“even in Death, He is Denied Dignity”: Zambia Weeps as Edgar Lungu Awaits a Burial Befitting a Statesman
Two days have passed since Zambia’s sixth Republican President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, breathed his last yet the nation still waits. Waits for closure. Waits for leadership. Waits for dignity to return to death.
The late former Head of State died on Wednesday, June 5, 2025, but as of this moment, his burial has not yet taken place. Neither has the government declared a formal period of national mourning. No flags at half-mast. No public ceremones. No Presidential address. And for many, no peace.
“It feels like his life meant nothing,” whispered a mourner standing quietly outside the Lungu family residence in Ibex Hill. “Is this how we honour a man who once carried the burden of this country on his shoulders?”
All across Zambia, the sorrow is sharp. But perhaps sharper is the grief wrapped in confusion. How can a nation that once called him “Commander-in-Chief” now look away in silence, as if he were just another name in the obituary column?
Many expected a swift and solemn response from the State. A declaration. A unifier. A funeral plan. But what came instead was an aching silence that still hangs over the nation like a fog. Social media is flooded with tearful tributes and questions that no one in government seems ready to answer.
“It’s not about politics anymore,” said a grieving youth in Matero. “This is about who we are as a people. If we cannot honour our former President, what hope is there for ordinary citizens like us?”
The heartbreak deepened when Patriotic Front Secretary-General Raphael Nakachinda revealed that President Lungu, in his final moments, requested to be buried like an ordinary citizen. For millions, those words shattered their spirits. A former President one who once stood on the grandest podiums of power reduced to whispering for dignity in death.
And yet the State remains mute.
Foreign dignitaries, international organizations, and African leaders have begun sending condolences. The world is watching. But inside Zambia, the silence of those in power has been louder than any eulogy could be.
“He may not have been everyone’s hero. But he was our President,” said Bishop Chibamba Chanda of Lusaka’s Word of Hope Ministries. “And the Bible teaches us to honour our leaders, in life and in death. Where is our honour now?”
Zambians continue to gather at churches, at homes, in WhatsApp groups, around radios and TVs hoping for word on when and how President Lungu will be laid to rest.
Will it be with dignity?
Will it be with honour?
Or will this delay, this silence be the final injustice to a man whose last days were already marked by political isolation and institutional neglect?
The clock ticks. The body lies in wait. And the nation holds its breath not just to mourn, but to remember who we are when grief comes knocking.
May Edgar Chagwa Lungu find in death the dignity he was denied in his final days.
And may Zambia grieving, divided, and searching find its voice again.
June 7, 2025
©️ KUMWESU