Kenneth Kaunda Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
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President Kaunda, welcome to California.
Thank you very much indeed. You are most welcome.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born at a place called Lubwa Mission in Chinsali district, northern Rhodesia, today's Zambia. I was born of missionaries. My father was a reverend, my mother was a teacher. They came from a place called Nyasaland, today's Malawi, and traveled to my home in Northern Rhodesia, and I was born there. I was the last born of my family.
And your mother was, I read somewhere, the first teacher in Zambia?
I'm afraid so, yes. [laughs]
[laughs] Was that good for you, growing up?
Very good indeed.
Looking back, how do you think your parents shaped your thinking about the world?
From teaching the two main Commandments, Christ's teaching: Love God, your Creator, with all your heart, with all your soul, all your mind, all your strength; teaching how to relate to our Creator. Then comes the second Commandment: Love thy neighbor as thou lovest thyself, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. These two Commandments have stuck with me and I find them very useful in terms of guiding my thoughts, words, and deeds.
And you took these to both your careers. First you were an educator before you became a political leader.
Yes. I was trained as a teacher at the same school, same place, because later on my parents were joined by missionaries from Scotland, from the Church of Scotland, Presbyterian. They built a very important institution in terms of schools, health, and so I was brought up there.
Was it hard to make the transition from education to politics?
Not really, because even at the place where I was born, as I was growing up I would see clearly the differences in terms of treatment between my parents and the white missionaries, yet both are missionaries, but the only difference was the way they were treated. So, I began to talk about such things and so that also helped me to try and help build a better society, a society where human beings are human beings.
So, you're saying that you sensed the way people were being treated differently, and so in your mind it became important to empower your own people to achieve that equality.
Precisely. That's very true. Correct.
I want to get a sense of political skills and how you learn them, and your advice to students. You worked for a while for colonial administrators. You honed your skills as an official of government in that way. Talk a little about that.
I trained as a teacher and I worked at my school, my birthplace, as a teacher for some three or four years, and I left to go and look for better places, better life. I visited Tanganyika then, Tanzania today, with two of my closest friends. We didn't like it and we went back home. Then I went to Salsbury, Harare today. Again, what I found there was terrible, so I went back home and worked as a welfare officer for some few months, nine months, and then went back to teaching. From teaching -- again, I didn't like it -- I went back home to do farming, completely farming. From there, when I was teaching, for the second time, I was very involved in politics, because this was what is called the Copperbelt, a very developed area in Northern Rhodesia at that time. And there I got mixed up in politics. I never went back until I retired a few years ago.
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