is Zambia’s 50th independence anniversary. Zambia’s ... · Senghor was a true nationalist but he had a close relationship with France. During Senegal’s occupation by the French,

is Zambia’s 50th independence anniversary. Zambia’s founding president Kenneth Kaunda turned 90 in April. Kaunda has achieved something none of the 1960s independence leaders in Africa did – he is the only one of that generation who has lived to see his country turn 50.

Mail & Guardian Africa spoke to Kaunda for the anniversary in the capital Lusaka; and here we tick off what happened to the rest of the “Class of the 1960s”.

Illustrations by Joe Barasa

President of Cameroon: 1960 - 1982

Ahmadou Ahidjo was one of Africa’s independence leaders who wanted to, and did, maintain a close relationship with the former colonial powers. His political career started before independence in Cameroon’s French colonial administration.

He was elected to the Cameroon territorial assembly in 1947 and also worked for several years in France (1953–56) as the Cameroon member of the Assembly of the French Union. In 1958 Ahidjo formed the Cameroon Union – a pro-independence party with the aims of continued cooperation, but immediate independence from, the French and reunification with the British Cameroons.

In 1960 Cameroon became independent from France and, following a slim electoral victory, the Cameroon Union was able to attain independence from France. In 1961, following a plebiscite, Ahidjo led one of the few successful attempts at African unity when the British Cameroons joined the French.

The country soon transformed into a one-party state, by 1963 the Cameroon Union had absorbed its coalition partners and Ahidjo was re-elected four more times. In 1976 all other political parties were outlawed. He served as President of Cameroon for 22 years, resigning in 1982 claiming health reasons. He was replaced by Paul Biya, who then proceeded to oust Ahidjo from chairmanship of the Cameroon Union in 1983. Ahidjo went into exile, and in 1984 he was, in absentia, condemned to death for complicity in a plot against Biya. He never returned to Cameroon and died in Senegal in 1989 at the age of 65 from a heart attack.

AhmadouAhidjo

President of Senegal: 1960 -1980 Initially intent on becoming a priest, Africa’s “poet president” – who was also nominated for a Nobel Prize for his literary achievements - was Senegal’s first leader, ruling the country uninterrupted for 20 years. He is considered one of Africa’s most important intellectuals of the 20th century. Senghor was a true nationalist but he had a close relationship with France. During Senegal’s occupation by the French, Senghor is credited with creating the concept of négritude, the black consciousness movement of the French-speaking world.

At the outbreak of World War II, he joined the French army. After being captured by the Germans, he spent eighteen months in a camp as a prisoner of war. Senghor went on to author several collections of poetry, as well as numerous volumes on politics, philosophy, sociology, and linguistics, throughout his lifetime. Following the war, he was also elected to Senegal's General Council and established his own political party, Bloc Democratique Senegalais, which later became Parti du Regroupement Africain. He advocated a political concept known as "Eurafrica" with the aim to create a federation of France's African colonies of which he would be president. When Senegal joined with the Sudanese Republic to form the Federation of Mali, Senghor became president of the federal assembly.

In 1960 Senegal separated from the federation and Senghor was elected the first president. Seghor went on to lead the country for 20 years uninterrupted – although it was not smooth sailing. The socialist prime minister Mamadou Dia disagreed with Senghor's determination to retain ties with France, and attempted a coup d'état. He was subsequently jailed for life. Senghor assumed full control as both President and prime minister, decreeing that the Union Progressiste Sénégalaise was the sole legitimate political party. There were several further attempted coups and even an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 1967. As discontent grew, Senghor attempted to liberalise the political process, releasing Mamadou Dia, and allowing opposition political parties. He finally resigned in 1981. After retiring from political life, he lived in Normandy, France, where he died at the age of 95 in 2001.

Leopold Senghor

President of Togo:1960 – 1963

Olympio’s story is a tragic tale of the inexhaustible determination of a man to unify his country, only to be killed by the people for his efforts. An economist by education, Olympio studied at the prestigious London School of Economics and, following his graduation, went on to work in Nigeria and Ghana (then the Gold Coast).

SylvanusOlympio

Following World War II Olympio became active in the struggle to gain independence for Togo. He started pursuing legal channels within the League of Nations (which eventually because the United Nations). Within Togo he founded the Comité de l'unité Togolaise (CUT), which became the major party driving the independence movement.

In 1958 elections, Olympio's CUT party was able to win every elected position in the national council and he became the Prime Minister of the Togo colony – serving until 1961. In 1961, the country voted for a president and affirmed the Constitution developed by Olympio and his party. Olympio defeated Togolese opponent Nicolas Grunitzky with over 90% of the vote to become the first president of Togo.

During his brief stint as president, Olympio repressed political parties, kept his distance from France, not joining alliances between France and the ex-colonies and, as an economist, he was dedicated to restraining spending and developing his country without being reliant on outside support. Olympio had a tense relationship with his Ghanaian counterpart, Kwame Nkrumah, who Olympio accused of trying to annex Togo since he was dedicated to the reunification of the Ewe people who were split between the two countries - the eastern part of Togo had become part of the British Gold Coast and eventually became part of Ghana. Unfortunately for Olympio, his term in office was brief and tragic – on January 13th 1963, Togolese soldiers staged an armed coup, Africa’s first, that led to the assassination of Olympio.

President of Mali: 1960 – 1968

This left-wing leader was one of Africa’s first dedicated pan-Africanists. Born in French Sudan (now Mali), educated in Senegal, only to return to Mali as a teacher, Keita entered the political sphere in the early 1940s.

In November 1958, French Sudan became a self-governing republic within the French community and, the following year, the republic joined with Senegal, Upper Volta, and Dahomey to form the Mali Federation that proclaimed independence, with Keita as president, in 1960. But it soon broke apart, a couple of months later Keita became president of the newly declared independent nation of Mali. He was also head of the Union Soudanaise, the country's only political party. As president, Keita never gave up his belief in Pan-Africanism.

As a Marxist Keita quickly severed relations with France and the West and was closely aligned to China and the Soviet Union, implementing a string of socialist policies during his rule. In 1963 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize for his attempts to rebuild the economy on socialist principles. Unfortunately Mali suffered greatly under Keita’s economic policies. This financial struggle combined with Keita’s increasingly authoritarian tactics estranged most of the population and he was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 1968. He spent the rest of his life, until his death in 1977, in military detention.

