Former Vice President Guy Scott has written an autobiography that chronicles his life in Zambian politics.
His wife Charlotte announced on Twitter that Dr Scott’s book titled Adventures in Zambian Politics is out and will be shipped to Zambia later this year.
A public launch for the book published by Lynne Rienner Publishers of the USA is planned for some time this year.
Dr Scott was acting president of Zambia after the death of President Michael Sata.
Prior to that he was vice president from 2011 to 2014 and has also served as Minister of Agriculture and leader of the opposition leader in Parliament.
The autobiography has described as a riveting account of Zambian political and economic developments from independence to today’s Chinese dependence, by a major protagonist—the man who saved the country from famine as minister of agriculture, fought poverty and inequality and kwacha overvaluation, former MP for Lusaka Central, the first white vice president, and briefly president of the country, this is according to Professor Domenico M. Nuti of Sapienza University of Rome.
The foreword is written by Miles Larmer, a Professor of African History and Fellow of St Anthony’s College who wrote that Adventures in Zambian Politics is unlike any political memoir you have ever read.
“It is … A political history of Zambia from colonial times to the present. A revealing insider account of politics and government within a modern African state. A story about race in Africa. A chronicle of the rise and fall of two improbable political allies who wanted to change Zambian politics: Michael Sata, whose convoluted political career led him to become president in 2011, and Guy Scott, Sata’s vice president and, after Sata’s death, acting president of Zambia. Not least, it is a pleasure to read. Guy Scott’s absorbing narrative of his career and Michael Sata’s in the chaotic world of African politics tells a uniquely Zambian story. But it is also a special contribution to our understanding of democracy and democratization across Africa,” Prof. Larmer wrote.
Some interesting chapters in the book include The Plucky Little Devil, Northern Rhodesians, Sounds in the Forest, Young Michael Heads For Town, The First Wind, Chimwela: The Second Wind, The Reign of King Fred and Elements of Fudge.
Other chapters are X Years in the Wilderness, Y Days in Jail, Inside Looking Out, Daily Business, Double Dutch Syndrome, Chinese Whispers, Good Neighborliness and The Not-So-Rough Guide including a chapter titled Slow Death.
There is also a short Epilogue called A Quick Presidency, and After where Dr Scott talks about his stay as Acting President and the succession plan in the PF that followed the death of President Sata.
“Upon Michael’s death, the Zambian Constitution elevated me to the job of acting president. Contrary to some poor reporting and mud-stirring, there were no two ways about it. There was some political waffle to the effect that the Constitution was being wrongly interpreted, but not a single legal authority without political interests took that position, and neither did the chiefs of the security forces. So now I became the only white president in sub-Saharan Africa, though without much real power to counter the disorderly scrapping for succession that immediately broke out. This short-lived promotion provided the Economist with one of its more amusing punning headlines: “White Man, Burdened” (4 October 2014). Indeed, there was another brief media feeding frenzy about me, but after a couple of gaffs, subsequent severe reprimand from Charlotte, and some timely, firm advice from her sister Stephanie, I cut off communication with most of the international press. With tensions so high, trouble could easily arise from sensational and inaccurate reporting intended to amuse foreign readers—but it was potential dynamite when recycled into Zambian discourse, most especially by word of mouth and via social media. The Constitution required that I act for no more than ninety days, within which an election was to be held to replace the dead president through the ballot,” Dr Scott writes in one of the chapters.
Stephen Bush, special correspondent for the New Statesman says the autobiography is a part memoir, part history and is free of the robotic and unreflective tics that often haunt political biographies.
“It feels more like having a chat over a drink—if that chat ranged from political meetings in jail to the heart of Zambian government to the role of China’s investment in Africa, with economics and a dash of literature thrown in,” he wrote.
“A remarkably frank insider’s account of a unique political partnership. . .. Guy Scott’s themes range from derring-do on the campaign trail, to Keynesian economics, bare-knuckles backstage maneuvering, the blight of AIDS, and the complex web of forces that conspire against reform in his native Zambia and many other parts of Africa.”—Alan Cowell, former foreign correspondent, New York Times, and author of Killing the Wizards
“Engrossing, entertaining, and packed with insights, wisdom and a dash of humour. . .. This book deserves to become an African classic.”—Michael Holman, former Africa editor, Financial Times.
A self indulgent, white fairytale by a left over colonialist belittling the honour bestowed on him ! Fantasy.
Simply put, in the absence of any real honour via the election selection party machine his narrative has taken on the time honoured white storytelling on Africa. He has something…..well… begrudgingly …..akin to fact, but I think his wife and sister did not use the rolling pin much to prevent this racist white from milking Zambian hospitality.
