Zambia Heroes Day

Zambia Heroes Day

First Monday in July

In 1964, Zambia won its freedom from England and became an independent nation. Those who fought in that freedom struggle are honored and remembered each year on Heroes Day. The somber day is a public holiday and all Zambians take the day off work.
In 1974 then-president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda presented a gift to the nation to honor its heroes: a statue of a man with no shirt or shoes and defiantly raising a chained hand into the air. Erected in the capital city of Lusaka, the one-and-a-half-ton bronze statue has become the rallying point for any holiday, march, or remembrance in which freedom plays a role. Both government and opposition groups often hold rallies at the statue.
In 2004 Zambian vice-president Nevers Mumba proposed that Heroes Day be refocused to include the members of the Zambian soccer team who died in a plane crash in 1993. Eighteen members of the winning team died when the Zambian Air Force jet they were riding in crashed off the coast of Gabon.

CONTACTS:
Embassy of the Republic of Zambia
2419 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
202-265-9717; fax: 202-265-9718
www.zambiaembassy.org
(c)

Celebration days: Jul 4, 2011; Jul 2, 2012; Jul 1, 2013; Jul 7, 2014; Jul 6, 2015