On Sunday, Zambia’s Hichilema led his nation in commemorating Remembrance Day, angering Africans across the continent. Hichilema would later attempt a clever circumlocution to mask his puppetry by generalizing that it was to “honor our brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms and liberties and pray for our troops on Peace Keeping Missions across the world,” as though the day had anything to do with Zambians. Of course, it doesn’t. It’s a British ritual, observed since 1919 to honor British soldiers who died in the 1914–1918 war and successive conquest wars.

So, why would an African leader, fully aware of the brutal history of British conquest wars and the atrocities committed by the British Imperial war machine in Africa, actively participate in celebrating the legacy of those responsible for such vile deeds? Why did Hichilema honor British servicemen who raped African women, castrated African men, and mutilated African children? The answer to this question lies in ongoing efforts by the British to revise and sanitize their blood-soaked history. In this revisionist distortion, some African leaders, among them Kenya’s William Ruto and Hichilema, have been instrumentalized to paint a false picture, some sort of British-African camaraderie

Sanitizing British Imperial crimes against Africa

Kenya’s William Ruto, for example, recently hosted the British Monarch in a ceremony at a cemetery where the monarch laid a wreath, ostensibly paying tribute to Kenyans who fought alongside the British in the two World Wars. In Hichilema’s case, commemorating Remembrance Day on Sunday to honor British servicemen was his participation in enabling and validating the false glorification of Africans as willing comrades in arms of the British in the 1914–1918 European War (often wrongly called World War 1). Both Ruto and Hichilema are helping to validate Britain’s distorted picture of a shared historical legacy with Africa, thereby advancing Britain’s ongoing efforts to obscure the horrendous realities of an unforgivable imperial period of British occupation of Africa, which otherwise demands acknowledgment and reparations.

Hichilema’s commemoration of Remembrance Day is particularly a travesty, as it whitewashes the historical injustices of victimization, colonization, and commodification endured by Africans under British rule. In doing so, Hichilema, like Ruto, is acting as a public relations pawn in British efforts to revise and distort the reality of Africa’s painful experiences under British imperialism. This involves portraying a false picture of African camaraderie with the British and helping sanitize British conscription of Africans as war slave labor, forced to construct British war camps, dig British battle trenches, and carry supplies for British officers – an unforgettable African experience whose perpetrators Hichilema honored, instead of demanding acknowledgment and reparations.

The making of Hichilema the puppet

Hichilema’s actions, of course, are hardly surprising to anyone familiar with his transition from working for Western corporations to the presidency of Zambia, which prior to 2021, was riddled with suspicions that he was a purposefully mentored Western project. This has since proven credible, tracing back to his training in business and finance at Britain’s University of Birmingham, which positioned him to play a disruptive role in Zambia’s economy, prior to returning as its savior, with presidential ambitions starting in 1996.

Consistent with the traditional script often observed in African leaders of the last three decades whom the West props up, the ilk of Hichilema undergo training in Western universities, specifically in economics. Following their training, these individuals are then elevated to positions of economic influence in their respective countries, only to later emerge as presidential candidates ostensibly vying to ‘save’ the nation from economic turmoil—ironically, one they orchestrated! This was the same case with Alassane Ouattara before his ascendancy to the presidency in Ivory Coast.

Privatizing Zambian Consolidated Copper Mines

Hichilema’s role as a Western puppet was evident even before his presidency. For instance, he played a leading role in the privatization of the Zambian Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) in 1997. This act left millions of Zambians poorer, but Hichilema richer! It left millions of Zambians jobless and led to periods of severe economic upheaval on the Copperbelt, but Hichilema’s personal fortune soared. By 2006, he had amassed a net worth of at least 23 billion kwacha (USD 5.75 million), much of which was derived from his active involvement in the privatization of Zambian state assets, including Luanshya Mine, Lima Bank, and the Intercontinental Hotel. With that loot, Hichilema first set his eyes on the Zambian presidency in 1996, failing five times before triumphing in 2021. Ever since then, Hichilema has come full circle as a western puppet.

Opening US AFRICOM office in Zambia

In his first year alone, since becoming president in 2021, Hichilema implemented a slew of actions that only cleared any doubt as to his slavish puppetry of Western powers. He swiftly liaised with and allowed the American government to open its U.S. Africa Command in Zambia. This is a move that not only all his predecessors strongly opposed but also one that regional leaders, both before him, such as South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, and present-day peers, rightly opposed as constituting an unacceptable violation of Africa’s sovereignty.

Abolishing VISA fees for Europeans, retaining for Africans

Last year, Hichilema abolished all visa fees for British, Canadian, European, and American tourists arriving in Zambia. Not only was this never going to be replicated by these countries (and has not been – to Zambia’s economic detriment), but tellingly, not a single African country was included on the list easing visa access. This showed where Hichilema’s true allegiance lies.

Generous Mining deals for Europeans

Third, Hichilema has cut extremely generous deals with mining multinationals that operate in Zambia, recently directing his government to relinquish its 20% shareholding stake in Kansanshi Mine, operated by a Canadian firm that had invested in his election, in return for a paltry 3% royalty payment on revenue.

More privatization of Zambia’s remaining state assets

Reliable sources indicate that Hichilema is currently in the process of privatizing Zambia’s remaining state parastatals, such as the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation and Zambia Telecommunications Company, among others. British and US firms are reportedly set to be the beneficiaries of this process. If implemented, this move would mark the final stage of a scheme initiated by Hichilema in 1997 with the privatization of the Zambian Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM).

Pawn in US Ideological Rivalry with China

Hichilema, akin to his puppet counterparts such as Kenya’s Ruto, Ivory Coast’s Ouattara, and Nigeria’s Tinubu, has effectively positioned himself as a willing pawn in the US’ ideological rivalry with other powers, particularly China and Russia. Indeed, Jim Risch, a ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised Hichilema for working diligently to curb China’s perceived malign and predatory influence in Zambia, while simultaneously enhancing cooperation with the US.