Zambia doesn’t have a big Intellectual Cadre Class

Dr Munyonzwe Hamalengwa

Dr Munyonzwe Hamalengwa

By Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa

Zambia doesn’t have a big intellectual cadre class and a giant among this small class has left this hallowed land today, Prof. Francis Chigunta, an economist. I used to enjoy his economic wisdom a great deal. It is stated that he was an Economic Adviser to President Rupiah Banda. It is to President’s Banda’s credit that he had consulted this eminent intellectual.

The economic infrastructural development trajectory that the current government followed was indisputably laid down by the MMD government and in no doubt bears the fingerprints of the great economist luminary Prof. Chigunta. Did the current government continue to benefit from his wisdom by consulting him at intervals?

Zambia has a very small intellectual class. Even Madam Edith Nawakwi had alluded to this. Zambian leaders in the main and generally eschew intellectuals. Some of them are outright hostile to intellectuals despite some of them preferring to be called Dr. as in Dr. Kaunda, Dr. Chiluba, Dr. Mwanawasa, Dr. Kambwili, Dr. Mwanga and others. Dr. Is supposed to connote a measure of intellectual contribution. In the Western World, this title is not given like Halloween candy. It is earned.

Intellectuals  engage in intellectual combat with other intellectuals without being afraid of them. Others like Major Fidel Castro, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings and Colonel Gaddaffi preferred to retain the titles they had actually formerly achieved and consulted their highest intellectuals in their midst without fear or favour. Zambia can do the same. Cast aside the politics. Chigunta served Zambia very well under President Banda.

Obama is not afraid of intellectuals even those who criticize him because he is aware that the majority of the intellectual critics are doing it out of patriotism and not hatred, they do it in the public interest and for the common good of America. Obama has created a great number of think tank teams composed of intellectuals comprised of democratic, republican and independent leaning intellectuals to help him resolve specific problems or address targeted issues. He sometimes addresses the nation based on the composite of what his intellectual think tanks have advised him.

Within Africa, the leading countries that are not afraid of their intellectuals and utilize them within their own countries and also send them abroad to represent their countries in international institutions like the International Criminal Court, WIPO, UN, AU, IMF, World Bank, etc are Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia and Egypt. Zambia is a desert in international institutions. Zambian intellectuals abroad are mostly on their own teaching or practising medicine, un consulted or un recruited by their own government.

The few that are based in Zambia are not garnered into think tanks to help government think through some of the most challenging issues of the day. Politics intervenes even when specific intellectuals are patriotic and they criticize for the benefit of the public good.

Zambia had been grappling with constitutional reforms and the reforms of the legal and justice sectors, yet we have Zambian intellectuals abroad like Professors Muna Ndulo, Michelo Hansungule, Kenneth Mwenda, Charles Mwewa and others. Since Zambia has a very small intellectual class whether inside or outside the country, these people are all known and can easily be reachable to consult or appoint for the resolution of Zambia’s common problems.

After all Zambia spent money to educate some  of these intellectuals. Some of my close friends abroad from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Jamaica and so on received letters or phone calls appointing them to various Ambassadorial, ministerial or international institutional positions while I was with them. Their countries are better for it.

Professor Chigunta served his country very well when he was called upon to and no one ever accused him of being unpatriotic despite his contrary and pointed criticism of some economic trajectories of the government. The Rupiah Banda government was served very well by this son of Zambia. He will be solely missed. Time is short and we must use all our resources especially intellectual resources and wisdom very well.

Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa practised law in Canada for 25 years and now teaches law at the school of law, Zambian Open University.

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