HOW A POEM CONVINCED DR. KENNETH KAUNDA TO HIRE 27-YEAR-OLD MUHABI LUNGU AS HIS PRESS AIDE How does a 27-year-old UNZA lecturer end up traveling the world, meeting Nelson Mandela, and managing public relations for a global icon like Dr. Kenneth Kaunda? It didn’t start with a high-stakes political interview. It started with shared ideas […]

HOW A POEM CONVINCED DR. KENNETH KAUNDA TO HIRE 27-YEAR-OLD MUHABI LUNGU AS HIS PRESS AIDE

How does a 27-year-old UNZA lecturer end up traveling the world, meeting Nelson Mandela, and managing public relations for a global icon like Dr. Kenneth Kaunda?

It didn’t start with a high-stakes political interview. It started with shared ideas on Pan-Africanism, a visit to KK’s residence in Kalundu, and a poem that attracted his attention.

Read this inspiring insider look into Zambian history 👇
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An excerpt from the newly released book: Conversations with Memorable Personalities, Part 2 (2026) by Amos Malupenga (Pages 214–215).
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Amos Malupenga: You told me earlier that you were requested to assist Dr. Kaunda full-time in 1996. Who requested you to assist him, and how did you assist him?

Muhabi Lungu: I have always been a Pan-Africanist and I have done a lot of reading about black people’s role in history. Before I returned from my Master’s Programme, I read about the KK Foundation in a magazine.

So I wanted to have an organisation linked to the KK Foundation called the Pan-African Ancestral CONDUIT… I wanted to see Dr. Kaunda about it. I made an appointment and I took some books to him and introduced this idea at his house in Kalundu.

I had written a poem about Africanness and where we should be. He glanced over it and asked me to read a bit of it. When I read, the old man was so surprised.

He said, “Young man, wait.” He ran upstairs and came back with a poem which he had been writing. He read it out to me and the ideas were so similar with mine. That’s how my connection with KK started.

…Later, [his son] Wezi came to me and said the old man wanted me to be his assistant for the press. So I became Dr. Kaunda’s assistant for press and public relations although I was still lecturing at UNZA and teaching at the International School of Lusaka.

…I said, “If you want me full-time, I would rather you pay me exactly what I earn at ISL… I came to the old man because of that Pan-African project, not for money.”

That is how I started working for the old man, and it was one of the brightest moments
of my life. I was 27 years at the time and I didn’t know that I could be an assistant to a
former head of state with stature.

And I felt KK’s stature more when we travelled abroad than we were at home. I have met the greatest figures of our time through working for KK. I met people like Ali Nazrui—the world-renowned Kenyan scholar and academician, Nelson Mandela, and I sat and ate in the house of the now former president of Mozambique, Mr. Chisano.

I met Andrew Young [the first black American ambassador of the US to the UN and civil rights activist who worked closely with Martin Luther King].

I have met scientists, politicians, businessmen and all sorts of renowned people, through Dr. Kaunda. This gave me a lot of confidence.

But there were also ups and downs, working for Dr. Kaunda …”

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Picture caption: Muhabi Lungu (squatting) with Dr. Kenneth Kaunda standing right behind him, former finance minister Rabbison Chongo (far left), Sunday Musonda (on Dr Kaunda’s left), Borniface Zulu, and Samson Banda, on the road to Eastern Province after Dr. Kaunda returned to active politics in 1996.

# Discover the full, unedited conversation and many more untold Zambian histories by grabbing yourself a copy from Bookworld or directly from the author.

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