Dr Nevers Sekwila Mumba
Mr and Mrs “Godless” had three children. The baby was called HUMANISM, the teenager was called SOCIALISM and the adult was called COMMUNISM. All the children call each other COMRADES.
I will never be a Socialist and I do not believe Zambia shall ever return to socialism. Life is progressive. Different ideologies serve different seasons. To insist on keeping an ideology whose purpose has expired is retrogressive in every sense.
I will never be a socialist because I am a Christian and Zambia shall not return to Socialism because she is now a Christian Nation.
In early 80’s our founding President Kenneth Kaunda decided to graduate his policy of humanism to the next level which he called SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM. As a young Pastor in Kitwe, I led a group of Church leaders who opposed this intention. We fought until Dr Kaunda dropped the idea.
We understood then as we understand now that the underlying belief of socialism is that God is not the center of all activity but man. It further suggested that Christianity was a hindrance to the smooth propagation of socialism and its elder brother, communism.
It is for this reason we had so much persecution of Christians in Eastern Europe, USSR and China. We called these communities the IRON CURTAIN nations. The few Churches in these countries became known as “Under ground churches.” Christians were imprisoned, killed publicly sometimes being fed to lions in public arenas.
It is for this reason that the path of socialism cannot be the Zambian path as we have already chosen to become a Christian Nation.
I shall leave the discussion of the actual meaning the socialist ideology to a later date.
The reason for this short introductory note however, is to state that as much opposed as I am to socialism, I have no moral or even legal right to call those who believe in it as twits, minions or puppets. Leadership is about honor and respect for each other’s beliefs. That’s the intention of a democratic dispensation. I am therefore appalled by colleagues in the name of politics that belittle, insult and disrespect those who hold different views.
If one has an issue with a friend I hang out with, insulting or belittling me is not the mature way of expressing such a concern. State your case and let the people judge who has a more helpful friend.
Time to abandon politics of hate is now. We have an opportunity to start afresh as a nation. We can build a strong nation on the rainbow of our differences.
Let me close by stating that, it is an insult to my intellect and pan african spirit for someone to suggest that since I have friends in the Brenthurst Foundation then I have surrendered my brains to those friends. Those days are over. These days relationships must be mutually beneficial without a big and young brother. Zambia is not inferior to the US. We are partners who can agree and disagree on many things, and that we have done, many times. But we cannot be an island in a moving global community.
Let us integrate without losing who we are in the process. We are mature enough to achieve this.
