Happy Women’s History Month!

I want to highlight and celebrate female authors from Zambia, some I have recently read and others are on my list of books to read. I also recently learnt that Susan Chitabanta was the first Zambian female fiction writer to be published by the Kenneth Kaunda Foundation (KKF) in 1988. The KKF was founded in 1966, two years after Zambia gained it’s independence. It focused on publishing literature both educational and non-educational, to help contribute to the intellectual literature foundation of a newly independent Zambia, trying to detach from the colonial narratives. ‘Behind the Closed Doors’ was Chitabanta’s work that was published in 1988. I however could not find any photo of Susan Chitabanta available on the internet.

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is a Zambian author I discovered by actively searching for work by Zambian authors. I was pleased to find that my local library had her book ‘Obligations to the Wounded’ physical copy available and ‘Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies’ available on Ebook. Her other notable work is ‘The Mourning Bird’.

Iris Mwanza’s debut novel was a book that had me researching the time it is set in, 1990 Zambia, just before the first multi-party elections. I had numerous conversations with my parents about this time. It made me critically think about Zambian history I had learnt in school but did not fully digest. Like the fact that after independence, Zambia did not have a university and many Zambians were not educated (in the western normative way of education). Reason why so many Zambians in that time travelled abroad for university. Additionally, Kenneth Kaunda’s first cabinet had an Irish Lawyer, James J. Skinner, serving as the Minister of Justice., because many did not have the qualifications need for cabinet positions. The colonial rulers were not interested in building us universities. The first university in Zambia was established in 1965, The University of Zambia, and it took a collective effort of Zambians to fund its construction. My parents told me some Zambians even contributed chickens because that is what they had to give and they wanted to support the establishment of the first university in any way they could. The second university was not established until 1987, Copperbelt University.

Namwali Serpell

Ellen Banda-Aaku

Sources:

https://journals.unza.zm/index.php/JLSS/article/download/789/656/

https://irismwanza.com/about

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/author/ellen-bandaaaku/

https://www.namwaliserpell.com/about

https://www.mubangakalimamukwento.com/about

https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/292762/ellen-banda-aaku

https://nkwazimagazine.com/celebrating-zambias-woman-fiction-writers/

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