Kenneth David Kaunda (1924–2021) was a Zambian statesman who served as president 1964–91. He led the United National Independence Party to electoral victory in 1964, becoming prime minister and the first president of independent Zambia.
Born in Lubwa, near Chinsali, Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, Kaunda was educated at a Church of Scotland Mission School in Lubwa and then at Munali school in Lusaka. In 1943, he began teaching at Lubwa mission; he spent time in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and returned to Lusaka to head his old school in 1947.
Kaunda became involved in politics, first with the local young men’s farming association, and then he moved up the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress ladder. In 1958, Kaunda formed the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC,) and in 1960 the United National Independence Party (UNIP.) Kaunda negotiated constitutional advances and helped Zambia gain independence in 1964, becoming president.
Kaunda helped avert a civil war in the late 1960s. During the 1970s, he led other southern African nations in confronting the white-minority governments of South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, and Rhodesia. He increased Zambia’s dependence on copper exports and foreign aid, allowing agriculture, education, and social services to languish and rising poverty and unemployment. He was defeated at the polls in 1991, and he stood down with grace.
Kaunda wrote Zambia Shall Be Free: An Autobiography (1962.) Biographies include Fergus Macpherson’s Kenneth Kaunda: The Times and the Man (1974) and David C. Mulford’s Zambia: The Politics of Independence, 1957–1964 (1967.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Kenneth Kaunda
When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.
—Kenneth Kaunda
Topics: Ambition
The inability of those in power to still the voices of their own consciences is a great force leading to change.
—Kenneth Kaunda
Topics: Change
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