Rupiah Bwezani Banda was born on the 13th of February 1937.
Banda was born in the town of Miko, Gwanda, Southern Rhodesia now Zimbabwehis parents had come from Northern Rhodesia to find employment prior to his birth.
He became involved in politics when he joined the youth wing of the UNIP in 1960s.
In 1965 he was appointed as Zambia’s Ambassador to Egypt. While there, he became friends with UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, and the decision to allow UNITA to open offices in Lusaka at that time has been attributed to Banda’s influence.
Rupiah Banda became Ambassador to the United States on 7 April 1967.
He served as Ambassador to the U.S. for about two years, then returned to Zambia to serve as Chief Executive of the Rural Development Corporation for about two years and subsequently as General Manager of the National Agriculture Marketing Board for a similar length of time.
Banda married his first wife, Hope Mwansa Makulu, in 1966 and the couple had three sons together.
In 1991, he was defeated in Munali Constituency by Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) candidate Ronald Penza. Although he initially intended to run again for the seat in the 1996 election, he supported the UNIP’s boycott of the election.
After Mwanawasa suffered a stroke while attending an African Union summit in Egypt on 29 June 2008, Banda became acting President.
As President, Rupiah Banda was focused on economic development, traveling abroad to promote Zambian trade to other world leaders. In December 2010 he traveled to Egypt to meet with President Hosni Mubarak.