scot47

Mixed feelings. I cannot help thinking that things could have worked out better. As a young man in my twenties I worked in the newly-independent state and thought that we were creating a better Africa. Was I delusional ?

scot47

I am Africa's first white democratic leader, says Zambian vice-president - Telegraph

scot47

I was in Zambia in the 1970s, just at the time a friend was leaving. Here are his thoughts


From my friend Doug Grewar-


I have just read though all the comments on the thread started by Bruce Vevers who asked, “How can anybody celebrate 50 years of independence when 30 years was under a dictator Kenneth Kaunda”. I find some truth in nearly all of these comments both negative and positive.

I was a member of UNIP in 1963 and chairman of the Mufulira Town Branch. As a member of a mixed race family I supported and still do support Kaunda's policy of humanism that promises fair and equal treatment to all. It is basically the golden rule of the Christian Bible that says, "Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself." In RSA it is called Ubuntu.

In late 1963 the UNIP Central Committee selected me to stand as candidate for the Copperbelt North Constituency that covered Mufulira and the Luapula Province. It was one of the 10 seats on the reserved roll for Whites in the pre-independence elections of January 20th and 21st of 1964. I received all the Luapula votes but because of there being more reserved roll voters in Mufulira my opponent Peter Wulff of Welensky's National Progressive Party won.

Northern Rhodesian general election, 1964 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Because of my marriage to a Coloured lady and my support of UNIP I was verbally and physically abused by several of my fellow White miners so I most certainly do understand and sympathize with those who have suffered the evils of oppression and discrimination from racists.

I then left the mines and started several business enterprises. Cash flow was always a problem as I am sure many small business member of NRZ have found out. Things deteriorated but became especially hard in the Mufulira area after the mine collapse.

Because of the economic mess caused by KK's economic policies and other factors such as the collapse of the copper price and the confrontation with Rhodesia, I could no longer earn a living in Zambia and I had to emigrate in 1976. I left behind 3 farms, shops, blocks of flats, my vehicles, my firearms and also my wife and daughter who were going to join me in Australia as soon as I had found a job and a house. I left with a suitcase and the magnificent sum of £2000 emigration allowance. I lost a lifetime’s hard work, I lost my family and I lost my dreams.

I failed to get an entry permit to OZ because they had no vacancies for copper miners or tobacco farmers so I ended up wandering around the world for 2 years; Southern Rhodesia, South Africa; Namibia, Malawi, Italy, Germany, and England before finally settling in Swaziland. My wife back in Zambia got fed up with waiting so she divorced me and married a Irishman. She later divorced him so he must have been as bad a bastard as me!

I was quite bitter and so I do understand the bitterness of those to whom the transition caused problems and losses.

However in my old age I have mellowed and I can look back with a fairly open mind because the ancestral spirits of Mother Africa have been kind to me. I remarried, made a new Swazi family and built up several businesses and have ended up wealthier than I ever was in Zambia.

When we look at the disasters of KK’s economic reforms we must remember that he was under severe pressure from his voters to meet what they call ‘the crisis of expectations’. Western people who have a long history of politics have learned to become skeptical about politicians promises. In Africa where politics was a new thing the unsophisticated voters really believed the politicians promises and wanted instant economic rewards, so Kaunda had to do something to forestall a violent reaction. I remember people actually turning up at the banks in Mufulira with wheelbarrows to collect the money that they had been promised. They were extremely bitter and disappointed when they were told first they had to put money into the bank before they could take it out.

KK’s solution was the Mulungushi Economic Reforms of April 1968 when the government declared its intention to acquire equity holdings (usually 51% or more) in a number of key foreign-owned firms, to be controlled by a parastatal conglomerate named the Industrial Development Corporation (INDECO). This made the voters think that the government was actually doing something to improve their economic position but and we now know that in the end it all backfired and was a major contributor to economic disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Zambia
As for the confrontation with Southern Rhodesia, with 20:20 hindsight one wonders if Perfidious Albion had had the guts to step in November 1965 and nip UDI in the bud how differently would the Central African situation turned out. The pointless death of thousands of people, including several of my friends, could have been avoided. Black majority rule would have been attained peacefully maybe by 1970 and the government would probably have been composed (like Zambia’s and Botswana’s) of more moderate Africans. The Rhodesian decision to fight the pointless bush war destroyed the credibility of the moderates and allowed Mugabe’s murderous rabble of extremist racist lunatics to rise to power. So Kaunda and Zambia was the victim of the British vacillation. Ali Simbule put it very well when he said, “The British Government is like a toothless bulldog, wagging its tail in front of Ian Smith and fearing him like hell.

Another criticism of KK’s rule is his creation of the one party state and interment of suspected opposition members. This was done to counter the serious threat posed by my wife’s uncle Simon Mwanza BaShimpundu Kapwepwe when he broke away from UNIP to form the United Peoples Party (UPP) based on the abaBemba nation. There were also (and still are) separatists in Barotseland who wished to secede from Zambia. Kaunda had to keep the peace and hold the country of Zambia together. His reaction was quite harsh and hundreds (maybe thousands) of people were interned without trial in prison camps at opposite corners of the country to where they lived. My own Brother in Law Freddie Rumsey (Chief Cheswa) was taken from his home in Chinsali and imprisoned in Chipata. We were regularly visited and harassed by the secret police in the early hours of the morning and life became scary. However those evil days have passed and Zambia is still intact, still at peace and progressing.

So taking all the factors into account I think KK has done better than any of his compatriots in the neighboring countries, apart maybe from Botswana, and we should give him our best wishes on the 50th birthday of Zambia, the country that he played a major role in creating. Twa totela Mukwai baKaunda, Muleyenda na Mutende baShikulu!