“Is Zambia’s Democracy on Trial?”
…When Love Is Arrested, Who Posts Bail?”
AM 24.08.26
Peace is cheaper than conflict, yet history shows nations that spurned it forever held their breath.
Somalia, once a proud Horn of Africa state, collapsed into ‘warlordism’.
Liberia bled through decades of civil war. South Sudan, born in hope, drowned in its own tears. These are cautionary mirrors for any African nation.
Two reasons demand we not slide into the abyss: first, peace sustains the fragile thread of democracy woven since 1991; second, without peace, women and children — not men — suffer most, carrying scars of hunger, displacement, rape and silence.
Philosophers from Aristotle to Kant lauded peace as the higher virtue, easier to handle than the chaos of war.
Nelson Mandela, wounded after 27 years on Robben Island, emerged not with vengeance but with reconciliation, proving that peace within oneself can heal a nation feared to ignite like a gas lamp.
Today, arbitrary arrests, the brutal death of Mutotwe Kafwaya, and condemnations from the UN, AU, SADC, and Commonwealth remind us that democracy is fragile, not my words not my facts.
My dog in this fight is peace and justice — and that dog must bark peace.
Leaders must act like fathers of households where children run to their mothers in joy, not cower when the husband walks in. It is an election, not a war.
Let love beget love, let justice walk without fear.
As Michael Jackson sang, we must find the man in the mirror and reach inside our souls.
Medieval Europe learned too late that broken peace is hard to mend; Africa too bears scars of leaders who chose conflict over calm. Zambia must not join them.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” — Matthew 5:9 “La paz es el camino.”
One Zambia, One Nation. May this week look better than the last. In my view Brian today seeks the same thing our beloved President sought five times before he struck gold.
Let’s live and let live, this is a peace call, a love call!
One Zambia one Nation
Amb. AM. 24 Aug 26.