Dr. Daniel K. Maswahu

(The author is a research scholar at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, USA)

Good scholarship is a great thing. Half-baked scholarship is dangerous, sometimes fatal. The one unmistakable identifying feature of true scholarship is that it knows no ceiling. The learning process continues especially after graduating out of the factories of formal education. And true scholars know that you cannot put down Wikipedia as a reference. I have your attention? Good, then try this for size:

Locus standi is:

• A part of your body you never talk about in the presence of children
• A Latin word your drunkard lawyer uncle uses at least once every 3 minutes after clocking 4 Mosis
• Another name for Ground – Zero, the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack
• A legal term of Latin origin denoting legal standing before a court
• A village in Armenia

Given that the University of Zambia (UNZA) was about 6 weeks ago ranked 69th in the African universities league table, that the Great East Road Campus of UNZA and Evelyn Hone College are persistently rocked by demonstrating students and NRDC is closed indefinitely, there are some of you, dear readers, who may be wondering what I have been smoking.

I take some comfort in that my above stated vision is not as wild as the Wright brothers’ dream to fly was at the beginning of the 19th century. Their idea did and continues to literally fly – no, soar in the face of grinning skeptics. But flying is getting old hat and we have been to the moon. Three weeks ago a very smart robot left earth heading for the planet Mars. This robot is very likely the final prep of a manned Mars mission. The astronauts for that mission were about two month ago released from an 18 month period of isolation equivalent to the duration of time that mission will take. For those who have been smoking something stronger than I have, the first point is that the initial idea, the dream stepped on the shoulders of another dream and viewed the promised land. The second point awaits you in the next paragraph.

When the first manned moon landing was televised worldwide on the 20th of July 1969, it did not matter whether it was the Russians or the Rwandans who got there first. It did not matter what nationality you where. Tribe was even more irrelevant on that momentous day. The point that mattered is that WE, COLLECTIVELY as an intelligent species had managed to travel to and from another astronomic body.

A single day does not pass by that tribalism (real or imagined) is evoked by a Zambian on several of our most frequented web sites. The purpose of this discussion is to demonstrate that genuine education, true scholarship, is a better remedy for the divisions (real and imagined) that are with increasing frequency being given voice to on the Zambian landscape. Some of those who point the finger of tribalism are perhaps sore losers in the September election (they also have a rabid fixation on something about 90 days – the PF are human and will only fulfill some of their 90 day promises – just get on with your own life if you have one). Please be reminded that democracy is by implication the oppression of the minority – so deal with the loss of your cherished expectations constructively (even if this process already involves the police). It is a little too early to pass judgment of a new leadership and we thankfully have a listening government who will tell you why a particular target has delayed. One day we will long for pragmatic leadership such as we have today, leadership that is thirsty and hungry to set matters right in the shortest possible time. The measure of true leadership must be performance, not how few Tongas where appointed into government positions.

In keeping with good scholarship, I would like the record to show that I have no hidden agendas, conflicting interests and am not looking for a job. I may change my mind about the job if your offer betters my current circumstances. The only plea I wish to submit is this – we have tried the apparently normal and it didn’t work; seems to me the season is ripe to try the allegedly abnormal.

To rub salt into the wound, we the people of Zambia collectively dared to renew our subscription to our dream for a better life when we elected a new party into leadership. The founders of our nation can tell you of the good not so old colonial days when it was impossible for a native Northern Rhodesian to enter a shop and all black people could only buy goods from a small window at the back of the shop. The times when our parents and grand-parents were mere labourers in the country that was their own. The last managers of the company called Zambia treated it like a loss making company in rapid liquidation. And we the share holders were treated like imbeciles who could be bribed with what in the first place belonged to us. I can understand the frustration and apparent lack of diplomacy of the new managers to set things straight after prolonged and very unnecessary suffering.

The United Nations Charter on Human Rights is unequivocally clear on the rights of children to education. The current government has shifted priorities for the better. Literacy rates during the MMD tenure of office increased only marginally, female literacy lagging behind (http://www.indexmundi.com/zambia/literacy-rates-of-15-24-years-old.html). There is a higher budget allocation for the education sector compared to previous priorities, but sustained advocacy targeting female education must be heard, seen and demonstrated. There is a relationship between the community levels of gender-based violence (GBV) and female literacy rates; please do not look in Wikipedia for this one – just listen to “Single ladies” by Beyonce.

