Kapelwa Sikota

Kapelwa Mwanang'umbi Sikota (born July 7, 1928 in Mongu District , Western Province , Northern Rhodesia , † May 30, 2006 in Zambia ) was the first Zambian nurse . After Zambia gained independence, she helped set up the Zambian health system and worked as the Chief Nursing Officer in the Zambian Ministry of Health.

Life

youth

Kapelwa Mwanang'umbi Sikota was born on July 7, 1928 in the Mongu District of the Western Province of the British Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia. Her father died in her youth. During a visit to the hospital in Mongu , she reportedly discovered that not a single Zambian nurse was working there. This motivated her to train as a nurse.

education

Kapelwa Sikota received the best education that was possible for a (black) Zambian woman in the 1930s and 1940s: She first attended elementary school in the Western Province and then the girls' boarding school in Chipembi, a good 75 kilometers north of Lusaka . Sikota's brother then arranged to attend a mission school near Durban, South Africa. After graduating from mission school, she attended McCord Hospital (also near Durban), widely known as the "Zulu Hospital" because, under apartheid laws, it was intended exclusively for blacks to be trained as nurses. In her senior year - 1951 - she received the award for "best nurse of the year". This was followed by another year of training in obstetrics. Sikota was the first Zambian woman who was allowed to work as a state-approved nurse and midwife.

Ascent

Back in Northern Rhodesia in 1952, Sikota began working as the first Zambian nurse at Lusaka Central Hospital (now the University Hospital). At that time it was uncommon for non-white people to work in hospitals. In 1953 she married Aggrey Mulala, a politically active male nurse, with whom she later had four children.

For a short time, Siko also worked at the Roan Antelope Mine Hospital in Luanshya , where she trained as a training nurse. Her work at the miners' hospital even led to a parliamentary question from British House of Commons John Stonehouse to Secretary of State for the Colonies , Iain Macleod . Stonehouse asked Macleod how he was dealing with the discrimination Sikota was experiencing from the Rhodesian mining company. Macleod rejected the idea that Sikota was being discriminated against.

Career in the new Zambian state

On November 1, 1964 - a week after Zambia gained independence - Sikota was promoted to senior nurse at Lusaka University Hospital. She was the first ever in this role. At the same time, the Zambian government set up the first nurse training courses for Zambian women. In 1971, when Sikota was already Chief Nursing Officer of Zambia, she issued the first nurse certificates.

However, Sikota not only stayed in the medical service, but rose with her experience in the Zambian health service. In 1966, she became the assistant senior nurse in the Department of Health and later the first chief nursing officer. In these positions, Sikota drafted the Nursing Act (1970), with the help of which the General Nursing Council of Zambia was established.

In 1974 Sikota moved to France with her husband, as he was taking on a diplomatic post there. After her return she was involved in a research project to document traditional Zambian health practices in order to supplement modern medicine if necessary. Sikota retired in 1984. She died on May 30, 2006.

The Zambian Association of University Women posthumously honored Sikota as one of eleven Zambian pioneers in science in 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Khadija Patel: Cutting the McCord: Durban's hospital finally loses the battle. In: Daily Maverick. January 23, 2013, accessed December 1, 2016 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Masuzyo Chakwe: Kapelwa Sikota - Zambia's Nursing Pioneer. In: The Post. March 20, 2016, accessed December 1, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Mrs. Kapelwa Sikota. House of Commons, November 29, 1960, accessed December 1, 2016 . 
4. ^ An Assessment of Family Planning and Population Activities in Zambia. USAID, December 1980, accessed December 1, 2016 .