By Rt. Rev. Dr. Musonda Trevor Selwyn Mwamba; President of the United National Independence Party (UNIP).
60 years ago, on 24th October 1964, Zambia was born as a nation. If we liken it to a person’s birth it was a moment of immense joy and hope.
Martin Buber the great philosopher described the significance of a birth in this profound thought:
“Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique, and every person’s foremost task is the actualisation of his or her unique, unprecedented, and never recurring possibilities.”
We can paraphrase this insightful thought by substituting person for nation and Zambia being that nation:
“Every nation born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique, and every nation’s foremost task is the actualisation of her unique, unprecedented, and never recurring possibilities.”
60 years ago a historic moment took place with the birth of Zambia. And since then yearly we seek to draw inspiration and hope from that moment of Independence so we lose not the purpose, sacrifice, and vision of our founders that brought about our freedom.
60 years on its significant for us to pause and reflect on our independence as Zambians with a spirit of gratitude.
60 Years Strong: Honouring Our Heritage, Embracing the Future means the hearts of the old must not forget and the new generation must learn to appreciate with gratitude the many sacrifices and sufferings the founders of modern Zambia went through to achieve our independence our freedom. We owe them much.
Every generation from independence and generations to come will forever be indebted to those who sacrificed and died to gain our independence. We can never take Zambia’s independence for granted.
This independence October 24, 2024, is ideal for us to pause and reflect and ask ourselves if we have lived up to the spirit of Independence this embracing the future in the now.
In pausing and reflecting on our independence may we become aware of vital truths of how Zambia got its name, how the date 24 October, 1964, was chosen as Independence Day; and the message of the national anthem.
Now our country was named Zambia by Mr Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, our first Foreign Minister and second Republican Vice President in 1958.
This is how it came about. In 1958 the young freedom fighters, among them, Munukayumbwa Sipalo, Reuben Kamanga, Whittington Sikalumbi, Simon Kapwepwe, and Kenneth Kaunda, left the African National Congress (ANC) led by Mr Harry Nkumbula, to form a new party.
They were visionary and looking to the future wanted a name for the country after which to name the new party, so Mr Whittington Sikalumbi, suggested the early Portuguese name Zambezia after the Zambezi river but Mr Kapwepwe shortened it to Zambia.
On October 24, 1958, the new party Zambia African Congress (ZANC) was born. It was banned shortly after but reborn as the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in 1959.
UNIP was a mass movement and functioned as a coalition of the ethnic groupings of Zambia.
Six years later the Independence Constitution provided that Northern Rhodesia would become a republic under the new name ‘Zambia’, with a president as its head of state.
The stage was set for independence.
Zambia’s independence day October 24, 1964, coinciding with the United Nations Day, was prudently chosen by our founders to connect with the goals and ideals of the United Nations Charter.
As fate would have it the greatest second Secretary General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold died in Zambia in 1961.
October 24, was also chosen by the founders because it’s the birthday of UNIP. The Constitution of the United National Independence Party under Article 3 – Events Festivities of the Party states simply: 24 October, 1958 – birth of the Party.
Reflecting further on Zambia’s independence a national anthem was chosen that embodied the spirit and soul of the nation.
The national anthem is actually a hymn with its roots in South Africa. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica, Lord Bless Africa. It was composed in 1897 by the Revered Enoch Sontonga a Methodist minister.
The song became a pan-African liberation song and versions of it were later adopted as the national anthems of five countries in Africa apart from Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. The song’s melody is still used in national anthems of Tanzania and Zambia. Zimbabwe and Namibia have since changed to new anthems with other melodies.
The Zambia national anthem invokes God, it exhorts God, and seeks God’s blessings and guidance on the country. Growing up I remember that every Zambian could proudly sing it by heart. In honouring our heritage every Zambian who doesn’t know the anthem should do so.
“Stand and sing of Zambia, proud and free, Land of work and joy in unity, Victors in the struggle for the rights, We’ve won freedom’s fight. All one, strong and free. II Africa is our own motherland, Fashion’d with and blessed by God’s good hand, Let us all her people join as one, Brothers under the sun. All one, strong and free. III One land and one nation is our cry, Dignity and peace ‘neath Zambia’s sky, Like our noble eagle in its flight, Zambia, praise to thee. All one, strong and free. Chorus: Praise be to God, Praise be, praise be, praise be, Bless our great nation, Zambia, Zambia, Zambia. Free men we stand Under the flag of our land. Zambia, praise to thee! All one, strong and free.
With the name Zambia in place, the date fixed October 24, 1964, and national anthem picked, Zambia was born with the hoisting of the Zambian flag at midnight on October 24, 1964.
The hoisting of the flag symbolised the lifting of the aspirations, dreams, hopes, and vision of every Zambian for a democratic and prosperous nation; where Zambians would live in peace and harmony regardless of their political, economic, social and religious beliefs.
Zambia’s birth represented something new which never existed before, something original and unique. The future pointed to the uplifting of the lives of the Zambian people.
Zambia was blessed at independence with leaders from all the provinces and races endowed with vision and a spirit of service and dedication to the nation.
The leaders cognisant of the challenges Zambia faced had the intelligence to perceive that she could not develop without peace and unity.
Accordingly the chief cornestone of Zambia became One Zambia One Nation which was refleced in the first cabinet.
The motto One Zambia One Nation originates from the UNIP Constitution under the Fundamental Principles and Objectives:
Article 2(1) says:
The motto of the Party shall be, ‘One Zambia One Nation’.