Unfortunately Guy Scott is a grubby white man, you are loath to hate(there, I said something nice about him). His innate tendency to craftly get away with racism is stomach churning. It’ll come out the same A Good Man In Africa; all about daft Africans and Wiley Whites, I’m afraid. You can abolish slavery, Colonialism but you can’t take the man out if it.
Patriot you have let your racism bare its ugly head in your retort. Read the book first, do not hate the man hate or love based on fact nothing else
Oh……..it’s election fever time, he’ll want to take a pop at enemy number one, His Excellency Presiden Lungu. Bitterness is not a good premise to good storytelling. By the way I DO like Guy Scott in case you can’t tell.????. Droll face.
@Hakaiinde, I write the truth about him. He has singlehandedly put Zambia through unnecessary trails and tribulations. There can be no excuse for the way he treated His Excellency President Lungu and it’s not erasable. It’s also the self agrandisment. I’d read any of his books based on his real talent. Artificial Intelligence or general commentary of the African landscape. When it comes to Scott, I am never impartial, he commands that you are either on or off side with him but I DO LIKE HIM!
Guy Scott is one of the most patriotic zambians i know. A lot more patriotic than alot of other politicians whose primary aim is to enrich themselves. He was a worthy deputy to Michael Sata They shared similar values and an ubshakable love for the nation and a concern for the poor.
Hats off to the man. He has his own failings, but his devotion to zambia is unquestionable.
Is this the man who went to bed with King Fred at some time and was called KALAKI! Did he not call our President Circle Mata! Muzungu Opusa uyu!
That’s my Zambian president…
Just reading that give me goose bumps, sansentional!!!
Can’t wait to buy hard copy, not Kindle book.
How I wish Guy Scott was elected as our president!!!
Zambia would have been a a totally different place.
Our children would have not known what corruption is.
I cry for my beloved Zambia.
I love Guy Scott! Is the book available on Amazon?
Patriot Abroad. You’re not fair in your comments. You, yourself are in a Whiteman’ land enjoying. Probably you decided to leave Zambia to look for better life for yourself and family. We have Blackman, Whiteman, Asians who are good and bad everywhere. You could not be in the UK if you have hate for the Whiteman.
“Saved the country from hunger”, but Guy Scott along with the entire Chiluba admin are the one who did away with cooperatives and Namboard hence destroying agriculture that led to the same threat of hunger we had in 1993 and the subsequent importation of Genetically Modified Yellow maize from South America.
This book puts Africans where they belong, nicompoofs!
@See. You are on the wrong track. My comments are on the book reviews narrative. I don’t dislike Scott, or ‘whites.’ Scott’s branding himself as first white president; and we know that period was traumatic.
My argument was about the rhetoric he has used as evidenced in the book review. It follows a pattern of colonial thinking and images Africans as starving, wrong, unintelligent needing white rescue. Brainwashed Blacks as those congratulating him and giving glowing praises is proof positive of the political divide and of the split African mind. Opposition Cadres have been besides themselves with glee and anticipation of the bonus flip their cause and campaign will benefit from this book. Opposition parties and Cadres are in favour of alliances even with someone who has used the…
bring it we read it
@edgar chibuta, may I recommend some prior reading of William Boyd’s books for a comparator of the African narrative in white written books. Read A good man in Africa, Next Boat from Douala, The Coup.
Here is an uncanny extract from A good man in Africa to whet your whistle; “Morgan Leafy is First Secretary to the British Deputy High Commission in Nkongsamba in the fictional West African country of Kinjanja. Leafy’s life is becoming increasingly problematic: he is being blackmailed by a local politician, his plan to fix the forthcoming elections has come unstuck, and a coup is looming. In his personal life he has contracted gonorrhea from Hazel, his black mistress who is cheating on him ………….!
(HH) once called him “Muzungu opusa”. Later the same Kaponya (HH) went back to his own vomit like a dog and started canvassing Lusaka with Guy Scott and his wife Charlotte Scott.
Desperate for votes Akainde can do anything including cohabiting with Chishimba Kambwili and GBM. You need to read Sunday Chanda’s “A Goat Drama: When Useful Idi*ots Dressed as Goats in Sheep Skin ‘Congregoat’ in a Comical Goat-Together!”
You are yet to understand what politics is all about. They will say things that suit them and never take them for granted. Today they will be calling each out and the other day they are dining while you are languishing. Besides people have a tendency of forgiving each other and it is not up to us to question or judge. Meanwhile waiting for the book so we can read as it concerns us anyway!
@edgar chibuta, may I recommend some prior reading of William Boyd’s books for a comparator of the African narrative in white written books. Read A good man in Africa, Next Boat from Douala, The Coup.
