AS Zambia commemorates Kenneth Kaunda day today, let’s take it back to where our first republican president lived before winning the fight against colonialism.
At first glance, Chilenje House 394 looks like any ordinary house. A simple two bedroomed home with a small living room, a kitchen and a yard shaded by trees.
But behind those plain walls is a powerful story.
This is where Zambia’s first President Dr Kenneth Kaunda lived between 1960 and 1962.
It was from this modest house that he and other freedom fighters planned the major steps that led Zambia’s independence.
Many of the important meetings that changed the course of history were held right there and the leaders would meet in secret in the same house.
My tour guide tells me that Mama Betty Kaunda, the wife to our first republican president started running a small business of selling home brewed beer and charcoal to distract the colonial masters from thinking otherwise.
“Most of the important meetings that led to our independence were held from this house. This is where they would come hold their secret meetings, from here that’s when they would go there and fight,”as told by the guide.
“They formed a business where they used to sell local brewed beer and charcoal. So people would think they are going there to buy. Meanwhile, they were having meetings on how to destabilise the colonial government.”
The small house became the heart of the independence struggle where dreams of a free Zambia were quietly but fearlessly built.
After Zambia gained independence on October 24, 1964, Chilenje House 394 became a symbol of hope and courage as it was turned into a national monument.
To protect its history, the house and two neighbouring houses were restored to look exactly as they did in 1962.
Most of the furniture has been placed just where it was when the Kaunda family lived there.
On 23 October 1968, Dr Kaunda himself officially opened the house to the public as a museum.
Visitors can tour the house, walk through the living room where leaders once whispered their plans, see the bedrooms where a future president rested after long days of organising the freedom movement and feel the spirit of bravery that still lingers in the air.
Today, Chilenje House 394 National Monument has been preserved almost exactly as it was when KK lived there with the same basic furniture and the same simple layout.
Story and pictures by Catherine Pule
Kalemba, April 28, 2025
