KENNETH KAUNDA ZAMBIA’S FOUNDING FATHER

Born on 28 April, 1924 in Lubwa, near Chinsali, in the then Northern Rhodesia and now part of Zambia, Kaunda’s father hailed from Malawi, formerly known as Nyasaland, and it was this legacy that would later become yet another challenge to Zambia’s first president after Britain had relinquished colonial power.

Being the youngest of eight children, the young Kaunda, very much like other Africans who attained some form of middle-class status in colonial Zambia, went to the Munali Training Centre in Lusaka from 1941 – 1943. Following in his father’s footsteps, Kaunda taught at the Upper Primary School at Lubwa, followed by time spent, apart from being a teacher, a missionary, choirmaster and even leading a Pathfinder Scout Group. After 1943 and travelling from colonial Zambia, the young Kaunda spent further time as a teacher in Tanganyika – present day Tanzania. But it was upon his return to Zambia in 1949 that