Book Description

This book discusses social welfare activities in Zambia in the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. It explains how indigenous social welfare initiatives in colonial Zambia, culminated in the Federation of Welfare Societies. The former became the first nationalist party in this era known as the Northern Rhodesia Congress (NRC), with Godwin Mbikusita Lewanika as its leader. The book also elucidates how the first African government, which was headed by Kenneth Kaunda, attained positive human development indictors in Zambia in the 1960s. Nonetheless, this was at the expense of Barotseland as Kaunda's government had deliberately underdeveloped Barotseland after independence, whilst harassing and imprisoning Barotse activists for decades. After 1991, successive governments continued to apply Kaunda's methods. The book contends that Zambia in its present form is an illegal state, because the Barotseland Agreement was abrogated by Kaunda in 1969. This treaty was meant to amalgamate the former British Protectorates of Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia to form Zambia in 1964.