Zambia

Apologies for the delay. Due to some personal circumstances and some financial strain because of a thirty-day escrow, I have been unable to post. This is coming to an end today. Now that the house is mine, the furniture is moved in and Feng Shui’d, and life has regained some aspect of stability, my nation-state project continues with the African nation of Zambia. A month back, I did a quick summary of one of this Southeastern African nation’s neighbors, Zimbabwe. Zambia border Zimbabwe to the north and there is an aspect of “shared” history between the two even though both countries, due to colonial interests, have a separate history despite sharing one of the most beautiful regions on the planet. Zambia is the official home of Victoria Falls along the Zampezi River which also borders Zimbabwe to the south. The river acts as the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe through most of its length including flowing into Lake Kariba which is the largest artificial lake in the world. It was formed when the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland completed the Kariba Dam in 1960 on behalf of the British Empire. The Zampezi River flows through one of the most scenic and heavily touristy sections of Africa. National Parks near the river include Sioma Ngwezi, Kafue, Lower Zambezi, and its most famous, the Mosi-Oa-Tunya. This area of high elevated plains, grasslands, wetlands mixed into the river valley and beautiful forests is infamous for being one of the best locations to see the amazingly large creatures of Africa. Counting Zimbabwe, this area has national parks, forest reserves, safari areas, wildlife preservation areas and conservancies. Almost the entire region along the Zambezi is protected in some form or another.

​Zambia has one of the more interesting flags in the world. The flag was green even during colonization but after independence, each stripe on the flag in the lower right-hand corner had a meaning. The vertical red stripe stands for freedom, the black stripe for the African people of the region, and the orange is for copper, the mineral that attracted the British colonists in the 19th Century. The gold eagle symbolizes the people of the nation soaring above all the nation’s problems. Zambia has a population of almost 22 million people. Its capital city of Lusaka is often considered one of the nicest capitals in the entirety of Africa. With just over three million people, it is the cultural and political hub of the nation and a short distance from all the natural beauty to the south. Most of the people of the nation are genetically linked to their Bantu ancestors and various versions of that language are spoken inside the country. The biggest tribes are the Bemba, Tonga, and the Lozi currently with over seventy different tribes being represented inside the borders. The national language is English and 95% of the country is Christian with a very small Muslim minority.  Zambia is middle of the road in terms of wealth. It currently ranks 110th in the world with an economy that is booming due to its large amount of copper exports and friendly tourism. Due to the nation being located on an elevated plain, almost the entirety of Zambia resides at 3300 to 5200 feet in elevation. Its capital city is 4196 feet.

The history of Zambia is not that different from Zimbabwe. The Bantu moved into the region from the Congo and Eastern Africa around 300 AD and introduced agriculture, ironworks, and the first forms of governmental organization. Copper was discovered around 600 AD and became a central aspect of the region’s economy. Copper ingots have been found in the region dating back to the years 900-1000. The currency of the area was often made from copper until recently when the Kwacha adopted paper banknotes. Like much of African history, tribes began competing and the conquered individuals became slaves often traded on the open market. There were four empires that broke out of Zambia between 1500-1900, the Chewa to the East near Mozambique, the Bemba to the northeast, the Luapula to the south, and the Lunda along the upper Zambezi (Now called the Lozi). Because of the incredible amount of land on the plains and the dense, rich valley, many of these kingdoms were spread out which did lead to the creation of an early form of central government to tie all the kingdoms’ regions together. Trade with the industrialized nations began in the 18th Century with the Portuguese who set up colonial outposts along the Zambezi River to trade cotton and cloth for ivory and copper. Later, the Portuguese became the first colonists to start hunting elephants due to the high value of ivory in the European market. The slave trade began shortly after in Western Zambia as African traders from Angola and other nearby nations brought slaves into the Lozi Kingdom who would sell them to the Portuguese who would then ship their purchases to its Brazilian colony. Due to the economic growth and competition between the various empires, raiders, traders and invaders became part of Zambian life in the 19th Century. The value of ivory and slaves led to often violent competition but helped introduce crops like tobacco, peanuts and corn into the nation. Due to its decentralized and internal competitiveness, the country easily fell to the British in the late 19th Century. Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (BSAC) staked claims to the region and began administration of the territory. Rhodes deals with neighboring tribes and other colonizers are what led to the unique shape of the nation including the deep penetration of the Democratic Republic of Congo to its north. Like most colonial outposts, the British looted the copper out of the nation while treating the natives as mostly second-class citizens including introducing an income tax in 1920. The class situation in the nation often led to small scale rebellions and riots inside the colony. Unlike Zimbabwe and South Africa to the south, Zambia never had a large increase in British settlers leaving the administration with a little over fifty thousand people taking care of tens of millions of native Bantus. The Great Depression put a lot of economic pressure on the colony. Despite developing the nation, most Zambians remained uneducated. Poverty began to spread as more 20th Century wars began and the Copper Belt became a key and important source of minerals for the British war effort. This led to massive strikes and labor protests. The British consolidated its Rhodesian and Nyasaland into the Central African Federation in 1953. But nothing could save the decline of this British colony despite an increase in the development of infrastructure including the building of the Kariba Dam and the carving out of roads along its high-altitude topography. Kenneth Kaunda in 1958 inspired by Ghana achieving statehood in 1957 formed the United National Independence Party (UNIP). Civil disobedience eventually allowed the Zambians to take majority control of their Congress in 1963 and on October 24, 1964, the Republic of Zambia was born (16 years sooner than its neighbor to the south, Zimbabwe). Kenneth Kaunda would be the first president of the country lasting 27 years into 1991 when his long rule led to increased corruption and authoritarianism. The National Assembly abolished Kaunda’s one-party rule due to massive student protests and Zambia became a multiparty Democratic Republic which is where it stands currently. Zambia is one of the more stable nations on the African continent and like many of its neighbors, building infrastructure continues to be one of its biggest problems due to the extreme environments of the region. But with the incredible wild animals and diverse scenery that Zambia has been blessed with, maybe keeping the nation “wild” will benefit it in the long run.
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Next week: Another Muslim and African nation often tied to the French, Algeria. Until then.