Kaunda: Last of the Independence Fighters

Kenneth Kaunda, founding president of Zambia would be remembered as the man, who fought for his country’s independence and also helped others break free from colonialists, writes Tobi Soniyi

At the age of 97, Kenneth Kaunda, the founding president of Zambia, who died on June 17, 2021 was lucky enough to outlive many of his contemporaries and foes. He, along other independence partirachs, rose against white minority rule cycling from villages to villages preaching independence.

He came to prominence as a leader of the campaign to end colonial rule of his country, then known as Northern Rhodesia. He was imprisoned briefly in 1955 and again in 1959, and upon his release became president of the newly formed United National Independence Party.

Kenneth David Kaunda, born on April 28, 1924, was the youngest of eight children of a Church of Scotland minister at Lubwa mission in the remote north of the country.

Known also by his African name of “Buchizya” – the unexpected one – he did menial jobs to earn school fees after his father’s death. He also worked as a teacher and a mine welfare officer and joined politics in 1949 as a founder member of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress.
He became president in 1964 and kept his grip on power for 27 years until he was defeated in 1991 by Frederick Chiluba, the trade unionist.

As leader of the first country in the southern region to break with its European colonisers, Kaunda worked hard to help other former colonies break with their white colonialists and achieve independence.
He would be remembered as an African nationalist, who spearheaded the fights to end white minority rule across southern Africa.

During his 27-year rule, he gave critical support to armed African nationalist groups that won independence for neighboring countries including Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
The New York Times described him as “an impassioned orator, who could bring an audience to its feet and to tears; a former schoolteacher, who quoted Lincoln and Gandhi; and a physically striking man, who brushed his hair to stand at attention so that it added inches to his six-foot-tall stature.”

During his reign as president, Kaunda rapidly expanded Zambia’s education system, establishing primary schools in urban and rural areas and providing all students with books and meals. He also established a university and medical school. He expanded Zambia’s health systen to cater for the needs of his people.

However, like many of his colleagues, and those, who came after him, he refused to bow out, when the ovation was loudest. Clinging to power for 27 years, he had to endure an electoral defeat to let go.
He mposed a one-party state in 1973, gradually developed a personality cult and clamped down on opposition. He claimed that the one-party state was the only option for Zambia as it faced attacks and subterfuge from white-led South Africa and Rhodesia.

He ruled at the height of the Cold War, and like many of his colleagues on the continent, he was a leading member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

However, his popularity waned following the collapse of the once thriving Zambian economy as the price of copper, its main export, fell in the 1970s. Although he eventually became authoritarian, Kaunda conceded defeat and agreed to return Zambia to multi-party politics and peacefully stepped down from power, when he lost elections in 1991.

According to the Washington Post, “Corruption, mismanagement and the nationalisation of foreign-owned companies and mines also contributed to the economic decline. Unemployment soared and the standard of living sank during the 1980s, making Zambia one of the world’s poorest countries.”
Following the advice of the International Monetary Fund and Western creditors, Kaunda imposed austerity measures, which led to riots over price hikes and shortages in basic commodities such as maize meal. This led to his downfall. He eventually gave way to domestic protests and international pressure in 1990 and agreed to multiparty elections, which he lost.

Kaunda would also be remembered for his role in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
He shared a loss experienced by countless families in Africa, when his son Masuzyo died of AIDS in 1986, and he began a personal crusade against the disease.
“This is the biggest challenge for Africa. We must fight AIDS and we must do so now,” he told Reuters in 2002, adding: “We fought colonialism. We must now use the same zeal to fight AIDS, which threatens to wipe out Africa.”

In 1996, he tried to make a political comeback, but he was blocked, when Chiluba, his bitter enemy, forced through constitutional amendments, which declared the former “Father of the Nation” a foreigner, because his parents came from Malawi.

He was arrested in December 1997 and charged with treason following a coup attempt by junior army officers two months earlier. He was detained in a maximum security prison but later placed under house arrest until the state dropped the charges.

Kaunda was shot and wounded by government forces during a demonstration in 1997 and in 1999 escaped an assassination attempt. He blamed Chiluba’s allies for the November 1999 killing of his son and heir-apparent, Wezi. That same year, Kaunda announced his withdrawal from domestic politics to concentrate on halting the spread of AIDS through his Kenneth Kaunda Children of Africa Foundation.

Prior to his death, Kaunda had abstained from making public pronouncement. However, in a rare public appearance in September 2019, at the age of 95, he spoke out strongly against a wave of attacks in South Africa against foreigners from other African countries.
“Our brothers and sisters in South Africa should remember that these same people they are treating with cruelty are the same people, who were comrades in arms in fighting the brutal apartheid regime,” Kaunda said.