Mainza Chona
Encyclopedia
Mainza Mathias Chona served as Prime Minister
of Zambia
on two occasions: 25 August 1973 to 27 May 1975 and 20 July 1977 to 15 June 1978. He also held various government positions, including Justice Minister (1964–1968), Home Affairs Minister (1968–1969) and Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney-General (1975–1978). He was Secretary-General of the United National Independence Party
(UNIP) from 1978 to 1981 and Zambia's ambassador to the People's Republic of China
from 1984 to 1989.
(which later became Zambia
). His father was Hameja Chilala (also known as Chief Chona). His mother, Nhandu (Chinyama), was one of his father's five wives.
Chona received his primary education at Chona out-school in Nampeyo (established by the Jesuit mission at his father's request), and at Chikuni (the Jesuit headquarters). It was at Chikuni that Chona converted to Catholicism
. He completed his secondary education at Munali Secondary School in Lusaka in 1951 and then worked as an interpreter at the High Court in Livingstone. However, his ambition was to become a lawyer.
In pursuit of his goal, Chona secured a scholarship that took him to London
in 1955, where he studied at Gray's Inn
. He was called to the bar in 1958. While in England, he met other African nationalists, including Harry Nkumbula
and Kenneth Kaunda
. He also made contact with London-based White supporters of the nationalist cause, such as Simon Zukas and Doris Lessing
. This was also when he adopted the name Mathias Mainza Chona by deed poll
.
. Eventually Kaunda broke from the ANC in October 1958 and formed the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC), with Nkumbula remaining as leader of the ANC. Chona had been a member of ANC while in London and he had not made a choice between the two factions. Due to ZANC's militancy and its unwillingness to compromise on the issue of "independence now", Kaunda and other leaders of the new party were detained by the CAF authorities, and ZANC was banned in March 1959. Chona decided to take active part in the operations of the still-legal ANC, but his challenge to Nkumbula's cautious leadership of the party resulted in a further split.
Chona and other nationalists broke away from the ANC and, in October 1959, Chona became the first president of the United National Independence Party
(UNIP), the successor to ZANC. However, he did not see himself as the party's main founder and he stepped down when Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960. As Kaunda's loyal lieutenant, Chona was elected deputy president of UNIP, but he had to leave Northern Rhodesia to avoid a charge of sedition
brought by the increasingly rattled CAF authorities. He remained in London as UNIP's overseas representative for more than a year. He also served as a UNIP delegate to the Federal Review Conference in London in December 1960 and returned home in February 1961.
In June 1961, Chona was elected National Secretary of UNIP and he remained in that post for eight years. He was instrumental in securing the short-lived coalition between UNIP and the ANC in January 1963. In January 1964, Kaunda formed Northern Rhodesia's first Black cabinet, and gave Chona the post of Minister of Justice in UNIP's pre-independence government.
, Kaunda gave Chona the post of Minister of Home Affairs. Between 1966 and 1969, Chona held no less than five different ministerial appointments, including minister without portfolio. He was sent to the United States as ambassador in 1969. In November 1970, he was returned to Zambia and appointed as the country's Vice-President.
Chona's lasting contribution to Zambia's constitutional development was the famous Chona Commission, which was set up under his chairmanship in February 1972 to make recommendations for the constitution of a 'one-party participatory democracy' (i.e. a one-party state). The Commission's terms of reference did not permit it to discuss the pros and cons of Kaunda's decision. The sole surviving opposition party, the ANC, boycotted the Commission and unsuccessfully challenged the constitutional change in the courts. The Chona report was based on four months of public hearings and was submitted in October 1972. It was widely regarded as a 'liberal' document.
's one-party system. The constitution asserted the supremacy of the single party (UNIP), but did not include the Commission's more liberal recommendations, such as placing limits on detention without trial, restricting the President to serve only two five-year terms, and sharing the President's executive powers with a Prime Minister. The liberal recommendations would also have required electoral competition for the post of President, and prevented him from vetoing parliamentary candidates. Although many of the report's recommendations were ignored, it had a lasting influence: it was cited during the debate on the return to multi-party democracy in 1990–91, and again during the campaign to stop President Frederick Chiluba
running for a third term in 2001.
