.Simon Kapwepwe

By EXPENDITO CHIPALO –

HE was a great orator, spoke succinctly, his terse and frank talk put him poles apart from his peers.
His followers held him in religious affection, his enemies considered him a radical, a tribalist and a racialist, but his speeches and writings reveal him as a great patriot and Pan Africanist who had a great moral sense of right and wrong.
Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, the second Republican vice-president of Zambia in the United National Independence Party (UNIP) government, was a fiery and militant nationalist whose greatest assets as a leader were his firmness, pragmatism, forthrightness and eloquent oratory.
He always spoke his mind with openness.
Mr Kapwepwe was an eminence-grise. He exercised influence even when he held no political office so much that his death on January 26, 1980 shook the entire nation.
This author saw and heard Simon Kapwepwe speak at Luwingu aerodrome in 1964 some months before Zambia’s independence.
UNIP had just won an absolute majority in the general elections in January 1962 and the leaders were touring the country to prepare the nation for the impending celebration of Independence Day.
Mr Kapwepwe was touring the Northern Province and on this occasion, he addressed a rally at Luwingu aerodrome.
His powerful message sent the crowd into frenzy, and typical of all UNIP rallies, the local party choir interrupted his address on several occasions with their freedom songs.
It was late afternoon and he thanked the choir and told them not to sing any more songs as it was getting late.
He told the rally that the pilot was worried about taking off in the dark and he should therefore wind up his speech, but Mr Kapwepwe’s speech electrified the crowd once again and in the excitement, the choir leader, the late Edward ‘Crusoe’ Muleba stood up to start another song.
“Sit down” Mr Kapwepwe ordered in a clear exhibition of his firmness and control over the UNIP rank and file.
He advised the crowd that Africans should act responsibly and protect their early independence because the whites would come back if the people slackened.
“Abasungu aba, chimo na makubi. Bushe mwalimonapo makabi yasha ichitumbi cha nama? Bakabwela ngatatuchenjele balifye ku miti balelolela (these whites are like vultures.
Have you ever seen vultures abandoning a carcass? They will come back, they are just seated on the on the trees waiting for the opportune moment,” he said while pointing at the trees at the edge of the airstrip and not worrying that his pilot was a white man
Mr Kapwepwe was born in Chinsali district in the Northern Province of the then Northern Rhodesia on April 12, 1922.
Northern Province at that at time included the present day Luapula Province.
He was educated at Mwenzo and Lubwa missions up to Standard six.
Upon completion of his upper primary education, he joined the Public Works Department as a driver in 1944.
A year later, he resigned and joined Lubwa Mission as a primary school teacher
In 1947, Kapwepwe together with his childhood friends first Republican president Kenneth Kaunda and John Sokoni travelled to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in search of greener pastures.
The three gentlemen’s trip to Tanganyika was seemingly unsuccessful and Mr Kapwepwe in June 1948 joined the Kitwe Municipal Council as an Assistant Welfare Officer and then a teacher at Wusakile Primary school.
Mr Kapwepwe joined politics soon as he started working on the Copperbelt and was a founding member of the Northern Rhodesia African National Congress in 1948.
In 1950, Mr Kapwepwe secured an Indian Village Industry Scholarship and proceeded to Nairobi to study Hindi (the language of the Hindus) in preparation for his studies in India.
He studied Journalism and pottery for four years in Bombay (Mumbai). While in Bombay he was sent to the United States (US) to study Journalism and on his return to India his scholarship was extended, but he chose to come back home.
Upon his return, he rejoined the Northern Rhodesia African Congress which had by then changed its name to the African National Congress (ANC) under the leadership of Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula.
At the time Mr Kapwepwe arrived in the country in January 1955, he found the ANC leaderless because the party’s leadership was serving two month prison sentences for distributing subversive literature.
The Northern Rhodesian African population was united in the fight against the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland which was created in 1953.
Upon their release from prison, the ANC leaders reorganized the party and Mr Kapwepwe became the national treasurer.
Other members of the ANC national executive were Nkumbula (president), Mungoni Liso (vice president), Dr Kaunda (secretary general), Titus Mukupo (vice secretary general) and Reuben Kamanga (vice treasurer Mr Kapwepwe showed his creative side while holding the position of treasurers
At that time, the freedom struggle leaders depended on donations from the public and he composed the fund raising song called Bombeleni Africa (Serve Africa).
In October 1958, Dr Kaunda, Mr Kapwepwe, Sikota Wina and others broke away from the ANC and formed a more radical party, the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC).
The colonial authorities banned the ZANC in March 1959 and its leaders were exiled to different parts of rural Zambia.
Mr Kapwepwe was sent to Barotseland (Western province) while Sikota Wina was sent to Luwingu in Northern Province and Dr Kaunda was sent to Kabompo in Balovale Province (now North Western).
The colonial government determined that sending the ZANC leaders to areas where they did not understand the local language would impede their campaigns
While the ZANC leaders were in prison, Mathews Mainza Chona and other nationalists formed the United National Independence Party
The detained leaders were released in December 1959 and all of them joined UNIP.
After leaving jail, Mr Kapwepwe helped to organise provincial and district UNIP branches in Barotseland.
The radical UNIP intensified the opposition to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and in 1960, Mr Kapwepwe together with Dr Kaunda, Mr Nkumbula, Mr Chona and Lawrence Katilungu attended the Federal Review Conference in London.
The conference did not result into independence and the African population became impatient.
The result was Chachacha, Zambia’s brief violent struggle for independence.
The colonial government conceded to the demands for self rule and general elections were held in 1962.
The three parties that contested the elections were the United Federal Party (UFP), UNIP and the ANC.
None of the parties won a clear majority and the result was a coalition government between UNIP and the ANC
Mr Kapwepwe is credited with success in persuading his friend Mr Nkumbula in accepting the coalition with UNIP.
Mr Kapwepwe was given the post of Minster of African Agriculture and he held that post until the elections of January 1964 in which UNIP won a resounding victory with 55 seats against the ANC’s 10.
Thus UNIP formed the first independence government and Mr Kapwepwe became the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mr Kapwepwe held the post for three years during which the white settlers in Southern Rhodesia led by Ian Smith proclaimed a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain.
He lambasted the British for not intervening and he came under heavy criticism from the British Press, but he stood by his words.