Their lives may have unfolded thousands of miles apart in very different countries ? but when the Premier and his university "homeboy" met again for the first time in four decades it was as though they had never been apart.

Alex Scott and former roommate Siteke Mwale enjoyed an emotional ? and laughter-filled reunion ? when the latter arrived on the Island for his first visit here to attend the African Diaspora Heritage Trail conference as special presidential envoy for Zambia.

The pair met at Temple University in Philadelphia in the early 1960s where they shared a room, played football together and talked about politics and colonialism late into the night. They were firm friends at college but lost touch when they returned home ? one to forge a lengthy career in African politics, the other to launch his own PR company and eventually become leader of his country.

The two men finally made conThe two men finally made contact with one another again last year ? and on Wednesday, met in person for the first time in 43 years. Mr. Scott told in an exclusive interview with the pair at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess that when he heard his old friend speak it was like nothing had changed ? even though both are now grandfathers.

?I heard the voice and it was the same voice that he had 40 years ago,? he said.

Dr. Mwale said: ?I?m just so overwhelmed to see him. It?s just fantastic, it?s out of this world. I don?t think there is anything like this that has happened to two people anywhere in the world.?

The 77-year-old, who majored in political science at Temple, while Mr. Scott studied fine arts, said the Premier never voiced a desire to lead his country while at university.

But he said he wasn?t surprised at the path his pal had taken. ?I believe in providence,? he said. ?All he needed was to believe in himself which he did in the end.?

Mr. Scott, 66, cited Dr. Mwale as inspiring his interest in politics, saying that their conversations about Zambia and Bermuda were an eye-opener to ?someone who was just off to beach parties?.

?In those three years I became politicised, politically educated, politically aware and conscious of what has come to be referred to as the winds of change in Africa,? he said. ?If I have a political mentor, this gentleman would be it.

?I didn?t know anything about Bermudian politics. He explained how the Government at that time worked. It?s because the colonial experience in one country is the colonial experience in most countries.?

The Premier added: ?We lost contact just by virtue of the lives that we have.? He said that when he decided to track his friend down online he discovered he was ?one of the ten most revered and honoured men in Zambia?.

The African country, formerly called Northern Rhodesia, was administered by the British South Africa Company from 1891 until it was taken over by the UK in 1923. Its name was changed to Zambia upon independence in 1964.

?I didn?t say ?that can?t be him?,? said Mr. Scott. ?That was the quality and measure of the individual that I knew at Temple. I wasn?t surprised but I was certainly overwhelmed at what ? to use a term from him ? my homeboy had achieved. Conflicts don?t end only in debate there. His work saves lives.?

The first Dr. Mwale, a former Foreign Affairs Minister of Zambia, knew of Mr. Scott?s position was when a letter arrived from the Premier to him ? stamped On Her Majesty?s Service.

?I saw this envelope. I said ?what is this? We have stopped dealing with the Queen a long time ago!?. When I opened it and there it was from the Premier?s office I was pleasantly surprised.?

Mr. Scott said that the heritage conference was aimed in part at persuading Bermudians that they could govern themselves ? and that Zambia?s struggle for independence was fundamentally about the same ?self-determination? he wanted to see for the Island.

He said the dispersion of Africans to Bermuda made the Island part of the African Diaspora trend, adding: ?We all now realise that we are in actual fact one. There are maybe a few different fashions and clothes, maybe the accent is different, but deep down inside the drum still beats.?

As he clasped arms with Dr. Mwale, the Premier said the friendship was evidence that young Bermudians should go overseas to study. ?There are Siteke Mwales out there for them to meet,? he said.

Dr. Mwale said he planned to convince the Premier to visit him in Zambia. ?It?s now imperative,? he said. ?It won?t take him 43 years.?