Cover photo: The Kalahari Desert provided a chance fro Afronauts to practise “Moon landings”.

Text by Ioannis Nikolakakis

Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) was a former British colony that had recently gained its independence. As part of state organization, the creation of the National Academy of Sciences, Space, and Philosophy of Zambia was decided upon. The driving force and director was Edward Makuka Nkoloso, a primary school teacher who had fought for many years for his country’s independence.

And then he had a crazy idea, to reach the moon and Mars faster than the Americans and Soviets. Nkoloso said he had been inspired by his first airplane flight. When the pilot refused to stop the plane so that he could get out and walk on the clouds, Nkoloso made up his mind to enter the Space Race. He organized a training area for astronauts, whom he himself named “Afronauts”. The mission to the moon would be manned by a 17-year-old girl and 2 cats (!). Training involved placing the Afronaut in an oil drum and then rolling them down a hill to simulate conditions of weightlessness, as well as a swing with a rubber tire.

Nkoloso announced that the purpose of the mission was the conversion of the primitive Martians to Christianity and the establishment of a Christian Ministry on Mars, with the ultimate goal of Zambia becoming the ruler of what he termed the “Seventh Heaven of Space”. However, he instructed the missionary accompanying the mission to Mars not to force the indigenous people to renounce their faith. In a newspaper editorial, Nkoloso claimed to have studied Mars for some time from telescopes at his “secret headquarters” outside Lusaka, and announced that the planet was populated by primitive natives.

The rocket (Cyclops 1), made of aluminum and copper, was deemed suitable for space by Nkoloso himself. He even sought funding from UNESCO and private companies. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for the personnel involved, the space program was canceled due to the pregnancy of the 17-year-old “afronaut” and alleged sabotage by foreign powers.

Subsequently, Nkoloso ran for mayor of Lusaka, where he lost, and then supported witch doctors, stating they had a clear position alongside doctors as an antidote to Christianity, which he believed was detrimental to Zambia’s medical practices. He died in 1989, mourned with state honors.

When asked years later by the then President of Zambia, he said it was more of a joke than anything real. However, judging from Nkoloso’s scientific approach, he probably meant it.

Interview of Mukuka Nkoloso: Faces Of Africa – Mukuka Nkoloso: The Afronaut by China Global Television Network.