DID YOU KNOW THAT JOHN SANGWA COULD HAVE GRADUATED AS A JOURNALIST FROM UNZA IF HE DID NOT CLASH WITH PROFESSOR FRANCIS KASOMA, HIS MASS COMMUNICATION LECTURER?

DID YOU KNOW THAT JOHN SANGWA COULD HAVE GRADUATED AS A JOURNALIST FROM UNZA IF HE DID NOT CLASH WITH PROFESSOR FRANCIS KASOMA, HIS MASS COMMUNICATION LECTURER?

Hey folks,

The other evening, I was listening to Mr John Sangwa, one of Zambia’s renowned constitutional lawyers as he appeared on Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba’s podcast dubbed “VERIFIED”, articulating his issues.

One of the callers to this program from the United States, Professor Jones Kasonso, wondered if Sangwa ever spoke any of Zambia’s local languages and asked where he was born from or who his chief was; something to that effect, if I remember correctly.

As I listened to this question, I could hear some undertones and my mind went to the year 2002/3 when Sangwa and his partner in the law firm, Robert Simeza, accepted instructions to defend former president Frederick Chiluba after he was arrested for corruption and abuse of office following the lifting of his immunity from prosecution.

During that time, Sangwa and Simeza had become so unpopular among some Zambians and civil society organisations, not to mention the government. The hostility was developed against the duo as it was said that they had betrayed the people’s cause because the two lawyers had earlier stood against the excesses in the Chiluba government in terms of human rights abuse, press freedom and freedom of expression violations.

In the midst of that hostility, there were rumours that Sangwa’s father hailed from Congo and he [John Sangwa] should, therefore, be deported to the DRC.

So, in April 2003, I sat down with John Sangwa to discuss this issue, among others. Sangwa
said he did not lose sleep over the matter.

“The decision that we made was founded on one basic principle: the principle of the rule of
law,” Sangwa said. “Dr. Chiluba, like any other person, has a right to legal representation and the law says anyone accused of a crime is assumed innocent until proved guilty. Our involvement was basically to send that clear message…”

Arising from Professor Kasonso’s question, I thought I could share with you, my memorable followers, an excerpt from my 2003 conversation with Sangwa. From this excerpt, you will see how daring Sangwa has been since his high school days. At the University of Zambia (UNZA) in the mid 1980s, he abandoned his mass communication training for law, after his Professor marked him wrong for researching beyond what was taught in the lecture theatre.

So here below is the excerpt from Conversations with Memorable Personalities; by Amos Malupenga, pages 453-456.

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Amos Malupenga: Give me your full names and a brief background about yourself.

John Sangwa: I am John Peter Sangwa. According to my parents, I was born on 29th December, 1964 in Mansa. I grew up on the Copperbelt. I have attended so many schools that I cannot even remember the order in which I attended school. One of the primary schools I attended was Mutakwa Primary School in chief Mungule’s area in Lusaka rural. The other school was Riverrain Primary School in Kitwe. From there I went to Natwange Primary School in Chimwemwe. It was at Natwange where I sat for my grade seven exams.

This was in 1977 and I was the smallest pupil in my class. I remember when the results were scheduled for publication for about two days I couldn’t sleep or eat properly. Finally, when the results were announced, out of about 40 pupils I was among the four who passed to go to form one. I was accepted at Kitwe Boys Secondary School.

From Kitwe Boys I went to Mpatamatu Secondary School. My father was by then working for the mines in Luanshya and we were staying in Mpatamatu Township. Then we shifted to Roan Township so I was forced to move to Roan Antelope Secondary School [RASS] which was near home. From RASS I moved to Luanshya Boys Secondary School.

From there my family moved to Mufulira. This should have been around 1980 and I got
enrolled at Kantanshi Secondary School. I started off in form three. I passed to go to form
four in 1981. My father had stopped working at the time for the mines and he had found
another job in Mansa and we were in the process of moving again.

This was a period of uncertainty. We did not know whether we would move to Mansa or
remain in Mufulira. So, I couldn’t go back to school to take up my place in form four.

I finally went in the middle of the first term to claim my position. The headmaster asked, ‘Where have you been?’ I said, ‘I have been around.’ He said you are not taking up the place because you are late. I explained what kind of family problem I had. He maintained his position. That was 1982. I was told to start school the following year.

I was quite disappointed and decided to fight my case. I made representation and some
of the teachers said, ‘You can follow up your case in Ndola’ where the provincial education
offices were based. That was my first experience with authority. I went to Ndola and saw the Provincial Education Officer.

I was a very tiny boy that time and I walked into this huge office and presented my case. The Provincial Education Officer said, ‘We have a system of decentralisation; we don’t control schools anymore from the centre.’

So, whatever I wanted to do collapsed. I spent the whole of 1982 in the compound. And
I shall forever be thankful to God that I remained in the compound that year in the sense that from the time I started primary school, I was just moving from one grade to the other.

