Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Zambia Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He led Zambia to independence in 1964 and governed for twenty-seven years, then accepted defeat at the ballot box in 1991 and handed power over — a rarer thing than it should be.
Kenneth David Kaunda was born at Lubwa mission near Chinsali in 1924, the eighth child of a Malawian-born teacher and missionary, and was a teacher himself before he was anything else.
He led the breakaway Zambian African National Congress, was jailed for it, and then built the United National Independence Party into the movement that ended both colonial rule and the Central African Federation that had tied Northern Rhodesia to white-ruled Southern Rhodesia. Zambia became independent on 24 October 1964 with Kaunda as its first president.
He took charge of a country with, by most accounts, fewer than a hundred university graduates and a handful of secondary schools. He built schools and the University of Zambia, and expanded education so fast that the shortage reversed within a generation.
The decision that defined him was foreign. Zambia is landlocked and its copper exports ran south through Rhodesia and South Africa. Kaunda gave sanctuary and headquarters to the liberation movements anyway — the ANC, ZAPU, SWAPO, the MPLA, ZANU at points — and closed the Rhodesian border in 1973, which cost Zambia its trade routes and much of its economy. He built the TAZARA railway to Dar es Salaam with Chinese help to escape the dependence. Rhodesian and South African forces raided Zambian territory repeatedly in reply. He was a founder of the Frontline States and mediated the talks that produced Zimbabwe's independence.
In 1991, having conceded multiparty elections, he lost to Frederick Chiluba, congratulated him, and left State House. He spent his later years campaigning on HIV after losing a son to it, and died in 2021 at ninety-seven.
He led the breakaway Zambian African National Congress, was jailed for it, and then built the United National Independence Party into the movement that ended both colonial rule and the Central African Federation that had tied Northern Rhodesia to white-ruled Southern Rhodesia. Zambia became independent on 24 October 1964 with Kaunda as its first president.
He took charge of a country with, by most accounts, fewer than a hundred university graduates and a handful of secondary schools. He built schools and the University of Zambia, and expanded education so fast that the shortage reversed within a generation.
The decision that defined him was foreign. Zambia is landlocked and its copper exports ran south through Rhodesia and South Africa. Kaunda gave sanctuary and headquarters to the liberation movements anyway — the ANC, ZAPU, SWAPO, the MPLA, ZANU at points — and closed the Rhodesian border in 1973, which cost Zambia its trade routes and much of its economy. He built the TAZARA railway to Dar es Salaam with Chinese help to escape the dependence. Rhodesian and South African forces raided Zambian territory repeatedly in reply. He was a founder of the Frontline States and mediated the talks that produced Zimbabwe's independence.
In 1991, having conceded multiparty elections, he lost to Frederick Chiluba, congratulated him, and left State House. He spent his later years campaigning on HIV after losing a son to it, and died in 2021 at ninety-seven.
- Britannica — Kenneth Kaunda
- Al Jazeera — Zambia's founding president Kenneth Kaunda dies aged 97
- NPR — Zambia's first president Kenneth Kaunda dies at age 97
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