Modibo Keita

President of Madagascar:1959 – 1972

As Madagascar’s first president, Tsiranana set a moderate example. Unlike some African counterparts who struggled economically in the post-independence period, Madagascar became known as the country of “pragmatic socialism” with 12 years of political stability and a booming economy.

Tsiranana was not always destined to be the leader of the island nation, like many other independence leaders he did some teaching – after pursuing further education in France, he taught in a technical school in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital.

His first taste of politics came in 1956 when Tsiranana was elected to one of Madagascar's three seats in the French National Assembly. He then helped to form the Social Democratic Party (PSD), a moderate party that supported partial autonomy from France.

In 1958 he became prime minister and after a referendum in 1959 in which the people opted for internal autonomy, Tsiranana became president of

the provisional government. Following independence in 1960, elections confirmed Tsiranana as the president. The Tsiranana economic policy implemented on the island by his administration was based on pro-western policies and neo-liberalism, adopting a five-year plan that combined encouragement to private enterprise (domestic and foreign) and minimal state interference. Tsiranana remained president for 12 years, however increasing authoritarian rule – such as the one-party state – caused protests and combined with ill health forced him to resign in 1972, he died in 1978.

PhilibertTsiranana

President of the Democratic Republic of Congo: 1960 – 1965Joseph Kasavubu, the first president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as the Republic of Congo, and later Zaire) had a very turbulent time in office – constantly juggling Cold War rivalry between the US and Soviet Union. Kasavubu entered the public space in 1946 when he was elected secretary of his alumni association.

In 1954 he was elected president of the Alliances des Ba-Kongo (ABAKO), a Bakongo tribal association, and quickly transformed it into a political party. In 1960, with mounting violence in the country, the Belgian government invited 96 delegates from the main Congolese parties to a conference in Brussels. Patrice Lumumba – another prominent nationalist and independence leader – and Kasavubu were among those who attended. By the end of the conference Belgium conceded that the Congo would become an independent nation in less than six months, in June 1960.

Elections took place and Lumumba's “Mouvement National Congolais” emerged as the largest single party, with Kasavubu's Abako in second place. Neither succeeded independently in forming a coalition so Lumumba endorsed Kasavubu for the Presidency, while he became the nation's first Prime Minister. But it was an uneasy partnership and they had many differences. Kasavubu favoured a more moderate political approach and dismissed Lumumba from government. This tore the country apart as the two political groups claimed power and eventually a coup d’état organised by Colonel Joseph Mobutu incapacitated them both.

Lumumba was assassinated and Kasavubu was re-appointed President by Mobutu in February 1961. For the next four years Kasavubu presided over a country in crisis. In 1965, following an escalating power struggle between Kasavubu and Moïse Kapenda Tshombe, Army Chief of Staff Mobutu launched a second coup, overthrowing Kasavubu and creating a military dictatorship that controlled the nation for the next three decades. Joseph Kasavubu retired to a farm in Mayombe where he died in 1969.

Joseph Kasavubu

President of Somalia: 1960 – 1967

Daar left an impressive legacy in Somalia as one of the country’s elected presidents and the first post-independence African leader to peacefully hand over power. A nationalist politician during the colonial era, Daar’s rise to power was a fairly smooth ride.

He joined a political party known as the Somali Youth League (SYL) in 1944, campaigning for an independent Somalia. He quickly rose through the ranks becoming a local secretary in the Beledweyne branch in 1946, ten years later he became Chairman of the National Legislative Assembly, and went on to eventually lead the SYL itself.

He was elected president in 1960, after the former Italian colony of Somalia and British Somaliland merged to form the modern state. Somalia enjoyed a period as a relatively stable constitutional democracy under Daar who then peacefully stepped down after his defeat at polls in 1967, becoming the first African leader in the post-colonial era to do so.

He went on to become elected to the National Assembly where he served until a military coup, spearheaded by Major General Muhammad Siad Barre - who at the time commanded the army - in October 1969. In 1990 Daar expressed his displeasure at the way the government was being managed and, along with about 100 other Somali politicians, signed a manifesto expressing concern over the destruction and killings as a result of the developing civil war. He was subsequently arrested by the military government who detained him until 1991 when Barre was ousted from power. Daar spent his later years in Somalia, dying from natural causes in Nairobi, Kenya in 2007.

Aden Abdullah Osman Daara

President of Benin (Dahomey): 1960 – 1963

Maga’s career as president was a tumultuous one, marked by a rotating presidency, social unrest and a collapsing economy. Maga’s career as president of Benin was marked by a continuous power struggle between him and his “Rassemblement Démocratique du Dahomé” the RDD representing the north, Souou-Migan Apithy and the “Parti Républicain du Dahomey” for the coastal regions, and Justin Ahomadegbé-Tomêtin and the “Union Démocratique du Dahomé”. Maga strongly pursued independence which was finally achieved in 1960 and he became president from his role as prime minister.

He was officially elected to the post in December that year. During Maga's time in office Dahomey became a single-party state, the economy collapsed due to a lack of foreign investment and unemployment increased. In response, Maga launched a four-year plan in January 1962, the basis of which was to increase agricultural production by forcing the nation's youths to work on the land. When this did not yield results fast enough, demonstrations erupted in 1963, led by students and unionists calling for Maga's removal.

On 27 October 1963 the Army Chief of Staff, Colonel Christophe Soglo staged a military coup. After this, Benin continued to go through a period of turbulence, marked by coups and attempts to return to civilian rule. A presidential council, consisting of Maga, Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, and Apithy, was eventually set up in 1970 with a presidency that changed every two years. Maga inaugurated this system for the first two years and for the first time there was a civilian transfer of power as he handed over the presidency to Ahomadegbé-Tomêtin in 1972. Just six months later, Major Mathieu Kérékou led a military coup against the Presidential Council. Maga, Ahomadegbé-Tomêtin, and Apithy were placed in detention where they were held for nine years. Upon his release Maga still didn’t retire from public life. He established the National Party for Democracy and Development in 1989, participated in the National Conference of 1990 and was a member of the High Council of the Republic. He died in Cotonou in 2000 from a heart attack.

Coutoucou Hubert Maga

President of Niger:1960 – 1974

Like most other independence leaders, Diori was a teacher by training, quick to keep all the political power he could and was eventually overthrown in a military coup. Diori was the son of a public health officer in the French colonial administration.

