From Beatings to Power: How a Lost Cow Shaped HH’ Politics
By Linda Banks
It was a quiet morning in Sussex, the kind that gently wraps itself around your senses. The sun was just beginning its slow climb above the hedgerows, painting the sky in soft pastels of amber and rose.
A delicate breeze stirred the lavender lining my garden path, and the early birdsong danced through the stillness like a private orchestra. Wrapped in a shawl and nursing my first cup of tea, I was alone with my thoughts, until I wasn’t.
The President’s voice broke into my morning day dream, not in person but through a recording I had been asked to review. And as he spoke, something in the tone, soft, almost reluctant…..began to shift the ground beneath my calm. Within seconds, Sussex melted away. In its place, my mind was transported thousands of miles to a different sunrise, one not cushioned by blossoms or birdsong but by the red biting dust of Bwengwe, Southern Province.
There, in the hazy golden light, I saw a young boy, barefoot, hungry, and weathered by hours under the Zambian sun. His name was Sammy. He had spent the day herding cattle across the dry land, a task that started with youthful excitement but slowly drained him of energy as the sun reached its peak. As evening approached, the first stars whispering overhead, Sammy realised with dread that one cow had gone missing. Panic set in. He couldn’t go home without it.
And when he did return, without the cow, what awaited him was not a mother’s comforting embrace , a hot meal and a well done son for such hard work, but it was punishment, a heavy beating.
“When a cow got lost,” President Hakainde Hichilema recalled quietly, “I came home to a heavy beating by male relatives and my mother was not helpful. She poured water on my bed so that I could not sleep… and sent me back to the woods until I came back with the lost cow.”
It is a sentence that lingers,brutal in its simplicity, yet searing in its implication. This wasn’t just a memory. It was a scar. A private grief, shared in a public moment. And perhaps, it is a key to understanding the man behind the presidential seal: the leader shaped by pain, by resilience, and by the unspoken ache of a childhood spent fighting for dignity. As a scribe, I couldn’t help but wish I was the one interviewing him, I would have asked “Mr President,how has this experience shaped the way you are governing Zambia today”.
In that tender Sussex dawn, I realised: this story wasn’t just about a boy and a cow. It was about a country, and the quiet, powerful ways in which hardship carves out the character of a leader
My eyes are getting increasingly moist and the pages of my notebook are stained with teardrops. As a mother, my trembling hand cannot ink the rest of this story. I will be back to dissect how this childhood trauma spills into his treatment of his subordinates and citizens.
To be continued.….. ✍
Pointless
Was it one disciplinary beating or was HH missing cows everyday.And your eyes must never increasingly become moist wetting notebooks while in Sussex fantasizing a child in Bweengwa.Are there no Sammy’s in the UK
An abused child does not become a strong man, he becomes an abuser as well. The coldness of heart is evident in HH. They say that revenge is best served cold and HH has perfected that to a ‘T’.
Pany0 pak0.HH is a man people like you will never be even if God gives you another life. Hatred is your problem.A good man will always be a good man.Evil people like you can never bring him down
Wow. What is sad upbringing. What type of person puts the life of a cow over that of his only child? That is dysfunctional. And it can damage that child such that when they grow up, they become dysfunctional. It explains a lot. God help us.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
Sour grapes from TV bakwetu after seeing Chipakupa and Munshya rewarded for standing strong for Zambia. Bitterness and hatred has shown its ugly head into our politics. Patience is key don’t damage your reputation. You started very well during those tv shows at TV bakwetu. Tame your tongue, this is just an advice you can ignore if you want. Better days are coming for those who wait patiently.
It is Bweengwa not Bwengwe. Can’t even spell a simple name, Empty Head! At least he is not a bloody Leech and he did not run away to Sussex, when he could have stayed abroad when he was there but decided to come back to Zambia to do what he does best: “Work, Work and more Work”, not enjoying other people’s countries who worked hard to make such countries a Paradise, even for Imbeciles and Free Loaders.
These are bitter prostistutes who benefited from kasaka kandalama/tantameni.The money is no longer coming in anymore. There is nothing special about Sussex.Those teaching piece jobs you are doing should not get to your head. We have been there longer than this lady.
The experts at twisting narratives and telling lies never rest.
They have now turned fundamental domestic discipline into epic life destroying trauma.
Please continue to campaign for HH. Yowa hatred for his achievements and the benefits Zambians are getting from those achievements is well known.