Storella Publishes Article on Kenneth David Kaunda
Ambassador Mark C. Storella, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published an op-ed in BU Today on Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth David Kaunda, who passed away on June 17, 2021.
In his article, titled “POV: Remembering Kenneth David Kaunda, Zambia’s Founding President,” Storella describes the three major political victories Kaunda achieved in his life: leading his nation of Zambia to independence, becoming only the second African president to permit a peaceful and democratic transition of power, and publicly acknowledging that one of his own children had succumbed to AIDS, going on to be a champion in the fight against HIV/AIDS and a great ally of all those working to overcome the scourge of AIDS in Africa.
Storella went on to discuss his own diplomatic interactions with Kaunda and lauded him as a “Democratic statesman. Champion against disease. A farsighted unifier and model of human dignity.” President Kaunda had strong ties to BU as the inaugural African President-in-Residence at BU’s Balfour African Presidential Archives and Research Center in 2002.
The full article can be read on BU Today‘s website.
Ambassador Mark C. Storella was a United States Foreign Service Officer for over three decades serving as Ambassador to Zambia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, and Dean of the Leadership and Management School of the Foreign Service Institute. Storella is recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Excellence in Service Award, the Thomas Jefferson Award presented by American Citizens Abroad, and several Department of State superior and meritorious honor awards. Learn more about Ambassador Storella on his faculty profile.