This close relationship to the French continued into his presidency; he founded the Niger Progressive Party (NPP) that favoured close ties with France. It was also clear that the French saw him as their candidate and banned competing political parties following a referendum that granted Niger self-government. Diori became president of this provisional government.

Niger was now a one-party state. Following independence in 1960 Diori was elected president by the country's national assembly, quickly passing a law that meant that the NPP was the only legally permitted party. Diori liked to be in control – he acted as president of the republic, president of the PPN, and led a number of ministries.

He served as his own defence minister and foreign minister at various periods and for positions he could or didn’t want to fill, he would give those to friends and family members. He ruled the country for 14 years but was toppled in a military coup in 1974 by Lt. Col. Seyni Kountche. He spent the next six years in jail and was then put under house arrest. He was freed in 1987 after President Kountche's death and he moved to Morocco, where he died from a heart attack in 1989.

HamaniDiori

President of Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso): 1960 – 1966Yaméogo’s time as president was marred by political paranoia – he was known to silence dissenters and suppress opposition – and his tendency to flaunt his wealth. His political career began when he was elected to the Grand Council for French West Africa in 1947.

Eleven years later Upper Volta became a self-governing republic and a member of the new French community. A government was formed and Yaméogo, head of the political party known as the Voltaic Democratic Union, became the leader. In 1959 Upper Volta joined the council of the Entente, a loose association composed of Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Dahomey (now Benin), and Togo.

Upon gaining independence from France in 1960, Yaméogo was elected president and quickly banned all opposition parties and created a one-party state. He was re-elected in 1965 – probably because he was the sole candidate! As the country struggled economically, Yaméogo’s government was getting increasingly corrupt and incompetent.

Austerity measures were introduced in December 1965 that resulted in a crisis erupting between the government and the labour unions. By 1966 Yaméogo had lost the support of the people and the government was falling apart. General Sangoule Lamizana, then army chief of staff, took power in a military coup. In 1969 Yaméogo was tried for embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison – he was released in 1970. He survived a suicide attempt a year later and in 1983 when Captain Thomas Sankara took power, Yaméogo was put under house arrest for “political interference.” In 1985 he went into exile in Côte-d'Ivoire. In 1990 he was able to return to Burkina Faso where President Blaise Compaoré restored his citizenship in full and he went on to act as an unofficial go-between between the presidents of Burkina Faso and Côte-d'Ivoire until his death in 1993 in Ouagadougou.

Maurice Yameogo

President of Cote d’Ivoire: 1960 – 1993

One of Africa’s longest reigning independence presidents, Houphouët-Boigny was president of Cote d’Ivoire over a period that spanned three decades and a key figure in French decolonisation in West Africa. In 1946, with the help of the French Communist party, he formed Cote d'Ivoire’s first political party - the “Parti Démocratique de la Côte d'Ivoire”.

Houphouët-Boigny’s involvement in independence movements was not limited to his own country - he was heavily involved in the drafting and ultimate adoption of the “Loi Cadre” - a law passed in 1956 by the French National Assembly which provided for universal adult suffrage for all African subjects in French colonies, preparing for the internal autonomy of French colonies in Africa. Houphouët-Boigny became prime minister of Cote d'Ivoire in 1959, and was elected as the first president of the country when it gained independence on 7 August 1960.

He was re-elected unopposed in 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1985. Under Houphouët-Boigny Côte d'Ivoire’s economy boomed - at the beginning of the 80s Côte d'Ivoire had one of the highest per capita incomes of any sub-Saharan African country. He was pro-Western and welcomed foreign investment with French contacts that allowed him to get preferential deals for Ivoirian cash crops. HE benefited greatly from the wealth of Côte d'Ivoire, by the time of his death in 1993, he was a dollar billionaire. As a one-party state his rule was paternalistic and he dealt with political dissent by pulling the opposition into his government – this however changed following popular demonstrations in the 90s which saw him legalise opposition parties and trade unions. Houphouët-Boigny’s health deteriorated rapidly in the early 90s, and Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara administered the country from 1990 onwards. Houphouët-Boigny died from prostate cancer in 1993, at that time he was the longest serving president of Africa and the third longest in the world.

Felix Houphouët-Boigny

President of Chad: 1960 – 1975Tombalbaye had a turbulent time as Chad’s first president, a country divided by its Muslim north and Christian south, eventually culminating in his assassination. He ruled the country from its independence on August 11, 1960, and was appointed its first head of government.

Tombalbaye's rule was dictatorial, eliminating opposition both within his party and banning all other political parties. In 1963 Tombalbaye dissolved the National Assembly in response to rioting and an alleged conspiracy by Muslim elements in the government. He then launched an “Africanisation” programme, nationalising the civil service, replacing French administrators and imposing a "National Loan" which increased taxes greatly to fund the programme.

The programme isolated large populations of Muslims in the north and centre of the country. This culminated in open rebellion in 1965 by the north. 1966 saw the creation of Front de Libération Nationale du Tchad (Frolinat, Front for the National Liberation of Chad) and the Front National Tchadien (FNT, Chad National Front). Frolinat was an Islamist group that had connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and was mainly active in the north. Both groups aimed to bring down Tombalbaye's government and he turned to France for assistance. In 1969 France stepped in and Chad embarked on a liberalisation process, and steps were taken to reform the government. Order seemed to be restored and France withdrew troops, but this did not last long.

In 1971 an attempted coup d'état with links to Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi was uncovered. Tombalbaye severed relations with Libya. Gaddafi in return gave support to FROLINAT. The crisis deepened when, in 1973, Tombalbaye launched Authenticité, a form of Africanisation which aimed to remove all vestiges of European influence in Chad and promote a Chadian culture – yet again, this favoured the south of the country. On 13 April 1975, following an attempted purge of the army, Tombalbaye was assassinated during a coup d'état and Félix Malloum N'Gakoutou was installed as Head of State.

Francois (Ngarta) Tombalbayeal

President of the Central African Republic:1960 – 1966

Dacko was an important political figure in the Central African Republic (CAR) for over 50 years. He was the first President of CAR from 1960 to 1966, and also the third President from 1979 to 1981. Dacko began his working life as a teacher and when he entered into politics, his career skyrocketed.

