In the 1960’s Zambia was on a space race to the moon with the Soviet Union and the US. The space program was led by Edward Makuka Nkoloso.
Nkoloso was a grade-school science teacher and director of Zambia’s National Academy of Science, Space Research, and Philosophy. This feat was inspired by his first airplane flight after the pilot refused to stop the plane so that he could get out and walk on the clouds.
The program had 12 astronauts including a 16-year-old girl, Matha Mwamba, who was to be the first Zambian to land on the moon and later Mars. Nkoloso recruited the astronauts, and put them through rigorous training of his devising.
The ‘Afronauts’, as he referred to them, were put in 200-liter oil drums, spun around trees, and rolled them down hills to simulate weightlessness. He also made them swing on a rope, before cutting the rope to allow them to experience freefall.
They were also taught to walk on their hands, “the only way humans can walk on the moon.”
His astronauts sometimes wore green satin jackets with yellow trousers. (They explained that those were not space suits: “No, we are the Dynamite Rock Music Group when we are not space cadets.”)
Nkoloso stated goals of the program were to establish a Christian ministry to “primitive” Martians, and the hope of Zambia becoming the “controllers of the Seventh Heaven of Interstellar space”.
“Our posterity, the Black scientists, will continue to explore the celestial infinity until we control the whole of outer space.”
The rocket, named D-Kalu 1, was a 3-meter by 2-meter (10×6 ft) drum-shaped vessel named after Zambia’s first president Kenneth David Kaunda.
Matha was to be accompanied by a missionary and two cats on the trip.
“When she arrives on Mars she will open the door of the rocket and drop the cats on the ground. If they survive, she will then see that Mars is fit for human habitation.”
The planned launch date of the copper and aluminum rocket was on 24 October 1964, Independence Day. However, Nkoloso had complained the Afronauts were having too much sex and were not focused on the space program.
“They won’t concentrate on space flight—there’s too much lovemaking when they should be studying the moon.”
The plan fell to pieces when Matha Mwamba became pregnant and returned to her parents weeks before the launch date. Two of his best men were also reported to have gone on a drinking spree in a nearby village never to return.
There was also a lack of adequate funds after Nkoloso received only good luck wishes from the millions of donations asked from the US, USSR, Israel, UNESCO, and other private entities.
Thanks to modern technology you can watch the documentary here or the training video here.
He later unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Lusaka and was appointed by President Kaunda to the Liberation Center, a movement for regional freedom.
He died aged 70 years on 4 March 1989 and was buried with presidential honors.
Citizen 250Q 