Nomad_Africa_Edition12

Kaunda was a close friend of Yugoslav President Josip
Broz Tito. They were so close that Kaunda built a
house in Lusaka especially for Tito's visits.
leaders at the time that this federation
would place the power in the hands of a
white minority, Kaunda, who had visited
Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, USA, set into
motion a campaign, called Cha-cha-cha
campaign executed through the Zambian
African National Congress. It was called
“positive nonviolent action”, a form of civil
disobedience that was designed to protest
and voice the objection of Zambian people
against the idea of a federation on the part
of the British.
The civil disobedience campaign produced
two very important results: the British modified
the federation policy and eventually
discarded it altogether, and secondly, it resulted
in the imprisonment of Kenneth
Kaunda and other militant leaders, but not
without consequences. The incarceration
had as a result that political leaders were elevated
to a status of national heroes in the
eyes of ordinary people.
What followed is the very thing that history
books are made of. From 1960, the status of
Zambia’s national independence movements
were secured, and very importantly,
so too was Kenneth Kaunda’s dominant political
position confirmed within UNIP, the
Kaunda was the second mainland African head of state to
allow free multiparty elections and to have relinquished power
when he lost: the first, Mathieu Kérékou of Benin, had done so
in March of that year.
United National Independence Party.
Upon his release from prison by the colonial
government on January 8 1960, Kaunda was
elected as president of the United National
Independence Party (UNIP), which had
been formed in 1959 by Mainza Chona.
1960 proved to be a pivotal year in Zambian
politics, more so for UNIP, which enjoyed
spectacular growth by claiming well over
300 000 members by mid 1960. With such a
widespread and loyal support base, the
colonial power Britain invited Kaunda and
several other UNIP leaders for discussions
on the status of the three colonies to a conference
in London, with the inevitable result
of Britain announcing the formal decolonisation
of Zambia in 1961.
Under the leadership of Kaunda, UNIP was
a political steam train gaining the majority of
seats in the new legislative council when
Zambia’s first elections were held in 1962.
Kaunda’s further negotiation skills came to
the fore when he steered Zambia, through
UNIP, towards final independence from
Britain in 1964 – and thus became Zambia’s
first president.
Post-independence politics proved to be
very exciting and challenging. One cannot
ever forget the negative legacy of a colonial
power and it was up to Kenneth Kaunda
and UNIP to steer the Zambian ship on a
path towards prosperity – no mean feat
since looming tribal issues were a constant
feature within the African political landscape
– Zambia being no exception.
INTERPARTY POLITICAL VIOLENCE
1968 marked a year of interparty political vi-
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