Kaunda set an example other leaders should follow

Kenneth Kaunda was there to see the wind of changes blowing through Africa – which started the colonisation  process – and to see the logical culmination of that process in South Africa’s march to democracy in 1994.

When he died this week, at 97, he would have been able to look back at the role he played in that process with some satisfaction.

The first president of Zambia, when it became independent in 1964 (having previously been the self-governing British colony of Northern Rhodesia), Kaunda was committed to ending white rule in the other parts of southern Africa – Southern Rhodesia (later the rebel Rhodesia under Ian Smith), Namibia (then a territory administered by Pretoria) and the biggest prize of all, South Africa itself.

Although a man who spoke often about the need for peaceful change, Kaunda nevertheless made his territory  available to southern African liberation movements, some of which established serious military bases there.

For that, his country and its people suffered – first through a border blockade by the Rhodesians and later in  devastating military strikes in the late ’70s.

Yet, all the while Kaunda was talking behind the scenes to all parties, managing to set up conferences to try to bring about majority rule in those countries.

While none of those endeavours led to immediate success, there is no doubt that Kaunda’s policy and his charismatic character led to a positive era of détente, which led to the peaceful resolution of all the major conflicts and independence for those countries.

Kaunda never sought riches or glory for himself – making him highly unusual for an African leader of the time. He was also, in his latter years, disillusioned by how many African countries had succumbed to the curse of  corruption.

He is still an example of selfless commitment to freedom.