KENNETH KAUNDA REMEMBERED

Kenneth Kaunda, one of Africa's greatest liberation heroes, passed away on this day in 2021 at the age of 97.

Fondly known as KK and Super Ken, he was not only Zambia's founding president but also a pan-African icon who dedicated the best of his life to ensuring that every single inch of African land was free from colonialism. As President of Zambia, Kaunda led other African leaders in forming the Frontline States coalition, a group of countries in southern and East Africa that gained their independence in the early 1960s. The group played a key role in mobilising resources and support for the armed struggle against racist and colonial regimes in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Namibia, Mozambique, Angola and South Africa.

Kaunda turned Zambia into a hub for the liberation struggle in Southern Africa. In addition to providing diplomatic and material support, Kaunda allowed liberation movements, such as South Africa's African National Congress (ANC), Namibia's South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) to use Zambia as a launch pad for cross-border attacks against the settler regimes in their homelands. These efforts helped ensure that, by the 1990s, when he left office, most colonial regimes in the region had either collapsed or were on the verge of collapse.

In this video, African Stream's Clinton Nzala provides a detailed account of Kaunda's contributions to the freedom of millions of Africans.