The leadership of the flagship of Zambian education (the University of Zambia) has traditionally been left to political abuse with previous presidential office bearers being so bold as to allocate themselves land on “sacred” university grounds. There is urgent need to break away from this tradition and allow the institution intellectual and economic independence. The two aspects are easily achievable by selecting a Chancellor on merit (and a proven track record) who can turn around the battered institution with once only seed money (and generate subsequent or future funding from research grants) and a stiff time frame. The UNZA Medical School should be financially detached as soon as possible from Great East Road administration and be given the resources it produces to improve itself, and attract and retain world class medical educators.
The urgency of turning around the University of Zambia lies in that it is the most likely candidate institution to provide standards, checks and balances to all the other institutions that are ear marked to be upgraded to university or other higher level. My argument being, how do you expect to run other universities when you are failing to run the one that has been in existence longest? It will require a pathologic obsession with high standards to break away from the current epidemic of intellectual stagnation. This is not a task for party cadres, however glorified because it will invariably generate conflict with old habits.

An expanding population of children and young adults left out in the intellectual gap are already knocking on our doors demanding a world class education that will allow them to proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with the best students anywhere in the world. Numerous ill-equipped and badly regulated schools, colleges and universities have sprung roots over rocky ground and these need to be closely monitored. Private nursing schools that admit unqualified students to make a quick buck never-mind-the-patients-they-will-be-looking-after have sprouted all over Lusaka. The pattern holds true for all other educational areas catering for essential skilled and semi-skilled categories. High standards must be set and the only prevailing standard right now is unfortunately how much the student can pay to gain entry.
In conclusion, the education of our children reflects directly on who we are, what we aspire to as individual family units, as a community and as a nation. We cannot ignore the fractures within the fabric of our society and the deepening polarization of the country that resulted from the Mongu shootings and too many other matters of justice delayed; justice demands that those responsible come clean – silence is not an option. Our claim to be a Christian nation is held in question by those whose lives were lost due to excessive use of force and live ammunition. Education starting with an honest acknowledgement of our state of ignorance and the pain and suffering that this ignorance inflicts on others is the best remedy for the real, apparent and superficial divisions amongst us (such as tribal background). Education is a priority that we ignore at our own peril.

The opposition must continue to demand high standards of the party in power and provide constructive criticism. The fight against corruption may have been initially started as a reaction by corrupt politicians to save their own skins, but the standard has been raised higher by a man who will not tolerate corruption within the ranks of the first family itself, is happy to pay his own hotel bill and can jump on a mini-bus like the rest of us out of consideration that government costs can easily be minimized to pull the poor amongst us a little higher (hallmarks of someone who had an NDE); we owe this man our respect and support regardless of how we voted – if he makes a mistake (as we all do), point it out respectfully. Let us give him the time to perform the task given to him and judge him based on the performance of the team he has surrounded himself with. To achieve the vision of “One Zambia, one nation” will require the union of mind and spirit. We may have stumbled along the way, but our feet are stronger and sturdier, our intellects wiser from the lessons learnt.

By way of diversion, Lusaka is too small a city (population 1.3M) to have the work force stuck in traffic for hours on end. Replacement of traffic lights at key junctions with round-abouts (allowing traffic to regulate itself as opposed to load insensitive traffic lights) and a flat out commitment to complete a ring road (6 months max) are not farfetched. Oh, and while we are at it, can someone tell me why we are even paying carbon tax when the air quality in Lusaka is actually getting worse? The Road Traffic people may improve Lusaka air quality by simply making it mandatory to have all cars fitted with approved catalytic converters and have regular inspection and certification to see that emissions from each car are within the required limits. Measurement of air quality is fairly standard protocol and any self-respecting meteorological unit can easily purchase the equipment on the likes of e-bay.

I know we are not before a court of law, but this is my locus standi. What’s yours? I sincerely hope it is not one of a sore loser or a tribalist and that you have enough to do in your own life to not get fixated on someone else’s 90 day commitment which will clearly not be fulfilled to the letter.