Observations: Kenneth David Kaunda –The good side

Musamba Mumba

By Barbrah Musamba Chama Musamba

Dr Kenneth David Kaunda popularly known as KK who is Zambia’s founding father last week on April 28, 2014 celebrated his 90th birthday.

The former and first President of Zambia has been known for both being a good and bad leader for Zambia (depending who you ask), however, my focus will be on the good side of the KK.

I will first do a brief recap on the former President’s life history.

Kenneth David Kaunda was born on April 28, 1924 at Lubwa Mission near Chinsali in the Northern Province of the then Northern Rhodesia which is now Zambia. He was the last of the eight children of a migrant minister and teacher from Nyasaland now Malawi and his mother was the first African woman teacher in the colonial Northern Rhodesia.

KK completed his education in the early 1940s and began teaching at Lubwa in 1943 and was later headmaster in the later years of the 1940s.

KK moved to the Copperbelt where he founded a farmer’s cooperative and later became a mine welfare officer in 1948. Not long after he became a boarding master at Mufulira Upper School till 1949.

KK and other natives among them the late Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula formed the African National Congress (ANC) in the early 1950s to fight colonial rule that suppressed the natives’ rights of movements.
The native Africans were restricted from participating in the affairs of the country and were also subjected to harsh treatment like buying foodstuffs from a window other than going into the shops. These harsh treatments lead KK and other African leaders to spearhead the fight against colonial rule from the British colonialists.
KK parted company with Nkumbula to form the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC) of which he was president from 1958 – 1959.
ZANC was disbanded by the colonialists due to civil disobedience which led KK being jailed for nine months.

KK became Zambia’s first black President in 1964 when he laid his party UNIP to victory. He ruled Zambia for 27 years before being defeated in 1991 by the outspoken trade unionist leader the late Frederick Chiluba who was Movement for Multi-Party Democracy’s (MMD) President.

The people of Zambia increasingly became discontent of KK’s rule due to his oppressive governing style and the harsh economic conditions that prevailed in the 1980s this led to his massive defeat at the polls in the 1991 general elections.

KK can be praised for the achievement of Zambia’s Independence, employment for Zambians, education and health, peace and foreign policy.

Independence

After his release KK became the leader of United National Independence Party (UNIP) which was formed by a group of his old contemporaries among them the late Mainza Chona. UNIP was one of the major parties that spearheaded the fight against colonial rule and eventually won elections and formed government for the country called Zambia in 1964.

KK and other natives are credited for Zambia’s independence from British colonial rule. During colonial rule the native African. UNIP and other political parties participated in the Cha cha cha uprising that forced the colonialists to quickly give power to the natives in 1962.

Education

Upon attaining independence in 1964 KK and his colleagues had the task of bringing native Zambians into mainstream participation of the country’s wealth creation but there were only 109 university graduates in Zambia.

Their task was to educate the Zambian people and hence went into an aggressive education policy of ensuring that Zambians got educated by building schools, colleges and a university and initially providing educational materials for free. Education was free for all from primary school to university.

KK also mobilised Zambians to contribute whatever they could so that the nation could build its first university. In 1966 and with the help of the Israeli government the University of Zambia was completed and opened.

Other colleges were also built like the Evelyn Hone College and NRDC in Lusaka and the Northern Technical College and Zambia Institute of Technology in Ndola and Kitwe respectively. In Kabwe Nkrumah’s Teachers’ College was built.

Additionally, the health policy was to provide free health services for every Zambian. KK’s government built new hospitals across the country and a University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka.

Employment

The good jobs that existed pre independence were for the preserve of the white settlers. KK and his government nationalised all major foreign companies including the mines that operated in Zambia so as to take control of the economy to benefit the indigenous Zambians.

The nationalisation process began in 1968 and went on till the early 1970s. When the nationalisation was taking place so was the Zambianisation process. Zambianisation was the process of filling or replacing white settlers in their jobs by native Zambians.

With the nationalisation also came the creation of parastatal companies under a conglomerate called Zambia Industrial and Mining Company (ZIMCO) though ZIMCO was also a merger of INDECO, MINDECO and FINDECO.

The parastatal companies grew Zambia’s middle class and provided employment for many Zambians even though most of these companies operated at losses.

I must hasten to say most of these companies were hit by the effects of low copper prices and high oil prices that hit the world economy in the mid 1970s.

Peace and Stability

KK is remembered for the long peace that Zambia enjoyed though this was done mostly through authoritarian rule.

Violence that was brought about by differences between government and the Lenshina sect (a religious movement that discouraged its members from voting) of Chinsali, had KK to institute measures to contain the violence among them the introduction of the state of emergency.

Additionally, Zambia was being divided on regional or tribal lines of which KK’s cabinet was not spared of.

As a result KK abolished plural party politics and adopted the ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ motto to bring about unity among the 73 tribes of Zambia. He also encouraged inter marriages between tribes to further foster unity and integration of Zambians.

One important hallmark of he’s presidency he cut short his term as president, accepted to change the constitution without a referendum to allow back multi-partism in Zambia after a 1972 referendum allowed one partism!

Foreign Policy

KK’s foreign policy was that of being non- aligned though there was an inclination towards the eastern bloc. He was once chairman for the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Non-Aligned Movement and the Front Line States.

The front line states were instrumental in liberating southern Africa that included South Africa, Zimbabwe, th Mozambique, Namibia and Angola.

The quest to liberate southern Africa and the free Mandela crusade was also supported by the late Julius Nyerere among other African liberation leaders.

As a result of KK involvement and persuasions the entire southern Africa was liberated and so was Nelson Mandela released.

Conclusion

KK had his faults but we cannot take away his achievements of seeing native Africans being liberated from colonial rule and his emphasis on seeing an educated Zambia of which many have benefited from and are spread all over the world carrying the Zambian flag.