In 1998, a group of young, educated Zambians set out on a noble quest. I was one of those who joined in this quest. This quest was the search for the Holy Grail of Zambia's economic and social development. We thought we would be able to help this by trying to shape opinion particularly of the intelligentsia. In the manner of all idealists we did not look too hard at the realities of life and we expected people to do the right thing. The noble thing. We expected a new Zambia would be forged in the aftermath of our Velvet revolution that overthrew Kenneth Kaunda in 1991, through the ballot box and not the gun, with no street protests, boycotts or fighting. In the exciting times of the mid to late 1990s as new paradigms were being created in Zambia we expected Zambia like a pupae or is it a larvae to to come out of its chrysalis and begin its first steps on the upward ascension to its rightful place in the world as a developing, progressive country.
These ideal were crystallised in an online magazine called Chrysalis. This was probably Zambia's first online magazine and in a way it was blogging. Before we begin to split hairs and define blogging, it met most of the criteria of a blog. We daily created articles, responded to them, argued and debated over them and all of this on a server in Zambia. Chrysalis was hosted at Zamnet. www.chrysalis.co.zm was for a brief but exciting time the place where a group of us debated issues, wrote articles, shared ideas and tried to chart a way forward for Zambia.
The interesting thing about Chrysalis was it spawned quite a bit of interest. More interest than we even expected. It even attracted scholarly interest in Europe and the United States with several papers being published by academic journals abroad where it was dissected and analysed. It even formed the subject matter of a whole section of a scholarly tome, that was an anthropological study of how Africa was faring in the neo-liberal economic environment of the 1990s.Not well at all was the verdict and Chrysalis was used to buttress this argument.
The magazine eventually died out after about a year and a half. But during its brief existence, it created a stir. Quite a stir.It died 10 years ago this year. As we all lost hope, due to what we perceived as the plundering of the promise of the Third Republic, Chrysalis became irrelevant and we abandoned it. For years afterwards I would nostalgically browse through it. It was dead. Not being updated at all. Like a dead butterfly or moth, preserved for display in a museum. Finally around 2003, the website was taken down. There no longer was an epitaph or grave stone for Chrysalis.
In ten years a lot has happened. We changed Presidents twice, we have gone from copper boom to copper bust. We have had all or most our external debt forgiven. We have had a president arrested and charged with corruption. We have become 10 years older but are we wiser ? We discussed at length the rise of Andy Mazoka, an article entitled, "Can Andy bring the Candy" comes to mind. Here we stand with a black American President in the White House, a person with a strong claim to Kenyan citizenship no less, did we predict that ? Articles like the "Ham Defect" and others explored how European or to be more specific Anglo-Saxon culture affected us and our development as a nation.
Once again as an avid contributor to Chrysalis and a person who despite the depths of despair we sank to and the many changes since 1998, I think there is still a place for Chrysalis. in an act of UDR (Unilateral Declaration of Rebirth) I want to announce the rebirth of Chrysalis. Mjumo Mzyeche, Tonto Nkanya, Noah Hambayi, Nick Tembo, Chanda Chisala and all the others I can not remember please know that without your permission but I hope with your acquiescence, I declare the rebirth of Chrysalis.
Gentlemen can we get the ball rolling. For your edification I will link you to an article on Lusaka Times website http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=8621. The topic is one which would have been debated to death on Chrysalis. Please enjoy.
