By Kellys Kaunda
SHOULD HICHILEMA BE CONCERNED ABOUT HOW HISTORIANS WILL REFLECT HIS LEGACY?
He should and he must. He owes it to the Zambian people who made him President. He also owes it to his children.
The office of President is, theoretically, an expression of the collective aspirations of a whole nation.
So, the office holder can’t afford to be selfish not to think about the implication of their decisions and actions on the rest of the country.
If Hichilema doesn’t think about his legacy, perhaps someone must ask him how he feels about how his six predecessors are remembered.
This is not a rhetorical question. It’s meant to ascertain what reference material he will leave behind to inform decisions by those that will step into his shoes.
This is also important for how his children negotiate the social contours of life where their father’s story will be invoked from time to time.
If he wants his children to have less controversy to navigate, he must honestly interrogate his current record in office.
Some of the men that have occupied the office of President are fondly remembered while others are not.
I can only imagine how their children feel when they hear how their fathers are remembered.
Frankly, honestly and fairly, you want your children to inherit a good legacy, a good name.
How Hichilema is going to be remembered is exactly how different people have and continue to experience his rule.
Some will remember him for the jobs he will have created for them while others for forcing their fathers into exile.
Others will remember him for his solar projects while others for the loss of their small businesses due to power deficits that dominated the better part of his term in office.
Others will remember him for driving away cadres from bus stops and markets while others will remember him for his mingalato which led to the legal death of the Patriotic Front.
Others will remember him by the political conflicts that defined his relationship with his predecessor culminating in one of the culturally and morally bizarre standoff in history when the latter could not be buried for months!
For professional historians, I don’t know which aspects of Hichilema’s rule will receive emphasis.
But the President has the opportunity to invest in the construction of the kind of legacy he wants to be remembered by.
One of the reasons why it’s an established tradition for former US Presidents to put in writing their time in office is because their legacy is important as a point of reference for future generations.
Hence the importance of taking good care of one’s record while in office.
HH is on course to be remembered as the best president Zambia has ever had.
He is not there yet, but is moving in that direction.