Though the church was the seedbed for much of the nationalism that brought about independence in Zambia, Phiri notes that the freedoms that nationalism wrought were to allow other secular civil society associations to ease the church aside as the main source of opposition to colonial rule. With Kaunda's declarations of faith and independence the church retracted from the political sphere, merely lending support to the government policies when necessary. Phiri maintains that this demonstrates the reverse of the phenomenon that Bayart observed in Cameroon in which "churches often replace the manifestly political institutions in certain of their functions. When civil society is repressed by a predatory state, a vacuum occurs in the political system." Phiri indicates that the relative freedoms of political association and the improved public spending initiatives of the early years of UNIP rule caused the Church to return to a more traditional pastoral role. Others, such as Gifford, suggest that Bayart's observations are too generalised and were specific in geographical and chronological reference only to Cameroon at the time Bayart made them. Therefore, it is difficult to translate these interpretations either to newly independent Zambia or even to the present day circumstances.