President Kenneth Kaunda...

This week, Zambia said goodbye to its first president, Kenneth Kaunda. On October 24th, 1964, the Zambia Independence Act of 1964 went into effect, granting independence to Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia), and Kaunda was elected soon after.

President Kaunda was born in the 1920s to two teachers and went on to become a teacher himself. His mother was one of the first African women to teach in colonial Zambia, and instilled in him a love of teaching. He became a teacher and Headmaster, taking on various roles at a few different schools from there. In 1949, he entered politics as the founding member of the North Rhodesian African National Congress. Taking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi as his inspiration, he organized civil disobedience campaigns, distributed literature on African freedom (and was imprisoned for it), and subsequently ran as a United National Independence Party candidate in 1962. When the party won the election in 1964, he was at the helm.

He was known as an inspiring orator, bringing crowds to their feet, and advocated vocally in the 1980s for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Kaunda leaned towards socialism, and is often recognized for having united Zambia’s 70+ tribes and set the country on-course with a solid foundation. While he ruled the country unopposed under Zambia’s one-party system, when the country called for change, and protests ensued, President Kaunda saw the need for reform. He held a multi-party election, and lost. He remained in the public eye, and died at a military hospital on Thursday in Lusaka.

May he rest in power.

-Reshma