US Senator for California Kamala Harris who has been chosen by Joe Biden as his Democratic vice-presidential candidate lived in Lusaka, Zambia at some point in her early life.
She is a daughter of an Indian-born mother and a Jamaican-born father.
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan separated with her father, Donald Harris when Kamala Harris was five.
Raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, a cancer researcher and a civil rights activist, Kamala and her sister Maya, spent time in Zambia in the late 1960s.
Her grandfather, PV Gopalan, was a senior diplomat in the Indian government who lived in Zambia after it gained independence.
According to the Los Angelos Times, Kamala was five years when she lived in Zambia.
The Indian government had dispatched P.V. Gopalan to help Zambia manage an influx of refugees from Rhodesia — the former name of Zimbabwe — which had just declared independence from Britain.
It was the capstone of a four-decade career that began when Gopalan joined government service fresh out of college in the 1930s, in the final years of British rule in India.
It was also the start of a relationship that would define Harris’ life. Until his death in 1998, Gopalan remained from thousands of miles away a pen pal and guiding influence — accomplished, civic-minded, doting, playful — who helped kindle Harris’ interest in public service.
“My grandfather was really one of my favorite people in my world,” Harris, said in a recent interview.
She was 19, the eldest of their four children, and had never set foot outside India.
Her parents dug into Gopalan’s retirement savings to pay her tuition and living costs for the first year.
A few years later, Shyamala and Donald brought their daughters to Zambia. Kamala would have been 4 or 5 years old; Maya, two years younger, was still sleeping in a crib.
The young Kamala was oblivious to the intrigue swirling around her, with Gopalan’s government-issued car whisking him to meetings with Zambian officials and diplomats dropping by for visits.
What she remembers is the soil of Lusaka, rich with copper, which glowed a fiery red.
Bengali reported from New Delhi and Mason from Los Angeles.
Gosh, and so what if she spent time in Lusaka, Mbeki, Zuma, Rhamaphosa and Mnagagwa all spent time in Zambia as well and then Prince Harry, Arnolds Swazzernegger and Will Smith also came to Zambia, has that improved the economy? No!!!
“What she remembers is the soil of Lusaka, rich with copper, which glowed a fiery red’ really? ????
So pamene enze ku pushing’a ma file, we wouldn’t care to claim her has a once zambian resident, we like sangwapo mu zed.
As a child I spent time in Botswana visiting some relatives. I don’t remember the experience at all. It is shameful that to this day that the people of Botswana and their media outlets have not acknowledged this.
I don’t think the fact that Kamala Harris spent some time in Zambia has to answer the “so whtat?” question. This is just a write-up on her life story from childhood to the present. And because this childhood included a stint in Zambia, this had to be mentioned. So Patriotic Zambian, rest easy.
Wait a minute now that Biden has named his running mate, we shall here one HEHE also naming his. Difference is that him will name an ugly fossil of a witch as a running mate.
There are those of her ardent supporters and other enthusiasts who will want to visit Zambia just because of Zambia being mentioned in her biography. That is one of her contributions to the development of a country that she once lived in.
Wajimona @6, whn will Zambian punditry mature to concentrate on mature and enlightened articulation of real issues? Decide wht u want to say and then say it as clearly as possible so that u ruffle no feathers. In this way, others can learn one or two things from engaging wth u. I honestly seek to learn something every day I come to LT. I hv learned nothing from your diatribe above.
Look at some comments….. Why do we have so much negative energy?
Surely nothing inspires you people? What type of people are we?
I hive up….
Some people have mismanaged their lives. So they are bitter with the whole world around them. Thus the source of the negative energy.
So congratulations to Zambia we made it??
Batini …. So what ? even your Chagwa Lungu was born here and is your President …. eat that! …. what more do you want? Busy trying to squeeze some sense of historic attachment to Zambia from the few sensible leaders connected to this country … Damnit!
Batini …. So what ? even your Chagwa Lungu was born here and is your President …. eat that! …. what more do you want? Busy trying to squeeze some sense of historic attachment to Zambia from the few sensible leaders connected to this country …as if we can derive some comfort to dilute the saturated concentration of poor leadership in this country…. or at least of those that have the guts to venture around the sewers of our poisoned political chalice… Dammit!
But Zambia…so what if she spent time in Zambia when she was 5…..i think we have a very low self esteem as a country…Munangangwa this,Mbeki that….Zambia is part of this earth please so nothing special if so and so visited Zambia….
