Mr Mushiko is a teacher at a named private school in Kabwe.
He recently brought a group of learners – on a guided educational tour – to the Lusaka National Museum.
“We strategically put the museum on the itinerary because we know that pupils can learn a lot of things from here. Plus, I teach history. It’s only important that they come here and appreciate some of the things they learn and also see for themselves some of the artefacts here,” he says.
According to him, he expected to find everything else that he saw there, except for one inclusion that did not only dazzle, but excited him – the Sikota Wina exhibition.
Yes, just about five months after his death, Mr Wina has been brought to life, but this time only in picture, text and other personal effects of his, through an exhibition that has recently been opened at the Lusaka National Museum.
“This is what I always talk about,” says Mr Mushiko. “If it were up to me, I would change the country’s curriculum to include such people in our history lessons. We cannot be teaching people about people that are not in any way connected to us.”
Mr Mushiko added: “Anyway, I am glad my learners have been here and they have learnt a thing or two about this man’s great legacy and his role in the liberation struggle.”
Mr Wina, who died last June at the age of 91, was the last surviving member of Zambia’s first cabinet, following the death of first President Kenneth Kaunda in June last year.
Aaron Milner, who was a minister of state but did not make cabinet at independence, is now the torch-bearer from that 1964 class.
Mr Wina was one of the most colourful figures of that generation.
And during his heyday, women found him irresistible, so said his late wife, Princess Nakatindi Wina and Sandy Clark, who worked for Mr Wina’s brother, Arthur, in the early 1970s.
“When I met a very handsome and powerful black Zambian politician, and past freedom fighter by the name of Sikota Wina when I arrived in 1970, I liked what I saw,” Sandy Clark writes in her book, My Love Affair with Zambia.
She says: “He was a tough character who fought for the right for Zambia to manage its own affairs. By this time in the country’s history, lethargy had ended, paternalism had had its day and Sikota was right up front, leading with those fighting against foreign domination of the country he was born in.
“I recognised quickly there was electricity that was happening between us. I was newly-wed, facing a few re-adjustment marriage problems in a new country far from home. Sikota was challenging and tough. He was ruggedly handsome with an amazing set of white teeth and a great smile and his dark brown shining eyes were piercing. So piercing that I remember it wasn’t easy for me to look him in the eye for too long.”
His late wife, Nakatindi, actually confessed that it was a battle for her to get him as a husband because he was highly on demand.
Princess Nakatindi, who died in 2012, said Mr Wina was highly sought after by women from all races and she had to turn physical to turn them away from him.
“I really scattered them all. I really fought for my marriage,” she said in one interview.
But make no mistake, when it came to national matters, particularly the liberation struggle, Mr Wina was a firebrand who was even expelled from Fort Hare University in South Africa because of his nationalistic tendencies.
From the exhibition that has been put together under the museum’s running programme called ‘Celebrating our heroes and heroines’, one can relive his life once again.
The exhibition, which was officially opened by Minister of Tourism Rodney Sikumba and attended by, among others, former Vice-President Inonge Wina, who was wife of his late brother, Arthur, chronicles his personal and political life in pictures.
Some of his personal effects such as honours, medals and books are also on display. You need to see the books – he had one of the most impressive collections, including those he authored himself and those gifted to him by his late wife.
Mr Sikumba wishes that as a way of preserving the country’s history, more of such exhibitions could be held in honour of all those that fought for the country’s independence and freedom.
“It is true that Mr Wina’s belief in truth, peace, love, unity, loyalty, humility and obedience was the driving force behind the One Zambia, One Nation motto, which united the Zambian people despite cultural differences,” he said. “These are attributes that all of us should emulate to ensure that peace and unity prevail in our country.”
Lusaka Mayor Chilando Chitangala said Mr Wina’s legacy will live on for generations to come.
“We the current leaders have a lot to learn from his life,” she said.
For the freedom fighters, bringing Mr Wina ‘back to life’ is a great remembrance of one of their own – a man they hold in high regard.
“You know, before his death, Mr Wina was interested in promoting the preservation of the comprehensive history of the freedom fighters movement,” said Herbert Zulu, the national secretary for the Zambia United National Freedom Fighters Associations, in an interview. “We therefore urge the National Museum to carry on the vision by documenting the stories and accounts of different freedom fighters and collecting memorabilia from them which might help us to preserve the history of the freedom struggle.”
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