Samuel Silungwe

Personal Information -- Academic History -- Involvement in RICSA -- Masters Thesis

Future Plans -- Contact Information

Personal Information

• Married to Evelyn.
• We have two children, Samuel and Natasha.
• I was born in Zambia. But spent most of my childhood life in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
• Moved to back to Zambia in 1973.
• I am an ordained minister of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ).

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Academic History

• I did my primary education in Zimbabwe. I continued my secondary education in Zambia.
• I trained for the Christian Ministry at the United Church of Zambia Theological College from 1984 –1987.
• I did my BSc Sc (Honours) in Religious Studies at University of Cape Town, 1997 – 1998. The topic for mini honours dissertations was ‘The Church and Structural Adjustment Programme in Zambia, 1992 – 1997.’
• I am currently pursuing a masters programme, which I hope to finish in 2000.

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My Involvement with RICSA

• I joined RICSA as an Assistant Researcher in September 1997.
• I have been part of a team involved in the Poverty Project. In 1999 I was asked to head the project as its project leader.
• The Poverty Project’s primary focus has been to collect and disseminate information on poverty.

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Masters Thesis

• Facing Poverty and Impoverishment: The challenges and some churches responses in Southern Africa.
• This proposal is available here.

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Future Plans

I intend to proceed into the Ph D programme. Having gone through the Church, Theology and Public Life programme, I have been challenged to question the role of Religion (Christianity) in Social Transformation. I hope to look at the question of Poverty and Democracy in Zambia. Zambians wanted changed, that is, to change from One Party to Multiparty. In 1991 Zambia was the first country on the mainland Africa to change its head of state as a result of democratic elections. The new democracy under the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) has not been free of problems. One of the major problems the MMD has faced is the question of poverty. Its effort to push for swift economic reforms under the structural adjustment programme oriented policies has resulted in a massive loss of employed. Today 70% of Zambians out of a population of 9.5 million live below the poverty line. With this in mind, today the question of "poverty and democracy" is perhaps the most fraught and complex issue in Zambia.

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Other interests

• Reading, researching and writing are some of my interests.
• I am artist (painting and sign writing) but unfortunately I have not used this gift this years now.
• I also like watching soccer. The games that I like to play if time allows are volleyball and table tennis.
• Going to church and preaching are part of my life.

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Contact Information

silungwe@humanities.uct.ac.za