In the 1960s, teacher and independence activist Edward Makuka Nkoloso founded Zambia’s unofficial National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy. He intended to beat the United States and Soviet Union to the Moon, then send teenager Matha Mwamba, two cats and a missionary to Mars. Outside Lusaka, his “Afronauts” trained with oil drums and rope swings intended to simulate weightlessness. The programme had no government support, its proposed funding never arrived and its homemade rocket remained on Earth. Whether Nkoloso was entirely sincere, satirising the space race and colonial attitudes, or doing both at once remains unresolved.
Zambian Afronauts
