 |
Mainza Chona -
History
Monday December 11, 2006 marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Mainza Chona, a veteran politician, lawyer, diplomat and one of Zambia’s key freedom fighters. Mainza Chona was born Sikaye Chingula Namukamba on January 21, 1930 at Nampeyo near Monze in the then Northern Rhodesia. He received his primary education at Nampeyo’s Chona out-school and Chikuni, and completed his secondary education at Lusaka’s Munali High School in 1951. Chona turned down the opportunity to pursue studies at Makerere University in Uganda in order to look after his mother and siblings following the death of his father. However he secured a scholarship to study law at Gray’s Inn Law School in England. In 1955, Chona and Munalula Sikatana (elder brother of current foreign affairs minister Mundia Sikatana) travelled by sea via Cape Town in South Africa to Southampton. Chona’s deep interest in Tonga culture, language and history resulted in him authoring a book entitled Kabuca Uleta Tunji (literally “The morning brings many things”). The book was awarded the Margaret Wrong medal in 1956. In 1958, Chona was called to the bar and that same year changed his name by deed poll to Mathias Mainza Chona. While in England he met other Northern Rhodesian nationalists such as Kenneth Kaunda and Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula. It was around this time that Chona became interested in the struggle for the independence of Northern Rhodesia. Nkumbula, Kaunda and other nationalists were heading the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC led African opposition to the establishment of the Central African Federation (comprising the two Rhodesias and Nyasaland) which had been created in August 1953. Seeking immediate independence for Northern Rhodesia, Kaunda and other young militant members of the ANC broke away from the party to form the Zambia African National Congress in October 1958. The militancy of the ZANC brought it into conflict with Federation authorities and in March 1959, the party was banned and its leaders were imprisoned. Chona was among other nationalists that later broke away from the ANC, and in October 1959 he became the first leader of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), the successor to the ZANC. Chona stepped down as the UNIP’s leader when Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960, but was later elected as the party’s deputy president. He briefly returned to England to avoid a charge of sedition brought by the CAF authorities. In February 1961, Chona returned to Northern Rhodesia. Chona served as minister of justice in Kaunda’s pre-independence government, and when the territory was granted independence in October 1964, he was appointed as the country’s first home affairs minister. Over the next five years, Chona served in five different ministerial positions, before being appointed as Zambia’s ambassador to the United States in 1969. He returned to Zambia the following year and was appointed the country’s vice president. Mainza Chona was the chairman of the commission set up in February 1972 to make recommendations for the establishment of a one party state in Zambia. The CHONA COMMISSION, as it became known, based its final report on several months of public hearings and was submitted in October that year. The report effectively ushered in the Second Republic which lasted until 1991, when multi-party politics was re-introduced in Zambia. Chona served twice as Zambia’s prime minister, from 1973 to 1975, and 1977 to 1978. Between the two spells he also served as minister of legal affairs and as attorney general. He also served as UNIP’s secretary general, the second highest position after the president, between 1978 and 1981. He later went into private legal practice, but was appointed to serve as Zambia’s ambassador to China from 1984 to 1989. He also served as ambassador to France from 1989 to 1992. Upon his return, he again entered into private practice. Chona worked tirelessly with other lawyers to have Kaunda’s citizenship restored after the former president was stripped of his nationality by a court in 1999. The court had upheld a petition filed against Kaunda by prominent members of the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD). Chona was also associated with the Oasis Forum which successfully opposed Frederick Chiluba’s attempt to run for an unconstitutional third term of office. Chona died in a Johannesburg hospital on December 11 2001 and was buried in Monze five days later. Mainza Mathias Chona is said to have held more government posts than any other leader in Zambia’s history. A seasoned leader with an ubiquitous smile, he greatly contributed to the organisation of UNIP and to the struggle for Zambia’s independence |
|
Related materials |
|
 |