By Fergus Cochrane-Dyet OBE
Our first arrival in Zambia as a family was tinged with sadness. It was December 2004. I was the new British Deputy High Commissioner.
We began settling into the house assigned to us near the Kabulonga roundabout.
Over Christmas, though, my wife and I noticed that our youngest son, Will, was increasingly unwell: thin, pale, and apathetic. A consultation at CorpMed on Cairo Road revealed that eight-year-old Will had Type 1 Diabetes, an incurable genetic condition not linked to life-style (unlike Type 2), that can be deadly unless managed carefully through injected insulin for the rest of the patient’s life.
For a while I thought our stay in Zambia would be cut short. Happily, after treatment in Johannesburg and London, Will’s blood sugar-levels stabilised, and he returned to Lusaka for enrolment at the American International School.
He thrived over the next couple of years, developing passions for football and African wildlife.
Coming back to Zambia in 2016 as High Commissioner, we had no such dramas settling amidst the lush gardens of the British Residence on Independence Avenue, while my wife secured a job she loves at Baobab College.
Since this is my 14th posting worldwide, 9th posting in Africa, and 2nd in Zambia, perhaps I am qualified to compare Zambia with other countries, as well as the Zambia of today with the one I knew in 2004 to 2007?
For my last job overseas I was British Ambassador to Liberia, a small nation on the Atlantic coast of West Africa that has suffered appalling tragedy – the most savage civil war imaginable, followed (whilst I was there) by the terrors of an Ebola epidemic that killed thousands.
One reason for feeling delighted about moving back to Zambia was the knowledge that this country – with its peaceful history, plentiful copper, fertile soils, and natural wonders – is a place that warrants optimism about its future.
Zambia is a country for which I harbour great affection. Perhaps there are similarities in culture that make it easy for British people to get along with Zambians: We’re both reserved, often overly polite, but with humour bubbling just below the surface so that we’re quick to laugh at life’s absurdities.
Malawians describe their nation as the “warm heart of Africa”. Living in Lilongwe some years ago, I secretly thought to myself, yes, but Zambia shares that warm heart too.
Another privilege of being here is that Zambia offers some of the world’s most spectacular natural sights.
My family and I have been soaked by spray from Victoria Falls; canoed among hippos on the Zambezi; swam with colourful fish in Lake Tanganyika and witnessed a leopard spring from a tree to kill an impala in South Luangwa.
Yet many of these experiences are sadly inaccessible or under-appreciated by Zambians themselves, which perhaps explains the complacency of successive governments towards poaching and encroachment.
These threats might extinguish Zambia’s world-class wildlife – a heritage worth billions of kwachas in tourism, which it would be criminally negligent to deny to future generations of Zambians.
A proposal to build an airport inside Nsumbu National Park, for example, 7 km from the uncompleted Kasaba Airstrip, would destroy the only place where elephant exist anywhere along the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
How does today’s Zambia compare to the one I knew 12 years ago? The picture is decidedly mixed.
There has been welcome development; it’s true, with more affluence visible in Lusaka and the Copperbelt.
There has been investment in infrastructure like roads and power stations. But the extra wealth is not trickling down to the vast majority.
The proportion living in poverty is much the same now as in 2007 – a shocking 65 per cent.
In 2007, President Mwanawasa’s government was back in power after peaceful elections the previous year (during which I was an election observer near Kabwe).
It had achieved HIPC completion that wiped clean Zambia’s external debt, enabling more of the budget to be spent on health and education to the benefit of poor Zambians.
In 2018, Zambia remains polarised by the antagonism and violence that characterised the 2016 elections.
Debt has soared – probably a staggering $20 billion plus, mostly to commercial banks who will want their money back, with the result that 30 per cent of the budget is now spent on debt-servicing.
These are big challenges for Zambia, which I know the government are trying to tackle: refreshing One Zambia, One Nation to be relevant to everyone; unshackling the private sector to deliver growth and jobs as happened in Asia; managing the debt burden and re-engaging with the IMF; ruthlessly punishing corruption at all levels; working with neighbours to promote peace and stability in DRC and Zimbabwe.
I shall go on spearheading Britain’s support for Zambia in all these endeavours: through inter-government engagement, our significant aid programme, investment by British companies and entities like CDC (who have invested $64m of UK government money into Zambeef), and the efforts of the British Army who help train the Zambian peacekeeping battalion each year.
There is nothing sinister about all these facts, despite the inevitable but tedious neo-colonialist conspiracy theories.
The UK cares about Zambia, I care about Zambia. Old friends look out for one another.
Meanwhile, Susie and I continue with our work here. Over Christmas, our sons came from the UK to join us in Lusaka. Will is now 21-years-old, studying theology at university, and has played county-level cricket.
His diabetes is a nuisance but hasn’t held him back. That difficult start back in 2004 has been overlaid by many happy memories of Zambia and the Zambian people. – Author British High Commissioner to Zambia