Rethinking African Politics - 9781409406273

Taylor & Francis

This study examines the nature of government and political opposition in Zambia, in the years immediately following its independence in 1964. It shows how Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party's (UNIP) grip on the new nation-state was, in contrast to official rhetoric, partial, uneven and consistently prone to challenge. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, Larmer offers a ground-breaking analysis of post-colonial political history which helps explain the challenges facing contemporary African polities. > In 1964 Kenneth Kaunda and his United National Independence Party (UNIP) government established the nation of Zambia in the former British colony of Northern Rhodesia. In parallel with many other newly independent countries in Africa this process of decolonisation created a wave of optimism regarding humanity's capacity to overcome oppression and poverty. Yet, as this study shows, in Zambia as in many other countries, the legacy of colonialism cre.