change of the ment was born in Zambia in July mary, secondary and trade schools, oppressive political order. He sur- 1990 (just a month after Kaunda colleges, hospitals, roads and power vived three military coups. That had survived another military coup) stations. The is why, amid so much praise for and began pushing for a return to opened in 1966, just two years after Kaunda abroad, at home there are multiparty politics. The movement independence, and would educate some who strongly feel his dicta- was a broad coalition, comprising not only future Zambian leaders, but torial record should not be wished trade unions, church leaders, intel- also many future political figures away and his tenure should be dis- lectuals, businessmen and women, from southern Africa who proved cussed in its totality. and several politicians Kaunda had a vital human resource once their pushed out of the political arena own countries became independent. ‘When somebody dies, let’s not with the imposition of the one-party just highlight the good they did. state. They were back, and this time But, like most post-independence We must also mention the atrocities they exploited his weakened posi- African leaders, Kaunda commit- they committed. History should tion from the economic fallout and ted the cardinal sin of centralising never be told in a segregative the jubilation of the masses at his power around himself through the manner,’ wrote Lusaka journalist near ousting by the military. declaration of the one-party state. Bradley Chingobe on his social Most African leaders at the time media page. ‘We owe it to the fu- After twenty-seven years in power, used ‘national unity’ as a basis for ture of this nation to tell the real one would think that, like most declaring one-party states. They story of Kenneth Kaunda. The dictators, Kaunda believed more reckoned that to concentrate efforts scars of the brutal UNIP One Party and more in his invincibility and on national development as well dictatorship remain embedded in would defy the odds. But to his as to forestall ethnic divisions in a lot of families in Zambia. It was credit, he read the times correctly their countries, it was necessary to not as rosy as many want to make and did not resist the public mood. eliminate domestic political com- it seem today.’ Having been re-elected as the sole CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 19, June 2021 Page 5 candidate in 1988 (and before that tute a policy of free education en- But, fifth, his economic policies since 1973), his term of office was abled most Zambians (and citizens centred around and hu- due to end in 1993, but he agreed of other neighbouring countries) manism were a disaster and detract to cut it short and hold elections in in the early years of nationhood from what would otherwise have October 1991. Kaunda co-operated to become educated and contrib- been a shining economic model, with the new democracy move- ute to national development. It is given the small population and vast ment and agreed to constitutional said that, at independence, Zambia national resources of the country. amendments that abolished the had only 100 graduates. Therefore, The nationalisation of the economy one-party state, paving the way Kaunda is praised for his fore- did not yield dividends, but instead for democratic elections. He lost sight in investing in human capi- became a huge drain on the na- the elections by a landslide and tal through free education, which tional treasury as the government immediately called his successor, served the nation very well as it subsidised loss-making parastatals , to congratulate was able to develop a pool of tal- that had overemployed and were him. With the return of multiparty ent on which future governments used for political patronage. democracy, Kaunda handed over could rely. power peacefully, a rare occur- Sixth, after twenty-seven years in rence during a time when most Third, Kaunda could have resisted power Kaunda had overstayed his post-independence leaders clung to the call for a return to multiparty position, but he saw himself as the power as an act of entitlement for politics. Worse still, he could have pillar around which Zambia re- delivering freedom. used force to deny the victors their volved. If the ability to groom new victory in 1991 and have them leaders and pass on the mantle to Abroad, Kaunda is remembered for locked them up. But his magnanim- them is a yardstick of good lead- his role in the liberation struggle. ity to accept the people’s will and ership, then Kaunda failed in that But what is his legacy at home? gracefully bow out remains admi- regard. In a bid to keep himself in- rable to date and is a model of lead- sulated from political competition, First, his ability to unite a coun- ership in putting the people first. for the reasons discussed above, he try so ethnically diverse under the resorted to autocratic means that motto ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ Fourth, Kaunda instilled a spirit not only dented his record, but also is widely recognised as a major of service above self and respect ruined the political careers of those achievement. Kaunda held the na- for public assets. His government he sought to prevent from access- tion together for twenty-seven years had a leadership code that, al- ing state power. without civil strife, even amid some though now criticised for stifling major political disagreements that in individual enterprise, is agreed to Overall, though, even considering other countries would have ripped have saved the public purse from his excesses, he goes to the grave those nations apart. That Zambia being looted wantonly by govern- more admired than ever and time has not been at war with itself nor ment ministers. His successor tried has generally rehabilitated him with its neighbours is largely credit- to harass him on suspicion that and given him a hallowed place ed to the strong foundation of peace he had stolen public funds, to the in history. and unity that Kaunda laid right at extent that he brought in Britain’s the beginning. Scotland Yard to investigate. But Note they found nothing, and it was in Second, most of Kaunda’s gen- 1. https://www.theelephant.info/ fact the same public who voted out op-eds/2021/06/18/gone-is-the- eration of freedom fighters were of Kaunda that vouched for his integ- last-of-the-mohicans-tribute-to- humble education, but his govern- rity, an act that left his successor kenneth-kaunda/ ment’s decision to quickly build deeply embarrassed. education infrastructure and insti-