SAFARI - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 165

als. “We are pleased with this recognition of our efforts to put Zambia on the world tour-
ism map.”
Zambia was in the midst of an election campaign that Banda wanted everyone to know
would be different from other African elections, which had been marred by violence and
corruption. Zambia's would be a peaceful transition, he promised, saying “tourists will
only come to countries at peace.”
The scene-stealer was Kenneth Kaunda, who at eighty-seven years of age is one of the
last living fathers of African independence and the first president of independent Zambia.
His is the name on the Lusaka airport. The old lion began his talk by singing “We shall
fight and conquer, in the name of Great Africa,” a song about peace and unity that became
an anthem of the anticolonial struggle. Later he adapted it as the theme for Zambia's fight
against HIV/AIDS after his son died of the disease. He had played with the lyrics again for
us and sang a new version about peace through tourism. By the last chorus of “We shall
fight,” people were singing along and stamping their feet. This was not normal fare for a
tourism conference. A Zambian student sitting next to me laughed and said their first pres-
ident, whom he called KK, always sang. “We love him.”
Namugala took over after the photographers left and business began, saying to the for-
eigners that “we will work together, but our problems need to be owned by Zambia. Then
we will seek support from cooperating partners. But we own our problems and our part-
ners don't tell us what our problems are.”
“Most Zambians worry about being at peace and about prosperity rather than wildlife,”
she said. “We have to make people believe wildlife is a resource that can generate income,
that it is not a nuisance.”
Known in international circles as a polished speaker about the environment, Namugala
delivered her message clearly and often: “We know that now with the challenge of climate
change, tourism as a key sector is being undermined. We also know that tourism is one of
the few key sectors that can impact on poverty. We feel very strongly that we need to be
prepared for the challenges that climate change is now causing on this critical industry. It
is very important for tourism and the more important need to develop tourism as a sector
that can reduce poverty.”
The cosponsor was the small Vermont-based International Institute for Peace Through
Tourism, founded in 1986 by Louis D'Amore, who still heads the organization. One of its
themes is that every tourist is a potential ambassador of peace.
We delegates were guests of the sponsors and lodged at the Intercontinental Hotel, the
main venue for most conferences and meetings in Lusaka as well as the main watering
hole for the elite and the strivers of the city. The floor above mine was entirely taken up by
Chinese visitors, who held private dinners with important Zambian officials. Business was
in the air.