I'm Anthony Mukwita
Ambassador Anthony Mukwita is one of the finest journalists and writers in Zambia and the sub-region. He stands on a pedestal of journalism excellence enriched by wide knowledge in international relations. That, coupled with decades of experience in the media, gives him the best perspective and puts him in good stead as an author of note.
Ambassador Mukwita’s first book helped thrust Zambia’s sixth President Edgar Lungu into prominence, from relative political obscurity, as it unravelled his background which, hitherto, may have only been known to pundits.
The book, entitled “Against All Odds: President Edgar Lungu’s Rough Journey to State House”, published in 2017, topped sales over a 25-year period at Bookworld, a reputable bookstore that stocks bestsellers in Zambia.
That was down to Ambassador Mukwita’s novel ability to tell the story in the most riveting manner that carries along even the most fickle of readers.
Ambassador Mukwita’s journey in the media is replete with success locally and internationally, winning many awards and scholarships, and holding the seniormost position in a wide-circulating national newspaper organisation.
Working as a newspaper chief executive for the Zambia Daily Mail, Ambassador Mukwita was credited for turning it into the leading source of credible information, further cementing its place as the best media outlet in Zambia.
While at Daily Mail, he won the first prize in a tightly contested World Bank Investigative Journalism competition.
He was subsequently attached to the prestigious Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) in London housed at City University for three months before returning home to normal editorial duties.
When his stint with the Zambia Daily Mail ended in 2014, the awardwinning editor was sent into the foreign service in 2015 by the sixth President of Zambia H.E Edgar Lungu, a turn that would hone his international relations.
As one of the youngest Ambassadors Zambia has ever deployed abroad in ‘big missions’ such as Germany, Mukwita also served as non-resident Ambassador to Poland, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic, and the Czech Republic.
Ambassador Mukwita was voted Ambassador of the year in Germany in 2019 due to his extensive diplomatic engagement with colleagues and business, making it on the cover of the prestigious Diplomatic Magazine (Est 1959) of Germany just before Covid-19 shut down the globe.
The editor, scholar, author turned senior diplomat was also among the few influential political analysts invited to witness and document the decade-long transition of power in the world’s second largest economic and military power, China, in Beijing in 2012.
That was during the spectacular power shift from President Hu Jintao to President Xi Jinping, making two trips to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and many other Chinese cities, as part of learning Chinese culture and politics. This was between 2012 and 2013.
His knack for writing started when he was in elementary grades in school, but it was exposed to the world in 1994 when he was taped for the prestigious International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) award by the United States, Department of State.
It is a rare award whose recipients are chosen by the embassy of the USA in the country one is a citizen, once identified, either as a future leader or current national leader.
As a youth Scribe in the mid 20s, Mukwita was stationed in the US for three months moving between Washington DC, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans in Louisiana as an IVLP panther.
At the time of penning this book, Ambassador Mukwita had returned home to Zambia after serving his country at the highest level in the foreign service under President Lungu from 2015 to 2021.
His latest book is a recast of the thesis for his second Master’s degree in International Relations and Cultural Diplomacy he was studying in Germany while he served as Zambia´s envoy in the Bundesrepublik.
In his first Master’s degree (Master of Professional Communications) obtained from Edith Cowan University (ECU) where he studied full time, Ambassador Mukwita bagged six distinctions, a top scholar in his class in Perth, western Australia.
Ambassador Mukwita now spends his time studying and analysing international relations within Africa and beyond from Lusaka and other cities in Africa, where he is seen as an expert in the fields he has studied and practiced.
This book is his contribution to the international relations discourse currently raging globally on the rise of China in Africa and beyond. It may educate and entertain some yet annoy others.
But like many critically acclaimed works of art, this instalment remains open to interpretation and judgement in the open court of literature.
