Eight Months to Edgar Lungu: Frozen Death Haunts Zambia
“A French phrase captures the mood: “La mort poursuit toujours les coupables”—death always pursues the guilty. Whether guilt lies with the man, the state, or the silence of institutions, the haunting is undeniable.”
Amb. AM-27 Jan. 26
On a dim January morning, the ghost of Shakespeare’s Macbeth seemed to whisper across Lusaka: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.” Yet here, death itself refuses silence.
Edgar Chagwa Lungu, Zambia’s sixth President, lies suspended in Pretoria’s cold vaults, eight months unburied, eight months haunting the living.
The Daily Nation Zambia
Ask Chawama, soon Kasama, I hear ECl will be there.
The tragedy recalls Macbeth’s tortured nights, where guilt and ambition conjured daggers in the dark.
In Zambia, it is not daggers but legal writs that keep Lungu frozen, a court order halting his widow, Esther, from laying him to rest by the chief government lawyer, so-called AG.
The Attorney General’s silence deepens the mystery, leaving citizens to wonder: is this justice, politics, or punishment beyond the grave?
A French phrase captures the mood: “La mort poursuit toujours les coupables”—death always pursues the guilty. Whether guilt lies with the man, the state, or the silence of institutions, the haunting is undeniable.
Bookstores across Lusaka echo with demand for Lungu’s autobiography, Against All Odds, Edgar Lungu.
At East Park’s Bookworld, shelves thin quickly, readers hungry for fragments of a life now trapped between history and limbo. Only five copies remained on the shelves on Tuesday.
The irony is sharp: a leader who governed seven years against storms of criticism now governs memory itself, his frozen body a symbol of unresolved power.
Citizens murmur that ECL haunts the corridors of justice, the whispers of politics, the conscience of those who delayed his burial. Like Macbeth’s ghost at the banquet, his presence unsettles the feast of the living.
Ambassador Anthony Mukwita, author of the biography, recounts how even strangers urge him to write more, to supply more copies, to keep the story alive.
He promises free editions, many free editions in Lungu’s memory, a gesture of defiance against silence. In Zambia today, the book is more than paper—it is a candle against the frost, a reminder that history cannot be frozen indefinitely.
On February 5th, Guinness World Records may note him as the first African president not buried for eight months. But records cannot capture the sorrow, the anger, the haunting.
Zambia waits, restless, as the frozen body of Edgar Lungu becomes a mirror of Macbeth’s lament: ambition, guilt, and death entangled in shadows.
The question remains: is ECL haunting Zambia? In the bookstores, in the courts, in the whispers of citizens, the answer is yes. Death, denied its rest, has become the country’s most sorrowful ghost.
Where’s the justice?
–Amb Anthony Mukwita, author of‘ Against all Odds, Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s Rough Journey to State House.’
The author, a politician and businessman, appears to be mainly promoting his book. The title is deliberately sensational and fictional, giving the impression that the nation is significantly affected by the conman in hiding. The author is shamelessly attempting to make quick money by telling a sensational, fabricated story.
Ba Mukwita, we have moved on and even the Lungu family spokesperson, Mr. Makebi Zulu, has moved on and is contesting the presidency of one of the PF factions.
It is only you who seems obsessed with Mr. Lungu’s remains. Come February, you will be writing about “Nine months to Edgar Lungu”.
Lungu is just fine, he is hiding with Zambia’s stolen money in SA.
Who even cares about this baboon
This man and his attempt to resurrect issues that have nothing to do with the government and the Zambian people. Why blame us? We had nothing to do with the route the family took. The South African courts decided, who continues the status quo?
This just shows how you just another irrational man who had failed to do or product something worth your time. Tell us…How many copies did you sell of the first edition autibiography of Lungu? Did you even recover what was spent? Or it was the basis for your ticket into the diplomatic service? Business man…and what business do you run?
THE BIG QUESTION IS; ” WHAT IS THE FAMILY TRYING TO HIDE ABOUT HIS DEATH IF HE REALLY DIED?
WHY HAS NO ONE BEEN ABLE TO SEE THE BODY?
EVEN CLOSEST ALLIES HAVE BEEN DENIED THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THE BODY IN SOUTH AFRICA ITSELF- NOT ZAMBIA.
EACH PARTY WILL FOOT IT’S OWN BILLS. THIS MEANS THE APPELLANT WILL FOOT THE BILL OF STORING THE BODY IN A SOUTH AFRICAN MORGUE.
THE IMPLICATION IS THAT THEY HAVE THE MONEY TO SPEND ON A CORPSE, POSSIBLY MONEY STOLLEN FROM ZAMBIANS.
MONEY THAT COULD HAVE PAID THE ZAMBIAN DEBT.
MONEY THAT COULD HAVE SEEN MANY STUDENTS GET BURSERIES IN TERTIARY EDUCATION.
MONEY THAT COULD HAVE BEEN USED TO IMPROVE HOSPITALS IN ZAMBIA TO THE LEVEL OF MORNINGSIDE CLINIC IN SANDTON SOUTH AFRICA.
MONEY THAT COULD BE INJECTED INTO ALTERNATIVE POWER GENERATION.
MONEY THAT COULD HAVE SEEN THE COMPLETION OF FEEDER ROADS.
MONEY THAT COULD CREATE MORE INDUSTRIES FOR EMPLOYMENT OF MORE GRADUATES.
MONEY THAT COULD HAVE SEEN MORE DIADVANTAGED ZAMBIANS ON SOCIAL CASH TRANSFER.
THE MZ TEAM DOES NOT CARE.
ALL THEY CARE ABOUT IS A CHANCE TO ESCAPE JUSTICE FROM THE MANY CASES THEY MAY HAVE COMMITTED AGAINST GOVERNMENT.
ZAMBIANS ARE BEING ASKED TO BE PREPARED TO SPEND TAX PAYER MONEY ON A CORPSE OF A MAN THAT GATHERED ALL CRIMINALS TO TORTURE ZAMBIANS.
A MAN THAT ENCOURAGED LAWLESSNESS TO THRIVE ON ZAMBIAN SOIL.
CAN THEY JUSTIFY WHY THIS CORPSE CAN NOT BE VERIFIED EVEN BY SCOTLAND YARD OF KGB?
WHY ARE THEY SO SUPASTITIOUS? ARE THEY BELIEVERS OF VODOO? ARE THEY TRYING TO USE THE SPIRIT OF ECL TO HYPNOTIZE ZAMBIANS INTO VOTING FOR A MAN WITHOUT REAL PLANS OF HOW HE CAN DO BETTER THAN HH?
AWE, THIS IS TOO MUCH! THESE PEOPLE ARE AGAINST PROGRESSIVE PROGRAMS THAT UPND HAS PUT IN MOTION.
HOW DO ZAMBIANS EVEN IGNORE THE HAPPENINGS IN KCM DURING THE PF REGIME?
WHAT GHOST IS HAUNTING ZAMBIA?
MAY GOD PREVAIL AND SHIELD ZAMBIANS FROM ANOTHER INVASION OF PF THUGS IN WHATEVER NAME OR ALTERNATIVE VEHICLE THEY MAY WANT TO USE.
THEIR STRENGTH LIES ON TRIBAL VOTING AS THEIR CAMPAIGNS LED BY KABWILI AND HIS LIKES, BUT ZAMBIANS WILL NOT BE FOOLED AT ALL.