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Heart and Soul: Zambia - A Christian Nation?: Zambia: A Christian Nation?

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Zambia: A Christian Nation?

15/11/2014 GMT

Zambia - A Christian Nation?

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Zambia - A Christian Nation?, Zambia: A Christian Nation?

Will Christianity remain in Zambia’s constitution?

Zambia has Christianity written into its constitution, will it remain?

Zambians had hoped to celebrate their 50th year of independence from Britain with a new constitution. They'd been trying to get one written and passed since the advent of multi-party democracy in 1991 - when the founding president Kenneth Kaunda was finally voted out of office after twenty seven years in power. With the recent death of their president Michael Sata, the likelihood of a new constitution being adopted has dimmed once again. 

The man who replaced Kaunda amended the existing constitution in 1996 to include a preamble that declared Zambia a Christian nation, one of the few countries in world to do so. Many felt it was a way of re-orienting the country toward the founding principles established by the Christian missionary explorer David Livingstone, which carved Zambia up into various religious denominations by the end of the nineteenth century.

But many Zambians were surprised by it - and many more opposed it. Human rights activists felt it would restrict the rights of people with different sexual orientations. But the strongest opposition came from the very churches which form the bedrock of the faith of the people. Among them - the powerful Catholic Church. Audrey Brown went to Zambia to find out why this was so - and whether the preamble will survive in the latest draft of the constitution before parliament.

(Photo: Funeral of Michael Sata, the Zambian President. Credit: BBC News)

Heart and Soul: Zambia - A Christian Nation?

BBC World Service

Audrey Brown is in Zambia to explore whether its constitutional statement - Zambia is a ‘Christian nation’ - is still relevant.

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