A State Visit ‘struggled’ to dim ECL’s light
…as he clocked eight months frozen in Pretoria
Amb. AM 6th Jan. 26
From The Daily Nation Zambia
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Eight months have passed since the death of Zambia’s sixth President, H.E Edgar Chagwa Lungu, on 5 February, and yet the soil of his homeland has not embraced him.
His widow, Esther Lungu, has endured what is now the longest mourning window on the continent.
Her tears have dried, but her sorrow has deepened, not because grief fades but because the Attorney General of Zambia saw fit to take out a court order stopping her from burying the man, she shared more than four decades with.
Their children and grandchildren remain suspended in mourning, unable to close the chapter, unable to lay their father and grandfather to rest.
As an author, I took time to retrace the steps for those that are not familiar with the saga that has now gained continental attraction.
WHERE DO THINGS STAND?
On the eighth month of mourning without burial, even the high-level three-day state visit of Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, who addressed Zambia’s Parliament with the gravitas of a seasoned statesman, could not eclipse the ghost in the air:
Edgar Chagwa Lungu. Almost every ‘mourning’ show on radio and television in Zambia discussed nothing but ECL’s non-burial on 5 February.
Yet the administration of Zambia or the government remained quiet, as if nothing had happened, business as usual.
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Voices from abroad and within asked, “Is this what Zambia wants to be remembered for, as a nation that ‘punished’ the family of a dead president by refusing them the honour to bury him without government engagement?
How hard can it be to let the family bury the man?” The whispers grew darker, some invoking spiritualism, others suspecting that H.E John Dramani Mahama, who had a close working relationship with the late Lungu—the father of infrastructure in Zambia—was combining his diplomatic state visit with a mission to seek an ‘amicable solution’ to the burial impasse with colleague, H.E Hichilema, I hope so.
AND AHEAD LIES THE POLLS IN ZAMBIA
Zambia now marches toward a crucial general election on 13 August, where President Hakainde Hichilema seeks re-election.
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Observers wonder: how does a nation conduct a successful election when it cannot even conduct a burial ceremony without national fiasco and drama that has gone viral?
Where will the spirit of Edgar Chagwa Lungu be during the polls, in Pretoria, frozen in a refrigerator, or in Lusaka, observing elections at each and every polling station?
As a Christian, I invoke the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I beg those with the keys to his final resting house to hand them over to Mrs. Lungu.
Let the man rest before the polls, at least after failing to meet his birthday on 11 November, Christmas, and New Year. Others ironically say, “So what are they telling President John Dramani Mahama? Let’s go and lay some wreaths at Embassy Park and oh, by the way, that empty one is for the President…President Edgar Lungu.”
The situation evokes Shakespearean tragedy. Lady Macbeth, tormented by guilt, could not wash the blood from her hands.
Hamlet, haunted by the ghost of his father, demanded justice in a kingdom that preferred silence.
Zambia now finds itself in a Hamlet-like drama, with Edgar Lungu’s ghost circling between Pretoria and Lusaka, demanding burial, demanding closure.
How do authorities sleep as the ECL ghost circles in the air, restless, between Pretoria and Lusaka?
History offers analogues. Alexander the Great, after conquering empires, was himself denied immediate burial, his body transported across lands as his generals squabbled.
Ghana too faced an impasse when a president died in exile and his burial became a matter of national contention. Could H.E John Dramani Mahama be using this analogue to quietly counsel his Zambian colleague, President Hakainde Hichilema, that no nation gains dignity by denying burial to its leaders?
Even Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s founding father, died in exile, and his remains were initially buried in Cornacky Guinea before finally being repatriated to Ghana.
The lesson is clear: the dead must be allowed to rest, lest their spirits haunt the living.
And yet Zambia, a nation known for peace and unity, risks being remembered for this grotesque theatre of non-burial.
The irony is sharp: a country that prides itself on democracy and stability cannot find consensus on laying one of its presidents to rest. The silence of the administration is deafening, the indifference chilling.
The parallels to Rwanda’s genocide and South Africa’s apartheid are not in scale but in principle: when a nation allows injustice to fester, when it punishes families in their most vulnerable hour, it risks staining its legacy.
This must never happen again. Zambia must not be remembered as the nation that denied a widow the right to bury her husband, denied children the right to bury their father, denied grandchildren the right to bury their grandfather.
As the election looms, the ghost of Edgar Chagwa Lungu will not be silenced. He will hover over polling stations, over campaign rallies, over the speeches of politicians who pretend nothing is amiss. His absence from the soil will be a presence in the air.
But let us end with hope. One day, Edgar Chagwa Lungu shall be given his long-withheld rest. His spirit shall rest in peace as God intended.
Zambia shall remember itself as a nation of peace and unity, not of punishment and denial. And Mrs. Esther Lungu, who has borne the longest mourning window on the continent, shall finally lay her husband to rest, closing the chapter with dignity.
For now, the question remains: how do those responsible for denying him burial sleep as the ECL ghost circles in the air between Pretoria and Lusaka?
Ambassador Anthony Mukwita, Author & International Relations Analyst
Source: The Daily Nation-Mukwita on Point.
