Lawrence Chola Katilunga

Lawrence Chola Katilungu was a Northern Rhodesian trade union leader. Katilungu was the first President of the African Mineworkers Union.

Katilungu was born in February 1914 in the Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, the grandson of a minor chief in the Bemba tribe. He initially worked as a mission teacher, before becoming an underground worker at the Nkana mine in 1936, later promoted to recruiting clerk. Katilungu first came to prominence in 1940 as a leader of striking African mineworkers at Nkana. In February 1948, he was elected President of the newly formed Nkana union. In March 1949 all the African miners unions in Northern Rhodesia, including Nkana, amalgamated to form the African Mineworkers Union, and Katilungu became president. In 1952, he led a successful strike to gain a wage increase of a halfcrown per day for African workers.

Source: Wikipedia