THEY couldn’t bathe. They couldn’t shave. And the taps were serving salt. When Lusaka became the capital city in 1935, civil servants bore the brunt of the collapsing infrastructure, from jammed water pumps to blackouts, yet they still reported for work in that state. It sounds funny, but it’s true. As if the water and power problems weren’t enough, the day also came with a missing person. Governor Sir Hubert Young’s wife, Lady Young, was flying her own plane from Livingstone to Lusaka for the handover when she crashed in a maize field in Gokwe and disappeared for four days. More than 600 people, including police officers, soldiers and railway workers, along with 19 aircraft, joined the search. But while...