Earlier this month, Zambia celebrated their 50th year of independence. It was an incredibly proud moment for the country, and it was an honor to be a part of the celebrations. After successfully keeping peace for 50 years post-colonial rule, the jubilee was an achievement worthy of real pride and joy. Everywhere people spoke about the 50 years of freedom, and we were all reminded of how much success Zambia achieved in a relatively short amount of time.
To celebrate, I visited the adolescent boys at Kamwala Remand Prison, an activity I do every couple of weeks with a group of volunteers (including some wonderful Global Health Corps Fellows!). The head of our group had requested that the boys put together some performances and speeches to celebrate the day, and it was an incredible sight. There were two dance troupes, a poetry performance, songs, and speeches explaining why the jubilee mattered to Zambia and to these boys. The performance that stuck out for me was a speech one of the boys gave about how grateful he was for freedom. Here he was, stuck in prison, taking part in festivities about freedom and thanking God for a government and systems that had seemingly been very unfair to him.
Part of what I love about Global Health Corps (GHC) is that it encourages us to never stop fighting. The 50th jubilee could have been a sign that Zambia has their freedom and we can stop working. But spending time in that prison reminded me that with great advances comes an increasing need to reflect on who actually benefits. While Zambia has prospered under 50 years of freedom, we can’t stop asking about who’s free—certainly not those boys in Kamwala who can’t afford legal representation.
As a gender studies person, I’ve always been taught to question “which women,” and I’m now realizing the ways in which I need to constantly bring this principle to my life as a public health professional and GHC fellow. It started with those boys in the prison, but it doesn’t stop there: when we talk about successes in distributing anti-retroviral drugs for HIV, we have to stop and constantly question which groups have people have access to those drugs. When we promote increased access to family planning methods, we have to determine which communities might be barred from accessing these services. While success should not go unacknowledged—50 years of independence is nothing to scoff at—it should also inspire us to keep fighting and keep doing better.