The Monday Issue

Jubilee Centre October 27th, 2008

Zambia’s presidential by-elections are being held in October, a very important month for us Zambians. It’s in October that we celebrate our nation’s independence. Therefore, October should be a time for all Zambians to show their love for this country by pausing and reflecting on Zambia’s past toils and achievements. Independence celebrations ought to be a time to strengthen our unity as a nation and to rededicate ourselves to service.

This year we have been deprived of celebrating our nation’s independence because of the presidential election campaigns. Independence celebrations provide us with a great opportunity to teach our children and youths what we remember of the past and invite them to define their future on the basis of what we have shared with them. If we forget to pass these memories to our children and our youths, the result will be that other nations will overrun us again and we will end up in misery.

It is easy to forget about the past when things are going well or make ‘improvements’ to the historical record when things are tough. Israel is a great example of a nation that repeatedly forgot its past. Each time life become easy for the Israelites they started to think that they were entitled to comfort, and when things became difficult in the wilderness, they would romanticize their time in Egypt. They forgot that everything they owned had been given to them by God in fulfillment of the promise He had made to the patriarchs (see 1 Kings 11:2-9).

Rather than national unity, on this Independence Day we found a nation divided along political lines and candidates who were organizing political rallies. But why should our presidential candidates not care to celebrate Independence? Two of our presidential candidates were freedom fighters. They were there when our people were wanderers in their own country. They were part of the team that promised the Zambian people they would no longer search for water. They would draw it from the tap. They were part of the team that told Zambians that they would have flourishing farms, every child would have an egg a day and no child would go to school without shoes. We were told that in the ‘promised land’ houses, education and long life were waiting for us. 

Independence celebrations enable us to take stock of how far we have come and consider how we should move forward. With most Zambians living in misery, today, more than ever before, we should be reminded why we wanted self-rule. We need leaders who will pass on the memories of our struggle so that our people can catch a vision for a new Zambia, a Zambia that is richly rooted in a culture that empowers people to use their God given creativity and imagination to come out poverty.

As Christians, though, Independence month should be a time not only to celebrate but also to reflect on whether our prosperity or poverty is dimming our spiritual vision. Prosperity tends to lead people toward concentrating on self-preservation rather than thankfulness and service to God. Poverty tends to make us think that other people owe us a living and leads us to focus on people for help rather than God. How did your church celebrate independence month?

Lawrence Temfwe

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