This paper looks at the absurdity of Zambia’s party - political expediency in the wake of cadre-lism.

1. 1
TOPIC:
AN ANALYSIS OF ABSURDITY OF ZAMBIA’S PARTY - POLITICAL
EXPEDIENCY IN THE WAKE OF CADRE-LISM:
A Response to Banality of Political Violence. WHAT REMEDY?
By Ngosa Dennis
Abstract
This paper looks at the absurdity of Zambia’s party - political expediency in the wake
of cadre-lism. The extent of party-political expediency leaves much to be desired. Zambian’s
unfolding party-politics render the whole naked happenings absurd or better still a bizarre
conduit to the real Armageddon. As a matter of fact the whole drama that characterizes
Zambia’s political events such as elections, rallies, conventions, constitution making process
render the Zambia’s situation absurdity. Where has Zambia missed the concept of ideal
democracy? Why is there so much political violence during the campaign for general elections
and by-elections? Why has cadre-lism become the vehicle for such vices (political violence
and malpractices in the electoral process) in Zambia?
The mutual relationship between the political parties is not characterized by enmity,
violence, vendetta and antagonism. Rather respect for each other’s views is the hallmark of the
politics and harmonious democratic culture. This tolerance and an atmosphere of reconciliation
comes from the well entrenched rules of the game that political parties set as cardinal principles
directing their conduct in the domain of public policy and general welfare.
Apparently in Zambia and Africa at large there is a growing trend of cadre intolerance
within the political den. The political related violence that we saw in the media from Kenya,
Zimbabwe etc are now in our backyards (by-elections). Moreover, innuendos of hatred flood
our media today in Zambia. It’s from this background of specific political banalities such as
violence that we render necessity to the topic under this analysis which seeks to analyse the
absurdity of Zambia’s party-political expedience in the wake of cadre-lism.
In order to admit viable democracy, it presupposes on the part of its citizen’s political
maturity, good governance, good judgment and the readiness to subordinate their own private
interests to the demands of the common good. But what is seen in Zambia is exactly the
opposite. Zambia’s political expediency not only blindfolds but disfigure real players of
patriotic politics; what they call real politics; and so liberative politics that Zambia need. At the
end of the day this extent of expediency leaves the political cadres into what we can call the

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professionally orchestrated political slumbers while the Zambian masses wander in an
unending trance of hopelessness. Today the people/national welfare no longer charts the agenda
other than political party interests which I refer to as cadre-lism at its best.
It seems today the only reasonable reason in Zambia’s cadre robustness is what’s in for
me. Ones extent of sacrifice and patriotism is measured by how much one can get out of it
regardless of the means used. With this in mind only the logical thing happens as personal,
human, religious, citizen and otherwise integrity is somewhat privatized. Indeed, political
hypocrisy has never been an adequate term to describe our Zambia’s political predicament as
championed by partisan cadres and their funders. There is need to move away from this in order
for the Zambian masses to experience meaningful development. I mean the development that
translates into improved service delivery and livelihood than remain on annual reports and
evaluations delivered in five star hotels. We got to stop this merry-go-round kind of business
it’s almost as if saying as it was in the beginning. I think 46 years after our independence
Zambia as a country should be ready to charter the Zambia we need, the kind social livelihood
we need, level of critical social consciousness we need for the masses and the peace and
development. However, with mere politicking and mud sliding of the cadres our future as a
country and Africa as whole is arguably fated.
Keywords: Absurdity, Expedience, Party-Politics, Cadre-lism, Political violence
INTRODUCTION
To start with, politics is often defined as the art of the possible. Very often than not, the
term politics has been misplaced, misunderstood and misinterpreted as the struggle for power
(who decide what, who controls what, who commands, who rules etc). This misconception of
politics has brought about kingdoms, empires, states, violence and hatred for one other, wars,
divisions to name but a few.
From the definition above, the idea of politics should arise out of people’s concern for
their welfare and their wish to make their viewpoint known to the powers that be on the issues
that can affect their life. With the expansion of human thought, the difference on the handling
of issues among the representatives of people (politicians) has led to the multiplicity of political
forces representing specific viewpoints different from what other party holds. Thus the
presence of more than one political party with divergent views is seen as a plus for the growth
of civil society and democratic norms. This is an indication of the fact that the growing needs

