Zambia’s High Commissioner to India Judith Kapijimpanga, has presented a memento to Zambia’s First Republican President Dr Kenneth Kaunda from Gandhi Smriti, a museum where India’s icon Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated from.
The memento was first presented in New Delhi, India, when Zambia High Commission in India held a day’s exhibition of Dr Kaunda’s contribution to Africa and global peace efforts at a function that attracted diplomats from Malawi, Tanzania and the academia.
“It is high time that the world remembered the sacrifice of Dr Kaunda in liberating Zambia and the Southern African region,” she said.
She said the younger generation should know that Dr Kaunda also put pressure in pushing for the release of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela from Roben Island Prison.
“Dr Kaunda, in 1990, declared a 5 -day holiday after his release from prison as Mandela visited to meet regional Presidents that convened in Lusaka ahead of his ascension to the Presidency of South Africa,” she said.
She praised India’s Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti Museum for taking time to celebrate the ideology of Dr Kaunda, humanism, where he believed that he was not free if his neighbours were not free.
“The event coincides with the 150th birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who largely inspired Dr. Kaunda’s non- violent movement against colonial masters,” Mrs. Kapijimpanga said.
And Dr Kaunda thanked India and Mahatma Gandhi for the inspiration in the struggle for independence.
This was contained in a statement released by First Secretary Press and Tourism at the Zambian Mission in India, Bangwe Naviley.
