The Depth of My Footprints

Book excerpt: The Depth of My Footprints is about a five-year-old boy who tended cattle and watched over forlorn fields of millet in a remote and rugged area of the Zambezi Escarpment in southern Zambia and rose to become one of the most charismatic, powerful and intelligent Zambian Economist and global leader. It is difficult to appreciate the enormous leap the boy made from humble beginnings to his leadership of an international mission representing the states of a third of the globe. After steering the seventy-one-member African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States into the twenty-first century, Ng'andu was presented a medal by President Matthew Kerekou of Benin as a 'Commander of the Order of the Republic of Benin in recognition of the service rendered to the ACP-EU international community and to the negotiations for the historic twenty-year ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement'. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Ng'andu had become a recognizable figure and voice during international assemblies, including those of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. His calm and calculated interventions and contributions on various subjects were always sought after by the conference facilitators and acknowledged warmly by the participants. During the first decade of the 21st Century, Ng'andu traversed the globe unwinding the debt web that impeded Zambia's development. As Minister of Finance and National Planning in the Zambian Government under President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa he achieved remarkable results for Zambia, whose economy attained annual growth rates of over five per cent during his tenure. Follow the footprints of Ng'andu Ciingana Cibiya Peter Magande through the twentieth century to become one of Zambia's foremost public servants and international leaders in the 21st Century.