Posts

Showing posts from April, 2019

I was quite naughty, says President Kaunda's daughter

Image
THE President's daughter. Musata Banda was only three years old when her father became President. Musata with husband, James Banda. With her father, the former President.   With brother, Kaweche, and their father. Musata (front row, left) with Betty Kaunda and siblings.      I was quite naughty, says President Kaunda's daughter JACK ZIMBA WHILE her father kept a grip on power, Musata became the rebellious teenage daughter of the President who longed to have the freedom that she could only dream about within the walls of State House. She was only three when her father became president in 1964, but when she grew older, she yearned for the freedom of an ordinary citizen. On a few occasions, she scaled the brick perimeter wall at State House in the night, on the western side overlooking the Lusaka Golf Club, to escape to parties. “I knew State House like the back of my hand, so we knew where to jump, where there were no soldiers,” says Mu

Rwandan genocide 25 years on

Image
  A boy stands in a graveyard of genocide victims in Rwanda. Rwandan genocide 25 years on Restless spirits unwilling to return home O N THE day when the killings started – April 7, 1994 – Jeane (real name withheld) and her family members were rounded up by armed men and lined up, their faces against a wall. The men then stepped backwards, their guns drawn. Jeane waited for the gunmen to pull the triggers. “I stood there and said to myself, I won’t struggle or let anyone beat me. I told God if you have decided that I die today, let my body be covered. I don’t want my body to be naked and to be eaten by dogs,” she recalls. But in that moment, she heard a man shouting “No, no, no, not there!” The house belonged to Jeane’s uncle, who was in the military. Jeane and her family, including a four-day-old baby, were saved, but her neighbours were not so fortunate. “I was still standing there, frozen. I saw these people go to the neighbour’s place. Then I heard gunsh