Zambia’s first president and freedom fighter, Kenneth Kaunda is dead. He is reported to have died at the age of 97.
His son, Kambarage said he died at a military hospital in Lusaka where he was receiving treatment for pneumonia.
Kaunda was Zambia’s president for 27 years after he helped secure the country’s independence from Britain in 1964.
While he was president, Zambia’s economy was copper-based but fared poorly under his long stewardship, Kaunda will be remembered more for his role as an anti-colonial fighter who stood up to white minority rule in Southern African counties including Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
When he left his position as president in 1991, he became a vocal activist against HIV/AIDS.
Al Jazeera reports that “He shared a loss experienced by countless families in Africa when his son, Masuzyo died of AIDS in 1986 and he began a personal crusade against the disease.”
He told Reuters news agency in 2002 that “This is the biggest challenge for Africa. We must fight AIDS and we must do so now.
“We fought colonialism. We must now use the same zeal to fight AIDS, which threatens to wipe out Africa.”
Incumbent president of Zambia has urged citizens to pray for the late leader in view of the sacrifices he made for the county.
According to him, “He stood up for this great nation at its most critical moment, and so we can all stand up for him in his moment of weakness.”
The youngest of 8 children, Kaunda’s father died when he was 8 years old. His mother was a teacher – a rare profession for Zambian women in those days.
He started his political career as organising Secretary of the Northern Rhodesia African National Congress (ANC) in the Norther Province of Zambia.
But in 1958 be broke from the ANC to form the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC). The colonial authorities banned it a year later and Kaunda was imprisoned in the capital Lusaka for nine months.
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