Zambia paid tribute, Friday July 2, 2021, at the Heroes stadium in Lusaka, to its first president, Kenneth Kaunda, who died on June 17, 2021 at the age of 97 from pneumonia in the capital .
The president’s remains will continue to tour several cities across the country and will be buried on July 7, in family privacy in the presidential cemetery in Lusaka.
Called “the African Gandhi” for his nonviolent activism, Kenneth Kaunda led the former Northern Rhodesia to bloodless independence in October 1964.
Claiming to be socialist and close to Moscow, he ruled the country for 27 years, largely under one-party rule, the mismanagement of which caused a serious economic and social crisis. After violent riots, he accepted free elections in 1991 and was defeated.
Since his retirement in 2000, he has placed his authority at the service of crisis resolution on the African continent, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Togo and Burundi. He was also involved in the fight against AIDS, after having publicly announced that one of his sons had died of the disease.
Source: Agence Ivoirienne de presse