Mulungushi Reforms Part II: The Magna Carta

It is a known fact that Zambia became independent in 1964. What is not very well known is overtly covert reason in numbers. This war of numbers was perhaps more important,and certainly no less political, than the louder and bloodier war.To put it differently, Zambia gained independence through a large indigenous population rather than through strategy or cunning. Zambians had children, and those children grew up and started throwing stones through windows.This numbers game is also, coincidentally the core aspect of the legitimacy to rule.

My latest paper titled revisits the 1968 Mulungushi reforms in Zambia, providing historical context leading tothe reforms. The paper highlights the wage disparities between the white minority and indigenousmajority in Zambia and the foreign capital control over advanced sectors of production. The paper alsonotes Zambian assistance to armed guerrillas seeking to overthrow the white minority regime in Rhodesia, which worsened its relationship with the white governments in southern Africa. The paper challenges the narrative of a “nationalism”problem and instead emphasizes Zambianization at the core,based on the principles of independence and self-determination of the country's economic destiny. Thepaper argues that the Mulungushi Reforms were Zambia's Magna Carta, aimed at creating economic andpolitical independence for the country, with Zambians taking control of their own resources and destiny.