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of people are taken care of in every possible manner. The mutual relationship between the
political parties is not characterized by enmity, violence, vendetta and antagonism. Rather
respect for each other’s views is the hallmark of the politics and harmonious democratic
culture. This tolerance and an atmosphere of reconciliation comes from the well entrenched
rules of the game that political parties set as cardinal principles directing their conduct in the
domain of public policy and general welfare.
Apparently in Zambia and Africa at large there is a growing trend of cadre intolerance
within the political den. The political related violence that we saw in the media from Kenya,
Zimbabwe etc are now in our backyards (by-elections). Moreover, innuendos of hatred flood
our media today in Zambia. It’s from this background of specific political banalities such as
violence that we render necessity to the topic under this analysis which seeks to analyse the
absurdity of Zambia’s party-political expedience in the wake of cadre-lism.
THE SOCIO-POLITICAL MILEU IN ZAMBIA
Contrary to the ideal principle outlined above, Perhaps, Zambian politics has been a
vicious circle of ego-logy. What more to vouch for the Zambian Party-political absurdity than
echo some giants: Man know thyself, for man is the measure of all things; of things that are,
that they are and of things that are not, that they are not (Ephriam-Stephen, 2011). I think
therefore I am, and other things ‘become’ because I posits them (Schwegler and Seelye, 2001).
Such have been the arrogance and the inherent aggressiveness of Zambian’s elite. Zambia’s
Political thought, generally, seems to have been aggressively anthropocentric and
anthropomorphic rather than humanistic. Nothing is true, valid, and authentic, that falls outside
its cocoon system of ontological and epistemological categories. In this way Zambia has been
and continues to be monolithically as dysfunctional state were corruption, client-lism and
patrimonial rule predominate and is perceived as ‘a personal rule’, ‘as the politics of the belly’,
‘as the politics of chaos’ or as disorder as politics instrument’.
Zambian leaders usually sought to achieve their political ambitions and electoral
competitiveness through construction of patron-client relation which I call cadre-lism.1
However, viewed in the context of development of political institutions and
civilianization of national decision-making structure, the vessel of Zambian politics has been
1 Cadrelism here is the concept of being affiliated to a particular political party with the notion of doing anything
possible in order to sustain that particular party to be in power within the limits of a particular individual. This is
perceived as a negative notion of belonging to a particular political party for it carries with it the vices of
negatively influencing the multitude using dubious means.

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sunk in uncharted waters of cadre-lism for the last two to four decades. Understanding the key
variables is important to grasp the prevalent political realities. These realities include the
inability of political parties to learn from the past mistakes and chart out a cause of action that
is based on expediency and a culture of co-existence and not on political violence and cadre-
lism. The Zambian’s unfolding party-politics cannot let one afford not to render the whole
naked happenings absurd or better still a bizarre conduit to the real Armageddon. As a matter
of fact the whole drama that characterizes Zambia’s political events such as elections, rallies,
conventions render the Zambia’s situation absurdity. Who else then can explain Zambia’s
growing electro-hooliganism as witnessed in some parts of the country (Livingstone, Kasama,
Mufumbwe, by-elections etc?
The question one may pose is why has the Zambian politics, especially after the
democratization of this country, continues to suffer political violence in the name of cadre-
lism, political party hatred, tribalism, regionalism, socio-economic marginalization, corruption
to list but a few? Oddly enough, the inevitable unpopular question among party-political elites
pervades: Why has our national political systems failed to deliver the domestic or national
peace in terms of party-politics and solidarity for which they were established? Is it not for the
fact that the ego so dominates everything else that the “Other” is hardly given a room? Is there
no significant relationship between this model of totalising metaphysical reduction of the pure
idealistic thought and the banality of evil in our contemporary political systems? There is. Any
system: political, economic, even religious, founded on the ‘first’ person is unprotected against
ego’s innate selfishness and violence. Violence is essentially a hatred of the otherness of the
‘other’, a refusal and denial of the different. Thus, a system in which the many and the different
must always be brought ontologically under the tyranny of the One, the contentless anonymity
of Being seems intrinsically violent. A system where the particular must always stoop to the
domineering uniformity of the universals may likely not tolerate anything entirely outside its
laws. Levinas’ ethics and its recent offshoot (Levinas, 1974; 1991)—the ethics of Care—
stresses the necessity of positive valuing of particularity; it emphasises the view points of the
alien other. Zambia’s political violence is been triggered because those in leadership are only
concerned with the self (politics of the belly) and not of the other in the thought of Levinas.
Today the people/national welfare no longer charts the agenda other than political party
interests (we call this cadre-lism at its best).
The most significant and astonishing phenomenon of the resent history in Zambian
party-politics is the sophistication with which the performance of acts of party-political
violence through which innumerable evils are perpetuated, institutionalized, and integrated into