Dacko became president when he was only 30, taking the reigns when President Barthélemy Boganda was killed in an air crash in 1959. In 1960 with active French support against rival Abel Goumba, he became the first president of CAR.

As president Dacko aimed to raise his country's standard of living and end inter-tribal strife – which he didn’t. He attempted to eliminate opposition to his rule by banning all political parties other than his social Evolution Movement of Black Africa. He also moved to align his country with Communist governments and established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. But by 1965 the country's economy was in crisis, and Dacko proposed austerity measures and cutting the military budget.

In the meantime, he had invited his cousin, Jean Bedel Bokassa, who had served with the French in Indo-China, to re-organise the army. Bokassa had risen to Chief of Staff, and in January 1966 he seized power. Dacko was placed under house arrest until 1976. When he was released he was named a personal advisor to Bokassa. Eventually, self-proclaimed “emperor” Bokassa, whose rule was shrouded by horrific allegations of human rights abuses, was overthrown in 1979. Dacko was reinstated as leader, and won elections in 1981 but was pushed aside soon afterward by the military ruler André Kolingba. Dacko was lucky to have survived as long as he did - he made it through at least one assassination attempt, and was twice removed from office by military coup. He had long suffered from severe asthma and a heart condition and died from respiratory problems in 2003.

DavidDacko

King of Lesotho: 1966 - 1996

Said to be one of Africa's great traditional leaders who contributed to the democratic evolution of his country, King Moshoeshoe II provided strong leadership and cut a humble figure throughout his tempestuous reign. Moshoeshoe II was the descendant of, and bore the name of, Moshoeshoe - the warrior who founded the Basotho nation.

As the paramount chief of Lesotho, when the small kingdom’s independence was restored in 1966, he became king and changed its name from Basutoland to Lesotho. In the lead up to independence, Moshoeshoe II supported the struggle against colonial rule and specifically opposed the apartheid regime in neighbouring South Africa. But Moshoeshoe’s reign was to be a frustrating one - his political power was limited and his reign was interrupted twice. Early in his reign, Leabua Jonathan became Prime Minister of Lesotho and gained control of the government. Jonathan accused Moshoeshoe of conspiring with the opposition to bring down the government and temporarily placed him under house arrest.

Jonathan eventually managed to depose him in 1970 and Moshoeshoe II went into temporary exile in the Netherlands. A few months later, Jonathan allowed Moshoeshoe to reassume the title of king. The next 20 years of Jonathan's autocratic rule kept the king on the sidelines - a hollow figurehead. When Jonathan was deposed in 1986 Moshoeshoe II finally gained power but was deposed again in 1990 and his son Letsie III took his place as king. Moshoeshoe II went into exile again and was only able to become king again in 1995. In 1996 however he was killed in a car accident on a mountain road, and Letsie became king again a month later.

King Moeshoeshoe II

President of Uganda:1966 – 1971 and 1980 – 1985

Uganda’s “socialist” president is remembered for twice being deposed from the presidency, for receiving the symbolically important National Flag that was handed over at Independence Day in 1962 and for the political and military turmoil which characterised Uganda in the later years of independence.

MiltonObote

Having been expelled from university without a

qualification, Obote became a casual worker for

“Mowlem”, a construction firm that transferred him to

Kenya where he became involved in the country’s

agitation for political independence. When he returned

to Uganda in 1956, he joined the Uganda National

Congress and was elected to the colonial Legislative

Council.

In the run up to independence elections, Obote formed a

coalition with the Buganda royalist party, Kabaka

Yekka. The parties controlled a parliamentary majority

so when independence came round, Obote became

Prime Minister and, as it goes with tradition, the

Bugandan King became President - although this

position is considered to be ceremonial.

This did not last long. In 1966, in the wake of allegations

of corruption involving in gold smuggling, Obote

mounted a coup - he deposed King Mutesa II who was

the titular president, suspended the constitution,

declared a republic and made himself executive

president. Even though Uganda experienced a period of

political stability and economic prosperity under Obote,

having imposed a virtual “one man rule”, he

experimented with socialist ideas that sought to acquire

a stake in the country’s leading companies without effecting total nationalisation. This autocratic rule let to his deposition

by Idi Amin in 1971 and he fled to Tanzania. In 1980 he returned home to Uganda following the Ugandan invasion by

Tanzanian forces and the subsequent deposition of Amin by a combined force of the Tanzanian military and Ugandan exile

groups. He was re-elected president in 1981 in elections marred by widespread and blatant irregularities, these eventually

led once again to his overthrow in 1985 by now President Yoweri Museveni – Obote went into exile in Kenya before settling

in Zambia. Obote died of kidney failure on October 10, 2005 in a hospital in South Africa.

President of Botswana: 1966 – 1980

Sereste Khama became Prime Minister of Botswana in 1964, and president two years later. Forward-looking and enigmatic, the first president of Botswana rode on the optimism of his people to launch a vigorous economic program ME that included ideals of liberal democracy and strong measures against corruption. Serestse was born in 1921 into the royal family of the Bamangwato people.

The young Sereste went to boarding schools in South Africa, graduating from Fort Hare University in 1944 with a general Bachelor of Arts. He then immigrated to London and joined the Inner Temple to become a lawyer. One evening during a London Missionary Society dance, Sereste met a young English clerk called Ruth Williams. The subsequent inter-racial marriage caused a furor in his native Bechuanaland and among white-dominated communities and his uncle summoned him home. After a four-day grilling, the elders endorsed his choice and retained him as their king, much to the chagrin of the regent.

vThe British, eager to maintain economic ties with apartheid South Africa, instituted a commission of inquiry whose report that termed his marriage “unfortunate”, would remain secret for three decades. The British deposed Sereste and he was exiled in 1951. To be allowed to return to Botswana, Seretse was forced to renounce his throne. The period of exile built his profile and propelled him as a forerunner in leading Botswana once the British ceded power. In 1962, his party, the Bechuanaland Democratic Party (BDP) took power. His efforts spurred the nation into the fastest growing economy in the world during the entirety of his rule. To ward off likely attacks from his country’s white-ruled neighbours, Sereste ensured that Botswana mantained a neutral state in the conflicts of neighboring countries. When he died in 1980 of pancreatic cancer, Botswana’s founding father left a nation of prosperity and progress, attributes that still define the country today. President Sereste Khama’s son, Ian Khama, is the current and 4th President of Botswana.