Here is an uncanny extract from A good man in Africa to whet your whistle; “Morgan Leafy is First Secretary to the British Deputy High Commission in Nkongsamba in the fictional West African country of Kinjanja. Leafy’s life is becoming increasingly problematic: he is being blackmailed by a local politician, his plan to fix the forthcoming elections has come unstuck, and a coup is looming. In his personal life he has contracted gonorrhea from Hazel, his black mistress who is cheating on him ………….!
I HOPE HE INCLUDED THE PART WHEN HE SLAUGHTERED HIS SWINE WANTING TO STEAL MONEY FROM THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE BUT THE LATE FTJ STOPPED THIS PLAN AS SCOTT HAD NOT INCLUDED CHILUBA IN THE LOOTING
“Who are you to judge the life I live?
Am not perfect and I don’t have to be!
Before you start pointing finger, make sure your hands are clean.”
Robert Nesta Marley
Guy Scott’s father fought alongside our founding fathers to liberate this nation from colonialists. Do you know that when Kaunda was released from prison in Harare (Salisbury then) it was Guy Scott’s father who picked him and drove him to Lusaka?
Guys please, it’s okay to criticise but avoid racism.
GUY SCOTT FOR PRESIDENT!
I wish Guy Scott was our president. Not just an acting president but a permanent president.
I wish he had become Zambia’s permanent president.
Guy Scott would be better than our current president Edgar Lungu.
I care nothing about race or color or ethnicity or heritage.
All I care about is the character and qualifications of the individual.
GUY SCOTT FOR PRESIDENT!
permanent president? Were you not challenging President Lungu ‘Coppe third term? Soooooo disturbing!
Would love to read it. I also note that this is a clear copy and paste because the way the article is written is way above the paygrade of LT journos!!
“The autobiography has described as a riveting account of Zambian political and economic developments from independence to today’s Chinese dependence, by a major protagonist—the man who saved the country from famine as minister of agriculture”
Well, well… it will definitely be a good read, no doubt but I beg to differ with the claim that he ‘saved the country from famine’!! How , when? He was just a cog in the government machinery that brought us yellow maize, not portraying him like a Tarzan. Besides, as Agric minister he was involved in the swine fever scandal, where pigs where slaughtered in the Lusaka area and farmers compensated, with himself being a large pig rearer at the time!
Looking forward to the book all the same, history needs to be documented.
Bernard Manning was a racist British comedian who challenged black Britons with his brand of racism,. There is a likeness with Scott except Manning was an honest man who said what he felt with no drapery. Scott, is very naughy and enjoys it but hides behind drapery. Bernard lived his truth without intellectualising it or covering it with kissing sick black babies to get approval. In that aspect he was a great honest man far better than Scott.
After all that, a good number of Zambians will always remember you as “muzungu o pusa”-chimuzungu cha oyo!!! He helped his friend build PF but did his best to destroy it after his friend died. Fortunately his friend chose a successor who Scott disapproved of. The rest is history….
I hope he included how he lamentably failed to sale a certain politician.
What a poor exit from politics
I look forward to buying and reading his book.His a good man and a Patriot.
Believing that Guy Scott is not a real Zambian because he is white is to also believe that
Barack Obama is not a real American because he is black.
Such thinking is absurd and stupid.
If you think that way you are a big fool and a very stupid person.
Guy Scott is a real Zambian just as Barack Obama is a real American.
Guy Scott has Zambian citizenship thus he is a real Zambian.
Barack Obama has American citizenship thus he is a real American.
Nobody in the United States of America says that Barack Obama is not a real American because he is black.
Guy Scott is a real Zambian!
Believing that Guy Scott is not a real Zambian because he is white is to also believe that
Barack Obama is not a real American because he is black.
Such thinking is absurd and stupid.
If you think that way you are a big fool and a very stupid person.
Guy Scott is a real Zambian just as Barack Obama is a real American.
Guy Scott has Zambian citizenship thus he is a real Zambian.
Barack Obama has American citizenship thus he is a real American.
Nobody in the United States of America says that Barack Obama is not a real American because he is black.
Misadventures in Zambian governance & 24/7 politicking- a future book by Edgar Lungu.
You may find some of the things Dr.Guy Scott has done in the past detestable, but the truth is that he is a genuine and patriotic Zambian born in Livingstone in 1944 and brought up in this country. His father, Dr. Alexander Scott was one of the few whites in Northern Rhodesia who sided with blacks during British colonial rule. In 1964, when other whites left Zambia in droves, the Scott family remained behind to contribute to Zambia’s development. In the early sixties, Dr. Alexander Scott founded a newspaper – the African Mail – that championed the cause of African liberation in Northern Rhodesia.
