To be educated without values is to be an educated fool – Bishop Mwamba
By Fanny Kalonda
TO be educated without values is to be an educated fool, says UNIP president Trevor Mwamba
He says Zambia can enter a new future only by reconnecting with the “wisdom of the first independence and adapting it to our times”.
“Values are the richest inheritance a person or nation can have. The wisdom from the first Independence are the values we need to build a prosperous Zambia that is able to uplift our people and create a better life for them,” Bishop Mwamba said in his Independence Day reflections. “…the fourth wisdom we glean from the first independence is our identity and sovereignty in a global world. The guiding policy the visionary leadership of the UNIP government formulated was that of non-alignment. It advocted the right of a nation to make informed choices on the basis of each issue merits regardless of the interests of the global powers.”
He said Zambia assumed political independence in foreign policy that has to be guarded jealously.
“One example shall suffice in the light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Zambian
government developed and initiated a foreign policy which addressed Middle East issues such as the right of Israel to live within secure and recognised boundaries and the right of the Palestinian people to live in a free and independent state,” Bishop Mwamba noted.
“In the present conflict and being consistent with our past policy, Zambia condemns all violence and unnecessary loss of hundreds of innocent civilian lives on both sides and the destruction of properties.”
He said Zambia should strongly advocate negotiations towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict in line with the previously adopted UN resolutions recognising the existence of the two states.
“Zambia’s non-alignment has ensured an environment of peace in which Zambia can promote a life of dignity and creativity for their citizens. And provide a positive influence in the world not as a sterile neutralism,” he said. “The wise leaders of our first independence saw Zambia as a place of peace, hope and reconciliation. A place where Zambia planned, consciously and unconsciously, an equitable world order, by promoting anti-colonial principles. A haven for refugees and unflinching partner of those who fight for justice, human rights and peaceful coexistence.”
Bishop Mwamba said the policy of non-aligned in the light of Zambia’s independence “holds to the rights of all peoples to freedom and self-determination”.
He said Zambia’s independence signalled opposition to economic and political domination of one people by another or compromising itself as a base of war games.
“The hoisting of the Zambian flag on 24 October, 1964 was about pursuing wholesome values that are very important in life. It’s these values over the past 30 years we lost and as we celebrate our 59th independence celebration remember and rekindle in our lives and nation,” he said. “Zambia can enter a new future only by reconnecting with the wisdom of the first independence and adapting it to our times.”
Bishop Mwamba said values should be rooted in morality, “this is the path of principle”.
“The path to do the right thing to enable us, that is, make us better people and nation.
Values are a moral compass which we ignore at our peril as individuals or as a nation.
The British writer and Anglican lay theologian C.S. Lewis wisely said, ‘Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.’ To be educated without values is to be an educated fool,” he said. “Values are the richest inheritance a person or nation can have. The wisdom from the first Independence are the values we need to build a prosperous Zambia that is able to uplift our people and create a better life for them. To guarantee a better Zambia for generations to come we need to go back to the future. In other words as Marcus Garvey wisely wrote: ‘A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots’.
We learn from the past to build the future. We learn of One Zambia One Nation; belief in God; the well-being of people; identity and sovereignty.”
He said lessons of wisdom are values passed on to “us to guide us by our founding visionary leaders”.
“They lived them and these values can transform us on if they inform our own lives. And as stewards acting on them we too can pass them on to the next generation.
On this 59th Independence celebration: God bless Zambia; God bless her leaders with wisdom; God blesses her peoples with peace and unity and a prosperous future,” said Bishop Mwamba.-The Mast