Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth Kaunda

[[Image:{{{image name}}}|225px|center|Kenneth Kaunda]]
1st President of the Zambia
Term of office	{{{date1}}} – {{{date2}}}
Preceded by	{{{preceded}}}
Succeeded by	{{{succeeded}}}
Date of birth	{{{date of birth}}}
Place of birth	{{{place of birth}}}
Date of death	{{{date of death}}}
Place of death	{{{place of death}}}
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Political party	United National Independence Party

Kenneth David Kaunda, (born April 28, 1924) served as the first President of Zambia, from 1964 to 1991. He played a a major role in Zambia's independence movement which sought to free itself from Rhodesia and white minority rule. For his efforts, Kaundra 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. While President, he dealt in autocratic fashion with severe economic problems and challenges to his power, alligning his country against the West and attempting, with little success to institute Soviet-style ecnomic policies. Eventually because of mounting international pressure for more democracy in Africa, and continuing economic problems, Kaunda was forced out of office in 1991.

Early life

Kaunda 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 Centre and Boarding Master of a Mine School in Mufulira. In this period, 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.

Independence struggle

Location of Northern Rhodesia, today called Zambia

In 1949 Kanudra became an interpreter and adviser on African affairs to Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, a white settler and a member of the Northern Rhodesian Legislative Council. Kaunda acquired knowledge of the colonial government and learned valuable political skills, both of which served him well when later that year he joined the African National Congress (ANC), the first major anticolonial organization in Northern Rhodesia. In the early 1950s Kaunda became the ANC's secretary-general. He served as a organizing officer, a role that brought him into close contact with the movement's rank and file. Thus, when the leadership of the ANC clashed over strategy in 1958–59, Kaunda carried a major part of the ANC operating structure into a new organization, the Zambia African National Congress.

In April 1949 Kaunda returned to Lubwa to become part-time teacher, but resigned in 1951. In that year he became Organising Secretary of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress for Northern Province, which included at that time Luapula Province. On 11 November 1953 he moved to Lusaka to take up the post of Secretary General of the ANC, under the presidency of Harry Nkumbula. The combined efforts of Kaunda and Nkumbula at that time were unsuccessful in mobilizing African people against the White-dominated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1955 Kaunda and Nkumbula were imprisoned for two months at hard labor for distributing "subversive" literature. Such imprisonment and other forms of harassment were customary for African nationalist leaders. However, the experience of imprisonment had a radicalizing impact on Kaunda.

Kanuda and Nkumbula drifted apart as Nkumbula became increasingly influenced by white liberals and was seen as being willing to compromise on the issue of Black majority rule. Nkumbula's allegedly autocratic leadership of the ANC eventually resulted in a complete split. Kaunda broke from the ANC and formed the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC) in October 1958. ZANC was banned in March 1959. In June 1959 Kaunda was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, which he spent first in Lusaka, then in Salisbury (Harare).

While Kaunda was in prison, Mainza Chona and other nationalists broke away from the ANC. In October 1959, Chona became the first president of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), the successor to ZANC. However, Chona did not see himself as the party's main founder. When Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960 he was elected President of UNIP. In July 1961 Kaunda organized a violent civil disobedience campaign in Northern Province which consisted of burning schools and blocking roads. He ran as a UNIP candidate during the 1962 elections. This resulted in a UNIP–ANC Coalition Government, with Kaunda as Minister of Local Government and Social Welfare. In January 1964, UNIP won the general election under the new Constitution, beating the ANC under Nkumbula. Kaunda was appointed Prime Minister. On 24 October 1964 he became the first President of independent Zambia. Simon Kapwepwe was appointed as the first Vice President.

Presidency

Kaundra 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 party UNIP, following violence during the 1968 elections. In 1964, the year of Zambia's independence, Kaunda had to deal with the independent Lumpa Church, led by Alice Lenshina in Chinsali, his home district in the Northern Province. His struggles with the Lumpa Church became a constant problem for Kanuda.

By 1958 the Lumpa Church adopted the rejection of all earthly authority. It began using its own courts and refused to pay taxes or be registered with the state. Its members were not allowed to participate in politics. The Lumpa Church tried to take up a neutral position in the political conflict between UNIP and the ANC, but was then accused by UNIP of collaboration with the White minority governments. Conflicts arose between UNIP youth and Lumpa members, especially in Chinsali District, the headquarters of the church. Kaunda, as Prime Minister, sent in two battalions of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment, which led to the deaths of about 1500 villagers and the flight to Katanga of tens of thousands of followers of Lenshina. Kaunda banned the Lumpa Church in August 1964 and proclaimed a state of emergency that was retained until 1991.

