Simon Zukas: A romantic story with political touch

 

Simon and Zukas pictured three years ago.

Simon and Cynthia when they just got married.

SIMON Zukas, who has died aged 96, was a well-known figure with an enduring presence on the Zambian political scene, and is also recognised as a freedom fighter who fought for its independence from the British.

His last political stunt was a meeting with President Hakainde Hichilema two weeks ago at State House, probably to congratulate the new President on his election in August.

About three years ago, Simon and his wife, Cynthia, gave an interview to the Daily Mail’s JACK ZIMBA in which they talked about their political lives and their love story.

 

“YOU two are still together!” is a remark that Cynthia and Simon Zukas hear so often when they venture into the public together.

Not typically unusual for the couple that will be celebrating 65 years together on January 30.

Cynthia and Simon met in London in the early 1950s.

They were both politically radicle, strongly opposed to two repressive political systems.

Simon, who had arrived on the Copperbelt in Northern Rhodesia in 1938, got involved in the local political fight against the federation of the two Rhodesias and Nyasaland.

Actually, the young engineer had been deported from Northern Rhodesia for being a trouble-maker in December 1952.

He arrived back in London to begin a new life as a bachelor, although he never turned his back on Northern Rhodesia and kept contact with several notable people who had gotten involved in the freedom struggle such Elijah Mudenda, Vernon Mwaanga and Sikota Wina.

“My view was that I was in exile on a temporary basis and that I would be coming back here,” says Simon.

As for Cynthia, she was in London studying for her post-graduate degree in art, but really it was another way by her parents of keeping her from trouble back home in South Africa, where her activism against the apartheid regime had begun gaining recognition.

“A policeman had been to my mother’s door in South Africa and said ‘your daughter is gonna be in trouble,’” she recalls.

But she continued her anti-apartheid activities in London and that is how she met Simon.

The two met through Cynthia’s older sister and brother-in-law who were friends of Simon’s.

“The main thing about our meeting was our interest in politics,” she says. “I had been involved in anti-apartheid policies supporting the ANC, Simon had been involved here in anti-federation, so we just immediately had a lot in common, and then we gradually got fonder and fonder of each other,” she says.

“It certainly wasn’t love at first sight,” says Cynthia.

What she remembers most from their first meeting was the heavy coat that Simon was wearing, and she still laughs about it.

Certainly the young engineer did not make a good impression that first meeting.

“Simon came from here, and he hadn’t lived in Europe since he was a child, so his father had a real European coat, a great big heavy coat, like if you are in Russia. And the first time I met him he was wearing this funny coat. It put me off,” she says.

“He looked very strange,” she adds, laughing.

For Simon, he thought of Cynthia as a naïve young woman who was quick to criticize him.

“She was a very young girl, in her early twenties, I think, but naïve about men especially,” he says.

He adds: “She grew up without brothers and I don’t think she would mix much with boys. We went to a play together, I think it was Macbeth, but I found her a bit young and naïve.”

Cynthia attributes her naivety to her upbringing.

“I had a very strict upbringing, what you would call old fashioned; a very strict mother who if I went out with a boy she would be standing by the window waiting for me to come home safely. So yes he is right I was very inexperienced,” she says.    

About two years after their first meeting, Simon and Cynthia decided to get married, although there was no formal proposal before the start of their relationship.

“It just kind of came about, we got closer and closer,” says Cynthia. “It’s hard to looking back how our relationship developed but it wasn’t immediate,” she says.

“I can’t even remember what you said,” says Cynthia.

“We were not in that sort of group of being formal,” says Simon. “We were more sort of hippies.”

But Simon had also set a condition for their marriage: he wanted Cynthia to return with him to Zambia.

“Simon wanted to come back to Zambia when Zambia got its independence and I wasn’t sure I wanted to begin a new life and so that delayed us a bit,” she says.

But Simon had such strong conviction about Zambia, he would have chosen the country over Cynthia.

“He threatened me – either you marry me or I’m gonna leave you,” says Cynthia. “He was very clear from the start that he saw his life in Zambia, so I said fine.”

