Remembering Reuben Chitandika Kamanga—When politics was still about sacrifice.
On August 26, 1929, Reuben Chitandika Kamanga was born in Chipata District.
Long before political office came with convoys, sirens, allowances, protocol officers and enough government vehicles to transport an entire village, Kamanga was part of a generation that went into politics knowing very well that the reward could be prison, persecution or worse not a government contract.
Kamanga was educated at Munali Secondary School and joined the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in 1958 alongside other senior political figures from Eastern Province.
His commitment to the independence struggle saw him imprisoned several times, particularly during the turbulent years of 1959–60.
Then came October 24, 1964.
Zambia became independent, and Kenneth Kaunda appointed Kamanga as the country’s first Vice-President.
Kamanga did not remain permanently attached to the Vice-President’s chair, however.
In 1967, Kaunda moved him to Foreign Affairs. In 1969, he took charge of Rural Development, and he later served in Agriculture and other senior party and government positions.
By 1983, he was serving on the UNIP Central Committee responsible for Rural Development and later handled Legal and Political Affairs.
He retired from active politics in 1990 and left political life in 1991 just before UNIP’s historic defeat by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy.
Kamanga died at his Makeni home on September 20, 1996, aged 67.
And here is where the Zambian Political Archive must pause for a little uncomfortable reflection.
Today, political retirement sometimes appears to mean nothing more than changing the government vehicle, moving from one office to another and discovering that the taxpayer can apparently fund several farewell parties.
Because a country that remembers its political history only when there is a monument to unveil, a road to rename or an election approaching is not really remembering history.
It is renting it for political convenience.
Today, as we mark 97 years since the birth of Kamanga, we remember one of the men who helped build the foundations of the Zambian Republic.
Before the hashtags.
Before the political influencers.
Before the endless defections.
Before politicians could belong to three parties in one electoral cycle and still explain it as “principle.”
Before politics became a profession, some people treated it as a sacrifice.
Belated Happy birthday in remembrance, Reuben Chitandika Kamanga.
Kamanga’s generation, on the other hand, spent years fighting for a country that did not yet exist as an independent state.
In October 2014, Kamanga’s family appealed to the Government to rename Chipata District Hospital after him, arguing that a man who played such an influential role in the liberation struggle deserved a lasting national memorial.
Perhaps that request deserves another look.