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Rethinking African Politics - A History of Opposition in Zambia (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,639
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Rethinking African Politics - A History of Opposition in Zambia (Paperback)
Series: Empire and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-2000
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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In 1964 Kenneth Kaunda and his United National Independence Party
(UNIP) government established the nation of Zambia in the former
British colony of Northern Rhodesia. In parallel with many other
newly independent countries in Africa this process of
decolonisation created a wave of optimism regarding humanity's
capacity to overcome oppression and poverty. Yet, as this study
shows, in Zambia as in many other countries, the legacy of
colonialism created obstacles that proved difficult to overcome.
Within a short space of time democratisation and development was
replaced by economic stagnation, political authoritarianism,
corruption and ethnic and political conflict. To better understand
this process, Dr Larmer explores UNIP's political ideology and the
strategies it employed to retain a grip on government. He shows
that despite the party's claim that it adhered to an authentically
African model of consensual and communitarian decision-making, it
was never a truly nationally representative body. Whereas in
long-established Western societies unevenness in support was
accepted as a legitimate basis for party political difference, in
Zambia this was regarded as a threat to the fragile bindings of the
young nation state, and as such had to be denied and repressed.
This led to the declaration of a one-party state, presented as the
logical expression of UNIP supremacy but it was in fact a
reflection of its weakening grip on power. Through case studies of
opposition political and social movements rooted in these
differences, the book demonstrates that UNIP's control of the new
nation-state was partial, uneven and consistently prone to
challenge. Alongside this, the study also re-examines Zambia's role
in the regional liberation struggles, providing valuable new
evidence of the country's complex relations with Apartheid-era
South Africa and the relationship between internal and external
opposition, shaped by the context of regional liberation movements
and the Cold War. Drawing on extensive archival research and
interviews, Dr Larmer offers a ground-breaking analysis of
post-colonial political history which helps explain the challenges
facing contemporary African polities.
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