After independence the newspaper was taken over by Kaunda’s government and morphed into the Zambia Daily Mail which you see on the streets even now. Dr. Alexander Scott also had a farm in Lusaka in the northwestern part of Lusaka. Out of a sense of philanthropy, he gave part of it to his farm workers. The workers built houses there; this is how present day Lilanda Township was born. Dr. Alexander Scott died in the early 1960s and was buried at Alymer Cemetery in the Rhodes Park area of Lusaka.
Guy Scott was also among the founder members of the MMD. Love him or hate him, Guy Scott, will forever be etched in Zambia’s political history.
Thanks for that interesting piece of history. The Scotts have been real Patriots and not this thickheaded racist “Patriot” posting trash above.
Dr Scott is truly Zambian and l love him for his contribution to this day.Please respect him.
These foosql are really hypocrites,God forbid if it so happens that he dies. The same stupid people talking and focusing on the negatives, they will be the number ones opening their date mouths ati HE WAS A GOOD MAN. Let’s appreciate our Dr Scott now, much love for HIM. Come what or what,am buying the book and read it can’t wait.
Ssshhhhhhh…..now that all good Zambians and Cadres are fast asleep; I’m taking advantage of the 2 hour time difference to post a retort in time for their breakfast read.
My argument was about the rhetoric he has used as evidenced in the book review. It follows a pattern of colonial thinking and images Africans as starving, wrong, unintelligent needing white rescue. Brainwashed Blacks as those congratulating him and giving glowing praises is proof positive of the political divide and of the split African mind. Opposition Cadres have been besides themselves with glee and anticipation of the bonus flip their cause and campaign will benefit from this book. Opposition parties and Cadres are in favour of alliances even with someone who has used the ‘devil’ word to enhance himself.
Ultimately the book is causing the noise and attention Scott requires for a blockbuster. He is salivating as it transcends into ka..ching…at the cash desk. What’s not to like eh Mr Scott. Good marketing. As bad as the product is…..
Can some on Tell us How are sales on Magande’s book are going and if any one penned a review?
I hope Scott’s book contains Warts and All narrative on Michael Sata. He who started our trajectory into the current Morass. He who bequeathed us Lungu. I know his views on King Freddy are not all that flattering and he worshipped the ground MCS stepped on. But from the books cover, we are unlikely to see the dark side of MCS!!
Congratulations Guy Scott. That is the way to go… How I wish many would write books on their life experiences and store information for the subsequent generations to avoid the pitfalls of our precursors. Once again congrats ba Guy!
I hope he’s also mentioned how he slaughtered his pigs and got compensated by government.
ALL YOU AFRICANS WITH NO HEADS SHOULD STOP COMMENTING RUBBISH
Live abroad and then make that comment. We can not support our own people but we are quick to judge them. A white man , a Chinese, an Indian, an Arab can never condemn their own people no matter the mistakes they have made but a black man has no shame. Does it mean these other races do not make mistakes, live abroad and you will realize that even a sorry is hard to come out of their mouth especially when dealing with a black man. I am not surprised that Dr. Scott indirectly campaigned for HH when he held the Presidency for 3 months. Please do not praise him when you do not know the truth. Only God knows why he acted the way he did.
@Khumalo, excellent comment. Post colonial blacks have a low opinion of their capability because they have been brainwashed to think their solutions are not good. Africans have split minds, on one hand to deny themselves, note women Westernism by themselves wearing blonde wife and trying to copy western outer appearances. Also African opposition politics in Zambia is outward looking to rely on western support to take control of African countries. Those politicians then get western payouts, living the citizens in poverty as Colonialism continues indirectly. Look at Congo DR, all that wealth going to Western countries while they kill each others with weapons sold to their governments through such politicians. THIS BOOK and it’s timed release is to aid opposition. History and…
That’s supposed to be…..’note women Westernise themselves wearing blonde wigs and trying to copy western outer appearances.’
THIS BOOK and it’s timed release is to aid opposition. History and personal memoir together? Two books there. The opposition Cadres won’t vote you up on your comment here and act in little gangs upping their comments to give false skew to opinion in Zambia.
I miss Guy Scott and his short-lived presidency.
Sikote u’ve finally confirmed the ONLY thing I fathomed about MCS and u – the Cobra left Zambia in check-mate; he indeed believed in u and recognised the Zukas’, Sardanis’, Galaun’s, Patels etc by honouring u as a ZAMBIAN, no RACE about it…was Kalaki yo editor? Almost Tom Sharpe I’d say – shall read it all ! one question though – HOW COULD U ALLOW THAT PANGA-RAISING VOTE? U see the mess NOW? The misappropriation of yo Donchi kubeba? Charlotte’s seat is HISTORY despite a high court ruling? Enjoy yo retirement and good that we HAD yo sort – skol !! 😉
If your will was done Bwana Guy Lindsay Scott, today Miles Bwalya Sampa could have been President of this country