Sometimes not even appreciating what we did in the previous grade because the system was that whether you passed or not you went to the next grade.

That one year was a year that enabled me to take stock of my life. And it was an important
year in the sense that I had taken school for granted. Now to stay in the compound for one
year without doing anything, not knowing what you are going to do that particular day, without even the sense of purpose or direction, was not a good thing.

Well, I waited and 1982 ended. I went back to school in 1983 and I discovered that the
headmaster who said I should go back the following year had been transferred. There was a new headmaster I still remember, Mr. Siisi. I had to make my case afresh. He asked if I had any letter to show that I was supposed to start school. I said no but one of my teachers who taught me English was still there, so he backed up my story and I was finally given my place.

At that time my dream was to be an engineer. I never thought I would be a lawyer.

When I look back, I see that although I desired to be an engineer, God had other plans for
me. And the way it was that time, for you to do some engineering course at the university,
you had to do some science subjects at secondary school. And it turned out that although I had sat for General Science those days, my grades for science were not there. When I made representation they said it was late; I should have followed it up there and then but it was over a year and most of the scripts were destroyed, so it would be difficult to trace them even if they were there.

And that time we had four streams of form fours. The cream were placed in one class
and the classification went down like that. And I was put in the last class. The only science
I could do was Human and Social Biology. This was not the class for the cream ones. I was
in grade 11C, the last class. That’s how I met a few good friends; some of them are still good friends to this day. I met Berry Lwando [the current ZNBC Director General] , Edward Jere who is now working for Barclays Bank in Mufulira and one girl, Evelyn.

But coming from the background of having stayed one year in the compound, I
appreciated everything that was given to me. I took it that first of all I did not deserve a
place but nevertheless it was given to me. And I think my friend Jere is one of the interesting
characters. He came from night school and he did so well that he was transferred to a day
school. Jere was very good and together we created a very competitive environment in class. I remember that when he was not number one, I was, and if I wasn’t and he wasn’t then Evelyn would be number one and Berry would come trailing behind.

Finally when we sat for grade 12, our intake produced the largest number of distinctions
in the history of Kantanshi Secondary School.

For the first time, form five C produced
people that went to the university. My friend Jere, Berry and myself went to the University of
Zambia. Evelyn didn’t make it to UNZA although she had a division one.

That’s how I found myself at the university in 1985, after finishing grade 12 in 1984.
Berry and I were in the School of Humanities while Jere was in the School of Education.
After first year, Jere left because he didn’t want to become a teacher, so he went to Copperbelt University.

Amos Malupenga: Before you talk about your life at campus, let’s talk about your father because I heard from the grapevine that you were almost deported recently, I don’t know to where.

John Sangwa: Well, my father Davies Sangwa is dead. He died about five years ago [in 1998]. My mum is still alive. My father married a couple of times. In my family, same mother same father we are two but in the family we are about seven of us. I am the second born. My elder brother Oliver still lives in Mufulira. There are also my sisters Rose, Sandra, my late sister Rachael and brother Davies.

My father was from North-Western Province in Mwinilunga district. He was in the civil
service for many years as a medical assistant and all these places we had been to is where he was posted to work.

Amos Malupenga: Now talk about your graduation from UNZA and where you worked after that.

John Sangwa: I graduated from UNZA in 1989. But first there is something that I have to mention. Initially, when I went to UNZA, I was in the Mass Communications quarter. There I changed my mind because I had a clash with the late Professor Kasoma. He was one of my lecturers. I wasn’t able to write notes in his course and one of the things I did in this particular course was that each time we had lectures I used to go to the library and do my own notes.

I remember him giving us a test and I wrote some of the things I read on my own as
answers and he marked me wrong. This upset me and I confronted him. I said, ‘This stuff
you have marked me wrong is actually correct because I can show you the book and page
where I got this stuff.’ He said, ‘This is not what I taught you in class’ and I said, ‘If university education was all about reproducing the lecturers’ notes, then there is no use for one to sit in the library.’ That year ended and I decided to change my quarter.

Amos Malupenga: Were you to become a journalist at the end of your Mass Communication course?

John Sangwa: Yes, because one of the problems we have in this country is lack of information. That time my intake was the second in the field of Mass Communication and Mass Communication was highly talked about. We were made to believe that it was the in thing and a proper field.

We were quite excited about it and I didn’t have time to think through what I would be. But
I think I was merely swayed by the fact that Mass Communication was highly talked about.
Then I left the School of Humanities and went to law school in my second year. That’s
where I met Robert Simeza in 1986. From that moment we became friends …

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An excerpt from Conversations with Memorable Personalities; by Amos Malupenga, pages 453-456.

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I hope Professor Jones Kasonso (in the diaspora) will place an order for his copy of the Conversations’ book on Amazon.com so he can enjoy the full conversation.

Picture caption: John Sangwa at his office in Lusaka reading through his conversation when he received a copy of the Conversations’ book a few days before its official launch in May 2022.

Enjoy!
Amos Malupenga
Author