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normal routines of everyday life. The “pornography” of violence has become normal during
the public gatherings and more especially where two or more political parties come together.
The horrors of violence are obvious; they paradoxically increase with every advance in human
ego-lism and political party’s interest.
Patriotic Politics: the Zambia we need
The extent of Zambia party-political expediency leaves much to be desired by
onlookers. Why should our politicians continue to play a childish game of hide and seek; while
waiting for an opportunity to politically ambush someone? Some in this vein use government
machinery, taxpayers money or any form of malpractices ambush thus within political parties
or even across. Those perceived as enemies or possible challengers are subjected to
Machiavellianism. Zambia today is indeed virtually laden to doing just that.
In as far as we are concerned, it’s the expediency that not only blindfolds but disfigure
real players of patriotic politics; what we call real politics; and so liberative politics that Zambia
need. At the end of the day this extent of expediency leaves the political cadres into what we
can call the professionally orchestrated political slumbers while the Zambian masses wander
in an unending trance of hopelessness. Whatever happened to real consciousness of the people
leaves much to be desired? It seems today the only reasonable reason in Zambia’s cadre
robustness is what’s in for me. Ones extent of sacrifice and patriotism is measured by how
much one can get out of it. With this in mind only the logical thing happens where regrettably
personal, human, religious, citizen and otherwise integrity is somewhat privatized. Indeed,
political hypocrisy has never been an adequate term to describe our Zambia’s political
predicament as championed by partisan cadres and their funders.
There is need to move away from this in order for the Zambian masses to experience
meaningful development. That is, the development that translates into improved service
delivery and livelihood than remain on annual reports and evaluations delivered in five star
hotels. We got to stop this merry-go-round kind of business it’s almost as if saying as it was in
the beginning. After 50 years of independence Zambia as a country should be ready to charter
the Zambia we need, the kind social livelihood we need, level of critical social consciousness
we need for the masses. However, with mere buttress politicking and mud sliding of the cadres
our future as a country and Africa as whole is arguably fated as a palpable delusion.
The political cadre compromise should not be the new vocabulary to be learned by all
registered and unregistered members of particular political parties. By the way, party-political
expediency is not a bad thing as such; this is insofar as it respects the basic ideals of Zambia’s
national hood – thus human rights, freedom etc.

