The Musakanya Papers- A Review

There is a fair bit of history that remains shrouded in the mood of the socialist times of the 70s and 80s in Zambia.  To a large extent, this can be attributed to the political dispensation at the time and the dearth of serious scholarship by indigenous Zambians. The socialist and at times communist leanings of Kaunda’s UNIP government left little room for critical publications such as the one contained in the very enlightening Musakanya papers.

The book is drawn from Valentine Musakanya’s biographical writings (this book is only a portion of his extensive writings of up to 220,000 words) and is tersely edited by Dr Miles  Larmer of Sheffield University in the United Kingdom into a cogent (albeit poorly packaged) commentary on one of Zambia’s least written on periods. Dr Guy Scott in his review of the book calls it one of the very few proper explanations of how Kaunda in the space of 27 years managed to run down a robust economy to the extent that even bare necessities became scarce. Emmanuel Mwamba likens the book to dynamite.

According to the Lembani Trust who are the book’s publishers, this is supposed to be the first in a number of planned publications from Musakanya’s substantial writings. Unfortunately, from the time this book hit the shelves, over five years ago, there has not been any sequel, as far I am aware anyway. The publishers will have their own reasons for this, suffice to say that I speak for many when I say on the evidence of this book, the rest of Musakanya’s writings need to see the light of day.

The book is revealing. Musakanya offers breath-taking insight into the reasoning for some of the decisions that were made by the newly independent Zambian state. He also offers the type of “fly on the wall” anecdotes into some of the complex relationships between a number of key players in both politics and business, at least from 1964 until 1980, when he and others were arrested and detained for plotting to overthrow the Kaunda government.

If you are one for looking for themes, the book is replete with these. From nation building to commentaries on popular culture, the writings paint Musakanya as an astute observer of society and politics, sometimes even from a naive disposition; as he himself admits.

Musakanya the Man

The book brings to light a man of remarkable abilities and an equally remarkable life. His rise from his village settings whose environment from, his description, swung between idyllic and life-threatening with equal rapidity, seems surreal to the point of fiction. His propulsion and orbit into the world of the elite is fraught with accidental miracles that only save to magnify his remarkable abilities. Starting school at the eyebrow raising age of 13, it is nothing short of miraculous that he made it to Secretary of Cabinet before he even turned thirty. It is a career that would see him heading the Bank of Zambia, become Minister of State (something he regarded as demotion) and away from government work for the American computing company IBM.

Musakanya recounts how his outlook on life was shaped by the mission schools he went to and by association with an emerging cadre of socially and politically conscious Zambians. He recounts how on the Copperbelt, he would spend weekends with Matthew Mwendapole, then Secretary for African Mine Workers Union and how they would discuss current affairs.

Other Themes

This is a book about Musakanya just as it is about Musakanya’s thoughts on numerous subjects. These subjects span the breath of rigorous philosophical and intellectual inquiry into the civil service, the makings of an intellectual, rural development or his own savvy observations of the emergence and metamorphosis of the African political elite.

His writings are one of the few publications that offer what at least seems to be a balanced insight into the complex relationship that the Late Simon Kapwepwe and Dr Kenneth Kaunda had. Musakanya notes Kaunda’s pathological ambivalence and seems to suggest what many of us have suspected for a long time. That one of the reasons, and perhaps the most important, why Kaunda became president was because he was seen as a compromise candidate. Kaunda was considered bereft of the power bases and hence clout of the likes of Kapwepwe or Nkumbula.  He was the safer option in so many ways, not least in view of the sometimes complicated nature of tribal politics in Zambia. It is a fact that continued being the bedrock for many of Kaunda’s biggest decisions which seem to have been made in self-preservation and prolonging his stay in power, at times at the painful expense of those who were level headed enough to hold divergent views to his.

