Life

Born near Choma

Choma

Choma is a market town in the Southern Province of Zambia, lying on the main road and railway from Lusaka to Livingstone. It is home to a small museum dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Tonga people of southern Zambia. The population of Choma is said to be about 40,000 people and it...

, Mwaanga studied political science and international relations in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. In October 1964 he became Zambia's first diplomat, as deputy high commissioner in 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...

. He was ambassador to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 in 1965, before returning to Zambia for two years, handling negotiations with Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

 as the president's permanent secretary. From 1966 to January 1972 Mwangaa was ambassador to the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

. In 1972 he was appointed editor of the Times of Zambia

Times of Zambia

The Times of Zambia is a national daily newspaper published in Zambia.During the colonial period this newspaper was known as The Northern News. It was founded in 1944 as a twice-weekly newspaper aimed at a European readership, owned first by Roy Welensky and then by the South African newspaper...

. From 1973 to 1975 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1976 he left politics for the private sector. In 1980 he became chairman of the new Zambian subsidiary of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International

Bank of Credit and Commerce International

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. Within a decade BCCI touched its peak...

. As chairman of the Zambia Industrial and Commercial Association (ZINCOM), a consortium of entrepreneurs, he published criticisms of the government. Arrested on charges involving the alleged smuggling of Mandrax in 1985, he resigned the chairmanship of BCCI-Zambia, although the charges were never proven and he was released without trial in April 1986.

Mwaanga was a founding member of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, and after the party's victory in the 1991 elections

Zambian general election, 1991

General elections were held in Zambia on 31 October 1991 to elect a President and National Assembly. They were the first multi-party elections since 1968, and saw the ruling United National Independence Party comprehensively beaten by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, whose candidate,...

 served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 1994. He was Minister of Information from 1999 to 2002. After the 2006 elections

Zambian general election, 2006

General elections were held in Zambia on 28 September 2006 to elect a President and National Assembly. The result was a victory for the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, which won 75 of the 150 National Assembly seats and whose candidate, Levy Mwanawasa, won the presidential vote...

 he was reinstated as Minister of Information until his resignation in April 2007 over video footage showing him supporting breach-of-contract claims being made by a Congolese

Congolese

Congoese may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to the Republic of the Congo in Africa, located west of the Congo River* Something of, from, or related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, through which the Congo River flows...

governor against the Zambian government.