Seretse Khama

King of Swaziland: 1899 - 1982

King Sobhuza II was born four months after his predecessor, King Ngwane V, died during the incwala (First Fruit) ceremony in February 1899. Sobhuza II’s reign would go on to span 83 years, transcending the initial rise of British power in his country, the entirety of the colonial period and two decades of independence.

Sobhuza II’s regent during his infancy was his grandmother Labotsibeni, a forward-looking Queen Mother who acknowledged the value of education to the future of the country. She built Zombodze Primary School so the young monarch could receive the best education before being accepted at the Lovedale Institute in Cape Town.

In 1921, he assumed the throne as King Ngwenyama Sobhuza II, and in the colonial structure, as the Paramount Chief. He unsuccessfully petitioned for the Partitions Proclamations that had ceded vast tracts of arable lands to the settlers to be annulled. When Swaziland gained independence in 1968, King Sobhuza II became the sovereign head of the young nation.

The Swazi king supported the liberation movements of neighboring white-ruled states, exposing the small country to military attacks by the apartheid regime. He worked to move the country onto the global stage, joining the Organisation of African Unity, the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations. Sobhuza II’s incumbency lasted 82 years and 254 days, the world’s longest documented reign for a single monarch. A serial polygamist, King Sobhuza married 70 wives between 1920 and 1970 and had an estimated 210 children, 180 of whom survived infancy. After his death in 1982, Prince Makhosetive Dlamini was designated as the Umntfwana or Crown Prince. He was crowned King Mswati III in 1986.

KingSobhuza II

President of Equatorial Guinea: 1968 - 1979

Equatorial Guinea’s founding father has gone down in history as a paranoid despot who drove the country to blood and ruin. Nguema rose through the ranks to lead the country to independence and eventually into collapse. For a decade, Equatorial Guinea was ruled on Nguema’s whims, deranged as they often were. He regularly smoked marijuana and drank iboga, a traditional hallucinogen that acts like LSD.

Having failed the civil entrance exam three times, Nguema was immensely uneasy around educated people. They unnerved him so much that he banned the word “intellectual” and then massacred anyone who wore spectacles. To stop the ensuing mass exodus, Nguema banned all citizens from the shoreline, burned all the boats and mined the only road out of the country. He fired teachers and ran down the school system. Then he closed down the hospitals and encouraged the use of traditional medicines. The year before his eventual removal, Nguema change Equatorial Guinea’s motto to read “There is no other God than Macias Nguema.”

He then had 10 of his original 12 ministers killed and would wipe out half the legislature during his decade in power. Nguema filled the government with members of his Esangui clan, making his family the heart of the state. In 1970, Nguema established the Single National Workers Party. The next year, he issued Decree 415 through which he usurped the power of all government and institutions, making himself “The Only Miracle of Equatorial Guinea.” He then killed the governor of the Central Bank and had the entire treasury moved to his home in the village of Mongomo. In August of 1979, his nephew and head of the National Guard, Lieutenant Teodoro Obiang Nguema, overthrew him and put him on trial. He was tried by a Special Military Tribunal at the Marfil Cinema and sentenced to death. He was executed by a hired Moroccan Army firing squad on September 29, 1979.

Francisco Macías Nguemaguem

President of Mauritius:1968 - 1982

At independence, Mauritius was a small, isolated island plagued by conflict and climatic hazards. In the years leading up to independence, a substantial part of the population had felt that the only future for the over-populated island was a union with Britain.

SeewoosagurRamgoolam

The man tasked with proving that Mauritius could be a successful state was Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, popularly known as Kewal. A former physician, Ramgoolam led Mauritius from independence in 1968 until 1982 when his Labour Party lost the elections.

In honour of his role, he was appointed to the ceremonial office of Governor-General in 1983 and held it for two years. Born in 1900 in Mauritius, Ramgoolam’s childhood was plagued by misfortune. When he was seven, his father succumbed to pneumonia and his elder brother, Ramlall, had to take over the role of educating his younger brother. The young Ramgoolam was involved in a gruesome accident when he was just 12 and ended up losing his left eye.

Undeterred, he finished his petite and grande course at “Curepipe Ecole Le Frere” and proceeded to London in 1921. He graduated from University College London as a general practitioner and would become a heart specialist in the years to come. He joined politics in 1936, rose to Chief Minister and eventually Prime Minister of the newly independent island nation. The new prime minister was tasked with the delicate work of nation building. The arduous task required extensive political maneuvering and pragmatism. On the social front, he promoted free education, instituted social security, pension, and health programs, and worked towards diversifying the economy. One of his successes other than making Mauritius a comprehensive welfare state was the Export Processing Zone programme. He died in 1985. His son, Navin Ramgoolam, is the current PM of Mauritius.

President of the Gambia: 1970 – 1994

Gambia’s first president was a former veterinarian doctor who once famously said “there’s not a cow in the Gambia that doesn’t know me personally.” From his election to the House of Representatives in 1960, he steadily went up the ranks, serving as minister of education and then chief minister.

One of the first things Jawara did was to try and foment relations with Senegal in an attempt to boost an economic healing for both countries. A UN-research team report in 1962 offered Gambia and Senegal four options of achieving an affiliation, one of which involved incorporating the former in the latter. In the end, only a series of treaties were ever signed between the two countries.

On February 1, 1965, Gambia became the 36th independent African state with Jawara as the head of government. A referendum delayed Gambia’s ascension to a republic state until 1970 when Jawara was elected the country’s first president. Aware of his country’s troubled financial position, Jawara sought a closer union with Senegal and improved Gambia’s trading position.

In 1981, a small group of radicals calling themselves the “Movement for Justice” attempted a coup in Banjul while Jawara was in London attending Prince Charles’ wedding. The coup attempt ended when Senegal intervened on Jawara’s behalf, by which time 600 people had died. After the attempt, Jawara sought the refuge of a federation and pushed for a loose confederation called Senegambia confederation with him as the vice president and Senegal’s president, Abou Diouf, as the president. The confederation was dissolved in 1989. In 1992, Jawara ran and won a fifth term as president. Two years later, he was overthrown by soldiers led by Yahya Jammeh who remains president to this day. Jawara first fled to Senegal, then Britain until 2002 when he was granted unconditional amnesty to return to the country he had ruled for three decades. He celebrated his 90th birthday this year.

