•JUSTINE Zulu with his wife share a light moment

BY SYLVESTER MWALE? –
INDEPENDENCE is more than just doing away with the British colonialism, according to 92-year-old Justine Gawani Zulu, a man who had to battle on two fronts ahead of the political liberation in 1964.
Mr Zulu has earned himself various dictatorial nicknames from his peers thanks to his no- nonsense style of dealing with issues, but his age can longer allow him to act as he did during his youth time.
Despite being a dedicated Christian, he was nicknamed ‘Thepulani’ (cut it), ‘Idi Amin’ (derived from former Ugandan dictator)’, ‘Saddam’, (derived from former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein) ‘Nkhuzi’ (the bull) and other names that even himself cannot remember.
Mr Zulu worked for John Howard Company, which was a construction firm where the name of a township in Lusaka (John Howard) was derived from, but was active in politics together with his friends he can only remember as Willison Banda of Chibolya and a Mushanga of Chilenje Township.
He fought alongside hundreds of youths of the African National Congress (ANC) as chairperson of Kanyama Section to get rid of the colonial Government and replace Northern Rhodesia with Zambia.
Mr Zulu was also one of the prominent local officials who backed Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula to take over the reins of power from the colonial government although he accepts today that his support was out of ignorance.
“Kenneth Kaunda was clever and very exposed to the outside world, while Nkumbula kept on telling us that he would be the president,” narrates Mr Zulu in an interview at his Malunza Village in Chipata District.
“Both Kaunda and Nkumbula were fighting for independence, which everyone wanted but there was another battle between UNIP and ANC,” he added.
“I can’t lie I did not like Kaunda before independence because he was telling us that there will be no paying tax which would have meant that workers like me would not be paid their salaries.”
Mr Zulu, however, says that his stance was premised on wrong information and propaganda that was poured on him by Mr Nkumbula and other elites in ANC.?At 92 years of age, it is inexorably that he has lost some memories and names of some of his colleagues he fought along with although he cannot forget the jubilation that characterised October 24, 1964.
But his age puts him among a few people who are able to tell evidence-based stories about independence – before, during and after attainment.
“It was a big day, everyone flocked to Independence Stadium and we were happy that the colonial government had been defeated,” said Mr Zulu in his Ngoni language.?Apart from identifying and fighting the common enemy – the colonial government, Mr Zulu says he had to fight on behalf of Nkumbula to defeat UNIP ahead of October 1964.
“Of course, the common enemy that everyone wanted to defeat first was colonialism because we were tired of discrimination in schools, hospitals, markets and other places,” he explains.
“But supporters of Kaunda and Nkumbula were equally at each other because both of them wanted their leader to take over.”
Apart from the fact that the two factions in Northern Rhodesia had identified the ‘common enemy’ there was also a wind of change in neighbouring countries and Africa at large.
By 1964, Nyasaland had become Malawi, while independence wars in Mozambique and Angola were heading into full swing.
Mr Zulu says that was another reason that people thought it wise to fight on and oust the?British colonialism.?As chairperson of the lower organ of the party, Mr Zulu was the chief convener who mobilised the youth every time leaders wanted to address them to strategise on how to wage war against colonialism.?“I used to move with a bicycle mobilising people in Kanyama,” recalls Mr Zulu who is still able to cycle at his current age of 92.
“But I also carried an axe with me on the bicycle in case of emergency because I knew they were also after me.”?“We told the whites that they were just visitors here and they have no right to control us,” adds Mr Zulu who is now depending on small-scale farming and curving cooking sticks for his living.
The current chairmanship of party leadership at lower levels has been prominent in the news – mostly for wrong reasons such as illegal plot allocations and perpetrating violence.?But Mr Zulu says the youth of his time were preoccupied with the instruction on how to execute assignment given by their leaders.
“May be it is because the issue of land was not a big issue as it is today, but the enemy of our time was slavery by the whites,” he explains.?Much has evolved in the past 50 years from the time Northern Rhodesia became Zambia. While the country is still struggling to win economic independence, political liberation has obviously brought significant positives in many sectors.
For instance, while there were only 2,500 Africans in secondary schools in 1960, the figure rose significantly to 54,000 by 1971 after independence.
Similarly, the country had fewer than 100 graduates at independence in 1964 but that number went up to 2,000 by 1971 following the establishment of the University of Zambia in 1965.
This figure is, however, nothing when compared to the current more than 11,500 that are enrolled every year at UNZA alone! Other public and private universities have equally emerged with thousands of students listing and graduating every year.
“This is what we wanted and I don’t think you would have been interviewing me today if Kaunda and others failed to defeat colonialism,” he says.?According to Mr Zulu, there were many reasons that instigated the deadly struggle for independence.
He says apart from the general discrimination by the British government, it was clear that the black people were treated with ridicule and contempt as far as education was concerned.
“Blacks had their own schools and shops. But people knew that Rhodesia was not for the whites and they started wondering why they were not being respected, or being treated like slaves,” he says.
“A black man was not allowed to enter some shops, and I think you have heard about a story of one politician demanding to be given a car from the window of a shop.”?He says although he remains poor despite his humble contribution to struggle for independence, he is happy that Zambians are free people who are able to decide what they want for themselves.
Mr Zulu is, however, concerned that today’s freedom has been abused in some instances with political opponents killing each other and hopes the security wings could be firm with perpetrators of violence.
Mr Zulu’s fairytale about Zambia’s independence in 1964 is probably incomplete without a chapter on how he ran away from Lusaka and settled at his farm after he became a target for rival youths from UNIP in 1968.
“I had to board  a bus from Munali, not at the station because I was reliably informed that some youths from UNIP were planning to kill me,” he recalls.
“Independence was a big day for many of us, everyone was happy that we had been liberated,” he said. “But there were a few individuals from UNIP who still did not like me for supporting Nkumbula before independence.?Although he had joined UNIP after independence, some ANC did not like him and planned to assassinate him.
Mr Zulu fled and abandoned his family before his late wife Mandalena later joined him in Chikungu Farms where he went to settle in Chipata District.?He remained a patriotic supporter of UNIP such that he has managed to keep his party card up to date.?It is hardly a secret today that the attainment of political?independence was done at a huge cost and sacrifice with a great hope of attaining economic independence soon thereafter.
However, there is a strong feeling in some sections that the country is celebrating Golden Jubilee against a background of high poverty levels, high unemployment levels and other social ills that seem to be epidemic.
For instance, Zambia’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth performance was favourable in the early years after independence in 1964 before it turned negative during 1975-1979 period due to heavy dependency on copper which had witnessed reduced prices on the world?market during the period.
This, together with domestic policy misalignments and failures as well as general economic mismanagement continued to haunt the economy until well into the 1980s and 1990s, resulting into increased poverty levels.?“I cannot dispute that you are freer than we were under the colonial government.
“However, look at how I am; in fact I am poorer than that time, so I think reducing poverty after independence has been slower than what we had hoped.”
He notes that some people were using the current freedom to enhance their riches at the expense of others.?“For instance, there is social cash transfer that I have heard, but I have not benefited in any way and I was hoping that old people like me must be given regardless of where they are staying.?He appeals to the Government to ensure that old people were cared for regardless of their role in the struggle for independence.