It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for the people of Zambia. Their outspoken president, Michael Sata, who suffered from an undisclosed illness, died just four days after the 50th anniversary of the nation’s independence. In addition to ushering in a national period of mourning, Sata’s death also elevated Vice President Guy Scott to the position of interim president. Scott is an accomplished Zambian politician and his rise to the presidency comes at an important time in Zambian politics. Despite all of this, the media is obsessed with emphasizing one thing in particular: Scott is white.
Scott, who was born in 1944 in the north Rhodesian city of Livingstone, is one of about 40,000 Zambian citizens of European descent. His skin color is of very little concern to Zambians as their country is widely renowned as one of the most successful multiethnic democracies in Africa. Indeed, the white population in Zambia has increased due to an influx of Zimbabwean immigrants. This is not to suggest that Zambia is a post-racial utopia, but Zambians are more concerned with the politics surrounding this situation than their president’s race.
When Sata died, he opened up Pandora’s box within his party, the Patriotic Front. According to the Zambian constitution, Scott is required to become the acting president of the country for the next 90 days and after this period, elections will be held. Scott won’t be nominated as the PF’s presidential candidate. First, he doesn’t have enough political influence within the party. In fact, while Sata was in the hospital he appointed Defense Minister Edgar Lungu as acting president. Second, Scott being president requires the repeal of a controversial constitutional amendment. The amendment states that one’s parents must have been born in Zambia and unfortunately for Scott, both of his parents were born in Scotland.
The death of Sata and the ineligibility of Scott has left a power vacuum within the Patriotic Front. Lungu, one of the chief contenders for the presidential candidacy, was fired from his post as secretary general on Nov. 3 by Scott. Lungu’s sacking was criticized as disrespectful party infighting during a period of national mourning. The move was so poorly received, it sparked riots in Lusaka, forcing Scott to reinstate Lungu the next day. To complicate the situation further, Sata died as the country considered a proposed constitutional amendment to require the presidential winner to receive at least 51 percent of the vote. Currently, Zambia is a multi-party democracy so a majority could mean as little as 41 percent of the vote.
Despite the political context, the media continues to disproportionately focus on Scott’s race. Reducing a complex political matter to an entirely racial issue is both lazy and inappropriate. It’s difficult to find an article that doesn’t make the erroneous claim that Scott is sub-Saharan Africa’s first white leader since the end of Apartheid. This kind of journalistic behavior shows how the media tends to frame situations in black and white. Guy Scott is more than a skin color and the political situation in Zambia reflects that.