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Structural Violence
The other thing that has contributed much to this party-political violence is what I call
“the structural violence”. The term structural violence here is used to describe a process of
existing power struggles between political parties. This structural violence has been a fertile
ground for physical political violence in Zambia. Structural violence—coined by Johan
Galtun—is the extended concept of violence which would denote the systematic way in which
a given social structure or institutions kill people slowly by preventing them from meeting their
basic needs. This occurs whenever a group of people are disadvantaged by political, legal,
economic traditions (Gidddens, 1994). When violence is perpetuated simply by social
structures—and not by an individual’s conscious and voluntary act—the alertness of ethical
goodness is demanded of him/her all the more. This is so because such violence is hidden under
ordinarily acceptable social structures that even its victims might not even perceive the
systematic way in which their plight is rooted in these inherently oppressive structures. In fact,
Cadre-lism is a classic paradigm of such structural violence.
Physical act of violence (due to cadre-lism) is but the external expression of an on-
going structural relationship between the political parties built on structural violence. In this
case, hostile aggression of one political party (usually the ruling class) towards the opposition
and vice versa is not an inseparable party of what defines the political scenario in Zambia.
These political acts of violence are a reflection of the existing socio-structural relationships
that are arranged by a set power relation.
Apart from promoting the neo-totalitarianism, monopoly, and dictatorship among its
key party-political players, cadre-lism encourages competition where the levels of the
competitors’ strength are poles apart. Thus, today, more and more people languish in abject
poverty mostly due to a systematic and masterminded income imbalance. Indeed, there is also
the fact of unfair play when it comes to access job opportunities if ones party-political
allegiance is externally underlined. Consequently, bridging the gap between the rich and the
poor becomes a dream realisable in a no foreseeable future. It seems evident that political cadre-
lism is a tool of direct manipulation of politics.
Furthermore, the aforementioned social order cunningly creates today a new kind of
marginalisation invisible to a non-critical observer. Under the insensitive market logic of
competition and profit dominated by consumerism and functionalism, the aged, the infirm, the
unskilled, the non-literate, and the less advantaged, are systematically pushed to the borderline
of the society. Consumerism and functionalism define the Other with fallacious categories. For
the former, the dignity and respectability of the Other depends on the amount of money s/he is

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able to spend while for the latter, the Other is defined by what s/he can do rather than who s/he
is—a unique human being, a person.
In general therefore, structural violence is often rationalised and the society assumes
that its victims, in some way, deserve their plight. Not only that such a justification of a
neighbour’s pains, for Levinas, is the source of all immorality (Levinas, 1991), one also
becomes easily lured to succumb to what Levinas calls the temptation of the innocent. That is,
the temptation to feel that since I am not directly culpable for my neighbour’s hunger or
nakedness, I am not therefore ethically obliged to feed or clothe him/her and this has been the
case of the leadership of Zambia and it political milieu.
Political will to fight corruption in Zambia
In Zambia it is now widely acknowledged that the current government has
compromised the formerly strong stance against political corruption because they now permits
people accused of corruption to remain scot free and other still serves as member of ministerial
post or members of the ruling party. For example, the currently contravential acquittal of
former president Fredrick Chiluba and the refusal by the state to appeal leaves much room to
question the calibre of the current government. The other most vivid and recent flop with the
current government’s failure to fight corruption is the government’s call to removal of abuse
of office from the Anti-corruption Commission Act which will now turn Zambia into a corrupt
haven.
In Zambia, the failure of the government to adhere to people’s call to appeal and to act
against the acquittal of Chiluba and others has led to a perception that the rule of law does not
apply since some accused of political corruption are prosecuted and others are let off and indeed
continue to flourish politically. The potential for success in prosecuting political and grand
corruption in Zambia is slim as most cases have now dragged on for close to five years without
signs of being concluded. The few cases that have been concluded have resulted mostly in
acquittals. A number of factors have been attributed to this dismal performance that range from
delays in the court process, the accused fleeing the country, complications in obtaining
evidence, selective prosecution targeting political opponents only, and so on. The potential for
success in anti-corruption investigations and prosecutions is quite slim.
The utopia of Zambian Constitution

