{"id":82597,"date":"2026-04-25T20:43:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:51:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:51:01","slug":"lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity","title":{"rendered":"Lungu Deserves Dignified Burial and Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>Many have asked me to speak on the painful and deeply troubling developments surrounding the funeral of our late Sixth Republican President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu.<\/p>\n<p>I have hesitated&#8230; because this issue has become extremely divisive.<\/p>\n<p>What we are witnessing as a nation is not just a disagreement. It is something far more painful.<\/p>\n<p>We are watching a farewell turn into a battlefield.<\/p>\n<p>We are watching a grieving family stand in the middle of noise, tension, and public spectacle.<\/p>\n<p>We are watching a man who once led this country being spoken about, joked about, and reduced in ways that strip away the very dignity we all hope to have when our time comes.<\/p>\n<p>And it hurts.<\/p>\n<p>It hurts because behind the title \u201cformer President\u201d was a human being\u2014a father, a husband, a friend. Someone who was loved. Someone who laughed, who struggled, who lived.<\/p>\n<p>Death should remind us of our shared humanity.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, it is exposing how divided we have become.<\/p>\n<p>There are those who are laughing. They are poking fun and making jokes. It\u2019s horrifying to read some comments.<\/p>\n<p>There are those who are crying.<\/p>\n<p>And there are many who are simply silent\u2014shocked at what we have become.<\/p>\n<p>How did we get here?<\/p>\n<p>How did we reach a point where a funeral becomes content for social media jokes, where grief becomes a debate&#8230; where dignity becomes optional?<\/p>\n<p>This is not just about politics.<\/p>\n<p>This is about who we are as a people.<\/p>\n<p>Because if we cannot come together in death&#8230; then when will we ever come together?<\/p>\n<p>But we must also speak honestly about leadership in moments like this.<\/p>\n<p>Government must remember: power is not just about authority\u2014it is about responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Power, when exercised without restraint, without wisdom, without empathy, can deepen wounds instead of healing them.<\/p>\n<p>There are moments when the law must be firm\u2014but there are also moments when humanity must lead.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of those moments.<\/p>\n<p>A grieving family cannot be handled like an ordinary dispute.<\/p>\n<p>A funeral cannot be reduced to a process to be managed through force or rigid positions.<\/p>\n<p>Because when authority is used without sensitivity, it stops being leadership\u2014it begins to feel like domination.<\/p>\n<p>And when people feel unheard in their grief, pain turns into anger, and anger turns into division.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership must rise above that.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership must calm, must listen, must unify.<\/p>\n<p>This moment is slipping away from us.<\/p>\n<p>And if we are not careful, it will leave behind a stain we cannot erase.<\/p>\n<p>So today, this is not a political statement.<\/p>\n<p>This is a human plea.<\/p>\n<p>To the family&#8230; to the government&#8230; to everyone involved:<\/p>\n<p>Please&#8230; let this not continue like this.<\/p>\n<p>Stop the fighting.<\/p>\n<p>Stop the court processes.<\/p>\n<p>Step away from positions and pride.<\/p>\n<p>Choose dialogue. Choose compassion. Choose peace.<\/p>\n<p>Let wise and neutral voices help find a path forward.<\/p>\n<p>Let this man be laid to rest with dignity.<\/p>\n<p>Let his family mourn in peace.<\/p>\n<p>Let Zambia breathe again.<\/p>\n<p>Because one day, it will be us. One day, it will be someone we love lying still, unable to defend themselves, unable to speak.<\/p>\n<p>And on that day, we will pray for dignity. We will pray for respect. We will pray that the world is kind.<\/p>\n<p>Let us give that kindness now.<\/p>\n<p>Let us not lose our humanity completely.<\/p>\n<p>Let us remember who we are.<\/p>\n<p>We are Zambia<\/p>\n<p>Antonio Mourinho Mwanza<\/p>\n<p>DPP President<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. Many have asked me to speak on the painful and deeply troubling developments surrounding the funeral of our late Sixth Republican President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu. I have hesitated&#8230; because this issue has become extremely divisive. What we are witnessing as a nation is not just a disagreement. It is something far more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":82596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-82597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lungu Deserves Dignified Burial and Humanity - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many have asked me to speak on the painful and deeply troubling developments surrounding the funeral of our late Sixth R ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lungu Deserves Dignified Burial and Humanity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many have asked me to speak on the painful and deeply troubling developments surrounding the funeral of our late Sixth R ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-25T20:43:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-25T20:51:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777150086.351009.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lungu Deserves Dignified Burial and Humanity\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-25T20:43:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-25T20:51:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity\"},\"wordCount\":587,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1777150086.351009.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/lungu-deserves-dignified-burial-and-humanity\",\"name\":\"Lungu Deserves Dignified Burial and Humanity - 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