WHY 12th MARCH IS YOUTH DAY IN ZAMBIA ……..Know your History….
This is the day UNIP youths led by Alexander Chikwanda( former Finance Minister under PF) fought running battles with the imperialist police in 1962 in Kitwe. They had nothing but sticks and stones, a great number of them were killed and many gravely injured that day.
The plan was hatched in Ndola to attack the Kaundas’ who were housed at Mr Mutemba’s residence in Chimwemwe opposite Mindolo Police Station on the Kitwe Chingola road. As they hatched the plan, one of the native (Zambian) cleaners earsdropped on the plan and alerted the youth after knocking off at 17 hours.
The plan was to be implemented in the early hours of the following morning. So at 18 hrs, the youth led by abena Alexander Bwalya Chikwanda (ABC) and others walked from Ndola to Kitwe and arrived around midnight were they alerted and evacuated the UNIP leadership of KK and Co from the Mutemba residence
And according to plan, the colonial forces besieged the Chimwemwe house at 03 hrs and petrol bombed it and sprayed bullets to ensure not a soul occupying the place lived. Luckily, the house was unoccupied as everyone was already evacuated by the youth.
Come day break, KK and Co were to hold a public rally in Chimwemwe where they were to among other things, expose the colonial masters.
Sensing embarrassment, the colonial regime decided to invoke the infamous POA and unleashed the entire Kamfinsa Para Military Mobile Unit to contain and disrupt the Chimwemwe rally which was to be…. The mother of all rallies.
Determined to protect their leadership and allow for the public rally to take place, the youth went into town and caused serious havoc; they disrupted normal business and put stones, rocks and dust bins onto the roads.
This diverted the attention of police from going to Chimwemwe and instead they went into the town centre where they ran battles with the youth.
Unfortunately, all our youth only had stones as weapons while the colonial police opened live ammunition killing youths in their numbers.
They killed them, but still in their numbers they kept fighting and dying.
Meanwhile, at the Chimwemwe rally, KK announced that the rally was taking place at the sacrifice of young people who were being killed in town just so they could hold the rally. KK announced and promised at the rally that, should independence come, that day, March 12 will be remembered and commemorated as YOUTH DAY.
Hence at the UNIP Central Committee meeting held at Kwacha House in 1966 (Two years after independence) it was decreed that March 12 be a public holiday and r emembered as Youth Day.
Further, a statue was erected in the middle of Kitwe CBD known as the “Chi M’posa Mabwe” (stone thrower) that remains so to date depicting the day the Youth fought with nothing but stones against gun bullets.
PICTURE BELOW
🚨 Flashback to 1962!
A young Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (just 38) visited Sweden, where he laid a wreath at the grave of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld – killed in a plane crash outside Ndola in 1961 while on a peace mission to Congo.
Welcoming KK were two fellow Zambians studying at Lund University: Rupiah Banda and Alexander Chikwanda. ✊🇿🇲
📸: Uppsala Bild
