Zambia, or officially the Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in southern Africa. Zambia is bordered by Democratic Republic of Congo in the north, Tanzania in the northeast, Malawi in the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia in the east and Angola in the west.
The country, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia in the colonial times, is covered mostly in high plateau with hills and mountains which make for a unique and carried terrain. In the north, Zambia has some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. The total area of Zambia is 290,586 square miles or 752,614 square kilometres which makes it three times the size of the United Kingdom and roughly the size of Texas in the United States of America. It is also the 39 largest country in the world. It’s population is 17,319,504 and the population density is 23 people per square kilometer/60 people per square mile which makes the 66th most populated country in the world. Their official language is English with many ethnic languages also spoken.
More than 40% of the Zambian population live in urban areas especially the capital city of Lusaka in the south which has 2,179,000 people in an area of 139 square miles/ 360 square kilometres. Most others live around the Copper belt Province in the Northwest. It has a population of 1,972,317 with a population density of 63 people per square kilometer. The Copper belt was the backbone of the Northern Rhodesian economy in colonial times and was also believed to shoulder the economy of the newly independent Zambian nation. However, these hopes were dashed by drop in the international copper prices. The copperbelt, which runs from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a mountain chain which is 500 million years old and was created when the Kalahari craton collided with the Congo craton in the creation of the Gondwana supercontinent. This collision caused many minerals to be pushed up hence the copperbelt.
The name “Zambia” was derived from the river Zambezi which is one of Zambia’s main rivers. The climate is mainly tropical and the rainy season runs from October to April and the dry season from May to September. Zambia has been named one of Africa’s fastest growing economy and the capital city Lusaka is the fastest growing city and quickest urbanizing in southern Africa. The economy is mainly driven by copper and cobalt mining and processing which had dwindled in the 70s but got back on track when prices aired again in 2004. Copper was discovered by Frederick Russell Burnham who was an American scout for Cecil Rhodes. Beside copper, Zambia also exports electricity and agricultural output like tobacco, flowers, and cotton to China, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, South Korea and India amounting to more than 6.3 billion dollars a year. Agriculture is very pivotal to Zambia as it employs 85% of the workforce. The main cash crop grown is maize and it also doubles as a staple for the Zambian people. They also grow soybean, sugar, sunflower, sorghum, wheat, vegetables and fruits and rear cattle. Zambia imports from South Africa, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, China and India.
Zambia’s landscape is one of the most captivating and it brings in a lot of tourists from all over the world. Zambia is home to the largest waterfalls in the world, Victoria Falls. Victoria falls, also known as “the smoke that thunders”, is formed by rapids of the River Zambezi from Zimbabwe. River Zambezi is the fourth largest river in Africa after the River Nile, River Congo and River Niger and it runs through 6 countries; Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and Mozambique. The sprays of the falls make the Victoria Falls rainforest the only place on earth that receives rainfall 24 hours a day all year round. The falls also create beauty when the moonlight shines off them to create a rainbow called a “moonbow”. The falls is even listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Zambia is also the home of the largest manmade lake in the world. Lake Karina is the largest lake by volume, holding 43 cubic miles of water. It is 223 kilometres/ 140 miles long and 40 kilometres/ 20 miles wide. It has a bunch of islands on it and a rich ecosystem due to the vegetation that was burnt in preparation to filling out the lake. Zambia also has the world’s biggest mushroom which grows up to a mile in diameter.
Zambia has more than 70 ethnic groups within its borders which is very significant. However, most of the tribes stem from one of two major ethnic family’s i.e. the Khoisan who were the first inhabitants of the land and Bantu who migrated from West Africa. Consequently, the Khoisan were then absorbed or annihilated by the Bantu. Some of the major tribes in Zambia include the Bemba who are the largest ethnic group with up to 21% of the population with roots in this tribe. They are claimed to have come from the Congo Basin and entered the country through a semi mythical land called “Kola”. They were previously hunter gatherers but with the introduction of copper mine, went on to gain profusely from the industry.
The second d largest ethnic group, with 14% of Zambians, is the Tonga. The Tonga were indigenous to the country and trace their roots all the way back to 900 years living in the Zambezi valley where they still living today. The Zambezi valley was a trade hub in the medieval times and the Tonga maintained trade routes that stretched to East Africa and all the way to the Arabian Peninsula, India and China. Other tribes are the Lozi whose name “Barotse” means people of the plains and lived in the plains of Barotseland, the Ngoni who are descendants of the Ngoni and Zulu from South Africa who migrated north to escape the Shaka Zulu onslaught, the Chewa who revere their women and mark themselves with tribal tattoos, Nsaga, Tumbuka, Lala, Kaonde among others. In the 16th Century, the first contact of foreigners was recorded as Portuguese and Arabs started trading with Zambians inland. In the 18th Century, Cecil Rhodes made Northern Rhodesia a British protectorate before they gained independence on 24th October 1964 with Kenneth Kaunda as first president. This independence came four years after British Prime minister, Harold MacMillan’s famous “Winds of change” speech.