Mainza Chona

On May 24, 1953, he married Yolanta Chimbamu Mainza and the couple had seven children together.

He died on December 11, 2001, while undergoing dialysis at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was later buried in Monze, Zambia.

Mainza Mathias Chona was born as Sikaye Chingula Namukamba on January 21, 1930, at Nampeyo, near Monze, Northern Rhodesia, to Hameja Chilala, and Nhandu—one of his father's five wives.

He studied at the Chona out-school in Nampeyo, and at Chikuni. In 1951, he completed his secondary education at Munali Secondary School in Lusaka and then worked as an interpreter at the High Court in Livingstone.

He wanted to become a lawyer and in 1995 he secured a scholarship to study at Gray's Inn, London. In 1958, he was called to the bar and while practicing in England, he met other African nationalists, including Harry Nkumbula and Kenneth Kaunda.

In 1958, he returned to Northern Rhodesia and learned that the White-dominated Central African Federation (CAF) had taken over the state despite protests from the Black population through the African National Congress (ANC), led by Nkumbula and Kaunda.

In October 1958, Kaunda formed the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC). Due to the party’s militancy and unwillingness to compromise with white liberals, Kaunda along with several other leaders was detained by the CAF authorities, and the party was banned in March 1959.

In October 1959, Chona became the first President of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), the successor to ZANC. In January 1960, when Kaunda was released from prison, Chona stepped down from his post for him.

Mainza Chona was appointed the deputy president of UNIP by Kaunda, but he had to leave Northern Rhodesia to avoid charges of sedition brought by the CAF authorities who were now getting increasingly frustrated with these political developments. For a year, he remained in London and served as UNIP's overseas representative.

In December 1960, he also served as a UNIP delegate to the Federal Review Conference in London, returning home in February 1961. Later that year, he was elected the National Secretary of UNIP, a post he held for eight years.

He contributed greatly to the organization of UNIP and to Zambia's struggle for independence. He was widely respected in Zambia as a good administrator and as Kaunda's loyal lieutenant.