Educational policies

At independence Zambia had just 109 university graduates and less than 0.5 perecent 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. In 1988 the Kitwe campus was upgraded and renamed the Copperbelt University, offering business studies, industrial studies and environmental studies. The University of Zambia offered courses in agriculture, education, engineering, humanities and social sciences, law, medicine, mining, natural sciences, and veterinary medicine. The basic program is four years long, although engineering and medical courses are five and seven years long, respectively.

Other tertiary-level institutions established during Kaunda's era were vocationally focused and fell under the aegis of the Department of Technical Education and Vocational Training. They include the Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce and the Natural Resources Development College (both in Lusaka), the Northern Technical College at Ndola, the Livingstone Trades Training Institute in Livingstone, and teacher-training colleges.

Economic policies

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. At independence, Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia, was much more developed than Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

In 1975, a slump in copper prices and a severe decrease in export earnings resulted in Zambia havintg a massive balance of payments crisis and debt to the International Monetary Fund.

Following in the steps of the Soviet Union, 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 (1966–71). These two plans provided for major investment in infrastructure and manufacturing. They were generally successful. This was not true for subsequent plans.

A major switch in the structure of Zambia's economy came with the Mulungushi Reforms of April 1968: the government declared its intention to acquire an equity holding (usually 51 percent or more) in a number of key foreign-owned firms, to be controlled by the Industrial Development Corporation (INDECO). By January 1970, Zambia had acquired majority holding in the Zambian operations of the two major foreign mining corporations, the Anglo American Corporation and the Rhodesia Selection Trust (RST); the two became the Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines (NCCM) and Roan Consolidated Mines (RCM), respectively.

Kaunda announced the creation of a new company owned or controlled wholly or partly by the government—the Mining Development Corporation (MINDECO). The Finance and Development Corporation (FINDECO) allowed the Zambian government to gain control of insurance companies and building societies. Foreign-owned banks, such as Barclays, Standard Chartered and Grindlays, however, successfully resisted takeover. In 1971, INDECO, MINDECO, and FINDECO were brought together under a government owned entity or parastatal, the Zambia Industrial and Mining Corporation (ZIMCO), to create one of the largest companies in sub-Saharan Africa, with Kaunda as Chairman of the Board. The management contracts under which day-to-day operations of the mines had been carried out by Anglo American and RST were ended in 1973. In 1982 NCCM and RCM were merged into the giant Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd (ZCCM).

Unfortunately for Kaunda and Zambia, these programs of nationalization were ill-timed. Events that were beyond their control would wreck the country's plans for national development. In 1973 the massive increase in the price of oil was followed by a slump in copper prices in 1975 and a diminution of export earnings. In 1973 the price of copper accounted for 95 percent of all export earnings; this halved in value on the world market in 1975. By 1976 Zambia had a balance-of-payments crisis, and rapidly became massively indebted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Third National Development Plan (1978–83) had to be abandoned as crisis management replaced long-term planning.

By the mid-1980s Zambia was one of the most indebted nations in the world, relative to its gross domestic product (GDP). The IMF was insisting that the Zambian government should introduce programs aimed at stabilizing the economy and restructuring it to reduce dependence on copper. The proposed measures included: the ending of price controls; devaluation of the kwacha (Zambia's currency); cut-backs in government expenditure; cancellation of subsidies on food and fertilizer; and increased prices for farm produce. Kaunda's removal of food subsidies caused massive increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs; the country's urban population rioted in protest. In desperation, Kaunda broke with the IMF in May 1987 and introduced a New Economic Recovery Programme in 1988. However, this failed to achieve success, and he eventually moved toward a new understanding with the IMF in 1989.

In 1990, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Kaunda was forced to make a major policy shift: he announced the intention to partially privatize the parastatals. However, these changes came too late to prevent his fall from power, which was largely the result of the economic troubles.

One-Party State and "African Socialism"

In 1964, Kaunda declared a state of emergency to deal with the Lumpa Church crisis, a state which gave him nearly absolute power and lasted until Kaunda left office in 1991. Violence that began on a small scale escalated into a small civil war in which several thousand people were reportedly killed.

