Kenneth Kaunda, the founding president of Zambia, has died at the age of 97

Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia and one of the last leaders to fight in the late 2000s in Africa to liberate from colonial rule, has died at the age of 97.

The government of President Edgar on Thursday said Kaunda, “our beloved founding father, icon and world leader”, has died in Lusaka, the capital of southern Africa where he led from his independence in 1964 to the re-election of a one-party state. in 1991.

Authorities have announced a 21-day mourning period for a man who has ruled the country for many years but who has set an example for the district authorities after approving the election, accepting the decision of his people and relinquishing power peacefully.

Kaunda was born in 1924, in the same year as his next freedom fighter, Robert Mugabe. The men grew up in various parts of Britain and Rhodesia.

All of them had a religious background and suffered at the hands of white supremacists, who took part in African politics.

Mugabe could just wait for him to gain power. By 1960, Kaunda led a new party, the United National Independence Party, and was internationally acclaimed. He went to the US where he was fighting for human rights, meeting black freedom fighters Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

In his independence, Kaunda led a country of great wealth and commitment to unity under the slogan “One Zambia, One Nation”. Today it is still the second largest copper market in Africa and one of the most peaceful in the region.

He became the legend of the liberation of many Africans along with Samora Machel of Mozambique and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. With Zambia’s close proximity to Rhodesia’s Ian Smith and ahead of the apartheid war in South Africa, Kaunda has hosted prisoners in other areas including African National Congress leaders in South Africa.

Powerfully Kaunda preached about its African cultural identity, but the overthrow of Zambia in 1969 copper mining was one of the short-lived reasons in history. Copper prices plummeted in the oil crisis of the 1970’s, leaving the country heavily in debt and economically depressed.

Zambia avoided civil strife or war, but Kaunda, a former politician, abolished politics and declared a one-party state in 1972. It could be decades after Kaunda disrupted his party and a series of votes.

But his rule was gradually shattered when ordinary Zambians rejected and rejected the promised wealth of Africa. The bread riots and big demonstrations in 1990 changed.

Kaunda allowed other candidates to run in the by-elections next year, but was simply thrown out. He acknowledged that Frederick Chiluba’s Movement for Multiparty Democracy had ended his 27-year rule. Although he was later suspended for trying to seduce him and remove his citizens, Kaunda resigned from politics and became the district commissioner.

Kaunda’s exit at the time was a strange phenomenon in southern African politics, especially as Mugabe’s Zanu-PF regime across the border was pushing for Zimbabwe.

But it was an important event to move the region beyond the old civil rights groups that still control southern Africa, including Zanu-PF and Mozambique’s Frelimo.

Despite concerns over the transition to power under Sunday, Zambians are once again voting for the president this year. Kaunda’s old party, having already relinquished power, is invisible.