On 8 April 1975, the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) held an extraordinary meeting in Dar es Salaam to discuss the unfolding liberation of southern Africa. The fight for independence had reached a critical stage. Angola and Mozambique were in uncharted territories after the sudden collapse of the Portuguese Empire and would soon descend into civil war, while Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe), South West Africa (modern Namibia), and South Africa were subjected to white-minority rule. African national liberation movements (NLMs) were at the forefront of the struggle, which was fought on two fronts: the diplomatic arena and low-intensity guerilla warfare on the ground.

“This, for us, is a crucial meeting. The Southern African crisis for us is a matter of life or death”, said Vernon Mwaanga, the Zambian Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the assembled OAU Council of Ministers. “Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia have written the history of their independence struggle in blood. Zambian blood is part of the ink with which that history is being written.” The explicit transnational nature of southern Africa’s liberation struggles was particularly felt in Zambia. As one of the Frontline States, Zambia harbored freedom fighters from all over the region and suffered therefore from imperial pressure, violence along its borders, and the influx of refugees.

At the end of his speech, Mwaanga made an interesting observation about the character of the liberation struggles: “A very strange form of revolution seems to be emerging in our ranks and that is ‘Microphone Revolution’, based on making nice speeches for public consumption at home.”