Book Review - The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1963 to 1994, by Hugh MacMillan

Hugh MacMillan’s comprehensive study of the African National Congress’ (ANC) time in exile in Zambia fills a much-needed gap in the region’s historiography of liberation movements. It also complements the author’s previous work on the ANC’s presence at the University of Zambia

Book Review - The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1963 to 1994, by Hugh MacMillan

Hugh MacMillan’s comprehensive study of the African National Congress’ (ANC) time in exile in Zambia fills a much-needed gap in the region’s historiography of liberation movements. It also complements the author’s previous work on the ANC’s presence at the University of Zambia

‘A Western Missionary Cooked in an African Pot’: Religion, Gender and History in Zambia – Essays in Honour of Father Hugo F. Hinfelaar

The concept of ‘Cooked in African Pot’ is inspired by Klaus Fiedler, Paul Gundani and Hilary Mijoga (1998) who argued that clay pots represent African cosmic views, traditions, anthropology and epistemology. It is these ingredients that would form and sharpen Father Hugo Hinfelaar’s reinterpretation of Christian faith for Zambia. And it is this inspiring and honourable work and legacy that necessitated these two special issues dedicated to one of the distinguished missionary scholars of religion in Zambia. In what follows, we argue that Hinfelaar dedicated himself to what could be described as a soul search to deconstruct and recapture Christianity for the Zambian people on the margins

Introduction: The Life and Legacies of Kenneth Kaunda in Southern Africa

Zambia’s first President, Kenneth Kaunda (known widely as KK), passed away on 17 June 2021 at the age of 97. This marked the end of an era for many, and not only in Zambia. Kaunda belonged to the last of a generation of African leaders who fought for independence from colonial rule and had his own brand of political and economic philosophies (Cheeseman and Sishuwa, 2021). Given the momentous occasion of the passing of one of Africa’s biggest icons, as editors we felt it was timely to organise a conference dedicated to Kaunda and his legacy, which took place in Lusaka in November 2021. This special issue features papers presented at this conference

Homosexuality, politics and Pentecostal nationalism in Zambia

Building upon debates about the politics of nationalism and sexuality in post-colonial Africa, this article highlights the role of religion in shaping nationalist ideologies that seek to regulate homosexuality. It specifically focuses on Pentecostal Christianity in Zambia, where the constitutional declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation has given rise to a form of ‘Pentecostal nationalism’ in which homosexuality is considered to be a threat to the purity of the nation and is associated with the Devil. The article offers an analysis of recent Zambian public debates about homosexuality, focusing on the ways in which the ‘Christian nation’ argument is deployed, primarily in a discourse of anti-homonationalism, but also by a few recent dissident voices. The latter prevent Zambia, and Christianity, from accruing a monolithic depiction as homophobic. Showing that the Zambian case presents a mobilisation against homosexuality that is profoundly shaped by the local configuration in which Christianity defines national identity – and in which Pentecostal-Christian moral concerns and theo-political imaginations shape public debates and politics – the article nuances arguments that explain African controversies regarding homosexuality in terms of exported American culture wars, proposing an alternative reading of these controversies as emerging from conflicting visions of modernity in Africa

Gay Rights, the Devil and the End Times: Public Religion and the Enchantment of the Homosexuality Debate in Zambia

This article contributes to the understanding of the role of religion in the public and political controversies about homosexuality in Africa. As a case study it investigates the heated public debate in Zambia following a February 2012 visit by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who emphasised the need for the country to recognise the human rights of homosexuals. The focus is on a particular Christian discourse in this debate, in which the international pressure to recognise gay rights is considered a sign of the end times, and Ban Ki-moon, the UN and other international organisations are associated with the Antichrist and the Devil. Here, the debate about homosexuality becomes eschatologically enchanted through millennialist thought. Building on discussions about public religion and religion and politics in Africa, this article avoids popular explanations in terms of fundamentalist religion and African homophobia, but rather highlights the political significance of this discourse in a postcolonial African context