Dawda Jawara

President of Mauritania: 1960 – 1978

Moktar Ould Daddah was the first President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. He served as the Prime Minister from 1958 to 1961 before ascending to the presidency in 1961, and holding the position until 1978. He was reelected four times but overthrown in 1978 after an unpopular war against guerrillas in the South Western Sahara.

Daddah was educated in Paris, becoming the first Mauritanian to earn a law degree. He joined politics in the 1950s and quickly rose up the ranks, becoming the head of the Mauritania’s independence movement. In 1957, he was elected as the regional councillor for Ardrar, a power position from where he launched his political career. Two years later, Daddah became the vice-president of the Executive Council and then prime minister. He became the head of state in 1961. One of Daddah’s earliest challenges was to fight for Mauritania’s legitimacy against the expansionist intentions of the country’s powerful neighbour, Morocco. His efforts to unite the nomadic people were largely successful and eventually managed to unify the country under his enlightened, albeit authoritarian, rule.

Daddah had his own expansionist intentions on Western Sahara, then known as the Spanish Sahara. The Madrid Agreement that granted a third of Western Sahara to Mauritania seemed like a success at first but quickly proved fatal. The ensuing war further eroded confidence in his regime and led to Daddah’s eventual removal from power by a military committee on July 10, 1978. The war was just one of several reasons why he was overthrown, the others being the plummeting demand for iron ore, Mauritania’s main foreign-exchange earner, and a devastating drought that plagued the country. In 1980, he was released from prison and allowed to leave on medical grounds, first moving to Tunisia and then to Nice, France, where he maintained a low profile for a decade. He returned to Mauritania in 2001 and died two years later.

Moktar Ould Daddahah

Prime Minister of Sierra Leone: 1961 - 1964

Milton Augustus Striery Margai was the first Prime Minister of independent Sierra Leone. Born in 1895 to a wealthy merchant at Gbangbatoke, Margai received an impressive education in Bonthe and Freetown and became a doctor with additional degrees from King’s College Medical School, University of Durham and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

From 1928 to 1950, Margai worked in the government health service. His scope as the first provincial medical doctor was broad, spanning 11 of the then 12 districts. Although he joined politics after retirement, he had been involved in some level of politics during his period as a civil servant, being elected to the Bonthe District Council, a governmental unit of representatives from the chiefdoms, in 1930.

He joined the Sierra Leone Organisation Society (SLOS) in 1946 and was influential in the management of the Sierra Leone Observer, the first newspaper in the country. Margai and his lawyer brother, Albert, founded the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), a conservative party that stood for political unification.

SLPP became majority party in the Legislative Council (Legco) in 1951. Albert, who would eventually succeed him as prime minister opposed his mild temperament and sought the leadership of the SLPP. After losing, he and his cronies broke away and formed a new party. From 1951, the elder Margai served as the Minister of health, agriculture, and forestry in 1953. He served in several ministerial positions in the period before he was finally named premier in 1958. He played an oversight role in the creation of a new constitution to guide the transition of the colony into an independent nation. An energetic, conservative man famous for his wild nature, Milton Margai was fondly referred to as “Pa” meaning “father.” He died on April 28 1964, a day after overseeing the third anniversary celebrations of Sierra Leone’s independence.

MiltonMargai

President of Rwanda: 1962 - 1973

Rwanda’s first president, Grégoire Kayibanda was born in Tare, Rwanda, on May 1, 1924. A member of the Hutu ethnic community, Kayibanda trained as a teacher and journalist. He edited two Catholic newspapers and was later employed in the colonial service as an inspector of schools. In 1957, Kayibanda published his “Hutu Manifesto” and launched the “Parmehutu” political party.

GregoireKayibanda

The Parmehutu and the rival Tutsi UNAR parties were both militarised and clashed openly. The skirmishes escalated in 1959 after King Rudahingwa died in a suspected assassination. In 1961, the Parmehutu party ascended to power and abolished the monarchy.

Dominique Mbonyumutwa was installed as the provisional president before elections could be held later that year. Kayibanda was elected Rwanda’s first president at independence in 1962. Faced with a grim economic situation and volatile ethnic clashes, his Hutu-dominated government achieved little during his decade in power. Three years later, Kayibanda made Rwanda a one-party state with his Parmehutu party holding all seats in the legislature.

During his time in office, the massacres continued unabated. Using his position, he legitimised the genocide ideology firmly into the nation’s conscience. In 1963, two months after the first genocide had occurred in newly independent Rwanda, Kayibanda infamously asked “Who is Genocide?” after philosophers Jean-Paul Satre and Bertrand Russell tried to draw attention to the ethnic cleansing in the country. He told the Tutsi population that if they tried to regain control of Kigali they “may well find that the whole Tutsi race will be wiped out.” At the 1971 UN General Assembly, he described the Hutu and the Tutsi as two different nations “between whom there is no intercourse or sympathy.”

Grégoire Kayibanda was re-elected in 1965 and 1969. He was overthrown in a bloodless coup by his defence minister, Juvenal Habyarimana, on July 5, 1973. Kayibanda was imprisoned and sentenced to death. Habyarimana’s government commuted the sentence to house arrest. Kayibanda died on December 22, 1976.

President of Gabon: 1961 - 1967

Léon M’ba, the first president of independent Gabon, was born in February 1902 in Libreville, French Congo (now Gabon). M’ba was a political activist from his 20s, leading to his imprisonment in the early 1920s. In 1931, he was found guilty on trumped up charges and was imprisoned for three years.

He then spent a decade in exile in what is today the Central African Republic before returning to launch his political career in 1946. Riding on the popularity of his party, the Comité Mixte Gabonais (CMG) among the Fang people, M’ba was elected to the Territorial Assembly in 1952. Now a member of the Gabonese Democratic Party (BDG), M’ba rose to the mayor-ship of Libreville four years later. In 1960, the victory of the BDG at the elections meant that M’ba became the prime minister of Gabon. Although initially democratic, his efforts to curb internal opposition became increasingly authoritarian.

In 1961, M’ba was elected the first president of Gabon as the only candidate in the elections. He quickly gained notoriety for his penchant of whipping people for various reasons such as not saluting at him. M’ba’s political cunning kept the young country in a state of relative peace for the first two years.

