Lucy Sichone

Lucy Banda-Sichone (1954–1998) was a Zambian civil rights activist who played a pivotal role in representing the Zambian people who had their rights violated by the State at the time. Born and raised in Zambia's second largest city, Kitwe, she became the first Zambian woman to receive a Rhodes Scholarship and also the first woman to have her portrait displayed on the walls of Oxford University’s prestigious Rhodes House.^[1][2]

After attaining a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Somerville College, Oxford,^[3] Sichone returned to Zambia where she embarked upon a career as a lawyer focused on human rights issues. She represented several displaced villagers who had been accused of squatting, and represented the people in court as pro bono clients. In 1993, Shichone formed the Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA).The aim of the association was to spread the gospel of human and democratic rights and to remind Zambians that it was not enough to have democracy on paper, but it had to be practiced. The association formed many civic education clubs within secondary schools around the country – her idea was to capture the imagination of the young whilst they could still dream.^[4] The association continues to teach citizens rights and civic education to this day.

Sichone was also very much into active politics. She joined the United National Independence Party (UNIP) shortly after it had lost to the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in the 1991 presidential election. Although she held a number of positions in government, she was often its critic mainly because political office was never her goal.She left UNIP in 1994.

Early Life

Lucy Sichone was born on 15th May, 1954. She grew up with a father who had been very strict about her education. At some point her father had served as a butler for a British colonial family where he began to take a keen interest in getting his daughters educated.^[5] Lucy managed to pursue her education from an all-girls convent secondary school. In 1978 she was accepted at the University of Zambia to study for a law degree. She obtained her degree in 1981 and won a Rhodes scholarship to study for an Philosophy and Economics degree at Oxford University in England.

Sichone got married to her first husband in 1979, after their daughter turned five years old. After the death of her husband she experienced what is called property grabbing, a practice which is still very common in Africa. It is where all household goods are taken by the late husband's relatives.^[6] Additionally, because she belonged to a patrilineal society, her children technically belonged to the man’s side of the family but, because of her legal knowledge and experience, she managed to win custody over the children. She had four children. Ten years after the death of her first husband, Shichone married her second husband.

Social Activism

Lucy Sichone represented so many clients over a wide range of issues, from government land disputes to personal issues similar to those she had experienced as a widow. The Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA) was formed by Shichone in 1993. This was a non- profit human rights organisation which was formed to empower the Zambian citizenry in coping with the democratic dispensation. She wanted this to assist the development of democratic process in Zambia as well as promote justice. This was to be done through increasing and creating awareness among all citizens about their duties and responsibilities under the Constitution. Sichone believed that it is in the execution of duties and responsibilities that bestow rights, privileges and equality for all before the Law.^[7]

Sichone was never content with just idling by and watching the politicians desecrate the constitution, she decided to go into politics. When everyone else was running towards the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD), the party that had just won the momentous 1991 elections that removed Kenneth Kaunda from power, Sichone decided to join the United National Independence Party (UNIP). UNIP, having ruled Zambia for 27 years, had lost the 1991 elections and its political fortunes were in decline. But for Lucy, this all didn't matter. Her calculus was probably that an association with UNIP would help spread her message about safe guarding human rights and holding politicians accountable. After all, civil society organizations at that time did not have much of a following. Everyone looked up to politicians. However, she then left the party in 1994 when she started to experience problems with fellow members of the central committee.

Sichone began contributing to the independent daily newspaper The Post in 1993. As her columns challenged the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government and its manipulation of constitutional provisions. It was during her time at The Post that two memorable events happened that thrust her into the limelight and confirmed her position as the conscience of the nation. In February 1996, Sichone wrote an article titled “Miyanda has forgotten about need for justice”. Godfrey Miyanda was then Vice President and leader of government business in parliament^[8]. An order to arrest Sichone along with the newspaper’s managing editor and chief editor was issued. Sichone and two of her colleagues, managing editor and chief editor of the paper, were forced into hiding to avoid imprisonment on charges of contempt of Parliament after the Zambian National Assembly. After the order, there was a lot of international pressure from human rights groups, journalists and legal groups to absolve her because she had a three-month-old baby at that time.

The other two surrendered to authorities, but Sichone did not and remained hiding. While at large, she continued to write columns for The Post, and declared not submit to National Assembly Speaker Robinson Nabulyato’s unconstitutional decree. She wrote, “The freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights make it a sacred duty for me to defend them to the death.”^[9] She ended up becoming the first Zambian to win the International Women Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award in 1996 for the same article for which they were trying to arrest her for.^[10] She eventually gave herself up and a sort of truce existed between her and the authorities.

Death and Legacy

Lucy Sichone died at the age of 44 at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, on August 24, 1998. The Post, where she used to work as a columnist, published a front page memorial article for her, with the headline “Zambia mourns Sichone”. A series of articles ran in The Post after her death, showing the condolences from many political leaders, non-governmental organizations and citizens from the nation. Editor-in-chief of The Post, Fred M'membe, who was also a close personal friend to the late human rights activist, said Zambia had lost one of its daughters.^[11]

Sichone's death was widely mourned. The civil society movement tried to petition the government to accord her a state funeral but, as expected, the authorities declined. We are all left to wonder what other brave and inspiring things she would have done had she lived longer. Grieve Chelwa, author of the article Remembering Zambia’s Lucy Sichone, wrote in 2015, "I had the rare privilege of meeting Lucy Sichone in 1998, the year she died, during a prize giving ceremony for students who had done a lot to advance civic education at their schools. She gave me a certificate carrying her immortal signature and asked all the recipients that day to carry her dream even further."

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