Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s first president and one in all the last of the generation of African leaders who fought colonialism, has died aged 97. Kaunda was admitted to a hospital within the capital, Lusaka, on Monday littered with pneumonia. His aides said he didn’t have Covid-19. In the 1950s, Kaunda was a key figure in what was then Northern Rhodesia’s independence movement from Britain. He became president following independence in 1964. As head of the left-leaning United National Independence Party (UNIP), Kaunda then led the country through decades of one-party rule. He stepped down after losing multi-party elections in 1991. “I am sad to tell we’ve lost Mzee,” Kaunda’s son, Kambarage, wrote on his late father’s Facebook page, employing a term of respect. “Let’s pray for him.” Zambian President Edgar Lungu said the country was mourning “a true African icon”. “I learned of your passing this afternoon with great sadness,” he wrote on Facebook. “On behalf of the complete nation and on my very own behalf I pray that the whole Kaunda family is comforted as we mourn our first president and true African icon.” The government declared three weeks of national mourning with all kinds of entertainment suspended. The nationalist leader Foundation said Kaunda’s contribution to the struggle against colonialism and apartheid wouldn’t be forgotten. Another tribute came from Kalusha Bwalya, former captain of the Zambian national eleven, who said Kaunda had made “an immense impact”. Kaunda – popularly referred to as KK – was a powerful supporter of efforts to finish apartheid in the African country. He was also a number one supporter of liberation movements in Mozambique and what’s now Zimbabwe. In later life, Kaunda turned his attention to the fight against HIV after one of his sons, Masuzyo, died from an Aids-related disease. “We fought colonialism. We must now use the identical zeal to fight Aids, which threatens to wipe out Africa,” he told Reuters in 2002.
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