Edward Festus Mukuka Nkoloso (1919–1989) was a member of the Zambian resistance movement and the founder of the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy.
He was especially famous for attempting a space programme and its "Afronauts" have been the subject of subsequent art works and documentaries.
[6] From 1960 until sometime after 1969, Nkoloso's "space program" sought to accomplish the launching of a rocket that would send 17-year-old Matha Mwambwa and two cats to the Moon.
[4][7][10] Nkoloso stated that the goals of the program were to establish a Christian ministry to "primitive" Martians and the hope of Zambia becoming the "controllers of the seventh heaven of interstellar space".
However, the Ministry of Power, Transport and Communication is reported as stating those requests had not been made on the behalf of Zambia.
[10][12] The term "Afronauts", coined by Nkoloso, refers to the participants of this program with hopes of bringing not just Zambia, but also the entire continent of Africa, to space.
He claimed that they should have a place beside physicians, and that they are an antidote for Christianity which had hurt Africa's medical skills, but states that he did not practice witchcraft himself.
[2] He was awarded the Russian Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945".