And am even ashamed as a Zambian for such stories to be newsworthy….besides Kamala Harris is not even popular here in the black community….she only identifies herself as black on paper for Political reason…..in reality she thinks she’s ‘indian’…..and beacuse of her most blacks will vote for Trump….she has bad reputation with the blackcommunity here in the USA
Its normal to travel and live in other countries. I agree such news is pointless. Rather you wrote about her policies and how they may impact us and the continent if she so happens to win. Useless editor of lusakatimes
Even hh lived and studied in Birmingham UK. Nomba no one even knows him there or cares that he even lived there. Useless news
So what? check she stands for … more abortions.
Vote for Trump 2020. God bless America! God bless Zambia!
Psalm 33:12
Zedians can be hateful and negative. Pathetic!!!!
This is from her auto autobiography. No big deal. She wrote about her life which includes Lusaka
So what if she spent some time in Zambia? Is she a superhuman that she will cause all our problems to end?
Zambians this inferiority complex must come to an end.
Just wait, Bowman will use this as a campaign material in the coming Lukashya bye election. He will go like, ” because of the good policies of the humble one Mr Chagwa, the US running mate once stayed in Zambia” kikikikikikikiki
Poor article
So what? check she stands for … more abortions, more same sex marriages. God forbid.
Vote for Trump 2020. God bless America! God bless Zambia!
Psalm 33:12
More popcorn please!
Are we really this cheap that simply because someone is a running mate to a presidential candidate in the best country on the planet you now want to claim that person even if the only thing she did was visit her g.parents?
FYI Kamala Harris has never claimed to be black. She does not believe a black man can reform from his mistakes. Shes a racist with a tan and just another bit*ch
Zambians dont get angry. It’s just part of history of her life. I am sure one day historians will appreciate that record.
If you have poison or are rattling in your heart. Don’t vent your anger and expose foolishness.
The Englaish parliament has a number of MP’s who either were born in Zambia, pre independence or at one time lived in Zambia when there were young.
When you visit the house of commons or UK Parliament’s library you can read this history on each individual mp.
It’s history. Just like Obama went to Kenya at 19yrs to see his step grandmother in the village who raised his dad. While in Kenya he ate Ugali or Shima from maize meal with for a month.
If Biden wins and she becomes Veep, it is possible that if she still has a fondness for Zambia she may look at it differently. Let us not trivialize this aspect and think it may not be of consequence to her. Who, knows, she may probably want to visit Zambia as veep which may help in further cementing relations between Zambia and the US.
When Kamala was in Zambia, did she eat nshima?
Munensu wapa chitente! I remember seeing her walking past our house in Kabwata. Ninshi yenze che ma rondavel. Na Kaunda a ali kutiwavinger Nise bakali ise ka.
The story makes me wonder why People don’t remember how many nationals we have kept in our country. Name them: Congolese, South Africans, Angolans, Mozambicans, Zimbabweans Namibians Somalians, we are still housing more.
‘Indian government had dispatched P.V. Gopalan to help Zambia manage an influx of refugees from Rhodesia — the former name of Zimbabwe —”
Ask yourself why these people didn’t run to Botswana, Malawi, Zaire because these were all equally independent
was actually waiting for Kaizer to comment and see if the news Lusaka Times has posted is worth the salt to spend my precious time on. I just went straight to comments and see that; okay something out of Kaizer is making sense.
Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, to a Tamil East Indian mother and a East Indian Jamaican father. … She has one younger sister, Maya Harris. Harris’s parents divorced when she was seven, and her mother a East Indian name Shyamala Gopalan was granted custody of the children by court-ordered settlement. Kamala Harris is a whole East Indian perpetrating as a African American woman. Kamala Harris parents are Brahmin India from a upper caste system that migrated to Jamaica. Her dad is not a Rastafarian he’s a Indian. Her struggle is NOT the same as ours!
Wake up you foooooools!!
Wasted space! A kid will move along with parents wherever they relocate and may not recollect any detail but only as an occurrence in ones’ life journey. It only becomes interesting for her if in her current status she decides to visit places that her family once stayed in. One world, one home!
Biden has just handed Trump a second term by picking phony Kamala
Relax people! It is just a piece of history.
it appears Joe Beaten (Biden) doesnt want to be president of the USA
Just because she spent 2 years in Lusaka as a 5 year old, people are swooning over her. Yet here we are, 3rd, 4th, 5th generation Indian diaspora actively living in and loving this country, the only news we get has to be some stereotypical rubbish. Always. Strange!