Background
Reuben Kamanga was born on August 26, 1929, at Chitandika near Chipata in Eastern Province, son of the village headman.
Reuben Kamanga was born on August 26, 1929, at Chitandika near Chipata in Eastern Province, son of the village headman.
Educated at mission schools at Madzimoyo and Katete, then at Munali Secondary School, Lusaka.
He began work as a clerk, got a job in a government office in provincial administration, then tried his hand in business. He turned to trade union work and moved to political organisation with the African National Congress. After brushes with the law and various sentences for so-called political offences he was caught in the round-up of “subversives” along with Kaunda on March 11, 1959. After his release he left the country and settled for a time in Cairo as representative of the United National Independence Party.
In September 1961 he signed a memorandum to the non-aligned conference at Belgrade, Yugoslavia, which caused a clash with Kaunda over one ill-considered allegation that a “well-planned genocide operation was being conducted in the country” with the paternal sanction of the British government. Kaunda condemned the accusation and apologised to the British government. After a cooling-off period the differences were smoothed over and Kamanga returned to the country in 1962, becoming MP for Petaukc South.
In Kaunda’s first cabinet, formed on January 23, 1964, he became Minister of Transport and Communications. At independence on October 24, 1964, he was appointed Vice-President, holding the post until September 7, 1967, when he yielded it to Kapwepwe and took over the vacated post of Foreign Minister. He was bitter in his denunciation of Britain for failing to crush the Rhodesian rebellion.
An angry controversy arose over allegations that he raped a girl. It reached such proportions that a government Commission of Inquiry was appointed to investigate the situation. On June 1, 1971, the verdict of the Commission delivered by Chief Justice Brian Doyle cleared him, saying: “It was clearly a political manoeuvre without regard at the time as to whether or not it could be substantiated."
In the midst of the hullabaloo there was a bewildering episode when he was appointed to the United Nations but never took up the post. Subsequently his political ranking was diminished and his party influence reduced as Minister of Rural Development. Nonetheless he has remained an experienced politician still to be reckoned with because of his support in the Eastern Province.
Central Committee United National Independence Party (UNIP).
Senior member of party and government who was Vice-President for the first three years after independence. A turbulent heavy-set figure, often at the centre of controversy. His outspokenness at times reflects what others would like to say but it is apt to land him in trouble Kaunda once had to deny a charge Kamanga made against Britain of condoning “genocide”. As a pioneer nationalist, he endured imprisonment at the same time as Kaunda in 1959 and has been unwavering in his loyalty to him.
Married Edna Mwansa in 1963.