Nakatindi Yeta Nganga Explained

Nakatindi Yeta Nganga
Office:Member of the National Assembly for Nalikwanda
Term Start:1964
Term End:1968
Predecessor:Seat created
Successor:Morgan Simwinji
Office2:Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labor and Social Development
Term Start2:1965
Term End2:1966
Office3:Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Mines and Co-operatives
Term Start3:1966
Term End3:1967
Office4:Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Co-operatives, Youth and Social Development
Term Start4:1967
Term End4:1968
Office5:Member of the House of Chiefs
Term Start5:1968
Term End5:1972
Birth Date:1922
Birth Place:Lealui, Northern Rhodesia
Death Date:1972
Party:UNIP

Nakatindi Yeta Nganga (1922–1972)[1] was a Lozi aristocrat and Zambian politician. Jointly one of the first women elected to the National Assembly, she was also the country's first female junior minister.

Biography

Nakatindi was born in Lealui; her father was Yeta III, the Litunga of Barotseland. She attended the Tiger Kloof Educational Institute in South Africa, and between 1952 and 1964 she served on the Mongu-Lealui District Education Authority.[1] She was the first well-known woman in Barotseland to join UNIP,[1] and was the first director of the UNIP Women's Brigade, a position she held until losing to Maria Nankolongo in internal elections in 1967.[2] She contested the 1962 Legislative Council elections in the Zambezi national constituency,[3] but was defeated by Job Michello of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress.

In the 1964 general elections, Nakatindi ran in the Nalikwanda constituency and was elected to the Legislative Council, which became the National Assembly upon independence later in the year. Alongside Margret Mbeba and Ester Banda, she was a member of the first group of women to be elected to the legislature.[4] She went on to become Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labor and Social Development in 1966,[1] the first woman to hold a junior ministerial position.[5] The following year she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Mines and Co-operatives, before becoming Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Co-operatives, Youth and Social Development in 1967.[1]

Nakatindi remained a member of the National Assembly until losing her seat to Zambian African National Congress in the 1968 elections.[1] She then became a member of the House of Chiefs and governor of Sesheke District, positions in which she served until her death in 1972.[1]

Her daughter Nakatindi Wina, one of 11 children,[1] later also served as an MP and minister.[6]

Notes and References

  1. Wim van Binsbergen (1987) Chiefs and the state in independent Zambia Journal of Legal Pluralism
  2. Lubosi Kikamba (2012) The role of women's organisations in the political development of Zambia, 1964-2001: A case study of the UNIP Women's League and the Zambia National Women's Lobby Group University of Zambia
  3. Alexander Grey Zulu (2007) The memoirs of Alexander Grey Zulu, Times Printpak Zambia, p228
  4. Mbuyo Nalumango and Monde Sifuniso (1998) Woman power in politics, Zambia Women Writers Association, p48
  5. Kamini Krishna & Friday E. Mulenga (2004) Contribution of Zambian Women and Indian Women to the Struggle for Freedom: A legend of Courage and Compassion ‘African Renewal, African Renaissance’: New Perspectives on Africa’s Past and Africa’s Present
  6. https://allafrica.com/stories/199806100035.html Zambia: Women of substance: Their stories told