A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: Look Behind You
By Kwangu Manda
A Short History Lesson
In the early centuries, Roman generals, upon a triumphant victory, would be paraded in a chariot. Crowds would gather in awe of these god-like Emperors and generals, shouting and singing in admiration. Accompanying them in the chariot would be a companion who stood behind them. This companion, whom some argued was a slave, would reach to their ear and gently whisper the words, “Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento.” Or, as most English translations put it, “Look behind you. Remember that you are (just) a man.”
This practice was intended to keep the generals — one of them being Marcus Aurelius — from being guilty of hubris: excessive pride, arrogance, or overconfidence. Hubris was a sin committed in defiance of the gods — being guilty of it would invite calamity.
Icarus, the mythological figure, after being built a set of wings from wax, soared so high that, upon flying too close to the sun, his wings melted and he fell.
Your First Term
I often think of the events that occurred between August 11–16, 2021. Your victory was announced and when media houses rushed to get statements from you, there was a sense of calm and humility about you. I remember how the late former President Rupiah Banda facilitated a meeting between you and your biggest political opponent at the time, the late former President Edgar Lungu. That election brought out the best of you for a moment. However, a change began to occur after RB’s demise and when both political camps started to be at each other’s throats. I sensed that all you went through prior to your presidency started to resurface in your psyche. Wounds started to reopen and not only did the memories spring up — the resentment and bitterness soon followed.
For the last five years, the leadership entrusted to you by us, the Zambian people, has kept the economy not only afloat, but growing. Children are back in school, the exchange rate is stable, debt management is extremely commendable, and our energy reforms place Zambia in a position to become a regional economic hub. What your economic policy team has done, from the Ministry of Finance to the Bank of Zambia, cannot be understated.
What’s Next: A Concern
In spite of all this, there is a shiver that runs down my spine. This shiver is the result of what, in my opinion, is a shift in your psyche — evident in your tone, the Solwezi rally being the latest example. I fear it is a blend of the pain of the past and that of exemplary achievement. That is, at least, the primary aspect of it. The secondary aspect is what seems to be a lack of restraint within your political house. The fear is that this mix, if not well cushioned, could erode the spirit of democracy that we have longed for as a country and slowly put us back into a cycle we have seemingly been trying to escape.
In most of your recent speeches, I have noticed a growing change in how you shift from “we” to “I”. A shift that has been stirred by the men around you.
They deify you when targets are hit and hurdles are overcome, and silently tilt you away from what is in the best interests of the country. They, in spite of wearing different colours from their seemingly political opponents, possess the same innate traits. They draft bills and influence organs of power for personal gain, garnishing it with a touch of what seems to be public interest when it is not. There lies deceit and gaslighting in the notion that because we scored with the economy, we shall score with legislation.
These are the influences that you need to restrain — the men who cannot separate the party from the government; the men who feel that party struggle means national struggle.
An Ode
I hope to see, after your journey, that you walk out as a man who finished just as he started. That you break the pattern of Zambia’s historical second-term problem and leave behind a system that no malevolent individual could overcome, for the greater good of the country. I hope to see a sound, well-polished constitution and legislation that acts as a safeguard for democracy. I hope to see how the man from Bweengwa overcame his ego, his inner battles, and left the praise to the history books.
Most importantly, I hope that in his corner, with every possible forthcoming milestone, he kept behind him men who would whisper the words, “Look behind you. Remember you are a man.”
