Zambia’s first President Kenneth Kaunda dies aged 97

Zambia’s founding President, Kenneth Kaunda, who led his country for 27 years and championed Africa’s struggles against apartheid and HIV/AIDS, has died at the age of 97.

‘KK’, as he was popularly known, was being treated for pneumonia at the Maina Soko Medical Centre, a military hospital in Lusaka.

Zambia’s Secretary to the Cabinet, Simon Miti, confirmed that Kaunda died shortly after 2pm local time (12pm GMT) on Thursday.

“On behalf of the entire nation and on my own behalf, I pray that the entire Kaunda family is comforted as we mourn our first president and true African icon,” President Edgar Lungu said in a message on his Facebook page.

Authorities declared 21 days of mourning for the liberation hero who ruled from 1964, after the southern African nation won its independence from Britain, until 1991.

Flags will fly at half-mast in all public buildings and missions abroad as the country embarks on the official national mourning.

Entertainment places will also be closed at this time.

Anti-colonial fighter
Kaunda will be remembered more for his role as an anti-colonial fighter who stood up to white minority-ruled South Africa.

Also, he began a personal crusade against AIDS when his son Masuzyo died of the deadly disease in 1986.

As leader of the first country in the region to break with its European colonisers, Kaunda worked hard to drag other former colonies along in Zambia’s wake towards majority rule.

Multi-party elections
In 1991, he was forced to hold the first multi-party elections for 23 years, which he lost to long-time foe, trade unionist Frederick Chiluba.

Though he was widely admired as a warm and emotional man, the voters judged he had overstayed his welcome in office and mismanaged the economy.

Kaunda’s  background
Kenneth David Kaunda was born on April 28, 1924, the youngest of eight children of a Church of Scotland minister at Lubwa mission in the remote north of the country.

Known also by his African name of “Buchizya” – the “unexpected one” – he did menial jobs to earn school fees after his father’s death.

He worked as a teacher and a mine welfare officer before joining politics in 1949 as a founder member of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress.

In his early days of anti-colonial agitation, he cycled from village to village preaching majority rule.

A 1963 landslide victory for UNIP, which had broken away from the ANC five years earlier, led to Kaunda becoming Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.

At independence in 1964, he became President of the new Zambia.

Edited by Olajumoke Adeleke