Hello and welcome to the BBC World Service I'm Audrey Brown.

Tien de Pamoze. Let us go with one spirit, one heart. Zambia's unofficial national

anthem written by its founding leader Kenneth David Pucchesea,

Kaunda, whose life and legacy we are here to commemorate.

Kagano, I think was one of the unique African leaders.

You got the impression that he happened to be at a second position when the country needed him.

When we talk about the Kauru days when we were young and we compare it to the days that

our children and grandchildren are growing and we always say we were the lucky ones.

We had free education, the mining... growing and we always say we were the lucky ones.

We had free education.

The mining industry was booming after independence.

So basically those were good times for us.

He never reiterated dissent within his government and within his political parties.

So many people fall out of him when they attempted to challenge his leadership.

And that is why he was at the helm of the country for 27 years without any major political challenges.

The iron fist in a velvet glove almost applies to him, although in presenting himself as this man of peace, which he was certainly in the

region while genuinely holding the country together in a paternalistic but very disciplined way, If you got too far out of hand, yes, you would feel

the iron fist within the velvet glove. Kenneth David Bouchezia Kowinder was born in

1924 in Chinsale at the Galoebu Mission of the Church of Scotland in what was then known as Northern Rhodesia.

The youngest of eight he was called Pucheia, the unexpected one, born to a Church of Scotland missionary father who became a teacher and a mother, Helen, was one of the first black teachers in the colony.

No surprise then that he got a good education and became a teacher

himself. The young Kenneth was politicized at an early age because of what was happening

...