Peter Amos Siwo

Who was Peter Amos Siwo?

Peter Amos Mbiko Siwo was one of the first black graduates in Northern Rhodesia, and a pioneering civil servant after the country achieved independence as Zambia.

He was the first black graduate to work at the mines. Before independence, he lived in a little house in no man's land in the Copperbelt. They did not want to put him with the black miners in those tiny houses because he was a graduate, but they could not put him in a big house in the white area either because he was black.

He was the first chairman of Zambia Airways. He was Permanent Secretary in the then Ministry of Power, Transport Works and Communications for about five years when UDI was declared. After he left they split it into three different ministries.

He chaired many meetings for United Nations Education committees and Commonwealth Education Conferences and World Bank meetings. He chaired and worked on the Education Reforms in Zambia and was the first Director of Examinations Board.

He married Sheila Gibson McHarrie at Glenluce Abbey on 20 September 1979.

He was often quoted by Times of Zambia.