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With Sword and Chain in Lusaka: A Londoner's Life in Zambia 1948-1972

by Richard Sampson

210 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0211; ISBN 1-55369-398-1; US$22.00, C$26.00, EUR18.00, £12.50

A Londoner's life in Zambia and why he was ordered to issue plans for action against RAF planes and British Troops.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book This is the fourth book written by Richard Sampson on the penetration of Europeans into what was called Northern Rhodesia, the lives they led there and now their subsequent dispersal. Published over a period of forty-six years the four books collectively provide essential reading for any person making a study of the life of Europeans in the colony during the colonial era. This latest book, a personal memoir, provides much detail about Lusaka in the third quarter of the twentieth century, woven around the story of the author's own life there. The commentary on business, political, municipal and military incidents occurring as the country moved out of its colonial past into a newly independent African-governed life as Zambia makes valuable and entertaining reading.

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About the Author

Richard Sampson was born in London in 1922. Served Royal Navy WWII. Emigrated to Northern Rhodesia in 1948. Served on Lusaka City Council 12 years. Twice elected Mayor. Appointed lifetime Alderman in 1964. Served Royal Rhodesia Regiment in 1956-1967. Decorated for military service by president Kaunda in 1966. Chairman and Director of many companies. Following nationalisation of many companies, he emigrated to the United States of America in 1972.

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Sample Excerpt

Military Confrontation

THE ORDERS

The intentions were quite clear. On the given command, the popular Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Sir Evelyn Hone, was to be arrested and restricted to Government House; the Judiciary and all Provincial and District Commissioners were to be arrested and transported to a special compound near Ndola; all airfields capable of taking large transport aircraft were to be blocked to stop aircraft landing and should British Royal Air Force planes attempt to land they were to be fired upon.

The G2³ in Northern Rhodesia Area army headquarters, Major Peter Walls, (later Lieutenant General, commanding all Southern Rhodesian defence forces during their civil war), had nonchantly thrown on to my desk the orders to block off all airfields and to fire on the British Air Force planes should they attempt to land saying, "Dick, log these orders. They went out five minutes ago." Peter, looking every inch a soldier with parachutist's wings on his arm and ribbons of the Malayan War on his chest, turned away without further comment and went back into the Area Commander's office.

I stared at the orders and as their import sank in, I muttered to myself the rhetorical question, "what the bloody hell is going on." It did not take long to grasp what was about to happen. It was February 1961 and the Central African Federation, consisting of Nyasaland (now Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was in a state of crisis. Britain, under relentless pressure from the United States of America together with the Asian, African and Communist member states of the United Nations, was insisting on a revision of the constitutions of the Federation and its constituent territories to give the African people wider political powers and the British Army had planned to use military force should it be necessary. The pressure was all part of the Cold War. The Federal Prime Minister, Sir Roy Welensky, backed by the majority of Europeans in the three territories, would have nothing of it and was also preparing to use military force to wrest control away from the British Government.

The Federal Army orders were transparently illegal. I for one was not prepared to carry them out. The question was, what could I do about it?

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Catalogue Information

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