FIRST Republican president Kenneth Kaunda’s pre-independence humble abode in Lusaka’s Old Chilenje Township is of great historical significance, especially as Zambia toasts her Golden Jubille in two days’ time.
Dr Kaunda and his family stayed in this house, number 394, for just a two-year period (from January 1960 to December 1962), during which time momentous events leading up to Zambia’s independence happened.
Zambia’s first president and many of his compatriots say that it was at this house where various meetings, including those relating to how to effectively prosecute the Cha Cha Cha campaign, took place.
Cha Cha Cha was a form of civil disobedience that was started in Northern Province, and consisted largely of arson and obstructing significant roads by the people fighting for Zambia’s independence from colonial rule.
This campaign soon spread all parts of the country and became a major weapon of the liberation struggle along the line of rail.
Also held under the cover of this small house number 394 in Old Chilenje were constitutional conferences presumably chaired by Dr Kaunda as host.
This is the same place where Dr Kaunda is said to have been mobilising other political activities using a Land Rover, which is still within the premises, which was given to him by a missionary, Marvin Temple in 1959.
The house remains, and will remain, an important structure in the annals of Zambia’s liberation struggle and, for this reason, the Government has turned it into a national monument, as well as one of Lusaka’s few tourist attractions.
Visiting leaders, including South African President Jacob Zuma, have already been taken to the Chilenje House where they signed the visitors’ welcome book.
As Zambia continues to receive foreign dignitaries, it is expected that more are yet to go to Chilenje to see this site, which once used to be a hive of political activities during Zambia’s independence struggle.
However, the place came under attack in 1990 by youths who, in the process, burnt Dr Kaunda’s Land Rover during the food riots.
In addition, and in what could have been a clear case of negligence by the powers-that-be, this KK’s pre-independence house, which is now a national heritage site, was once hit with a serious sewer discharge following a pipe burst.
Officials from the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company had to be called in to come and work on the problem, and this seems to have been rectified because nothing of this nature has since occurred on this national heritage site.
Today, kudos must go to the National Heritage Conservation Commission that has spent a whopping K400,000 on the rehabilitation of this very important site, landscaping and provision of water reticulation system.
The pledge by Kabwata Member of Parliament Given Lubinda to erect Mama Betty Kaunda’s statue at the site should equally be embraced because Zambia’s first First Lady, like all spouses of the freedom fighters, stood by Dr Kaunda when fighting for Zambia’s independence.
And, as Dr Kaunda said yesterday, it is imperative that the Chilenje House is celebrated by all Zambians as it was the centre for the country’s independence 50 years ago.
Young Zambians, especially pupils and students, should also heed Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkandu Luo’s call and make use of this structure as a learning centre, especially that one of the houses has pictures depicting the freedom struggle.