Kaunda increasingly became intolerant of opposition and banned all parties except UNIP, following violence during the 1968 elections. In 1972, he made Zambia a one-party state. The ANC ceased to exist after the dissolution of parliament in October 1973. Allegedly Kaunda "bought off" Nkumbula by offering him an emerald mine.

With no more opposition against him, Kaunda fostered the creation of a personality cult. He developed a national ideology, called "Zambian Humanism." To elaborate his ideology, Kaunda published several books: Humanism in Zambia and a Guide to its Implementation, Parts 1, 2 and 3. Other publications on Zambian Humanism are: Fundamentals of Zambian Humanism, by Timothy Kandeke; Zambian Humanism, religion and social morality, by Cleve Dillion-Malone S.J. andZambian Humanism: some major spiritual and economic challenges, by Justin B. Zulu.

Many believe that Kenneth Kaunda's Socialist Humanism, which pursued nationalisation and other socialist policies actually bankrupted the nation.

In 1967, Kaunda signed a treaty with Red China and two years later nationalised all foreign industries and corporations. In 1972, the Assembly passed a law making the ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP) the only legal party. All other political parties were brutally suppressed. The prisons were filled with political opponents and critics of the President. Zambia then signed a treaty with the Soviet Union. Some of the highest ranking Soviet officials - including the Soviet President - visited the country. Soviet, North Korean and Cuban military advisors were a common sight.

Between 1967 -1972, Zambia played host to an assortment of Marxist revolutionaries - the MPLA, Frelimo, ZANU, ZAPU, SWAPO, the PAC and the ANC. All of these revolutionary movements used Zambia as a launching pad for terrorist attacks - against Mozambique and Angola (when they were controlled by the Portuguese), South West Africa, Rhodesia and South Africa. Tens of thousands of people were crippled or killed by the Soviet and Red Chinese armaments and bombs that came through Zambia. SWAPO and the ANC even ran concentration camps in Zambia for their own dissidents. Thousands of members of SWAPO and the ANC were murdered by their own people on Zambian soil. Those who escaped were hunted down by the Zambian police and handed back to SWAPO or the ANC for torture or execution

Foreign policy

During his early presidency he was an outspoken supporter of the anti-apartheid movement and opposed Ian Smith's white minority rule in Rhodesia. Kaunda allowed several African liberation fronts such as ZAPU and ZANU of Rhodesia and African National Congress to set headquarters in Zambia.

Joshua Nkomo, the leader of ZAPU, stationed a military base in Zambia. In retaliation the White minority governments of Rhodesia and South Africa frequently led espionage raids and bombing attacks in Zambia. Herbert Chitepo, prominent ZANU leader, was killed in a car bomb in Lusaka in 1975. The struggle in both Rhodesia and South Africa and its offshoot wars in Namibia, Angola and Mozambique placed a huge economic burden on Zambia as these were the country's main trading partners. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 the first country he visited was Zambia.

During the Cold War years Kaunda was a strong supporter of the 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 but cordial differences with President Reagan whom he met 1983 and Margaret Thatcher mainly over what he saw as the West's blind eye to apartheid. 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.

UNIP and the Second Republic

After promulgation of the Second Republic, following Mainza Chona's recommendations in 1972 for the constitution of a "one-party participatory democracy," Kaunda's leadership took on more autocratic characteristics. He personally appointed the Central Committee of UNIP, although the process was given a veneer of legitimacy by being "approved" by a National Congress of the party. Although Kaunda's nominations could be discarded by Congress, in practice they were always accepted without modification. The argument used was that "the President knows the people who can work well with him, so if we modify the nominations we will end up with a less effective team." In turn, the Central Committee nominated a sole candidate for the post of President of the party. Of course, since the members of the Central Committee had been nominated by him, Kaunda was always the sole presidential candidate.

The rest of the Zambian population was given the opportunity to express approval or disapproval of the sole candidate's nomination by voting either "Yes" or "No." Since the presidential "election" was always accompanied by parliamentary elections, there was great pressure placed on parliamentary candidates to "campaign" for the president's "Yes" vote, in addition to their own campaigns. Parastatals companies (which were controlled through ZIMCO - Zambia Industrial and Mining Corporation) were also under pressure to "campaign" for Kaunda by buying advertising space in the two national newspapers (Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail) exhorting the electorate to give the president a "massive 'Yes' vote."

