Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda will speak on campus, May 5

Kenneth Kaunda, the first president of the Republic of Zambia, will give a special lecture titled "Democratization, Development and the Challenges for Africa" Monday, May 5, at 7 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Kaunda

Kaunda currently is the Balfour African President in Residence at Boston University's African Presidential Archives and Research Center. He led Zambia to independence and served as its first president from 1964 to 1991.

Formerly an educator, Kaunda began his political career as the founder and secretary of the Lubwa Branch of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1950. In1953 he became secretary general of the Northern Rhodesia African National Congress.

In 1958, Kaunda helped form, and became president of, the Zambian African National Congress. In 1960 he was named president of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), a post he held until 1962 and again from 1995 to 2000.

After the country adopted a new constitution and got its first black government in 1962, Kaunda became minister of local government and social welfare, then rose to prime minister of Northern Rhodesia in January 1964, before being elected president of the new republic in October of that year.

In addition to his efforts in Zambia, Kaunda was in the forefront of the efforts to liberate all of Africa, serving as the president of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East, Central and Southern Africa (Pafmesca) in 1962 and as chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) from 1970 to 1973. He also played key roles in the mitigation of territorial disputes between Kenya and Somalia and the liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

After losing a bid for the presidential election in Zambia in 1991, he founded the Kenneth Kaunda Peace Foundation dedicated to the establishment of peace and conflict resolution on the African continent. He is now working to fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa.

Kaunda was awarded honorary doctorates of law from the universities of Fordham, Dublin, Wales, Windsor (Canada), Sussex, York and Chile and honorary degrees from Humboldt State University, the University of California and the University of Zambia. Other awards include the Order of the Collar of the Nile. He is the author of: Black Government (1961); Zambia Shall Be Free (1962); A Humanist in Africa (with Colin Morris, 1966); Humanism in Zambia and its Implementation (1967); Humanism in Zambia Part II: Letter to My Children (1977); and Kaunda on Violence (1980).

His visit at Cornell is sponsored by the Institute for African Development and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. For information on Kaunda's visit, contact Jackie Sayegh at the Institute for African Development, 255-6849, or e-mail ciad@cornell.edu.