DR GUY SCOTT: ZAMBIA IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S BEST KEPT SECRETS
An excerpt from the book: Conversations with Memorable Personalities (2022), Pages 325 – 326.
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Amos Malupenga: As a Zambian of British origin, what is it that you see in the country in terms of culture or otherwise that could inspire others to come here?
Dr Guy Scott: I think Zambia is one of the world’s best kept secrets. If you ask people if they would be interested in going to Africa for a holiday, they say not very much. When you say, ‘Suppose you are going out on holiday to Africa, where would you go?’ They will say South Africa, Kenya or Botswana.
These are the places that they have heard of. They tend to think of Zambia as a dark place attached to the Congo. And there is always this myth that Zambia is hot. But we are the nicest people in the world and we live in the nicest environment. It’s a cliché to say Zambia has got potential. But you can’t bottle potential and sell it. It’s a very long story why Zambia has failed to make it, but it boils down to leadership. Poor leadership.
Botswana our neighbour had the richest economic growth rate in the world in the last 20 years, even exceeding in all these countries in the Far East. But here we are lingering, we are saying send us food aid, send us ARVs [antiretrovirals], money, forgive our debt, please we want HIPC [Highly Indebted Poor Country] status. We have turned into a bunch of victims.
For somebody like me, it’s a challenge. There are four of us in my family. My younger
brother doesn’t miss Zambia at all. He works in Britain. He just went home where his
ancestors came from. My elder brother went down to Rhodesia to help Smith in his fight against what he thought were communists but were actually nationalists. Now he has been chased out by Mugabe and he is in New Zealand.
My sister, because she married an English man, had to go and live in England. But you have to leave somebody behind so I have stayed behind to make sure that our family presence in this country didn’t simply come and go, it hasn’t been extinguished. We are giving back at least one of our sons in return for what this country gave us as a family.
I have also got four children. Two are in the UK, one is in Kafue and one is here with
me. It’s difficult to understand sometimes why people stay while others leave. There is a lot to be done here especially for someone who doesn’t have a single big talent but has many moderate talents like me.
Amos Malupenga: I know that you can pick one or two Nyanja words, but can you speak Nyanja for five minutes?
Dr Guy Scott: Yes I can. I can listen Bemba okay provided I have a fair idea what the subject matter is. But Nyanja, yes. You know I have been farming here for a long time and the language of farming is Nyanja. It was traditional for white farmers to use Chilapalapa, but that is very insulting. When you now hear any muzungu speaking that language then you know it’s one of those Zimbabwean white farmers who have come because Mugabe chased him and he hasn’t learnt that it is resented here. But he’ll learn.
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Picture caption: Dr. Guy Scott, as Zambia’s Acting President with his wife, Charlotte Scott, relaxing in camp chairs while on holiday in December 2014. The photograph was taken by the late veteran photojournalist Eddie Mwanaleza during their private retreat in the Lower Zambezi National Park, a pristine wilderness reserve situated along the northwestern bank of the Zambezi River in Zambia.
Here, the couple is enjoying a classic African safari custom known as a sundowner—an unhurried, late-afternoon ritual where guests unwind with drinks as the sun sets over the floodplains.
This national park is world-renowned for its water-based safaris. Some of its popular excursions include the guided river canoe trips, catch-and-release tiger fishing expeditions, open-vehicle night game drives, and walking safaris.
Indeed, Guy was right. Zambia is one of the world’s best kept secrets.