Often our “freedom fighters” and “fathers of the nation” are regarded with a certain romanticism every time they crop up in our conversations. Their decisions are dreamily regarded as pristine and in the best interest of the country. Yet Musakanya’s writings offer rare insight into some disturbing motives governing those that were placed in charge of our nation. For example he notes that the trappings that power brought with it, had left a huge impression on many of the leaders of emerging Africa. They yearned to be as powerful as the colonialists whom they sought to depose, and once in power, wasted no time in living up to this aspiration. In echoes of “Animal Farm”, for many countries that got independent in the 1960s, independence was merely a changing of the masters and not the system.

For example, with the leftist leanings of many post-independence African governments, it became fashionable to have national philosophies. Tanzania had Ujamaa, Ghana Pan-Africanism and Zambia opted for “Humanism”. Musakanya derides this fad brutally noting that although African political thought was budding at the time, none of these monikers could be called a philosophy.  He accuses the new leaders of equating the monopoly of power to the monopoly of wisdom, a phenomenon that continues to this day I would add.

Relationship with Others

The book also catalogues Musakanya’s interaction and relationship with other influential people at the time. Musakanya is gracious when talking about Andrew Sardanis for instance and does not fault him in any way, wasting no time in extolling the man’s virtues. A favour which Sardanis fails to return in his own writings on this period, unapologetically linking Musakanya to the coup attempt for which he would be arrested along with several of his fellow “Flying Club” members in 1980.

Musakanya does not disguise his disdain for illiterates and what he calls “semi-educated literates” who unfortunately apart from having no or shallow grasp of important issues seemed to be swarming the corridors of political power at the time. This is a fact he bemoans when analysing some of the decisions of the Kaunda government. He writes “For Kaunda to keep himself in power, he surrounds himself with illiterates and semi-educated literates…and even those he claims to be educated are of the “burnt-out” species, always abounding in potential but never in substance”.

The 1980 Coup Attempt

There are many who think the 1980 coup attempt is the book’s centre-piece and with good reason. Musakanya himself devotes time narrating his arrest, detention, interrogation and the legal process that ensued. There is a version of this coup attempt narrated by Andrew Sardanis in his book, “Zambia: The first 50 years”, in which he squarely points the finger at Musakanya working with a White lawyer known as Pierce Annfield and several other collaborators. I suppose that is a discussion for another day. Except I mention this, because in the narrative offered by Musakanya there seems to be some missing parts. His writings are devoid of detail when it comes to his interrogation, save for the generic questions he was asked. From what we can glean from Musakanya’s writings, he denies all knowledge and involvement in the coup.

 Musakanya was convicted and sentenced to death following a confession that was shall we say “extracted” from him (he makes no mention of him confessing while under detention). The same conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court, four years later after it emerged that Musakanya’s confession was obtained under torture. His writings do not refer to him being tortured, although he hints that the likes of Edward Shamwana may have been tortured.

The only person I know of, still living and whose name has been mentioned in connection with the 1980 coup attempt is Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda. Perhaps one day we will have a chance to hear his side of the story.

For his part, Musakanya does not exhibit any bitterness (at least from the writings), but at the same time does not offer succinct grounds for not being involved. It might be that the pain of incarceration and being sentenced to death was too painful to relive through paper and pen; we will never know.

What we have however is enough to allow us to share in the disillusion of the mid to latter years of the Kaunda regime. In this whirlwind of a book, we come close to understanding the reasoning behind some of the decisions made for better or worse of our nation, whose basis at times it seems was nothing more than the whims of the political elite. 

I share in Musakanya’s frustration with the so-called intellectuals. His ideas on the civil service, rural development and macro-economic policy generally.

It is impossible to sum the array of issues in this book, in a single blog post. Suffice to say that what is clear is that Valentine Musakanya was an exceptional man. His writings will live on, and one can only hope for more from his treasure trove.

"The Musakanya Papers" is available in bookstores in Zambia. I got my copy from Mwasuwila Bookstore at Levy Mall.