Lusaka, Zambia
A Patriot With A Heart For The African Continent
Hello everyone! Welcome to my webpage!
Firstly, who am I? I am a lawyer and a civil rights activist based in Zambia. Through the school of hard knocks, I have also become an advocate for the advancement of women in all spheres of leadership. I now also consider myself to be a writer about all things concerning women, leadership, governance, and even myself – stay tuned!
In 2019, I quit my job as a Partner of a reputable commercial law firm. People thought I was crazy to do that in order to set up an NGO, Chapter One Foundation, and my own law firm LCK Chambers. I did so because I believed I was called to serve in the area of protecting human rights and the rule of law in Zambia. It is definitely one of the hardest things that I have done, but as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
I came across a post on LinkedIn by Womba Silumbu-Kankondo, another lawyer who has recently quit her job. She said that like me, people thought she was crazy to quit her cushy job at a bank in order to set up her own practice. She loved her job and her colleagues, but she explains her decision to quit like this:
“[A] time came, as does for everyone, when I knew I needed to spread my love to more people. To share my gift with the world unlimited by time and space. For almost 7 years, I was a servant of one master. But my calling is much bigger, I was called to be [the] servant of many masters. I only needed to listen to the still voice [within] to learn …this. Where was I to start from? From the beginning. Firstly, by providing a service that people needed and was useful. Secondly, I was going to live by the “law of mutual exchange.” And it therefore follows that as I have “contributed to prosperity… I have in turn prospered – riches untold!”
That is my story. I embarked on my new path at a time when it was very costly to do so. The work that we went on to do involved speaking truth to power and defending those who might otherwise not have had legal representation. The alternative was to remain silent and to keep one’s head down to avoid the blows of a force undoubtably greater than any individual. But what is the cost of silence? As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
I believe that we are all called to serve in some shape or form. Paulo Coelho, the writer of the book ‘The Alchemist’ urges us all to pursue our “personal legend”: that thing that we were brought on earth to do – our purpose. Writer and politician Wes Moore says that in order to find our purpose we must find our greatest joy that coincides with the world’s greatest need. As a Christian, I believe that whatever pursuit that might be, the underlying objective must be to try and serve with love. God bless those who are able to do this consistently!
In his book, ‘Born a Crime’, Trevor Noah said, “We Tell People to Follow Their Dreams, But You Can Only Dream of What You Can Imagine.” As someone once said, God wouldn’t allow you to imagine what you can’t achieve. So, I urge all of you to pursue that which you imagine.