ACTUALISING THE DECLARATION OF ZAMBIA AS A CHRISTIAN NATION, 2016 TO 2021

Abstract

Since 1991, the declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation by President Frederick Chiluba has remained a hollow religio-political proclamation because it has not translated into praxis. President Chiluba’s intention was that as a Christian Nation, Zambia would be governed by the righteous principles of the Word of God and that righteousness and justice must prevail at all levels of authority so that the righteousness of God would exhort Zambia. Twenty-five years later, in 2016, the Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs was created and one of its mandates was to ‘actualise the declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation’. Grounded in a qualitative research strategy, an intrinsic case study by design, and through a critical reading of the Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs policy, the implementation plan, and a careful interpretation of the two documents and interviews with two informants – one from the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation and the other from an abolished Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs, the article concludes that the measures to actualise the declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation are purely symbolic as they do not address, political expediency aside addressing President Chiluba’s concerns. Consequently, the author makes an invitation to scholars who have been fascinated by the declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation to a new or fresh conversation of elaboration and alternatives on the topic of how the declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation may be actualised.