EFF BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO PRESIDENT KENNETH KAUNDA

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

The Economic Freedom Fighters join millions of African compatriots in Zambia, in the Southern Africa region, the continent at large, and those in the diaspora in wishing a very happy birthday to the founding President of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda.

President Kaunda was born on the 28th of April in 1924 and today celebrates 96 years of life exceptionally lived in the service of others. KK, as he is affectionately known, is one of the few living leaders from a generation of African leaders who cleared the way so that we, those who come after them, can walk the path towards full African liberation with a little more clarity. The generation includes the likes of Oliver Tambo, Julius Nyerere, Samora Machel, Robert Mugabe, Sam Nujoma, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, and many others. Only KK and President Sam Nujoma, who himself will turn 91 on the 12th of May, are still alive.

President Kaunda became the first president of a liberated Zambia in 1964 after protracted struggles against British colonialism, which had sought to extract as much natural wealth from Zambia as possible. He inherited a country torn asunder by imperialism and greed, and led to freedom a people who were, as Patrice Lumumba aptly put it “Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults, and blows because we were Negroes.” As all national liberation leaders were to find out, KK also found a country that was thoroughly neglected, whose economy was only meant to serve the colonial masters, and whose people were only as good insofar as they could provide cheap, easily exploitable labour for the colonial companies.

When he took over power, Northern Rhodesia, as Zambia was known, had only produced 100 African university graduates, 1500 Zambians with school certificate, and only 6000 junior secondary education in 75 years of colonial administration. KK’s administration rapidly expanded education access in Zambia, and placed the State at the centre of education provision, in contrast to missionary led education that was the hallmark of colonial education. His government provided free textbooks, pens, and pencils to all students, and was focused on ensuring that very few capable Zambian youths were left behind. He led the establishment of the University of Zambia in 1966, a mere two years after taking power, this ensured the development of a capable layer of Zambian citizens who would provide the necessary labour force for the development of the country.

He also immediately introduced centralised economic planning, and the government took a majority shareholding in almost all the mining companies and created a State-owned mining company. He was relentless in ensuring that Zambian wealth was under the control of Zambian people as a whole. At a time when former colonial powers were circling over newly independent nations, trying to create client states out of independent African nations, KK resisted neo-colonial efforts to control the affairs of Zambia remotely.

KK was, and remains one of the most intellectually advanced African nationalists. He knew quite well the dangers of tribal differences and sought to instil a culture of one nation, bound by both the past and the future. He insisted that the motto on the Zambian Coat of Arms be One Zambia, One Nation. He repeatedly chanted this motto until the people of Zambia associated it with his name; this he did to inculcate amongst Zambian’s a sense of national pride, which supersedes all tribal loyalties. It did not end there, like most of his counterparts at the time; KK knew very well that the independence and prosperity of Zambia could only be sustainable if it was linked to the independence and prosperity of other African nations. Thus, he added to his One Zambia, One Nation motto a continental dimension by proclaiming “One Africa, One Revolution,” which translated into material support for the liberation movements in Southern Africa. He was a pioneer for liberation struggles in South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

More poignantly, the African National Congress’s headquarters were in Lusaka, Zambia, for the duration of their exiled struggle for freedom in South Africa. He provided land to the ANC; he provided education to their exiled comrades. Without leaders such as KK, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, and other African leaders, the political freedom we now have in this country would have become a practical impossibility. Our freedom today is a reality because of the sacrifices and material support we received from other African nations, with Zambia at the forefront. It is perhaps an indictment on the leaders of the post-1994 era in South Africa that we have no developed a Pan-Africanist culture in our society today, which makes it easy for South Africans to hate their African siblings.

In celebrating the 96th year of the life of a living legend, we recommit ourselves to the timeless ideal of the unification of the African continent and her people. If Africa fails to unite and chart a common developmental path forward, we would have failed President Kaunda and his compatriots.

We say happy birthday President Kaunda, may you be blessed with more years ahead.