Daughter of Zambia's ex-vice president discloses gift Kwame Nkrumah gave her father

The deeds of man, they say, continue to follow him even after his life has ended. Some 50 years after he died on April 27, 1972, Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, is still revered and respected among those who knew him, as well as in the eyes of their descendants.

Over the years, there have been debates, tales, misconceptions, and misrepresented facts over what many have known about the founding father of Ghana.

But for those who knew him personally, he seemed to have left a lasting impression on many of them to date.

For instance, the daughter of Simon Kapwepwe, who once served as Zambia's vice-president, has shared how Kwame Nkrumah gifted her late father a kente cloth from Ghana.

According to Mulenga Kapwepwe, the cloth was cut in half and one piece was gifted to the founding father of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda.

She further added that Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, who Mulenga Kapwepwe described as ‘KK,’ wore the piece of kente cloth at the 50th Independence Day celebrations of Zambia.

Mulenga Kapwepwe also revealed that her late father, Simon Kapwepwe, was buried in the same piece of cloth.

“Before our independence, the then President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah gifted my father this kente cloth, my father cut it in half and gifted KK the other half. At our 50th Independence celebrations, KK wore his piece as he did on 24th October 1964. We buried my father in his,” she wrote in a tweet.

In a similar tweet on the subject, the son of former Malawi Pan-Africanist, Kanyama Chiume, who led in the struggle for independence in the 1950s, shared that Kwame Nkrumah also gifted his father a smock.

Nathan Chiume wrote that cloth went on to become one of his father’s most prized possession. He also shared an image of his father wearing the smock from Nkrumah while riding on a ferry on the Ilala Lake in Malawi.

“Similarly, my father @KanyamaChiume- who was your dad’s friend and contemporary - was also gifted by Kwame Nkrumah the Ghanaian smock that he is wearing in the picture below (riding the Ilala on Lake Malawi/Nyasa). The smock was one of his most prized possessions,” he wrote on Twitter.

See the image and tweets below:


Kaunda arrives to attend the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Zambian independence [Credit: trumpetmediagroup.com]

Before our independence, the then President of Ghana, Nkwame Nkrumah gifted my father this kente cloth, my father cut it in half and gifted KK the other half. At our 50th Independence celebrations, KK wore his piece as he did on 24th October 1964. We buried my father in his. pic.twitter.com/4fNcDsziVM

— Mulenga Kapwepwe (@Mulengakapwepwe) January 4, 2023

Similarly, my father @KanyamaChiume - who was your dad’s friend and contemporary - was also gifted by Kwame Nkrumah the Ghanaian smock that he is wearing in the picture below (riding the Ilala on Lake Malawi/Nyasa). The smock was one of his most prized possessions. pic.twitter.com/F1cS0kM3aV

— Nathan Chiume ???????????????????????? (@chiume) January 5, 2023