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Another key question to ask is “how people driven is the Zambian constitution? ”
Basically, a good constitution should stand the test of time and be able to shape the political,
economical and ethical realities of the citizens. A good constitution is the key to democracy,
good governance, the rule of law and the development of the country. Zambian constitution
leaves much to desire to how many time in less than 45 years of independence has it gone under
review in the name of coming up with the “people driven” constitution. Though the current
review by the National Constitution Committee (2010) is the fifth to review the constitution
after independence, unfortunately, many Zambians have not embraced its contents because
they feel it lacks constitutional legitimacy, that is, it is a “government driven process” rather
than a “people driven” constitution. A basis of unjust, inequality, justification of illegal
practices etc which favours the ruling class. For example, the proposals to include within the
new constitution the rights for food, water and shelter were dismissed as “utopian.” This is
indeed a strange and unwarranted objection - revealing more about the lack of understanding
on the part of the individual who made such an objection than about the quality of the proposals.
My dictionary tells me that “utopian” means something that is admirable but impracticable in
real life. Would political rights such as a democratic vote or legal rights such as a fair trial also
be called “utopian” and therefore not to be included in the Constitution?
What about erecting structures that can offer checks and balances, accountability to our
leaders and the whole banalities that goes with their party-political cadre-extremism? Looking
at both law enforcers and the masses in Zambia there is a growing tolerance and wretched
legalisation of intimidation from party-political cadre-extremists then there is need to diffuse
this state of affairs. That’s why a constitution of a country is indeed a condition sine qua non
for undoing these party –political absurdities. The constitution need to stipulate as it creates a
level playing ground for all players in politics. I further employ that the national constitution
need to categorically facilitate a fair play scenario through written guidelines for political
cadres from the opposition and ruling party. This will in a long run work for the cadres who
will no longer be subjected unnecessary abuse from their party leaders. With this constitution
demand they should be able to realise that they are also players and real contributors to real
politics and development that goes with it.
Furthermore, there is need for civil society organisation, NGO, Church organisation
insofar as they remain non-partisan to have a constitution credibility to sensitize the masses on
real and liberative political consciousness. Additionally, there need to make sure that leaders
are taken to task for doctoring cadre extremism. With all convictions in Zambian context it
may not suffice to preamble the constitution with Christian declaration but it may surely suffice

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if we enshrine the virtues of the otherness- the face. Failure to do so it will just remain as the
utopia.
CONCLUSION
There is need for Zambian party-politics to enter into ethical encounter and dialogue
with the Other, thus bridging the gab which egocentrism sets distance between the political
parties and the citizens.
Such distancing breeds fear and fear breeds suspicion, suspicion often ends in fault
finding, drawing of line of battle, and eventual conflagration of violence at the slightest
provocation. If there is to be no more political violence in Zambian politics, the choiceless
ethical choices has to start with our leaders. For leaders are all responsible for everyone and
everything that has to do with the nations peace and development.
If our constant dream, our noble desire, for internal peace, solidarity, authentic progress,
and the betterment of each human and all humans is to be realised, Zambian politicians must
be the first to pay the ultimate prize of the ethical—the unquestionable, unconditional unselfish,
and sacrificial receptivity of the Universal face of the common citizen, as well as the immediate
concrete face of my neighbour, the proximate Other.
There is also indeed to have a good constitution that will be the guiding principle for
the nation. A good constitution is one that is broad based, inclusive, open and allows every
citizen to participate in its building process. This will make Citizens become proud of it, own
it, pledge to support its contents and ready to defend its cause because it truly reflects a
fundamental national consensus. After all, the people of Zambia are the ultimate custodian of
laws of the land.
Finally, the Zambia we need can be realized only when our politicians courageously
assume their full ethical responsibility—infinitely demanding, impenetrability, meta-natural,
deontological, and irrationality as it honestly may be—then can our political leaders realise that
they are not wolves to one another; and that violence of any kind let alone the witnessed cadre
physical bane is not for humans. Rather, we are our brothers’ and sisters striving to achieve
one goal, that is, Partnership for National Development of our country.
Reference
Anthony Giddens, Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics (California:
Standford University Press, 1994) Pp. 230-231.

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Ephriam-Stephen Essen (Ed)-2011. Summa Philosophica: An Introducation to Philosophy
and Logic. Lulu.com
Levinas, E (1991). Entre Nous: On Thinking-of-the-Other. As issue of the prestigious Les
Cahier de L’Herne
Levinas, E (1974). Otherwise than Being, or Beyond Essence, the second magnum opus.
Schwegler A and Seelye J.H-(2001). A History of Philosophy. The Minerva Group, Inc
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
NGOSA DENNIS holds a Master of Philosophy in Labour Law. He currently works with
Zambia Episcopal Conference as a researcher. His research areas are state theory, political
analysis, Labour law, strike movements, and philosophical research. [Email:
demeriz@outlook.com]