To maintain control, M’ba formed a short-lived coalition of parties with the opposition. In 1964, a group of Gabonese soldiers overthrew M’ba and held him for a day. M’ba’s French allies intervened and restored him back to power the day after the coup began. Although there was little evidence to prove that his main opponent, Jean-Hilaire Aubume, had any knowledge of the coup, M’ba had him imprisoned. M’ba’s spent his last years sick and majorly unable to execute his presidential duties. He died on 27 November, 1967 in a Paris hospital and was succeeded by his vice president, Albert Bernard Bongo.

Leon M’ba

President of Nigeria: 1963 - 1966

Azikiwe was the first president of Nigeria. Standing at over six feet tall, Azikiwe is credited with many successes that independent Nigeria enjoyed in the years before several coups unsettled the momentum. He instituted extensive administrative re-organisation and flourishing social and economic development programmes.

Born in Zangeru, Northern Nigeria, on November 16, 1904, Azikiwe was educated at mission schools before he left for the United States. A keen successful athlete, Azikiwe studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Lincoln University. He then immigrated, as he would later say, “in search of the Golden Fleece” in Ghana and finally, back to his home country in 1937. He launched a total of five newspapers and a bank during his time in Ghana and his early years in Nigeria.

Azikiwe rose to become the president of the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons, a political party that joined radical elements that emerged after World WarII. He became a member of the Legislative Council in 1948 and quickly distinguished himself as a nationalist. In 1954, Azikiwe became the prime minister of the Eastern Region and four years later, the president of the Nigerian Senate. At independence in 1960, he was appointed the Governor General of Nigeria and President three years later when Nigeria was declared a republic. The “Zik of Africa”, as he came to be known, ruled for a mere three years as he was deposed in a military coup on January 15, 1966. In 1967, Ibo general Chukwuemeka Ojukwu declared the secession of the southeast region and the formation of an independent nation called Biafra. Azikiwe, an Ibo himself, first supported and then opposed the move, much to the dismay of many of his kinsmen. After his ouster, he ran for the presidency twice, in 1979 and 1983 but lost both times. He died on May 11, 1996.

Benjamin Nnamdi AzikiweAz

President of Tanzania: 1964 – 1985

Julius Nyerere was the first Prime Minister of Tanganyika and the first president of Tanzania. Born on April 13, 1922, Nyerere was highly intellectual and attended Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, before becoming a teacher.

In 1949, he left for Edinburgh, Britain, where he would first come into contact with the socialist ideology that would define his presidency. In 1954, Nyerere formed the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and became a leading figure in the struggle for independence.

He joined the legislature in 1958 and became Chief Minister two years later. He became the Prime Minister of Tanganyika in 1961 when the mainland became independent. Nyerere played a significant role in the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. In 1967, he issued the Arusha Declaration, the foundation of Ujamaa, a programme of economic transformation that was centered around the concept of collectivisation. The policy registered little economic success.

Instead of becoming self-reliant, Tanzania became even more dependent on foreign aid. Nyerere openly supported, both morally and materially, the independence movements of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. He was also one of the few African presidents who recognised the short-lived breakaway Biafra state of Nigeria. In the late 1970s, he fought off Ugandan dictator’s Idi Amin’s military overtures on his country and went on to capture Kampala, deposing Idi Amin. The expensive campaign worsened the economic and political situation in Tanzania. Always dressed in his characteristic Mao suit, Nyerere instituted extensive social reform that included rules on fashion and music. In 1985, Mwalimu Nyerere resigned from the presidency and five years later, from the chairmanship of his party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). He died in London on October 14, 1999.

JuliusNyerere

President of Burundi: 1966 - 1976

One of the youngest of Africa’s founding fathers was Burundi’s first president, Michel Micombero. When he became prime minister on July 11, 1966, Micombero was just 26 years old and would go on to rule the country for a decade.

MichelMicombero

Burundi was then a traditional monarchy ruled by King Mwambutsa IV, Micombero’s political patron. However while Mwambutsa IV was out of the country in July 1966, the young influential soldier orchestrated a coup, propping 19-year-old Crown Prince Charles Ntare V to the throne.

The new king appointed Micombero prime minister and gave him permission to dissolve parliament. In November 1966, Micombero overthrew Ntare V as head of state and abolished the monarchy. It was Ntare’s return six years later that would mark the beginning of the end for Micombero. In his time in office, the young president aligned Burundi to the socialist bloc, seeking closer relations with China and the Soviet Union. In the typical patriarchal form of politics that followed independence, Micombero elevated his Hima people, taking power away from the traditional holders, the Tutsi-Banyaruguru.

The ethnic question further alienated the Hutu people, denying its elites any seat in the new administration. At the height of this inter-ethinc crisis in April 1972, a Hutu uprising began, appearing to catch the government unawares. Micombero’s heavy-handed retaliation during the uprising ended up in the deaths of thousands of Hutu. The massacres and the subsequent military trials of leading Banyaruguru personalities eroded the power of Micombero’s government. The international community chimed in and, with his support in the military waning, Micombero abandoned the capital city and hid in a compound in Gitega. Micombero was eventually overthrown by his cousin, Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, on November 1, 1976. He went into exile in Somalia where he lived for the last decade of his life - he died of a heart attack in 1983. He was only 43 years old, having just graduated from the University of Somalia with a degree in economics.

President of Algeria: 1963 - 1965

A man with more than nine lives, Algeria’s first president was born on Christmas Day, 1918 in Marnia, western Algeria. In 1945, the Algerian town of Setif went on a rampage and massacred over 100 Europeans. The French administrators retaliated ruthlessly, killing thousands of Algerians. Incensed, Ben Bella returned to join politics in his hometown.

The authorities sent assassins to his farm but he fought them off and escaped. Ben Bella was arrested four years later after his group, the Organisation Spéciale (Special Organisation), carried out a heist on a post office in Oran, Algeria. In 1952, he escaped from the Blida prison and went on self-exile to Cairo where he joined the rest of Algeria’s liberation movement, the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN). He used his connections to obtain arms and funding for the group. Aware of his role, the French tried to kill him at least two more times in 1956 in Cairo and Tripoli.

