Zambia
Zambia is located in the Northern part of the region referred to as Southern Africa and is comparatively large in size - about 750,000sq.km. Zambia has many National Parks and Game management areas that make up almost 50% of its total area.
The population of Zambia is roughly 10 million and about 10% of the people live in the country’s capital Lusaka. The official language in Zambia is English, the other main languages spoken are Tonga, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Bemba, Kaonde and Nyanja. The Zambian people are extremely friendly and treat visitors with warmth and hospitality.
Other highlights of the country are the spectacular Victoria Falls where a wide variety of adventure activities are available from white water rafting, bungi jumping, canoeing, gorge swinging, elephant back safaris, jet boating on the rapids, to river boarding, micro-light or helicopter flips over the Falls, fishing and river cruises.
Lake Kariba lies further along the Zambezi and is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Good fishing and houseboat sojourns are available here.
To the north there are several excellent game parks offering superb game viewing opportunities as well as Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second deepest lake and several other beautiful waterfalls.
A short History of Zambia
Source: Lonely Planet Southern Africa, second edition September 2000, p24, 657, 659 Published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd Australia
The celebrated British explorer David Livingstone travelled up the River Zambezi in the early 1850's, searching for a route to the interior of Africa, hoping to introduce Christianity and the principles of European civilization to combat the horrors of the slave trade. In 1855, Livingstone reached the giant waterfall that he christened Victoria Falls.
Livingstone's work and writings inspired missionaries to come to the area north of the Zambezi, and close on their heels came explorers, hunters and prospectors searching for whatever the country had to offer.
The 'new' territory did not escape the notice of Cecil John Rhodes, who was already establishing mines and a vast business empire in South Africa. Rhodes' British South Africa Company (BSAC) laid claim to the area in the early 1890's and was backed by the British government in 1895, partly to help combat slavery and also to prevent further Portuguese expansion in the region.
For the next few decades, like many other parts of Southern Africa, Zambia's history was largely influenced by BSAC activities.
Two territories were initially created: North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia, but these were combined in 1911 to become Northern Rhodesia. In 1907 the town of Livingstone became the capital.
At around the same time, vast deposits of copper were discovered in the area now called the Copperbelt. The indigenous people had mined here for centuries, but now large European-style opencast pits were established, and local Africans were employed as labourers.
They may have had little choice: they needed money to pay the hut tax which had been introduced, and their only other source of income had gone when their farmland was appropriated by European settlers.
In 1924 the colony was put under direct British control and in 1935 the capital was moved to Lusaka. In the following years, settlers pushed for closer ties with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Malawi), to make them less dependent on colonial rule, but various interruptions (including WWII) meant the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland did not come about until 1953.
Meanwhile, African nationalism was becoming a more dominant force in the region. The United National Independence Party (UNIP) was founded in the late 1950's by Kenneth Kaunda; he spoke out against the Federation on the grounds that it promoted the rights of white settlers to the detriment of the local African population. Through the early 1960's, as many other African countries gained independence, Zambian nationalists opposed the colonial forces, culminating in a massive campaign of civil disobedience and a small but decisive conflict called the Chachacha Rebellion.
The Federation was dissolved in 1963 and Northern Rhodesia became independent in 1964, taking the name Zambia. By this time the British government had generated huge sums from Northern Rhodesia, yet it had spent only a small part of this money on the colony, investing instead in Southern Rhodesia. Today, Zambia still suffers from the effects of this staggering loss of capital.
For detailed information see www.zambiatourism.com
 | For more information on travel throughout Zambia, we reccommend the "Zambia Travel Guide"; written by Chris McIntyre and published by Bradt Travel Guides. |