The parliamentary elections were also controlled by Kaunda: the names of candidates had to be submitted to UNIP's Central Committee, which then selected three people to stand for any particular constituency. Anyone could be vetoed without the Central Committee giving any reason, since UNIP was supreme and its decisions were unchallengeable. Using these methods, Kaunda kept any enemies at bay by ensuring that they never got into political power.

This was the tactic that he used to deal with challegnes to his auto-cratic one-party state, such as national activists Harry Mwaanga and Baldwin Nkumbula, both of which were heavily involved in the struggle for independence from Northern Rhodesia, and a challenge from Simon Kapwepwe, another leader of the independence movement, who was against Kaunda's sole candidacy for the 1978 UNIP elections. On that occasion, the UNIP's constitution was "amended" overnight to bring in rules that invalidated the two challengers' nominations: Kapwepwe was told he could not stand because only people who had been members for five years could be nominated to the presidency (he had only rejoined UNIP three years before); Nkumbula was outmaneuvered by introducing a new rule that said each candidate needed the signatures of 200 delegates from each province to back his candidacy. A third candidate called Chiluwe was beaten up by the UNIP Youth Wing, so that he was in no state to submit his nomination.

Fall from power

Eventually, however, economic troubles and increasing international pressure for more democracy to Africa forced Kaunda to change the rules that had kept him in power for so many years. People who had been afraid to criticise him were now emboldened to challenge his competence. His close friend Julius Nyerere had stepped down from the republican presidency in Tanzania in 1985 and was quietly encouraging Kaunda to follow suit. Pressure for a return to multiparty politics increased and Kaunda voluntarily yielded and called for multiparty 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.

Post presidency

After his successful bid for the Presidency, Chiluba attempted to deport Kaunda on the grounds that he was not Zambianan, but from neighboring [[Malawi]. The MMD dominated government under the leadership of Chiluba had the constitution amended, barring citizens with foreign parentage from standing for the presidency, and to prevent Kaunda from contesting the next elections in 1996. Kaunda retired from politics after he was accused of involvement in a failed 1997 coup attempt.

After retiring, Kanuda has been involved in various charitable organizations. From 2002 to 2004, he was an African President in Residence at Boston University.

Recently, he was seen in the attendance of an episode of Dancing With The Stars as Kaunda is an avid ballroom dancer.

Legacy

Kennth Kaundra is regarded as the first President of Zambia and one of the major leaders of Zambia's independance movement. But many of the methods he used and his alliances with the Soviet Union and Cuba branded him in the eyes of many as a socialist revolutionary. He is remembered as an autocractic ruler with his "one party" state.

Present day Zambia is one of Sub-Saharan Africa's most highly urbanized countries. About 5 million of the country's 10 million people are concentrated in a few urban zones, while rural areas are under-populated, unemployment and underemployment are serious problems. Per capita annual incomes are currently at about one-half their levels at independence, which place the country among the world's poorest nations. Social indicators continue to decline, particularly in measurements of life expectancy at birth (about 35 years) and maternal and infant mortality (95 per 1,000 live births). The high population growth rate of 2.3% per annum makes it difficult for per capita income to increase. The country's rate of economic growth cannot support its fast population growth and the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, such as rising medical costs, street children, the decline in worker productivity and the added economic burden placed on the government.

Notes==

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• "Kaunda, Kenneth."Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Online. URL:http://search.eb.com/eb/article-3849 Accessed May 19, 2006.
• Fergus Macpherson, Kenneth Kaunda: The Times and the Man (1974)
• Richard Hall, The High Price of Principles: Kaunda and the White South (1969)
• David C. Mulford, Zambia: The Politics of Independence, 1957–1964 (1967)
• At Ipenburg, 'All Good Men.' The Development of Lubwa Mission, Chinsali, Zambia, 1905-1967 (1992)

http://www.frontline.org.za/news/zimbabwe_zambia.htm, August 16, 2007 http://www.frontline.org.za/news/vol%202%201995/ReformationInZambia.htm, August 16, 2007

See also

• Michael Sata
• Harry Nkumbula
• Simon Kapwepwe
• History of Church activities in Zambia

External links

• 1964: President Kaunda takes power in Zambia
• Kaunda on Mugabe

Preceded by: (–)	Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia 1964	Succeeded by: (–)
Preceded by: (none)	President of Zambia 1964–1991	Succeeded by: Frederick Chiluba

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