Background
Solomon Kalulu was born on June 18, 1924, at Lusaka.
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Solomon Kalulu
Edit ProfileEducation
Educated at Waddilove Training Institute and through the Lyceum Correspondence College.
Career
A teacher at the age of 19, he rose to be a headmaster before becoming so engrossed in politics that he abandoned teaching in 1952. He worked in the African National Congress of the then Northern Rhodesia and was secretary of the party from 1952 to 1955. At the time of the Kaunda-Nkumbula split he left the ANC and joined Kaunda’s Zambian National Congress on October 24, 1958. When UNIP was launched the following year he became secretary-general. On Kaunda’s release from prison and appointment as president of UNIP on January 31, 1960, he was appointed national chairman.
At independence on October 24, 1964, he was the first Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and held the appointment for three years. In 1966 he mounted a campaign to save the Red Lechwe antelope, gaining support from the people while he organised spotter planes to help catch poachers in the game reserves, who were killing the antelopes for their valuable skins.
In 1967 he was switched to be Minister of Transport, Power and Communications. In 1968 he was appointed Minister of the Eastern Province. After a year there he returned to Lusaka to his first cabinet portfolio.
Personality
Pioneer of the nationalist movement: one of the founders of the United National Independence Party, its first secretary-general, and its national chairman for over 10 years. A headmaster who turned to full-time political work in 1952, he has served in the cabinet since independence in 1964 with two long periods in charge of lands and natural resources. A pragmatist with little interest in political philosophy, highly respected for his dedication to the party, he is also renowned for wild life preservation, especially for his work in saving the Red Lechwe antelope from extinction.
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Born
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Nationality
Zambian