Mission Press

Mission Press is an initiative of the Conventual Franciscan Friars in Zambia. First group of Friars from Italy came to Zambia in 1930 and settled in the Copperbelt province. One of their priorities in Evangelization became the printed word. In 1952 in Wusakili – Kitwe we started printing leaflets and other publications on a manual operating Gestetner machine. After a rapidly growing demand for the printed word a Rota-printer was purchased in 1958. The initiative in Kitwe was closed in 1968 in order to be reopened in Ndola at Franciscan Centre in 1970 as Mission Press (MP).

Mission Press is at the moment the biggest Christian press in Zambia. Since its humble beginning in 1970, it has now grown into a truly modern press. This is due to the realistic vision and approach of the founding friars and to the total dedication of all the friars and workers in the Press in the 4 dacades of existence.

It has never been easy to compete with professional publishers and commercial printers working in the field of mass media; it is getting more difficult by the day and even more difficult to achieve and maintain a leading role in such field. We can proudly say that MP managed to do exactly that, be it in terms of highly competitive quality production, and in terms of the value of its message. No one can doubt about MP outright commitment to evangelisation, clarity in spreading fundamental Christian teaching and courage in promoting social justice and respect of human rights.

We were the first printers in Zambia to acquire a colour separation equipment in 1997. This gave us a solid ground for a four colour Heidelberg 74 - Print Master printing machine which we acquired in 2003. Now we have 2 platesetters and 3 XEROX digital printers.

We print and bind journals, magazines, brochures, commercial stationery of all types and books of any shape and size. Even small items, such as labels, invitation cards, business and acknowledgement cards reflect our artistic skills in printing and binding. Of course our priority lies in production of religious, educational, social and health publications as much as possible at reduced prices.

All Christian denominations find their printing home at Mission Press.

At the moment there are 75 employees working at Mission Press.

We are also publishers of Icengelo Magazine in Bemba language for 39 years, Speak Out magazine for the youth for 26 years and The Challenge Magazine for 11 years.

...a press with a differnce...

On 21 st December 2004 Mission Press ( MP ) was awarded with an Annual Media Freedom Award 2004 by MISA Zambia, as the best contributor to Press freedom and development. The freethinking people thus recognized thirty-five years of unflinching, dedicated commitment.

We believe that the recent history of this Press might give a paradigmatic example of how difficult and painful it can be in a fragile and often compromised Democracy like ours, to stand for principles and truth with no bias and no favour. We are not claiming here that MP was always right; we only wish to stress how hard (and dangerous?) consistency and respect of one's conscience can be, where not to play to the tune is deemed a crime by the powers that be, and kind of naïf and quixotic idealism by the pragmatic people.

MP was founded by the Franciscan Friars in 1970: a very humble beginning, motivated by the desire to announce God's word to the masses, particularly the poor and the youth. For quite sometime, in fact, it dealt exclusively with religious education, that is, biblical, liturgical, moral and devotional issues. Our post-Independence society was not asking for much more; it was in fact a vibrant, optimistic society that had willingly entrusted itself to the care of its first indigenous Government and looked forward to the self-affirmation of a truly African, humanistic model of Nation, capable to express the very best values of its cultural heritage, making of Zambia a big, all-comprehensive extended family, rooted in justice.

Unfortunately, this did not last long. The One-Party State soon degenerated into the 'Party and its Government', with the Party progressively absorbing all other realities and often threatening to trample upon the People's rights and freedom! A climate of fear and suspicion began to poison the political atmosphere: harassment of innocent citizens, political prisoners with no trial, cases of torture in the prisons, the notorious Vigilantes taking dissidents 'by air' to their destiny .

MP - having some precious tools at its disposal already, like Icengelo and very soon Workers' Challenge and Christian Reflections - felt challenged by the new developments and went through a moment of crisis: was it right to keep preaching a 'disincarnated' Gospel that seemed to have nothing to say, neither to the perpetrators nor to the victims of abuse and inhumanity? Would that not justify the Marxist criticism of Religion as 'opium of the masses' ? Lent 1981 marked the social conversion of the press. From then onwards, it was an 'escalation' of social commitment, with series of articles on Human Rights (Nsambu sha Bumuntu), the Social Teaching of the Church, the Rights of the Workers, the Cries of the Poor (Ukwilishanya kwa Balanda), Social Development and Democracy .

Already in 1983 the first clashes with the UNIP regime materialised, with not so gracious visits by people from the 'OP' (Office of the President) and the Secret Police, at first using the carrot and stick approach, but soon abandoning the former in favour of the latter. Accusations ranged from the stale 'wolves in sheep skins promoting secret agendas' to 'puppets of imperialist powers' , 'enemies of the Zambian people, all out to bring havoc and violence', etc. Never absent was the silly dilemma: "Are you preaching the Gospel, or doing politics?" . . . as if the Gospel had nothing to say about politics and politicians nothing to do with the Gospel! Who else, if not Christians should endeavour to promote compassion and justice, speak out on behalf of the voiceless and vulnerable and advocate freedom of expression and democracy?

