Gwendoline Noreen Chomba Konie (9 October 1938 – 14 March 2009) was a Zambian poet,

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

and politician. She was the Zambian

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to Scandinavia, the United Nations and Germany. She formed her own party in 2000 and stood as a candidate to be the President of Zambia in 2001. When she died she was given a

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of Etiquette, protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive ...

Life

Konie was born in 1938 in

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...

in what was then

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

and is now Zambia. She was educated at

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

in Cardiff, Wales and the

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in Washington D.C., United States. She received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Warwick.Gwendoline Chomba Konie - Zambia
GenderLinks.org.za In 1962, she was chosen by Sir

Evelyn Dennison Hone Sir Evelyn Dennison Hone (13 December 1911 – 18 September 1979) was the last Governor of Northern Rhodesia, from 1959 until it gained its independence as Zambia in 1964. Early life Hone was born into the Hone family in Salisbury, Southern Rh ...

, the Governor-General of Northern Rhodesia, to become a member of her country's Legislative Council. She consulted Kenneth Kaunda before accepting. She then trained for the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

and rose to be Zambia's Ambassador and Plenipotentiary to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, Denmark, Norway and Finland from 1974 to 1977. From 1977 she was the country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In 1979 she became the Permanent Secretary of Zambia's Tourism Ministry. After Kenneth Kaunda lost power she was retained as a diplomat by President Frederick Chiluba until 1997. She was the Zambian Ambassador to Germany.Party led by woman a first for Zambia
28 August 2000, iol.co.za, Retrieved 2 February 2016 In 2001, she was a candidate in the

2001 Zambian general election General elections were held in Zambia on 27 December 2001 to elect a President and National Assembly. The result was a victory for the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, which won 69 of the 150 National Assembly seats and whose candidate, ...

, to be the President of Zambia. She stood for the Social Democratic Party which she formed in August 2000 to concentrate on issues important to women and children. One million votes were cast for eleven candidates in the elections. Two of the candidates were women. Konie received more than 10,000 votes and Levy Mwanawasa was elected. Konie was also a poet. Her poem "In the Fist of your Hatred" was included in ''

The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry ''The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry'' (in an earlier 1963 edition ''Modern Poetry from Africa'') is a 1984 poetry anthology edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier. It consists mainly of poems written in English and English translations of ...

'' in 2007. The poem is a polemic against male arrogance. She died at MKP Trust Hospital in

in 2009 and received a

.Gwendoline Konie Dies
15 March 2009, ''Lusaka Times'', Retrieved 2 February 2016 President

Rupiah Banda Rupiah Bwezani Banda (19 February 1937 – 11 March 2022) was a Zambian politician who served as the fourth president of Zambia from 2008 to 2011, taking over from Levy Mwanawasa, who died as the sitting president. Banda was an active participant ...

said it was a day for Zambia to mourn her death and Kenneth Kaunda noted her involvement with the formation of Zambia following independence from Britain.Reflecting on Gwendoline Konie's life
Kenneth Kaunda, March 2009, Retrieved 2 February 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konie, Gwendoline 1938 births 2009 deaths Ambassadors of Zambia Permanent Representatives of Zambia to the United Nations Alumni of Cardiff University American University alumni Alumni of the University of Warwick 20th-century Zambian women politicians 20th-century Zambian politicians Zambian poets Zambian women poets Women ambassadors 21st-century poets 21st-century Zambian women writers 21st-century Zambian women politicians 21st-century Zambian politicians 20th-century poets Zambian women diplomats 21st-century Zambian writers 20th-century Zambian writers Members of the Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia People from Lusaka