So on January 30, 1954, Simon and Cynthia walked into a registry office escorted by a few friends and Cynthia’s older sister to get married.

“Her father didn’t know anything about me. We hadn’t notified him, we hadn’t notified her mother. We just went to the registry office on a Saturday and signed up,” says Simon.

There is a black-and-white photo showing the couple on the doorstep of the registry office surrounded by friends and Cynthia’s older sister.

But why did the couple decide to marry without their parents’ knowledge or consent?

“We knew that if we told them before hand, they would have rushed there and blocked it, no question about it,” says Simon.

“Because he was already known politically, and I knew my parents would disapprove,” says Cynthia. “They felt he was a useless revolutionary. They were looking for me to marry someone different.”

Cynthia dreamed of getting married to an intellectual.

“I wanted someone intellectual because I’m an artist and I love classical music and drama, so I had a vision of maybe a professor of art,” she says.

“He didn’t quite fit the bill, thank goodness it worked well,” she says.

But she also wanted to marry someone Jewish.

To Simon and Cynthia, who are both of Jewish descent, the cultural background was very important.

“As long as she was Jewish, they would accept. That’s all that counted,” says Simon of her wife.

After they got married, they decided to inform their parents.

Cynthia’s wealthy father was apprehensive about the marriage, mostly because he did not want his new son-in-law to be part of his inheritance. 

“He had a big office block in Harare and he thought, who is this upstart?” says Simon.

“He was being very awkward about it and so we had to do something to satisfy him that we were married in a system that shouldn’t worry him,” he says.

In 1965, Simon and Cynthia arrived in Zambia to begin a new life together, leaving what they both describe as a comfortable life.

Cynthia continued her anti-apartheid activities while living in Zambia and would sometimes host ANC members who visited Zambia. She even sponsored some students, including Chris Hani’s daughter.

Among Simon’s treasured documents is a small note written in a craggy handwriting to him by Oliver Tambo, which ends with a salutation to Cynthia and signed “Oliver”.

“Throughout our lives, the anti-racism was such a big thing that kept us very close together, we both felt very strongly about it; obviously there are differences in a small way, but the bond is very deep not just being in love with each other, but believing in one thing,” she says.

The couple has had some major differences, mostly bordering on politics.

In 1991 Simon joined the Movement for Multiparty Democracy. It is a decision that Cynthia never supported.

“It’s one of the few times we didn’t agree, I was very committed to Dr Kaunda, having known him before independence and his wife came to stay with us in London, so it was a strong link and I thought he was crazy,” she says.

“Partly I felt he was betraying Kaunda, partly I was a bit afraid that he might get into trouble,” she says.

But when Simon became government minister, Cynthia was happy and proud of her husband.

Then in 2012, when Cynthia was awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth, for her contribution to the arts, Simon would not go with her.

“He stuck to his guns that he doesn’t believe in royalty,” says Cynthia. “He wouldn’t go with me. He said I don’t believe in the empire.”

The couple still have differences where they should live.

Simon wants to live on the farm near Linda Township where he has built a little cottage, but that is against Cynthia’s wish.

“I’m a town person. I don’t particularly enjoy going there,” she says.

At 89, Cynthia still loves shopping, but that is something Simon does not do with her.

“It’s the one time he gets very irritable,” she says.

Cynthia also misses living in London, although she usually visits her son there. The couple has two sons and six grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

“Despite the fact that I have been very happy in Zambia and very involved with this Lechwe Art Trust that I run, I still like to spend time in London, partly for the family and I like to visit art galleries, but Simon gets bored. He wants to come back to Zambia,” says Cynthia.

So what is the secret to long-lasting marriage?

Simon says talking is a big factor that creates a lasting bond in marriage. He also points to friendship.

“We are friends, as well as husband and wife,” says Simon. “If your relationship is deep enough differences don’t matter in the long run.”

“What counts is to have a relationship that lasts to old age,” says Simon.

Adds Cynthia: “When you are young it’s love – physical love, it’s being together, but when you get old it’s sympathy. When he gets ill I look after him and if I get ill he looks after me.”