The peak of harassment came in 1990, with a couple of informal trials set up by Hon. Chinkuli and Hon. Sikasula and with Pres. Kaunda publicly denouncing and threatening Icengelo on TV. Meanwhile Archbishop Mutale had warned MP editors not to move around evening time and be extra careful at crossroads, due to rumours of assassination plans. Bells rang loud in the Friars' ears, when the same Archbishop died in a dubious accident a couple of months later and again when an anonymous voice threatened Icengelo's director of a similar end, should he refuse to "stop talking nonsense . . ."

In 1991 Zambia eventually switched from One-Party to Multiparty system. Many congratulated MP and Icengelo for the unique role they had played in such political transition . including Pres. Chiluba, who publicly thanked them at Ndola Cathedral after his victory, even calling them 'heroes of Democracy' ('mpalume ya maisosele', as he said in Bemba). It did not take long, however, for him to turn into a bitter enemy, as soon as MP/ Icengelo dared to criticise his so called Christian Declaration, condemn his economic policies and publicly accuse his government of rampant corruption. At once the Weekly Express, a semi-official voice of the MMD, launched a vulgar and violent defamation campaign against MP 's editor, filled with slanders and calumnies (1995). According to voices close to State House, the paper had been heavily sponsored for that purpose by the President's order. Meanwhile, around that time, former President Kaunda had gone to congratulate MP for the impartiality: "You show to be consistent in giving voice to your conscience and to the truth - he declared - with neither personal agenda nor bias ". Thus - very ironically indeed! - the UNIP's villain of yesterday ( MP ) was suddenly declared UNIP's hero, while yesterday's MMD hero was now labelled a villain by the same MMD! Call it political consistency!

MP sued the MMD paper, choosing Levy Mwanawasa as its lawyer, and won the case. In his ruling, the judge spoke of "satanic malice" on the part of the MMD weekly paper for the "obscene and false accusations against innocent people of God" . In 1999 the paper was finally forced to repeatedly publish an unreserved apology and condemned to pay a huge amount plus interests . which however was never paid. To the repeated complaints by MP about this failure to obtain the payment, Mr. Mwanawasa spontaneously withdrew from the case, being replaced by Mr. George Kunda, who also failed, however, to retrieve the money. Eventually the Weekly Express preferred to stop its publication and go into hiding . and the case was closed.

Then came Chiluba's Third-Term Saga! It would be long to describe the part played by MP in the struggle against this blatant attempt to violate the Constitution. Enough to say that its editors were even physically mishandled and beaten up in full view of the police in front of Savoy Hotel, in Ndola . After that, friends in high places advised MP to double its insurance policy against fire, having heard of arson threats against it. Apparently - alas! - the hired ruffians misunderstood the target and went to burn down Radio Icengelo.

Finally, out of the blue, came the 'night call' - as it was called - of MP former lawyer to replace the anointed Chiluba (luckily run short of oil for his 3 rd -Term attempt) and the subsequent shameful campaign, with all the unfair advantages, like the use of State machinery, the heavy bribing and in some cases the rigging we all witnessed (apparently quite acceptable, though, for the standards required by Zambian law) ... As a result, we woke up with our 29%-majority President!

Soon complaints, denunciations and criticisms began to flood our offices at the Press offices, especially in the light of the much talked-about anti-corruption campaign, which demanded waterproof honesty, commitment to transparency and good government . . . and this led to the recent Family Tree saga . Quite effectively, MP magazine The Challenge exposed the rampant nepotism and favouritism in the Government of the day, declaring that it was casting a heavy shadow on the purported 'zero option war' engaged by the same Government against corruption. Not surprisingly - it lamented - after three years of struggle no tangible results were seen: corruption calls for corruption! It is a vicious circle in which the very people who vow to rid the Country of corruption find themselves on the bench of the accused, totally compromising their purported struggle. Little wonder if meanwhile plunderers and crooks end up acquitted.

Not surprisingly, once again, MP old times friend showed to be unable to accept criticism: after having defended the press against MMD vicious and malicious calumnies, he seemed to turn into an enemy. Sadly enough, politicians seem to be incapable of unbiased, dispassionate conscience examination. Probably they are too afraid of damaging their chances for re-election!

. . . And the game still goes on. Hopefully, The Challenge, Icengelo, Speak Out . will continue to do what they have tried to do all along: proclaim the Gospel, its message, its truth and its values; defend the rights of the oppressed; give voice to the voiceless without fear or favour . . . for many years to come.

That is why MP in reality is a Press with a difference .