Last Call: My Favorite Ex-President
Rocca, Francis X.
LAST CALL by Francis X. Rocca My Favorite Ex-President THE END OF 1997 BROUGHT REPORTS THAT Kenneth Kaunda, former president of Zambia, was under arrest for supposedly attempting to overthrow...
...Zambia," he said...
...Later I was to learn that he is a convinced Christian and socialist...
...No, I was continuing on to California...
...It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but Zambia's per capita GDP is now less than $900 and its average life expectancy is below 37, and my economic prejudices lead me to assume that Kaunda's policies deserve some of the credit for that...
...And then in Vancouver, for a conference of former heads of state...
...Kaunda's response was polite yet peremptory: "Yes...
...In the window seat beside me sat a gray-haired black man in an argyle sweater, who did not look up from the letter he was writing until the plane was in the air, whereupon he turned to me and held out his hand...
...Suddenly I felt like a student remembering an answer five minutes after the end of the test...
...I AM FROM CENTRAL AFRICA," HE VOLUNTEERED...
...He said he was—but said it in a way that made me worry I'd said the wrong thing after all...
...94 February 1998 • The American Spectator...
...Occasionally I looked up from the pages with a distracted expression, just to let him know I was available...
...Oh, I was recently in Sacramento," he informed me...
...All I knew was that he had been the leader of his country since independence, and had stepped down a few years back...
...What country...
...Only now just doesn't sound like the best time...
...AFTER A COUPLE OF MINUTES HE GOT UP AND went to the head, and I rifled through my copy of the Economist, searching for news he might wish to comment on...
...His favorite sports are soccer and golf (thus the little golfers sewn on the front of his sweater...
...Unfortunately I knew hardly any of the history that Kenneth Kaunda had made...
...I don't feel so bad now, knowing that the ruling party shortly thereafter rigged the laws to keep Kaunda off the ballot...
...But when he came back it was clear that the interview was over...
...Well do I remember the occasion, even now, a year and a half later: Flying out of Washington, first class for a change (on a frequent-flier upgrade, actually), I found myself in the very front row...
...ONCE I HAD CALMED DOWN, I AIMED TO MAKE the most of this chance to talk with a truly historic figure...
...While in power he nationalized the copper mines and just about everything else...
...Forgive me, Sir, I didn't hear, I wasn't sure—I don't know much about Africa, but of course I know who you are...
...Wary of bringing this up in the wrong way ("Gee, I think it's really great that you guys were able to change governments without hacking each other to death"), I chose my words carefully...
...ALL RIGHT, SO KAUNDA IS THE ONLY AFRICAN leader I've ever met, and our acquaintance lasted barely an hour and a half...
...I only eat fresh fruits and vegetables," he told the stewardess when she brought him a second salad, "and no milk or cheese...
...Caribbean, perhaps...
...Oh, really...
...LAST CALL by Francis X. Rocca My Favorite Ex-President THE END OF 1997 BROUGHT REPORTS THAT Kenneth Kaunda, former president of Zambia, was under arrest for supposedly attempting to overthrow his nation's current regime...
...All I can say is that the once and (perhaps) future president is a very agreeable travel companion...
...Now I am going to meet with President Carter in Atlanta...
...and last August Kaunda himself was wounded in an assassination attempt he blamed on the police...
...It was a very friendly encounter, though...
...He is a devoted vegetarian...
...I nodded familiarly...
...Excuse me, did you say you were Kenneth Kaunda...
...I asked brightly, as if ready to start dropping the names of dear friends in Burundi and Zaire...
...Hoping that once he woke up he might yet favor me with some quotable or at least memorable remarks, I took from my briefcase something that I thought might elicit them: Ryszard Kapuscinski's book about the late Haile Selassie, the emperor of Ethiopia...
...He smiled and put a merciful end to my sputtering...
...The news was especially regrettable to me, since of all the leaders of post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa, Kaunda is the one whom I know best...
...He told me that he "hoped" to run for reelection in the fall, so I asked with what I imagined was diplomatic tact: "Are you confident of the regularity of the electoral process in your country...
...I tried to start it up again...
...He took off his sweater (Burberry's, I noticed from the tag) and settled back for a nap...
...His successor Frederick Chiluba has followed the World Bank's prescription of privatization, deregulation, and budget-cutting, which sounds like progress, but Amnesty International says he is torturing his enemies...
...To see the Queen...
...I see that Mandela has just been in London," I observed matter-of-factly, as if in a chat before lunch at the Council on Foreign Relations...
...It was disappointing news, since Zambia had been exceptional among African countries for a peaceful transfer of power in 1991, when Kaunda lost an election after twenty-seven years in office...
...KAUNDA DIDN'T BITE, BUT I DID LEARN A FEW more things about him before we landed...
...The engine noise rendered his name unintelligible, but I detected a foreign accent...
...Come visit us in Zambia," he bade me as we shook hands good-bye, and I still intend to do so...
...Thankfully, ignorance exempts me from passing judgment...
...Was I going to "the games," he wanted to know (the Olympics were about to start in Atlanta, where we were headed...
Vol. 31 • February 1998 • No. 2
