Nakatindi Yeta Nganga

Nakatindi Yeta Nganga (1922–1972)^[1] was a Lozi aristocrat and Zambian politician. Jointly one of the first women elected to the National Assembly, she was also the country's first female junior minister.

Biography[]

Nakatindi was born in Lealui; her father was Yeta III, the Litunga of Barotseland. She attended the Tiger Kloof Educational Institute in South Africa, and between 1952 and 1964 she served on the Mongu-Lealui District Education Authority.^[1] She was the first well-known woman in Barotseland to join UNIP,^[1] and was the first Director of the UNIP Women's Brigade, a position she held until losing to Maria Nankolongo in internal elections in 1967.^[2] She contested the 1962 Legislative Council elections in the Zambezi national constituency,^[3] but was defeated by of the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress.

In the 1964 general elections, Nakatindi ran in the constituency and was elected to the , which became the National Assembly upon independence later in the year. Alongside Margret Mbeba and Ester Banda, she was a member of the first group of women to be elected to the legislature.^[4] She went on to become Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labor and Social Development in 1966,^[1] the first woman to hold a junior ministerial position.^[5] The following year she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Mines and Co-operatives, before becoming Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Co-operatives, Youth and Social Development in 1967.^[1]

Nakatindi remained a member of the National Assembly until losing her seat to Zambian African National Congress in the 1968 elections.^[1] She then became a member of the House of Chiefs and governor of Sesheke District, positions in which she served until her death in 1972.^[1]

Her daughter Nakatindi Wina, one of 11 children,^[1] later also served as an MP and minister.^[6]

References[]