Dinner Debate with Dr Kenneth Kaunda

I attended the Dinner Debate with the Former president of Zambia HE Dr Kenneth Kaunda on Monday 8 June. It was a Black Tie event hosted by the European Atlantic Group in Association with The Pilgrims held at the Naval and Military Club in St James Square London.

It kicked off with a reception at about 7.15 wine and not champagne so Credit Crunch still having some influence. I spent the 45 minutes mingling, of which 30 minutes were spent debating the plight of Zimbabwe, how it got into that situation and possible ways forward. It is amazing the regularity with which Zimbabwe is the only part of Sub Saharan Africa people feel they are well informed enough to engage in conversation. Even then it usually turns out they know next to nothing about the history and hence complexity of the issue.

Having said that, there were also quite a few very interesting and knowledgeable people in attendance.  I always prefer events where everyone has to wear a name tag as that way you can target those you want to meet in addition to a general meet and greet.  Something to remember when we eventually host this sort of event at the Africa Centre.  The general reaction to the Africa centre was one of curiosity as opposed to some of the negative opinions I have across in recent discussions. We definitely need to address that somehow.

Looking at the list of invitees there are a number of people I would have liked to have approached but didn’t get the chance to meet e.g.
Mr Adam Wood from the Foreign and Commonwealth
Mr Geoffrey Brown Shadow Minister for International Trade and Development

To name but a few

Perhaps I might see if I can get some of the people I met to make an intro.

The three course dinner was great but the best aspect of the evening for me was HE Dr KK. He is a little smaller than I remember and slightly more frail but in terms of his manner and charisma nothing has changed. He opened the debate by singing the lullaby that he had once sang to his wife when he was serenading her. The only surprise there was that he didn’t follow this up by singing “Tiende Pamodzi” (Loosely translated Lets go together but actually a call for the country to unite and progress) which would have seen me break into song as well. It goes without saying that as he was an amateur musician in his younger days his voice is infinitely better than mine.

After dinner HE Dr KK spoke for about an hour and half maybe longer with some guidance, on the topics that he expanded on, from the host the aforementioned Geoffrey Brown MP.
Topics covered included:

Influences as a child and early years of adulthood.

27 years as a leader and on the political stage. Zambian independence through peaceful means and the support for independence through the gun of other states in Africa. His views on President Zuma, excerpts from conversations with Saddam Hussein (There used to be and probably still is Saddam Hussein drive in Lusaka) pre the Kuwait invasion, former Nigerian President Obasanjo before he ran for President, and ofcourse the history of the trouble in Zimbabwe and possible ways forward.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening.

I will be buying his book when it comes out. There were 5 or so questions from members of the organising associations that had been pre arranged but there was not enough time to open it to questions from the floor.

After the speeches, most disappeared rather sharply but some remained for a quick chat and an exchange of business cards. I managed to get a few minutes with the former president and have attached a photo. Feel free to use it on the website if you want. It was all over by around 11pm.

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