Dr Guy Scott (left) and Chanda Mfula present at the 2019 event
Dr Guy Scott, Sussex alumnus and former Vice President of Zambia died recently. Dr Scott studied for his master’s and PhD at Sussex in the 1980s, and in 2019, he returned to the University to speak with students and staff, sharing reflections on leadership, democracy and public service drawn from his remarkable career. The visit was organised by another Sussex alumnus, Chanda Mfula, who kindly wrote the obituary below.
Guy (left) and Chanda (right) are pictured together at the 2019 event.
From Sussex to the Presidency: Celebrating the life of Guy Scott, one of Zambia’s foremost politicians by Chanda Mfula
On 15 July 2026, Zambia’s former Vice President and University of Sussex alumnus, Dr Guy Scott, passed on, closing the curtains on an era in which he and his compatriot, former President Michael Sata, formed one of the strongest political parties, which dominated opposition politics for 10 years before going into government.
After working in a government department, Dr Scott decided to pursue further studies at the University of Sussex, where obtained his master’s degree in 1983 and his doctorate in 1986. It was at the University of Sussex where Dr Scott studied the less probed aspects of cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence, a reminder of how – since its establishment – the University of Sussex has been creating an enabling environment for its students to push boundaries in their pursuit and contribution to knowledge.
These attributes of stretching the limits and trailblazing would later manifest in Dr Scott when he and his friend, Michael Sata, formed and built the Patriotic Front, which they would transform from an insignificant two-man political party into a popular government in 2011. Michael Sata was elected president, and Guy Scott became vice president. After over two decades of friendship and loyalty to each other, President Michael Sata died in 2014, and was succeeded by his friend Scott, who acted as President until the next presidential elections. Five years later, Guy Scott published a book, Adventures in Zambian Politics, which is hard to classify as an autobiography because it’s not just about him. It’s also about Michael Sata and their political journeys.
Their earlier individual lives aside, Guy Scott and Michael Sata’s political journey together had begun in 1991, when the end of the Soviet era pushed many countries, including Zambia, towards a western-style liberal democracy. They both became ministers in the first government that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was after their fallout with this government that they crafted their own successful political project, whose lessons about the Sussex-like spirit of pushing boundaries, conviction, as well as fighting and overcoming challenges, transcend the political realm.
Dr Guy Scott was born in pre-independence Zambia on 1 June 1944. He leaves behind a legacy which forms an important part of Zambia’s political history.