From 1973 to 1975, Chona was given the position of Prime Minister, a new post that was clearly subordinate to that of President. He served for a second time from 1977 to 1978, after a spell as Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney-General. Kaunda appointed Chona as Secretary-General of UNIP in 1978 and he remained in that position, which ranked second to that of President, until February 1981. Up to the end of the UNIP era Chona and Kaunda remained close associates
and returned to private legal practice. In 1984, finally, he agreed to go to Beijing
and spent five years there in a period of exile. He wanted to return to Zambia at the end of his term in China, but Kaunda transferred him to Paris, where he served as ambassador for a further three years, from 1989 to 1992. When he was eventually allowed to return to Zambia, he again entered private legal practice. He was associated, as a lawyer, with the Oasis Forum which successfully opposed Chiluba's attempt to run for a third term as president.
Chona was widely respected in Zambia as a good administrator and as Kaunda's loyal lieutenant. He contributed immensely to the organization of UNIP and to Zambia's struggle for independence. Although his role in the establishment a one-party state in Zambia was controversial, he shrewdly produced a report on the subject that, in some respects, stood the test of time. He seemed to lack personal ambition and did not enrich himself through political office. His deep interest in Tonga culture, language and history led him to make a small contribution to Tonga literature: his Chitonga novel, Kabuca Uleta Tunji, was awarded the Margaret Wrong medal in 1956. His daughter Elizabeth Muyovwe was a judge of the High Court of Zambia and his brother Mark Chona also played a prominent part in Zambia's political and public life.
While undergoing dialysis at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg
, South Africa
, Mainza Chona died on 11 December 2001. He was buried on 16 December in Monze, Zambia.
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
of Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
on two occasions: 25 August 1973 to 27 May 1975 and 20 July 1977 to 15 June 1978. He also held various government positions, including Justice Minister (1964–1968), Home Affairs Minister (1968–1969) and Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney-General (1975–1978). He was Secretary-General of the United National Independence Party
United National Independence Party
The United National Independence Party is a political party in Zambia. It governed that country from 1964 to 1991 under the presidency of Kenneth Kaunda....
(UNIP) from 1978 to 1981 and Zambia's ambassador to the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
from 1984 to 1989.
Early life and education background
Mainza Mathias Chona was born Sikaye Chingula Namukamba on 21 January 1930 at Nampeyo, near Monze in the Southern Province of the British colony of Northern RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
(which later became Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
). His father was Hameja Chilala (also known as Chief Chona). His mother, Nhandu (Chinyama), was one of his father's five wives.
Chona received his primary education at Chona out-school in Nampeyo (established by the Jesuit mission at his father's request), and at Chikuni (the Jesuit headquarters). It was at Chikuni that Chona converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
. He completed his secondary education at Munali Secondary School in Lusaka in 1951 and then worked as an interpreter at the High Court in Livingstone. However, his ambition was to become a lawyer.
In pursuit of his goal, Chona secured a scholarship that took him to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1955, where he studied at Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
. He was called to the bar in 1958. While in England, he met other African nationalists, including Harry Nkumbula
Harry Nkumbula
Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula was a Northern Rhodesian/Zambian nationalist leader who assisted in the struggle for the independence of Northern Rhodesia from British colonialism. He was born in the village of Maala in the Namwala district of Zambia's southern province...
and Kenneth Kaunda
Kenneth Kaunda
Kenneth David Kaunda, known as KK, served as the first President of Zambia, from 1964 to 1991.-Early life:Kaunda was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia...
. He also made contact with London-based White supporters of the nationalist cause, such as Simon Zukas and Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
. This was also when he adopted the name Mathias Mainza Chona by deed poll
Deed poll
A deed poll is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention...
.
Independence struggle
Chona returned to Northern Rhodesia in December 1958. During his absence from Northern Rhodesia, politics had moved forward on several fronts. The White-dominated Central African Federation (CAF) had been established on 1 August 1953, in spite of feeble opposition from the Black population through the African National Congress (ANC), led by Nkumbula and Kaunda. The two leaders drifted apart as Nkumbula became increasingly influenced by White liberals and was seen as being willing to compromise on the issue of Black majority ruleMajority rule
Majority rule is a decision rule that selects alternatives which have a majority, that is, more than half the votes. It is the binary decision rule used most often in influential decision-making bodies, including the legislatures of democratic nations...
. Eventually Kaunda broke from the ANC in October 1958 and formed the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC), with Nkumbula remaining as leader of the ANC. Chona had been a member of ANC while in London and he had not made a choice between the two factions. Due to ZANC's militancy and its unwillingness to compromise on the issue of "independence now", Kaunda and other leaders of the new party were detained by the CAF authorities, and ZANC was banned in March 1959. Chona decided to take active part in the operations of the still-legal ANC, but his challenge to Nkumbula's cautious leadership of the party resulted in a further split.
