Lawrence Chola Katilungu (February 1914 - 9 November 1961) was a
Northern Rhodesian trade union leader. Katilungu was the first President of the
African Mineworkers' Union.
Biography
Katilungu was born in February 1914 in the
Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, the grandson of a minor chief in the
Bemba tribe. He initially worked as a mission teacher, before becoming an underground worker at the
Nkana
Nkana is a section of the city of Kitwe, Copperbelt Province, Zambia which started off in the early part of the 20th century as a railway station to support the growing complex of copper mining operations. It was named after Chief Nkana, the loc ...
mine in 1936, later promoted to recruiting clerk. Katilungu first came to prominence in 1940 as a leader of striking African mineworkers at Nkana. In February 1948, he was elected President of the newly formed Nkana union. In March 1949 all the African miners' unions in Northern Rhodesia, including Nkana, amalgamated to form the African Mineworkers' Union, and Katilungu became president. In 1952, he led a successful strike to gain a wage increase of a
half-crown per day for African workers.
Briefly a member of the
Constitution Party, Katilungu was selected as a member of the 20-member
Monckton Commission
The Monckton Commission, officially the Advisory Commission for the Review of the Constitution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, was set up by the British government under the chairmanship of Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Bre ...
, set up by the British government in 1959 to prepare the 1960 conference to review the Constitution of the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Two of Katilungu's closest personal friends, Godwin Mbikusita Lewanika and Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula were involved in unionism and politics, and politics respectively.
[ ]
House of Lords Debates, 24 November 1959 vol 219 cc890-901
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References
Sources
*
*Campbell, Alexander (1954), "The Heart of Africa", Longmans, Green and Company
*Shillington, Kevin (2005), "Encyclopedia of African History", Routledge
Encyclopædia Britannica, Zambia; Colonial Rule
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katilungu, Lawrence Chola
Zambian trade unionists
People from Northern Province, Zambia
1914 births
1961 deaths
Members of the Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia
Zambian African National Congress politicians
Bemba