Simon Kapwepwe
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Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe (1922-1980) was the second vice-president of Zambia from 1967 to 1970.
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[edit] Early life
Simon Kapwepwe was born on 12 April 1922 in the Chinsali district of the northern province of Northern Rhodesia. Although Chinsali was remote from the country's urban centres, it was an area of political importance. It was also an area of strong religious competition between the protestant United Free Church of Scotland (based at Lubwa from 1905) and the Roman Catholic White Fathers mission (based at Ilondola from 1934). One of Lubwa's early missionaries was David Kaunda, the father of Kenneth Kaunda (who became the first president of Zambia in 1964). Simon Kapwepwe became Zambia's second vice-president. Both Kapwepwe and Kenneth Kaunda had their primary education at Lubwa mission. They were together again at Lubwa Mission when they were undergoing training to become teachers.
[edit] Independence Struggle
Kapwepwe moved to Kitwe on the Copperbelt, where he got a job teaching in a primary school. Due to his dissatisfaction with the policies of the colonial Northern Rhodesian government, he became a founding member of the Northern Rhodesian African Congress in 1948. This party was soon renamed the Africa National Congress (ANC) under the leadership of Harry Nkumbula. Kapwepwe was a member of the national executive and became secretary of the Kitwe Branch. However, in 1949, Kapwepwe returned to Chinsali with Kaunda, where they planned to start a farm. Both of them remained politically active through the Chinsali African Welfare Association, which doubled as a branch of the ANC.
Kapwepwe secured a scholarship to India in 1950, so he terminated his teaching career in order to pursue further studies for four years. One of the subjects he studied was journalism. In his absence, the White settlers achieved their long-cherished dream of creating the Central African Federation (or the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland) in October 1953. The Black African majority's opposition to this new entity was organized by the ANC, but it was not very successful. On Kapwepwe's return to Northern Rhodesia in January 1955 he found the ANC leaderless, since both Harry Nkumbula and Kenneth Kaunda had been imprisoned for two months for distributing "subversive" literature. In their absence, Kapwepwe assumed the mantle of leadership and introduced policies of racial equality and passive resistance to colonial power, tactics which he had learned that Indians, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, had used most effectively against British colonialism. When Nkumbula returned from prison, he appointed Kapwepwe to the position of ANC Provincial President for Northern Province. Kapwepwe later held the position of ANC's treasurer.
Nkumbula's allegedly autocratic leadership and his willingness to compromise on the fundamental issue of majority rule resulted in a rift within the ANC. Kapwepwe, together with Kaunda and other more militant members, broke away and formed the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC) in October 1958. This party was banned by the colonial authorities in March 1959, its leaders were detained and Kapwepwe was sent to Mongu, in Barotseland. While the ZANC leadership was in jail, Mainza Chona and other nationalists broke away from ANC and formed a new party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP). Kapwepwe and the other imprisoned leaders of ZANC joined the new party. When he was release from jail in December 1959, he helped organize provincial and district branches of UNIP in Barotseland.
In 1960, Kapwepwe and Kaunda attended the Federal Review Conference in London, together with Mainza Chona and Harry Nkumbula. This conference dug the grave of the Central African Federation and laid the foundations for the independence of Zambia and Malawi. As preparation for this eventuality, an election was held in Northern Rhodesia in October 1962. Kapwepwe challenged Dauti Yamba and won convincingly. The result of the election was a UNIP/ANC coalition government in which Kapwepwe was given the post of Minister of African Agriculture.
[edit] After Independence
The General Election held in January 1964 was won by UNIP with 55 seats, as opposed to the ANC's 10 seats. Kapwepwe was given the post of Minister of Home Affairs. In September 1964, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and held that post for three years. During that time he lambasted the British government for failing to stop or control Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence under the rebellious Ian Smith in 1965.
Despite their friendship from childhood, Kapwepwe and Kaunda drifted apart after leading Zambia to independence. For example, in 1967 Kapwepwe led a rebellion within UNIP. He stood against Reuben Kamanga and the won position of deputy leader within UNIP. As a consequence, Kaunda promoted him to the position of republican Vice President. He used his new position to put forward economic policies that differed from Kaunda's, but his views were sidelined. He also campaigned for the preservation of Zambian culture through the teaching of indigenous languages in schools. In August 1969, he offered to resign from the Vice Presidency and the deputy leadership of UNIP. This move was precipitated by tribal friction within UNIP. Kaunda did not want to lose him and managed to dissuade him from taking that move. However, in October 1970 Kaunda replaced Kapwepwe with Mainza Chona in the post of Vice President. Kapwepwe was allowed to keep the posts of Minister of Culture and Minister of Local Government.
[edit] The end of political life
Kapwepwe's life in UNIP began drawing to an end when he was linked with rumours of a new party called the United Progressive Party (UPP) that had been formed on the Copperbelt. He did not own up until Kaunda dismissed four cabinet ministers on suspicion of being clandestine members of the new party. In August 1971, Kapwepwe resigned from UNIP and the government then he announced that he was, indeed, the leader of UPP. In December 1971 he won a by-election for the Mufulira West constituency and became his party's sole representative in parliament. Kaunda was not pleased with this development so, on 4 February 1972, he banned UPP and imprisoned 122 members of the party, including Kapwepwe. Kaunda's excuse was that UPP was an instrument of the White Rhodesian, South African and Portuguese governments. Kapwepwe was kept in prison until 31 December 1972. By then, Kaunda had neutralized any threat that Kapwepwe could pose: the Chona Commission, under the chairmanship of Mainza Chona, was appointed in February 1972 to make recommendations for the constitution of a ‘one-party participatory democracy’ (i.e. a one-party state). After collecting four months of public hearings, the commission's report was submitted to Kaunda in October 1972. The Second Republic (i.e. the one-party state) was inaugurated on 1 January 1973, the day after Kapwepwe was released from detention.
Kapwepwe was harassed even after he had been politically emasculated. He was arrested in February 1973 for illegal possession of two guns. He received a two-years suspended sentence. The UNIP-controlled Zambian media reported that Kapwepwe had sent people for military training outside Zambia. He sued the Zambia Broadcasting Services, the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail for libel and won when he proved that they had made false reports.
Kapwepwe turned his back on politics and went to live on his farm in Chinsali. In the spirit of national unity, Kaunda asked Kapwepwe to return to UNIP in September 1977. To test his erstwhile friend's sincerity, Kapwepwe stood for the 1978 one-party presidential nomination against Kaunda. He was disqualified by last-minute changes to UNIP's constitution. He retired for good from politics and returned to Chinsali.
He died on 26 January 1980, after suffering from a stroke two days earlier.
