Kenneth Kaunda's global stature: what made him tick as Zambia's most famous man

Kaunda’s internationalism made him Zambia’s most famous man

Kaunda

VICTOR KALALANDA, Lusaka

I WAS the only Zambian joining two Swiss families for dinner, not more than a year ago, in Zurich, Switzerland.

As we sat, huddled around a table, one of the diners stared in my direction and let out a question he had been nursing that night.

“Hey, Victor,” he said, “so where are you comin’ from?”

“Zambia,” I said.

“Zambia? Who’s the president there? Kenneth Kaunda?”

That question left me gobsmacked and sent me wondering at the magnitude of Kenneth Kaunda’s fame, one so global and iconic that nearly three decades after he had left the presidency, an elderly European man still thought that this patriarch of independence was still Zambia’s leader.

This experience is not unique to me, but has been shared by many other Zambians, like the controversial US-based writer, Field Ruwe, who after introducing himself was told that he hailed from “Kaunda’s country”, at a time when Michael Sata was Zambia’s president.

Such was the global stature to which Kaunda had raised himself as he rubbed an international sheen onto his politics, becoming, in his prime, a more relatable icon of Zambia than the Victoria Falls or the country’s tall building, Findeco House, which is being dwarfed by modern infrastructure.

But what exactly did Kaunda, who died on Thursday aged 97 and was affectionately known as KK, do to leave almost every Zambian sort of moving in the shadow of his fame, power and influence?

The secret lies in his brand of internationalism – in the advocacy for cooperation and understanding between nations – and in the strategic visits he undertook to meet and hobnob with similarly larger-than-life personalities of his time.

Four years before he became president, KK visited legendary American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta, Georgia, where they together renounced US investment in apartheid South Africa. Such solidarity provided by KK already helped establish him as an international leader.

While in America and warming towards leading independent Zambia in 1964, Kaunda went on to meet another civil rights leader, the controversial Malcolm X, whose language of violence in the black freedom movement opposed that of nonviolence by Dr King. But Kaunda, like Dr King, was a pacifist.

And when he had finally led Zambia to independence, ahead of other African countries like Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia), Kaunda found himself as president of a country caught up in the middle of the southern Africa battlefield.

As such, he became the most important mediator between whites and blacks, and sacrificed the resources of Zambia to help set free many African countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, as noted by renowned University of Zambia political historian Sishuwa Sishuwa.

“As well as serving as the long-time base for the African National Congress (South Africa’s ANC) – hosting many of its leaders such as Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki, and Jacob Zuma – Zambia also led the diplomatic offensive on the international stage against apartheid South Africa, the continued imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the preservation of white minority rule in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique,” says Dr Sishuwa.

In a candid and impassioned speech delivered at the White House in April 1975, during Gerald Ford’s administration, Kaunda sought international cooperation in finding a lasting solution to the conflicts in southern Africa.

“To build genuine peace in southern Africa,” Kaunda told the White House audience, “we must recognise with honesty the root causes of the existing conflict. First, colonialism in Rhodesia and Namibia. The existence of a rebel regime in Rhodesia has since compounded that problem. Second, apartheid and racial domination in South Africa. Over the last few years, a number of catalytic factors have given strength to these forces of evil. External economic and strategic interests have flourished colonial and apartheid regimes. Realism and moral conscience dictate that those who believe in peace must join hands in promoting conditions for peace. We cannot declare our commitment to peace and yet strengthen forces which stand in the way of the attainment of that peace.”

Such great panache exhibited at a very high level of government, in the world’s most powerful country, elevated Kaunda as probably the most important African leader in the 1970s. Kaunda was becoming a household name around the world as major news organisations like the New York Times gave him generous press coverage in headlines such as “Kaunda: ‘Dismayed’ by America.”

In his international role as an African statesman, Kaunda had essentially taken over from Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, who died in 1972, but had earlier greatly mobilised East and West support for the development and liberation of Africa, and had enjoyed a personal relationship with then US President John F Kennedy.

It is no wonder Kaunda became very good friends with infamous Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, who offered aid to Zambia and after whom Kaunda named Zambian roads (Saddam Hussein Road, now Los Angeles Road) and who he also tried to persuade, though abortively, not to invade the Kuwait spot that brought him into conflict with British and American forces.

Such advocacy for peace and cooperation between nations is what has led many to believe that Kaunda has been denied the Nobel Peace Prize, having long been known as the “Gandhi of Africa” and the “George Washington of Africa”. In fact, the demand for a posthumous award of the prize will likely heighten with KK’s death.

Accordingly, Kaunda’s name became a global brand the more he travelled the world to attract investment or promote the cause of global peace following interactions with different presidents and leaders.

During his illustrious political career, he met almost all the powerful and controversial men and women of his time. These, to mention a few, include Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong (Mao Tsetung), Haile Selassie, Hu Jintao and Ronald Reagan.

It is against this backdrop that Kaunda’s fame pervaded throughout the world to establish him as a global statesman.

Back at home, one of Kaunda’s greatest legacies was the provision of free education, which at tertiary level he accomplished through the creation of the University of Zambia (UNZA), which has since proven his succession plan because of the many leaders it has produced after him.

When laying down the foundation for UNZA, Kaunda reportedly broke down in the presence of his Tanzanian counterpart, Julius Nyerere, and later stated, during the opening ceremony of the university’s main library, that “let every good thing that shall come out of this building be to the greater glory of the people”.

Ever since Kaunda left power on November 2, 1991, UNZA graduates have helped shape the country’s political dispensation, serving even at the top as vice-presidents and presidents, a perfect example being President Edgar Lungu.

In his wake, many will remember Kaunda as a top leader who responded effectively to the demands of his time, which required a big politician with a big heart.

As he went about doing, in good faith, much that was handed to him by Providence, he ended up as Zambia’s most famous man, a feat indelibly engraved in the annals of history.