A TRIBUTE BY HIS EXCELLENCY DR LAZARUS MCCARTHY CHAKWERA PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI 🇲🇼
TO
HIS EXCELLENCY DR. KENNETH DAVID KAUNDA
FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA 🇿🇲
AT THE STATE FUNERAL IN LUSAKA, ZAMBIA
FRIDAY, 2ND JULY 2021
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are gathered here to inter the last of Africa’s liberation giants. But make no mistake: the interment of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda will not merely be the burial of a lifeless body, but the planting of a vibrant seed. The burial of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda will be the planting of Africa’s finest seed into Africa’s finest soil.
From our planting of this seed, let us harvest a new Pan-African generation with the passion for the ideals Dr. Kaunda embodied. From our planting of this seed, let us harvest a new Pan-African generation with the vision for African governments free of corruption and oppression.
From our planting of this seed, let us harvest a new Pan-African generation with the vision for borders that feel open, not closed. From our planting of this seed, let us harvest a new Pan-African generation with the energy to trade goods between Africans and Africans. From our planting of this seed, let us harvest a new Pan-African generation with the resolve to build roads and rail connecting Cairo to Cape-Town and Dakar to Djibouti.
The harvest of a new Pan-African generation is Dr. Kaunda’s lasting legacy. A new Pan-African generation is what Dr. Kaunda sought to build.
When Dr. Kaunda took young patriots from across the continent under his wing, he was building that
generation. When Dr. Kaunda continued working for the good of his nation after losing his citizenship, he was building that generation. When Dr. Kaunda fought for the liberation of other colonized Africans as much as he fought for Zambia, he was building that generation.
When Dr. Kaunda fought for Malawi to be included in the SADC bloc against much opposition, he was building that generation. When Dr. Kaunda called me on the phone last July in the days following my election as President of Malawi to encourage me, calling me “young man”, he was building that generation.
Now that he has left us, we must embody the ideals of this giant. We must become a fortress that protects Africa from those who seek to exploit and divide her from within and without. We must walk together with one heart as he taught us, build one Africa as he showed us, and sing one vision as he did. We must make sure that the initials KK become on our lips a battle ery that terrifies all enemies of Africa’s prosperity and peace.
Though we weep at his passing, the tears we shed today will water the soil beneath us until this seed we are planting today becomes a harvest of hope within us. Though we lay Dr. Kaunda to rest, we will never give his Pan-African dream any rest.
My condolences to all of you. Pepani. Pepani. Pepani.
