Nkoloso: Fallen hero of many hats
58 years ago, ‘Zambia unofficially launched the first space project in Africa.
This was through a science teacher whose dream was to put a Zambian on the moon and Mars before the US and Russia.
He warned the two countries that “Zambia would beat you to the moon, then Mars”.
Legend has it that he was inspired to join the space race during his first flight when the pilot refused to stop the plane as he wanted to go out and walk on the clouds.
On the surface, this is all that is known about Edward Mukuka Nkoloso, the man foreign journalists deemed a crackpot.
But who was Nkoloso?
A teacher, soldier and politician, Nkoloso was born in 1919 in Luwingu district, Northern Province, and was first of six children.
He received a missionary education and aspired to be a politician. This made him move to Lusaka in a quest of furthering his political career.
During World War II between 1939 and 1945, Nkoloso, then in his 20s, was recruited by the British forces as a sergeant to fight in the King’s Rifle Unit alongside other young men to protect Northern Rhodesia in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Burma.
This was on grounds that the young men would be given back their land when they returned to Zambia.
Upon his return, the favour was not returned. Instead, he became a language translator for the Northern Rhodesian government.
Credit: Zambia Daily Mail
