Defamation of the president, racial nationalism, and the Roy Clarke affair in Zambia

In January 2004, residents of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, were treated to a disturbing sight. Over 200 members of the governing Movement for Multiparty Democracy party marched through the streets of the capital carrying a mock coffin bearing the name of Roy Clarke, a prominent newspaper satirist and white British national who had been a permanent resident in the country since the early 1960s. The protesters accused Clarke of insulting and defaming President Levy Mwanawasa in his previous column and demanded his immediate deportation. The Minister of Home Affairs obliged, but the satirist successfully challenged his deportation in Zambia’s courts. Drawing from newspaper sources, court documents, and interviews with key informants, this article shows that these protests were anything but a spontaneous demonstration of public outrage. Instead, they had been carefully orchestrated by Mwanawasa and his close allies to bolster Mwanawasa’s beleaguered presidency. The article argues that deportation orders and racial nationalism against racial minorities are strategies adopted by political elites during periods of weakness, even when these ideas have little or no popular support. More broadly, we argue that the status of racial minorities and other foreigners in Zambia is often provisional, depending on political considerations

âI am Zambiaâs redeemerâ: populism and the rise of Michael Sata, 1955-2011

This thesis explores the broad continuities in the strategies that individual leaders in Africa have employed to mobilise political support across different historical periods and party systems, from the late colonial to the post-colonial era, and from single-party to multiparty systems. It examines this question through a historical biography of Michael Sata, a political leader in Zambia whose life and career, like those of several other Zambian individual politicians, cut across the main divides in the countryâs political history: the late-colonial period (1953-1964), the one-party state (1973-1991) and the era of multiparty democracy (since 1991). Sata's experiences also span a number of political organisations such as the United National Independence Party (from the early 1960s to 1991), the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (1991-2001) and the Patriotic Front (2001-2011). I argue that Sata employed several political strategies such as populism, clientelism, ethnic appeals and coalition building to mobilise support across these historical epochs and party institutions. The existing literature on Zambian political change has largely focused on ethnicity, which has taken attention away from the fact that most ethnic politics has had, as this thesis demonstrates, a populist component. More broadly, what this study demonstrates is the utility of historical biography in understanding political change. Examining the life of an individual whose experiences cut across supposed turning points and disruptions, or the institutions that have come and gone with them, captures not only change but continuities too, which are generally missing in many accounts of political life in Africa, and consequently allows us to gain new and unique insights.</p

‘I am Zambia’s redeemer’: populism and the rise of Michael Sata, 1955-2011

This thesis explores the broad continuities in the strategies that individual leaders in Africa have employed to mobilise political support across different historical periods and party systems, from the late colonial to the post-colonial era, and from single-party to multiparty systems. It examines this question through a historical biography of Michael Sata, a political leader in Zambia whose life and career, like those of several other Zambian individual politicians, cut across the main divides in the country’s political history: the late-colonial period (1953-1964), the one-party state (1973-1991) and the era of multiparty democracy (since 1991). Sata's experiences also span a number of political organisations such as the United National Independence Party (from the early 1960s to 1991), the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (1991-2001) and the Patriotic Front (2001-2011). I argue that Sata employed several political strategies such as populism, clientelism, ethnic appeals and coalition building to mobilise support across these historical epochs and party institutions. The existing literature on Zambian political change has largely focused on ethnicity, which has taken attention away from the fact that most ethnic politics has had, as this thesis demonstrates, a populist component. More broadly, what this study demonstrates is the utility of historical biography in understanding political change. Examining the life of an individual whose experiences cut across supposed turning points and disruptions, or the institutions that have come and gone with them, captures not only change but continuities too, which are generally missing in many accounts of political life in Africa, and consequently allows us to gain new and unique insights.</p