Archival Significance
Written by Kenneth Kaunda before Zambian independence, using the still-current colonial name Northern Rhodesia at time of publication, this autobiography by the man who would become Zambia’s first president is a primary document of the independence movement itself rather than a retrospective account.
Institutional Context
Published in Heinemann’s African Writers Series, with Chinua Achebe as the series’ founding editorial adviser, one of the most influential publishing vehicles for African political and literary writing of the era.
Content Summary
Kaunda’s own account of his life, political awakening, and the independence struggle, combined with his critique of colonial rule in Northern Rhodesia.
Research Utility
A primary source of central importance for researchers of Zambian independence and Kaunda’s own political formation, valuable precisely because it was written and published while the territory was still Northern Rhodesia, two years before independence.
Abantu Archives Note
Held in-house. Catalogued under Northern Rhodesia per the strict publication-date convention, since the work was published in 1962, two years before Zambian independence in October 1964, despite its own prospective, independence-oriented content.