Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Mutumba Mainga
1938 – 2026
First Zambian woman with a doctorate, first woman in the Cabinet
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Zambia Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
The first Zambian woman to hold a PhD, the first to lecture at the University of Zambia, and the first to sit in Cabinet — and the author of the standard history of Bulozi.
Mutumba Mainga was a Zambian historian and politician, born in 1938.
She was the first Zambian woman to gain a doctorate, the first woman to lecture at the University of Zambia, and the first woman to serve as a full Cabinet Minister. Her Bulozi under the Luyana Kings: Political Evolution and State Formation in Pre-colonial Zambia (1973) remains a standard work. Elected for Nalolo in Western Province in 1973, she was Minister of Health until 1976, left active politics in 1991, returned to the University of Zambia as a senior research fellow in 1996, and directed its Institute of Economic and Social Research from 2005 to 2008. She died in 2026.
She was the first Zambian woman to gain a doctorate, the first woman to lecture at the University of Zambia, and the first woman to serve as a full Cabinet Minister. Her Bulozi under the Luyana Kings: Political Evolution and State Formation in Pre-colonial Zambia (1973) remains a standard work. Elected for Nalolo in Western Province in 1973, she was Minister of Health until 1976, left active politics in 1991, returned to the University of Zambia as a senior research fellow in 1996, and directed its Institute of Economic and Social Research from 2005 to 2008. She died in 2026.
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