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And God told Moses: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the field.”
Zambia will celebrate its golden jubilee on 24 October, 2014 .The country has lined up a number of activities to celebrate the independence.
On 24 October, 1964 Zambia gained independence from Britain. Zambia independence came four years after the famous speech “The winds of change” by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
Zambia was formerly the British colony of Northern Rhodesia and in 1953 was brought into the Central African Federation, incorporating Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (Malawi).
Zambia was originally inhabited by hunter–gatherer Khoisan people. About 2000 years ago Bantu people migrated from the Congo basin and gradually displaced them.
The first Europeans to arrive were Portuguese explorers, following routes established many centuries earlier by Swahili-Arab slave-traders. The celebrated British explorer David Livingstone travelled up the Zambezi in the early 1850s in search of a route to the interior of Africa. In 1855, he reached the awesome waterfall that he promptly named Victoria Falls.
Zambia is the only Southern African Country that can boast as the “mother of nations” in Southern African. The support Zambia gave to the liberation movements of southern Africa is a strong theme in Zambian history and national identity; the lengths to which it aided the various movements came at a great cost ‘in terms of human life, infrastructure and lost opportunity for economic growth’.
After independence in 1964, Zambia was one of the most vocal opponents to white minority rule and colonialism. President Kenneth Kaunda, who held office 1964–1991, was a very visible advocate of change in Southern Africa. He actively supported UNITA during the Angolan liberation and civil war, SWAPO during their fight for Namibian independence from apartheid South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and the African National Congress in their fight against apartheid in South Africa.
Many of these organizations were based in Zambia during the 1970s and 1980s. For this reason South Africa as well as Rhodesia carried out military raids on targets inside Zambia. Zambia's support for the various liberation movements also caused problems for the Zambian economy, since it was heavily dependent on electricity supply and transportation through South Africa and Rhodesia.
Zambia’s support for liberation struggles in Southern Africa, makes the country enjoys wide popularity among the countries it supported as well as all over Africa.
Zambia is one of the African countries that have never experienced civil war. The peace that Zambia enjoys today is attributed to the efforts that the first republican initiated.
Former President Kenneth Kaunda usually boasts of the unity he created in Zambia. He has described this effort as his greatest achievement he made during his time as head of State was to peacefully build a united Zambia and hopes Zambians will continue on the same path.
Although Zambia has enjoyed his political stability for 50 years, the country continues to struggle in a number of economic areas. The country continues also to suffer from the adverse of corruptions. The country also continues to suffer from poverty related activities such as lack of employment and misappropriation of funds.
It’s against this background that as Zambia march into the next 50 years there is need for the Country to shift its economic policy and start favoring agriculture and manufacturing industries. The economical woes of Zambia would only eradicate if the country invested its resources in Agriculture and manufacturing sector.
Zambia can also end its economic challenges if it could invest in education. Investing in education would assist the country to develop its human resources capital. Zambia can learn from countries such as Japan that has developed its human capital into a national resource.
Lastly I would like to wish the Zambian people a peaceful jubilee celebration.