The motto of UNIP then became the motto of the nation. This motto is a prayer, a vow, a mantra, a vision of uniting the different ethnic groups, races, creed, religions, as one people in Zambia. It’s about an inclusive not exclusive Zambia where nobody should ever feel left out because we are all one.
The UNIP government made this motto a reality by abhorring tribalism. President Kaunda had a carefully crafted tribal balancing system in the cabinet, in the civil service, in the parastatals, and in all the appointments he made across the country so that not one ethnic group was left out or dominated.
Educationally, a system was created where students were moved from their provinces of origin to other provinces as part of the plan to create a nation that was One Zambia One Nation.
Economically, the promotion of One Zambia One Nation was done by ensuring that each of the provinces in Zambia had an industry to propel its development. For example, the pineapple industry in Mwinilunga , the Battery factory in Mansa, the car assembly plant in Livingstone, and the glass factory in Kapiri Mposhi.
One Zambia One Nation was the responsibility of every Zambian to build a wholistic united nation where everybody felt significant and included.
UNIP 60 years ago planted a seed of inclusivity for Zambians to pursue a policy of love, equality, truth, justice, fairness, liberty, solidarity, peace, political, economic and social development for all.
60 years later the spirit of One Zambia One Nation our founders bequeathed is in danger of annihilation.
We are dangerously close to the cliff and need to get back quickly on track to the noble values enshrined in the motto One Zambia One Nation.
The visionary leaders of Independence understand well that peace and unity were indispensable to the development of Zambia. This wisdom is for all times to inspire and guide present and future leaders.
The vision before us is that the new Zambia should always embrace a government of national unity. This will require all political parties to work harmoniously together in promoting peace and unity and prosperity for the country. To strengthen this vision it will entail enshrining a provision in the Zambian Constitution that all future governments shall be of national unity in the spirit of the motto One Zambia One Nation. As the motto ultimately means the national interest of Zambia is supreme above all personal and selfish ambitions of any politician or Party.
60 years ago the men and women in political leadership displayed this unmistakable patriotism.
Though many of our visionary founders were of humble education they embodied the passion to see Zambians benefit from independence, of which the most critical one they determined was education.
Andrew Sardanis’ brilliant book, Zambia: The First 50 Years, wrote that “waking up on the morning of 24th October 1964, as masters of our own destiny, there was only one Zambian engineer, three Zambian doctors, three Zambian lawyers and some 90 other Zambian graduates.”
They were only three secondary schools in the country and no university. Yet with this abysmal foundation they gave each province a secondary school, and built the University of Zambia. They transformed Zambia into the education powerhouse that helped educate most of the English speaking countries of the Southern African region.
The early years of Independence saw huge investments in quality education. Sadly over the years there has been a deplorable decline in huge investments and in educational standards and crumbling infrastructures.
60 years on if we have to progress as a nation we need to invest again hugely in quality education for all Zambians. We need a focused and wholistic education in the arts, sciences, technology, sports, agriculture, and mining empowering Zambians to utilise the resources God has endowed the country with.
It was because of quality education that the founders conceived and developed state owned enterprises that produced young business executives who were able to hold their own on internationally.
With quality education embracing the future Zambians will know their civic responsibilities; make informed choices at the polls making democracy more viable; and strengthening of institutions uncompromising in their commitment to the rule of law and protection of human rights.
In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince there is part where the fox says that what’s essential is invisible. And so it is when we pause and reflect on the 60 anniversary of Independence to a very large extent it is invisible.
It has to do with context and the characters of the founders. Indeed that invisible essential attribute was their characters.
Their characters were rooted in belief in God and moral values. The hoisting of the Zambian flag on 24 October, 1964 was about pursuing wholesome values that are very important in life.
As President Kenneth Kaunda never tired of reminding us:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
On these two commandments are the essential invisibles of life and the ancient prophet Micah condensed in them in these ageless words:
‘He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’
It’s these values over the past years Zambians have lost and as we celebrate our 60th independence celebration must remember and rekindle in our lives and nation.
Zambia shall enter a new future only by reconnecting with the values that laid the foundation of her birth that is our connection with God and one another. Our connection with integrity and service.
Inspired in moral values we are always driven to do the right things and enobled, we become better people and nation.
Moral values stirs us to uplift the poor for this is what really matters in life. Zambia pausing and reflecting at 60 should make us strongly aware of what do we value in the communities we live? What kind of Zambia, what kind of world, do we really want to be, if not to uplift the poor?
The hoisting of the Zambian flag on 24 October, 1964 was about pursuing the wholesome values very important in life of helping one another. For we are all children of God.
It’s these values over the past years we have gradually lost and as we celebrate our 60th independence celebration we pray may be rekindled in our lives and nation.
At 60 Years Strong: Honouring Our Heritage, Embracing the Future. I believe in all sincerity Zambia can enter a new future by reconnecting with the moral values of integrity and service for the good of our people.
To guarantee a better Zambia for generations to come we need to go back to the future. In others words as Marcus Garvey wisely wrote:
“A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”.
We learn from the first Independence the values we need to build a prosperous Zambia that is able to uplift our people and create a better life for them.
We learn by honouring our heritage of One Zambia One Nation to build the future.
On this 60th Independence celebration: God bless Zambia; God bless her leaders; God bless her peoples and grant her peace and unity and a prosperous future.
