Tales from Africa part I

Kenneth Kaunda, (born April 28, 1924) served as the first president of Zambia, from 1964 to
1991. He played a major role in Zambia's independence movement which sought to free itself
from Rhodesia and white minority rule. For his efforts, Kaunda suffered imprisonment and
several confrontations with rival groups.

From the time he became President until his fall from power in 1991, Kaunda ruled under
emergency powers, eventually banning all parties except his own United National Independence
Party.

Early life

Kaunda was born a presbyterian was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa
Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. His father was the
Reverend David Kaunda, an ordained Church of Scotland missionary and teacher, who was
born in Malawi and had moved to Chinsali to work at Lubwa Mission. He attended Munali
Training Centre in Lusaka (August 1941–1943).

Kaunda was first a teacher at the Upper Primary School and boarding master at Lubwa and
then headmaster at Lubwa from 1943 to 1945. He left Lubwa for Lusaka to become an
instructor in the army, but was dismissed. He was for a time working at the Salisbury and
Bindura Mine. In early 1948, he became a teacher in Mufulira for the United Missions to the
Copperbelt (UMCB). He was then assistant at an African welfare center and Boarding Master of
a mine school in Mufulira. In this period, he led a Pathfinder Scout group and was choirmaster
at a Church of Central Africa Congregation. He was also for a time vice-secretary of the
Nchanga Branch of Congress.
Presidency

Kaunda ruled under a state of emergency from the time he became president until his fall from
power in 1991. Becoming increasingly intolerant of opposition, Kaunda eventually banned all
parties except his own UNIP, following violence during the 1968 elections.
His presidency saw great reforms in education, at the time of independence, Zambia had just
109 university graduates and less than 0.5 percent of the population was estimated to have
completed primary education. The nation's educational system was one of the most poorly
developed in all of Britain's former colonies. Kaunda instituted a policy where all children,
irrespective of their parents' ability to pay, were given free exercise books, pens and pencils.
The parents' main responsibility was to buy uniforms, pay a token "school fee," and ensure that
the children attended school. Not every child could go to secondary school, however.

The University of Zambia was opened in Lusaka in 1966, after Zambians all over the country
had been encouraged to donate whatever they could afford toward its construction. Kaunda had
himself appointed chancellor and officiated at the first graduation ceremony in 1969. The main
campus was situated on the Great East Road, while the medical campus was located at
Ridgeway near the University Teaching Hospital. In 1979, another campus was established at
the Zambia Institute of Technology in Kitwe.

On the economy front at independence, Zambia was a country with an economy largely under
the control of white Africans and foreigners. For example, the British South Africa Company
(BSAC) retained commercial assets and mineral rights that it claimed it acquired from a
concession signed with the Litunga of Bulozi in 1890 (the Lochner Concession). By threatening
to expropriate it, on the eve of independence, Kaunda managed to get the BSAC to assign its
mineral rights to the incoming Zambian government. Zambia under Kaunda's leadership
instituted a program of national development plans, under the direction of the National
Commission for Development Planning: first, the Transitional Development Plan, which was
followed by the First National Development Plan (1966–1971). These two plans provided for
major investment in infrastructure and manufacturing. They were generally successful. This was
not true for subsequent plans.

On foreign policy during the Cold War years Kaunda was a strong supporter of the so-called
"Non-Aligned Movement." He hosted a NAM summit in Lusaka in 1970 and served as the
movement’s chairman from 1970 to 1973. He maintained warm relations with the People's
Republic of China who had provided assistance on many projects in Zambia. He also had a
close friendship with Yugoslavia's long-time leader Tito. He had frequent differences with United
States President Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher mainly over what he saw
as the West's blind eye to apartheid, in addition to his economic and social policies. In the late
1980s, prior to the first Gulf War, Kaunda developed a friendship with Saddam Hussein with
whom he struck various agreements to supply oil to Zambia.

His eventual fall from power was mainly due to economic troubles and increasing international
pressure for more democracy forced Kaunda to change the rules that had kept him in power for
so many years. People who had been afraid to criticize him were now emboldened to challenge
his competence. His close friend Julius Nyerere had stepped down from the presidency in
Tanzania in 1985 and was quietly encouraging Kaunda to follow suit. Pressure for a return to
multi-party politics increased, and Kaunda finally yielded and called for new elections in 1991, in
which the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) won. Kaunda left office with the
inauguration of MMD leader Frederick Chiluba as president on November 2, 1991.

Kenneth Kaunda retired from office in 1991 when Frederick Chiluba came to power in the first
multiparty election in Zambia following the legalization of opposition parties in 1990. He moved
to London where he continued to be concerned with the policies and programs of his native
country.