TOMORROW will be a special day of prayer and fasting President Edgar Lungu recently declared to enable Zambians from across the country to gather together and seek the face of God in the light of afflictions besetting the nation.
When the President proclaimed October 18 as the Day of Prayer and Fasting in Parliament in Lusaka, some cynics dismissed the move as ludicrous and an exercise in futility.
But to the more discerning and serious-minded Christian and non-Christian alike, it is cardinal that Zambians humble themselves before the Lord and collectively repent for various transgressions and praise Him for the great things He has done for the nation.
The call to pray for the nation has also served to remind me of what a visiting American woman preacher said on her visit to Ndola some two years ago.
Delivering her sermon at the House of Prayer Church in Kanini Township (located on the western side of the famous Ndola Golf Club), the missionary who has put Zambia on her annual Africa and Australia itinerary, said:”One has to be tested in order to have a testimony.”
In other words, she was saying that no one would have a testimony without being tested by disease or intense suffering for a prolonged period of time like the children of Israel who spent 40 years in the wilderness without food and water until God saved them from the pursuing Egyptian army.
As a country, who can honestly claim that Zambia has not been put to some of the severest tests imaginable in the past 50 years of her independence?
The truth of the matter is that it hasn’t been plain sailing. It has been a rocky road indeed. Of course, there have been many moments of joy for which we must all thank the Lord.
Lest some people forget, barely a year after Northern Rhodesia became the sovereign Republic of Zambia on October 24, 1964,white settlers in the then Southern Rhodesia decided to rebel against Britain, the colonial power, proclaiming their Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) on November 11, 1965. The move by rebel leader Ian Douglas Smith and his cabinet instantly plunged the fledging nation into untold misery as every sector of its economy was affected.
So right from outset life for the ordinary Zambian citizen became an uphill battle for survival as 90 percent of the country’s essential supplies came from white-ruled Rhodesia where most of the manufacturing industries were concentrated with Salisbury, the former Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland capital, calling all the shots.
To avert economic strangulation and sudden collapse, the new Zambian government had no option but to divert scarce financial and other resources to finding alternative sources of supply of goods and services.
As a result, contingency measures were swiftly put in place, including the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Authority (TAZARA) to replace the Hell Run, the hazardous road transport route from East Africa through which the country started to ferry her copper exports to overseas markets.
Similarly, imports from European countries and other foreign suppliers, which were previously transported inland from South African and Mozambican ports of Durban and Beira, respectively, through Southern Rhodesia, came into the country by road from East African ports of Mombasa in Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.
Food, fuel and drug shortages became the norm than the exception until President Kaunda and his Cabinet solved some of the problems by launching one of the best import-substitution programmes Sub-Saharan Africa has ever witnessed.
The enemy had set snares everywhere, but by the grace of God the country survived the perilous times triggered by UDI and the imposition of mandatory economic sanctions against the rebel regime by the United Nations (UN).
It is significant to repeat that Zambia entered a trying time, especially after the introduction one-party State in 1973.
Many opposition parties were proscribed and some of their leaders rounded up and detained. Adamson Mushala wreaked havoc in North Western Province before he was finally gunned down by Zambian National Defence Force (ZNDF) troops and his body put on display in Solwezi.
The presence of Zimbabwean and South African freedom fighters did not help matters as Zambia became a target of wanton attacks by Rhodesian and South African troops who raided the country in pursuit of ZANU-PF, ZAPU, and ANC nationalists fighting to end oppression and racism.
As Zambia’s economy slumped, trouble flared on the Copperbelt where shops were looted by mobs while trade union-Government relations reached breaking point. Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leader Frederick Chiluba, his secretary-general and right-hand-man Newstead Zimba, Chitalu Sampa and other labour chiefs were picked up in a night blitz and detained allegedly for fomenting anarchy in the country.
Ironically,  Chiluba was rescued from prison by his old Ndola friend and personal lawyer Levy Patrick Mwanawasa but who, upon taking over as president of Zambia,  had him pilloried for ‘rampant corruption’ during his 10-year rule (1991-2001).
