Mourning a Great Leader
Jubilee Centre September 1st, 2008
Although life in present day Zambia is changing, the question of traditional beliefs and cultural practices is still a very important issue. The ritual of taking the body of former Zambia’s president, Dr. Levy Mwanawasa SC to all provincial headquarters that each Zambian pay last respect to him raises several questions for Christians who understand the struggles the church in Africa faces in applying doctrinal issues to their cultural context. Was this an innocent ritual that was done in order to keep the truth of Mwanawasa’s death fresh in the minds of the Zambian people or did the ruling party use it as a political campaign tool or were we practicing African traditional religion?
Whatever the case, the Zambian history is being re-written during these 21 days of mourning of how in future we shall mourn great leaders whether they are church leaders, business people or politicians. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves and to our next generation to understand what we are exactly doing in this ritual. For example how shall we mourn our first republican president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda who set for us a powerful example of how to change government power from one political party to another? Indeed how shall we mourn this great son of Africa who is doing so much in the fight against HIV/AIDS when he passes on? How shall we mourn FTJ Chiluba our second republican president who started the process of empowering Zambians with home ownership by selling government and local council pool houses at give away prices? If indeed this was an innocent ritual, then we will keep this practice for every great Zambian leader who passes on.
However, if this practice was used as a political tool for campaign purposes, then in future this ritual will 
only be availed to the leader who passes on while holding the office of Republican President. Is it possible that this was a traditional religious practice? If this was the case then the moral and social stability of the MMD party or for that matter the nation will be considered to be the responsibility of president Mwanawasa who in this traditional belief has been elevated to the status of the ancestral spirit. Consequently, it will be a serious offence to ignore the will of our ancestor in the matter that relates to leadership succession of the MMD party or the nation.
President Mwanawasa was a committed Christian. He was respected for his reputation for honesty and for his commitment to good governance. He was one of the few rare African presidents’ voices that spoke out against the oppression of the Zimbabweans by Mugabe. If president Mwanawasa knew that this was the way his life would be celebrated he may have in humility accepted this ritual. But he would first have sought counsel from his elders at Twin Palm Baptist Church where he used to attend church service whenever he was in the city as to whether this ritual was doctrinally and culturally correct.
This ritual of honouring president Mwanawasa has raised for us Christians a challenge in how to build a theology of death and mourning which is both biblical and also African. Are we ready to face the challenge? God help us that we do not become a “Christian Nation” that simply adds Christianity to the religious system from which we have repented.
Lawrence Temfwe