Later that year, the French Army controversially had a flight full of FLN leaders, including Ben Bella, land in Algiers instead of Tunis. Ben Bella was imprisoned in France for the next five years. He was released in 1962 and immediately took over the reins of the independence preparations. In September 1963, Ahmed Ben Bella was elected the first President of Algeria. As head of state, he nationalised many companies and promoted education and agrarian reform. In June 1965, he was deposed in a coup by his former comrade, Colonel Houari Boumedienne. He spent the next 14 years under house arrest, during which time his mother arranged for him a marriage to Zohra Sellami, a 26-year-old journalist. He was finally allowed to go on exile in Switzerland in 1980. Ben Bella returned to Algeria in the 1991 and unsuccessfully ran for president. One of his last appearances was during the first weeks of what became the Arab Spring. He died on April 11, 2012.

Ahmed Ben Bella

President of Kenya: 1964 - 1978

Kenya’s founding father, Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau Ngengi in 1894. He joined the Church of Scotland Mission at Thogoto and was then employed by the Nairobi town council.

It was here that he changed his name to Kenyatta and would later adopt the name “Jomo.” In 1922, Kenyatta joined the East Africa Association (EAA). He became the secretary general of the Kikuyu Central Association after EAA was banned in 1925. Kenyatta left Kenya for London in 1929, returned briefly before going back for 15 years.

In London, he enrolled in Woodbrooke Quaker College before moving to University College London and finally the London School of Economics. He was elected president of Kenya Africa Union (KAU) in 1947. As the Mau Mau uprising escalated, Kenyatta found himself in a precarious position as the leader of the political independent movement.

He was imprisoned from 1952 to 1959 and detained for three more years by the British colonial government. Kenya gained independence in 1963 with Kenyatta as Prime Minister and President a year later when the country gained independence. With the dissolution of the opposition party, KADU, shortly after, Kenya became a de facto one-party state. Kenyatta was re-elected three times as the only presidential candidate. He instituted pro-Western economic reforms and successfully transitioned Kenya through the murky early years of independence. He, however, was criticised heavily for promoting cronyism and politics of patronage. He died on August 22, 1978.

JomoKenyatta

President of Malawi: 1966 - 1994

The most eccentric of Africa’s founding fathers was arguably Malawi’s first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Quirky in character and Victorian in his demands, this lifelong bachelor lived outside his home country for more than four decades before he finally returned a few years before independence. Banda eventually returned to Malawi in 1958 and took over as the leader of the Nyasaland African Congress.

He spoke out against the proposed federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, pitting himself against the colonial powers. Although he had forgotten his native Chichewa tongue and had to speak through a translator, Kamuzu became immensely popular and was the clear forerunner in the lead up to Malawi’s independence. The man who called himself “Ngwazi”, which means conqueror, became the president of Nyasaland, which he renamed Malawi, in 1966. Banda’s power and manner of rule defined his entire reign, especially after he declared himself President for Life.

Banda was very domineering and retained direct control over five ministries during his rule. While other independent African countries worked to isolate apartheid South Africa, Malawi retained full diplomatic and economic ties. Always meticulously dressed and spotting a trademark Homburg hat and a flywhisk, Banda initiated a strict Victorian code for his people and visitors, banning hippies from entering the country and issuing a strict dress code for women. In May 1994, after pressure from the West, he held a referendum on whether Malawi should be a one-party state or a multi-party system. In elections the next year, the Malawi people he had condescendingly referred to as “my children” voted him out. He died in 1997 at the age of 99.

Hastings Kamuzu BandaBanda

President of Congo: 1960 - 1963

Abbé Fulbert Youlou, the first President of Congo, was defrocked by the Roman Catholic Church for his nationalist activities. Born in 1917, Youlou joined a seminary when he was 12 years old. He became a priest in 1949 but was defrocked less than a decade later for running for elections for the French National Assembly.

Youlou would continue wearing his ecclesiastical robes, even during his short presidency. The defrocking and his subsequent losses at the elections made him a hero amongst his people. He founded the Union Démocratique pour la Défense d'Intérêts Africains (UDDIA) which he led to power in the capital Brazzaville in 1956. In 1957, Youlou joined the Territorial Assembly and was appointed the minister of Agriculture. In elections held at the end of 1958, UDDIA won majority seats in the legislative assembly and Youlou became the Prime Minister of Congo.

Youlou brought his main opponent, Jacques Opangault, to the fold as he rose to power as President in August 1960. His regime was characterised by authoritarian tendencies tempered with controversial development projects. In 1963, Youlou announced intentions to make Congo a one-party state, sparking a series of skirmishes that eventually drove him out of power. Faced with mounting strikes and demonstrations, he reshuffled the cabinet and sought French assistance. In mid-August of that year, he resigned the presidency and Alphose Massambe Debat took over as the head of a provisional government. He died on May 6, 1972.

Abbé Fulbert Youlou

President of Zambia: 1964 - 1991

Zambia’s first president at independence in 1964 was the enigmatic and publicly emotional Kenneth Kaunda. Always impeccably dressed in his trademark safari suit and clutching a white handkerchief, Kaunda’s years in power were characterised by economic downturn.

KennethKaunda

Kaunda was a qualified teacher before he joined politics in 1951. In 1955 while he served as Secretary General under Harry Nkumbula, for the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress (ANC), they were both imprisoned for two months for distributing allegedly subversive literature.

In 1959, Kaunda broke away from the ANC and formed his own party, the Zambian National Congress (ZANC). ZANC was banned a mere five months later and Kaunda was imprisoned in Lusaka and Salisbury. During his time in prison, a second splinter group emerged in the surviving ANC and formed the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which he would later join and lead to power. Kaunda and the UNIP led Zambia to independence in October 1964.

Four years later, he banned all other political parties except the UNIP and then embarked on the nationalisation of key companies, particularly in the mining sector. Zambia quickly went into economic remission, falling heavily in debt and marking the beginning of the end for Kaunda and his party. Attempts at stabilising the economy ended up increasing inflation and causing civil unrest, further aggravating an already grim situation. As the waves of multi-partyism swept through sub-Saharan Africa in the late 1980s, Kaunda was forced to change the rules. He lost the elections of 1991 to Frederick Chiluba of the Movement for Multiple Democracy. Chiluba barred him from running for the 1996 elections claiming that his parents had both been born in Malawi, a claim that would lead to his being temporarily stripped of Zambian citizenship in 1999.

A staunch supporter of liberation movements in Africa, Kaunda has the distinction of being the only member of

the 1960s Independence Club who is still alive, to witness his country turn 50 on October 24.

There is a special report on Kaunda here…