This was after he (Chiluba) had hand-picked Mwanawasa as his successor and leader of the ruling MMD,
overlooking ‘heir apparent’ and MMD secretary-general Michael Sata, who broke away to form his own Patriotic Front (PF) party.
Critics at home felt Mwanawasa’s action seemed a strange way of saying ‘thank you’ to one’s benefactor and king-maker, but it won him international admiration and the cancellation of Zambia’s external debt., which ran into billions of US dollars.
Then there were no less than four military coup attempts, the major probably being the one that came literally on the Even of Zambia’s historic return to multi-party politics. If anything, Chiluba’s 1991 election victory and the fall of UNIP showed that the country’s biblical Moses, KK, who skilfully steered the ship through the stormy waters, had lost both the charisma and grip that had enabled him to remain at the helm for nearly 30 years. But the country remained united.
One also remembers the Alice Lenshina Uprising in Northern Province; the 1980 Treason Trial in which former prominent lawyer Edward Shamwana was among the accused persons; the 1970 Mufulira Mine Disaster in which 89 miners perished underground; the death of the entire Zambia National Soccer Team in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon in West Africa; the loss of three former heads of State, literally in succession – Mwanawasa (2008), Chiluba (2012) and Sata (2014).
Many other leaders, including prelates, who fought and sacrificed much for the economic and political emancipation of this country and who would have loved to be among the worshippers have since died and will be conspicuously missing from tomorrow’s Day of Prayer and Fasting.
Many ordinary Zambians have died in mysterious road accidents across the nation, depriving families of their breadwinners and increasing the population of orphans, widows and widowers.
On the brighter side, Zambia has scored many successes in all areas of human endeavour. One only has to look at the modern highways, hospitals like the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, the Ndola Central Hospital and Tropical Research Centre, University of Zambia (UNZA), and international airports, etc. What a God we serve.
Certainly Zambians need to bowl down and worship the Lord. Yes, it behoves everyone to come in God’s presence and say a big Thank You to the eternal Father who gives generously to those who reverence Him.
The Book of Exodus chronicles the sufferings the children of Israel endured until they were finally rescued by their Maker.
The enemy army was closing in and Israelites were helpless. But God performed a miracle by separating the waters of the Red Sea in order for them to cross on dry ground. They had an awe-inspiring testimony at the end of the day.
Nehemiah 9: 1-19 says: On the 24th day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors.
They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshipping the Lord their God. Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Joshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani.
They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. And the Levites – Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiahi, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah – said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.
‘Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and multitudes of heaven worship you.
You are Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Caldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.
You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. You divided the Red Sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depth, like a stone into mighty waters.
By day you led them by a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take. You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven,
You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses.
In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.
But our ancestors became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands.
They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore, you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt, or when they committed awful blasphemies.
Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.
You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty (40) years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their cloths did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.”
So tomorrow let us emulate the children of Israel, for God did not abandon Zambians as the country went through the political and economic tribulations of the late 1970s, 80s and 90s. Nor has He turned His back on us this time around when the nation faces the spectre of a crippling drought, falling copper prices and power outages.
But it is not all gloom. For every dark cloud has a silver-lining, as the saying goes. There are new investments in every sector of the economy. Government has also launched far-reaching development programmes to improve the lives of the people for which we must thank God.
So let us ‘stand up and sing of Zambia proud and free’ and we shall surely soar ‘like the eagle in its flight’.
Jesus, the Christ, has declared that He knows the plans He has for us, ‘plans to prosper you and not plans to harm you’.
In conclusion, I would like to suggest that as we prepare to celebrate the 51st independence anniversary next Saturday, Zambia should consider adopting a second National Anthem, particularly the song sung in praise of God by Moses and his sister Miriam after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea into the Promised Land.
The song, which is on Exodus 15:11, says: “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Hallelujah).
Indeed, Jehovah is faithful. He will ‘do wonders’ and heal our land; if only we can learn to humble ourselves before Him and pray, as President Lungu has dutifully implored the nation to do.
Comments: alfredmulenga777@gmail.com