Zambia's Daring Space Dream: How One Man's Wild Mission Is Inspiring Artists Around the World

In the 1960s, a man named Edward Mukuka Nkoloso shocked the world with a bold announcement. He said that Zambia — a brand-new African nation — would join the space race and beat the world's superpowers to the moon. People laughed and called him and his team 'a bunch of crackpots.' But more than 60 years later, his story is inspiring artists, filmmakers, circus performers, and playwrights around the world.

Zambia became an independent country in 1964, after breaking away from British colonial rule. Nkoloso founded the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy. He picked 12 young men and women to train as 'Afronauts' — his name for African astronauts. He trained them on a farm outside Lusaka, rolling them downhill in barrels, swinging them on ropes, and dunking them in rivers to mimic the experience of space travel.

Nkoloso asked the United Nations education group UNESCO for millions of dollars in funding, but his request was denied. With no money, the program slowly collapsed. The Zambian government pulled its support, and Nkoloso eventually turned to a career in politics. He died in 1989, never having sent anyone to space.

Years later, Zambia's first president Kenneth Kaunda said the space mission 'wasn't a real thing.' Many believe Nkoloso was actually making a political point — that the billions spent on the space race should have been used to help people on Earth instead. Whatever his true goal, his legacy lives on. In 2024, Zambia installed its first satellite ground station, and it is now part of the new African Space Agency.

Artists around the world have been drawn to Nkoloso's story. A short film called Afronauts by Ghanaian filmmaker Nuotama Frances Bodomo premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014. A German dance theater group made a two-part film series inspired by the mission. And a new stage play called The Afronauts will premiere in London in November 2025.

Circus Zambia, based in Lusaka, is performing a circus show called Afronauts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The show blends aerial acrobatics, juggling, and partner stunts to tell Nkoloso's story. It is a collaboration with UK theater company Wake the Beast, co-directed by Irish theater-maker Adam McGuigan and Zambian co-creator Gift Chansa.

Chansa said finding this story felt like discovering buried treasure. 'I was excited I found something that is Zambian,' he said. 'We are Zambians who are pushing the Zambian narrative with something that feels authentically Zambian.' He and McGuigan call their mission 'Zambia Ku Chalo' — meaning 'Zambia to the world.' Edward Nkoloso once dreamed of planting Zambia's flag on the moon. Through art and performance, that flag is now being raised across the globe.