Lucy Banda-Sichone (1954–1998) was a Zambian civil rights activist who played a pivotal role in representing the Zambian people who had their rights violated by the State at the time. Born and raised in Zambia's second largest city, Kitwe, she became the first Zambian woman to receive a Rhodes Scholarship and also the first woman to have her portrait displayed on the walls of Oxford University's prestigious Rhodes House.[1][2]
After attaining a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Somerville College, Oxford,[3] Sichone returned to Zambia where she embarked upon a career as a lawyer focused on human rights issues. She represented several displaced villagers who had been accused of squatting, and represented them in court as pro bono clients. In 1993, Shichone formed the Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA).The aim of the association was to spread the gospel of human and democratic rights and to remind Zambians that it was not enough to have democracy on paper, but it had to be practiced. The association formed many civic education clubs within secondary schools around the country – her idea was to capture the imagination of the young whilst they could still dream.[4]
Sichone was also engaged in politics. She joined the United National Independence Party (UNIP) shortly after it had lost to the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in the 1991 presidential election. Although she held a number of positions in government, she was often its critic mainly because political office was never her goal. She left UNIP in 1994.[5]