She was born on 19 February 1931, in Cape Town, South Africa. Her birth represented “something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique,” as the Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber, would have put it.
The ability to explain society and its challenges through art was Cynthia’s unique talent.
Like most great artists, Cynthia was acutely sensitive to her environment; seeing everything and expressing it in the most beautiful way possible. But the desire to express things and events beautifully did not weaken her resolve to be truthful. She was a truth seeker who asked the tough questions before she was a conveyor of beauty .
It was perhaps this quality that endeared her to a great Zambian patriot, Simon Zukas. The two met in the United Kingdom where Simon was exiled and Cynthia was training to be an art teacher. They married in 1954 after a courtship that included induction of Cynthia into Northern Rhodesian politics. By 1960 when the couple joined the London UNIP committee, Cynthia was an ardent campaigner against the settler dominated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and a champion of Zambian independence.
If life is a divine canvas on which God paints each of us, Cynthia and Simon were painted from the same brush. They were both passionate about social justice, rejecting without hesitation the racism of the settler community with whom they did battle almost on a daily basis.
The Zukas partnership allowed Cynthia to conceptualize liberally as her civil engineer husband put practical order to her ideas.
Simon also brought experience gained from his student days in South Africa where he had espoused the anti apartheid ideology of the African National Congress.
This experience also informed his collaboration with Robinson Puta in the effort to amalgamate the African Mineworkers Union and the European Mineworkers Union to maximize workers bargaining power. Regrettably, the effort failed because the leadership of the European Mineworkers Union were too blinkered to see the advantage they were being offered.
Zukas, Puta, and Matthew Mwendapole then organized the highly effective strike of 1952 that halted copper production for three weeks. The strike was a response to the notorious industrial colour bar that reserved the best jobs for white employees, even ones who were less qualified than their black counterparts.
This was the catalyst for Simon’s deportation to England. But exile turned out to be a blessing in disguise as without it Simon may never have met Cynthia, the Rock on which he was to stand until his demise. Simon always made it clear that his achievements would have come to nothing, but for Cynthia’s steadfast and unconditional support.
In all challenges Cynthia was a steadfast and dependable ally. At a time when white campaigners for majority rule were vilified, Cynthia never waivered. In her view, non racial democracy had to come, whatever the cost. She believed in the dignity of every person irrespective of race, creed, or gender as equal made in the image of God.
In 1964, with independence on the horizon, Simon returned to a hero’s welcome.
Life for the Zukas’ finally had a semblance of normality. Cynthia joined the Lusaka Art Society where she became the secretary. She later cofounded the Lechwe Trust an organization aimed at developing visual arts in Zambia and helping artists, in addition to playing a major role in the Zambia National Visual Arts Council.
Her work was exceptional, as the awards she received testify. For example, in honour for her outstanding contribution in the development of the visual arts, in 2000 she received the National Arts Council Ngoma award. And in 2011 the Julia Chikamoneka Freedom Award: Press Freedom Committee of The Post Newspaper (PFC); and in 2012 an MBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for promoting visual arts in Zambia and creating a historical archives of Zambian Art. And the Presidential Insignia of Meritorious Achievement. She deserved it all.
Cynthia and Simon sought in their lives to uplift others. So they officially opened the Copperbelt University School of Medicine in Ndola in 2017. The funds to build the medical school came from the sale of the synagogues in Zambia – a decision made by Simon as Chairman of the Council of Zambian Jewry and the late Michael Galaun in 2014.
To commemorate the first anniversary of Simon’s death in September 2022, Cynthia donated funds for improvement of the Jewish Building of the Copperbelt University School of Medicine.
Cynthia’s life reminded me of St Therese of Lisieux a Carmelite nun. She lived an ordinary life and pioneered her ‘little way’ that is fidelity in small things. That is simple trust and complete self – surrender to God. Her autobiography The Story of a Soul published after her death was a bestseller. It showed ordinary people that holiness is open to everyone by the faithful doing of small things, the routine duties of daily life performed in the spirit of the love of God. Cynthia’s life was like that faithful in doing small things. Humble and loving in helping and uplifting others. She had a magnanimous heart.
The great artist that she was painted a truth we need as a people and nation to see and embrace: lets be faithful in doing small things and the big things will take care of themselves.
I fathom from her life that she comphrended what great souls do that they are all part of something much bigger than themselves in life; something beyond their comprehension and imaginations. They are paint brushes in the hands of the Divine Artist – God to sketch a world of love, of justice, of peace.
Cynthia, is survived by her two sons, David and Alan, daughter in laws, Shenda, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
*The Rt. Rev. Dr. Musonda Trevor Selwyn Mwamba is President of the United National Independence Party (UNIP).