Chona and other nationalists broke away from the ANC and, in October 1959, Chona became the first president of the United National Independence Party
United National Independence Party
The United National Independence Party is a political party in Zambia. It governed that country from 1964 to 1991 under the presidency of Kenneth Kaunda....
(UNIP), the successor to ZANC. However, he did not see himself as the party's main founder and he stepped down when Kaunda was released from prison in January 1960. As Kaunda's loyal lieutenant, Chona was elected deputy president of UNIP, but he had to leave Northern Rhodesia to avoid a charge of sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
brought by the increasingly rattled CAF authorities. He remained in London as UNIP's overseas representative for more than a year. He also served as a UNIP delegate to the Federal Review Conference in London in December 1960 and returned home in February 1961.
In June 1961, Chona was elected National Secretary of UNIP and he remained in that post for eight years. He was instrumental in securing the short-lived coalition between UNIP and the ANC in January 1963. In January 1964, Kaunda formed Northern Rhodesia's first Black cabinet, and gave Chona the post of Minister of Justice in UNIP's pre-independence government.
After independence
At independence in October 1964Zambia Independence Act 1964
The Zambia Independence Act 1964 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which granted independence to Zambia with effect from 24 October 1964...
, Kaunda gave Chona the post of Minister of Home Affairs. Between 1966 and 1969, Chona held no less than five different ministerial appointments, including minister without portfolio. He was sent to the United States as ambassador in 1969. In November 1970, he was returned to Zambia and appointed as the country's Vice-President.
Chona's lasting contribution to Zambia's constitutional development was the famous Chona Commission, which was set up under his chairmanship in February 1972 to make recommendations for the constitution of a 'one-party participatory democracy' (i.e. a one-party state). The Commission's terms of reference did not permit it to discuss the pros and cons of Kaunda's decision. The sole surviving opposition party, the ANC, boycotted the Commission and unsuccessfully challenged the constitutional change in the courts. The Chona report was based on four months of public hearings and was submitted in October 1972. It was widely regarded as a 'liberal' document.
The Second Republic
Although the Second Republic was inaugurated in December 1972, the National Assembly did not approve the new constitution until August 1973. The document was modelled on the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's one-party system. The constitution asserted the supremacy of the single party (UNIP), but did not include the Commission's more liberal recommendations, such as placing limits on detention without trial, restricting the President to serve only two five-year terms, and sharing the President's executive powers with a Prime Minister. The liberal recommendations would also have required electoral competition for the post of President, and prevented him from vetoing parliamentary candidates. Although many of the report's recommendations were ignored, it had a lasting influence: it was cited during the debate on the return to multi-party democracy in 1990–91, and again during the campaign to stop President Frederick Chiluba
Frederick Chiluba
Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba was a Zambian politician who was the second President of Zambia from 1991 to 2002. Chiluba, a trade union leader, won the country's multi-party presidential election in 1991 as the candidate of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy , defeating long-time President...
running for a third term in 2001.
From 1973 to 1975, Chona was given the position of Prime Minister, a new post that was clearly subordinate to that of President. He served for a second time from 1977 to 1978, after a spell as Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney-General. Kaunda appointed Chona as Secretary-General of UNIP in 1978 and he remained in that position, which ranked second to that of President, until February 1981. Up to the end of the UNIP era Chona and Kaunda remained close associates
"Into the Cold" of exile
After he was removed from UNIP's Central Committee, Chona refused an appointment as ambassador to ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and returned to private legal practice. In 1984, finally, he agreed to go to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and spent five years there in a period of exile. He wanted to return to Zambia at the end of his term in China, but Kaunda transferred him to Paris, where he served as ambassador for a further three years, from 1989 to 1992. When he was eventually allowed to return to Zambia, he again entered private legal practice. He was associated, as a lawyer, with the Oasis Forum which successfully opposed Chiluba's attempt to run for a third term as president.
Chona was widely respected in Zambia as a good administrator and as Kaunda's loyal lieutenant. He contributed immensely to the organization of UNIP and to Zambia's struggle for independence. Although his role in the establishment a one-party state in Zambia was controversial, he shrewdly produced a report on the subject that, in some respects, stood the test of time. He seemed to lack personal ambition and did not enrich himself through political office. His deep interest in Tonga culture, language and history led him to make a small contribution to Tonga literature: his Chitonga novel, Kabuca Uleta Tunji, was awarded the Margaret Wrong medal in 1956. His daughter Elizabeth Muyovwe was a judge of the High Court of Zambia and his brother Mark Chona also played a prominent part in Zambia's political and public life.
While undergoing dialysis at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Mainza Chona died on 11 December 2001. He was buried on 16 December in Monze, Zambia.