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Article: Why Africa needs more cabbage; Zambia.(Zambia loses a good president with the death of Levy Mwanawasa)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 23, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The death of a decent president, Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa, raises questions about the state of leadership elsewhere in the continent
ON PAPER, Levy Mwanawasa should never have been president. He lacked charisma, wit or style--the sort of qualities that propel populists to high office in much of Africa. At rallies even his own supporters were fast bored by the former lawyer's monotone drawl. His ill-health and slurred speech, the results of a car crash, led to nasty jibes about his mental capacity. When he narrowly won his first, disputed, presidential election in 2001, opponents dubbed him "the cabbage", deriding him as a stooge for others more powerful.
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