Andrew Sardanis, a Greek Cypriot born in 1930 and holding strong anticolonialist
views, migrated to Northern Rhodesia in 1950. For the next
seven years he worked mainly in the North West Province buying produce
from the villagers and finally settled in Chingola on the Copperbelt in 1957.
There he came into contact with African politicians and civil servants and
became involved with Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence
Party. He stood as a candidate for UNIP in the 1962 election which produced
the first African dominated government. After independence he was
appointed Chairman of the Industrial Development Corporation and
subsequently Permanent Secretary, first of the Ministry of Commerce and
later of the Ministry of Finance. He left Government in 1971 and became
involved in a multinational business group whose interests extended to thirtyone
African countries. He still lives in Zambia and has maintained close
contact with Zambian politicians over the years.
Zambia: The First Fifty Years is the third in a series of books by Sardanis.
Africa: Another side of the Coin is described as "a memoir that covers the
expiring years of Northern Rhodesia and the birth and travails of Zambia in
the early years of independence". A Venture in Africa describes Sardanis's
business career. The new volume sets out to be "a detailed examination of
most major events in our history since independence". Sardanis was unhappy
at the creation of the one party state and refers to his advice to Kaunda on
this and other topics as being generally disregarded. He deals with the return
to democratic government with the election of 1991 and reviews the
Presidencies of Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Rupia Banda and Sata.
There is an element of autobiography to the book but essentially it is intended
to be a history of the first half-century of Zambia's existence. Sardanis does
not claim to be a historian. The non-judgmental approach of modern colonial
historians such as Paxman, Tristram Hunt and Kwarteng is not for him. He
has strong views on every issue and expresses them forcefully. Very few
escape his criticisms - and certainly none of Zambia's presidents. Perhaps unsurprisingly Kaunda receives the most praise. Criticisms of him are made
somewhat reluctantly although Sardanis makes it plain that he would have
been a far better president and Zambia a far happier country if he had
listened more carefully to and acted on Sardanis's advice.
Overseas advisers brought in to assist the Zambian government are
described as unrealistic and he is scathing about all those involved in the civil
proceedings against ex-president Chiluba in London and about the British
High Commissioner in Zambia. In particular however he is critical of the pre-
Independence government. His strong anti-colonialist views are more
forcefully expressed in Africa: Another Side of the Coin than in the present
book but even here he refers to the total lack of development before
independence in contrast to the money spent in particular on education post-
1964. His views on expatriate civil servants are given in a throwaway remark
on the Barotse issue - "the provincial administration of Northern Rhodesia
being out of touch as usual".
The pre-independence roles of some Europeans are perhaps viewed more
generously by other present day Zambians. Hugh Bown has written a report
of the visit of a group of expatriates last autumn to the fiftieth anniversary of
independence celebrations. He comments that the Association of Freedom
Fighters came to him with a proposal to raise a monument to the European
Freedom fighters. He ends "Meeting with so many people who viewed the
road to Independence as a struggle and even as a fight must prompt thoughts
on the virtues or shortcomings of the government which ruled for forty years
from 1924. However Peter Kasanda who did so much to organise this trip for
us has written to say that our visit was appreciated. Shakespeare may have
said that the evil which men do lives after them but in this case it seems that
by and large it is the good that is being remembered and built upon."
Sardanis also comments in some detail on other writers on Zambia with
whose views he does not agree. Hugh Macmillan's book An African Trading
Empire: The Story of Susman Brothers and Wulfsohn comes in for particularly
rough treatment as does his contribution to One Zambia, Many Histories. The
four Zambian contributors to this get a nod of approval but the eight
"foreigners, like Macmillan, stretch facts to suit their arguments to prove their
predetermined conclusions".
It could be argued that this comment would not be inappropriate for parts of
this book. It is likely that any reader with an interest in Zambia is going to be
irritated by it at some stage. It is nevertheless a fascinating read. There is a
wealth of interesting information and while his criticisms are unrestrained and
plainly biased they do give considerable scope for thought.
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