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Little is known about the early
history of the country we now call Zambia. Around two thousand years ago the
area was occupied by hunters and gatherers who lived a nomadic
lifestyle. Four hundred years later the Bantu moved into the area establishing
small villages and farms and, by the 16th century, Zambia was home to a number of
kingdoms including Lunda, Bemba and Chewa. By the early 19th Century Shaka, the Zulu leader, was making conquests around
the south of Africa, expanding his empire. One displaced tribe fled north and in turn
founded the Kololo Kingdom in what had been up until then the Lozi Kingdom of Upper Zambezi. Another tribe,
the Ngoni, similarly fled Shaka's territorial ambitions and settled in east
Zambia. By this time Europeans were active around Africa however, being landlocked
and far from the ocean, Zambia did not have contact with them until the 18th
Century.
The most noted European visit of these was when the explorer
David Livingstone arrived in the area in 1851.
He set up up a mission in the Kololo Kingdom, however it eventually failed
after most of the missionaries died and his aim of replacing the slave trade
with a cotton trade had a similar fate as no practicable trade route could
be established through Mozambique. As this tax could only be paid in
cash, many men were forced to work effectively as slave labourers in nearby
South Africa or Zimbabwe to pay their enforced dues. Attempts at rebellion were brutally put down. By the end of the 19th Century, modern day Zambia comprised North-Western
Rhodesia (mainly the old Kingdom of Lozi which had been retaken from the Kololo
in the 1860s) and North-Eastern Rhodesia. They were administered as separate
territories until 1911 when they amalgamated to form Northern Rhodesia. By 1923
the British Government had not renewed the British South African Company's
charter to work the area (having decided that 'company rule' was no longer
appropriate) and it became a British crown protectorate and two years later a
legislature was formed.
Within the decade substantial copper deposits had been found making Zambia
the world's foremost copper producer by the outbreak of World War II with tens
of thousands employed in the industry (above), however the advent of trade
unionism started the process of antipathy and more latterly hostility to British
rule. The whites in Northern Rhodesia (present day Zambia), Southern Rhodesia
(present day Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (present day Malawi) concluded that the
'blacks' would be easier to manage if the three colonies merged. Despite efforts
through-out the 1940s by the whites for unification, a process vigorously
opposed by the black majority, the government in London accepted a compromise in
1953 by creating the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This compromise entailed each of the three colonies having its own government
but with a federal government overseeing foreign affairs in addition to matters
that affected two or more of the colonies within the federation. It would be
fair to state that this federal government was not particularly interested in
the well-bring of its native citizens rather how much money could be exploited. For
example by the late 1950s white workers were earning on average 2,071UK a year
whilst black workers earned just 203UK a year.
By 1960 pressure for the end of colonial rule was widespread across
Africa. In that year Kenneth David Kaunda, a close friend of the colonial
governor, established the United National Independence Party which eventually
forced the dissolution of the federation on 31st December 1963. The following
month saw Kuanda elected as Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia, an event which
led to the country's full independence from the UK on 24th October 1964 as the
Republic of Zambia, named after the Zambezi river that flows through the
country. Like so many other emerging
African nations, Kaunda was intolerant
of opposition, eventually making Zambia a one party state by 1972 under the
Chona Commssion. The Zambian
economy, in decline after years of poor management, in particular the
nationalisation of the copper industry, led to increasing unrest. In 1991 Kaunda
was forced to call multi party elections with Frederick Chiluba becoming
president with 81% of the presidential election vote. His party, the Movement
for Multi-party Democracy (MMD), also took 125 out of the available 150 seats. To his credit Kaunda was only the second of Africa's presidents to
step down voluntarily having lost office.
Chiluba was re-elected in 1996, however with growing disillusionment of his
rule mired with allegations of corruption and incompetence in dealing with the
floods and drought that affected two million Zambians in 2001, the MDC split
with many of its members breaking away to form the Forum for Democracy and
Development. Unable to seek a third term in office, Chiluba was succeeded by
former Vice President Levy Mwanawasa who went onto win a second term in 2006.
However he died in office within two years and was succeeded by his
vice-president Rupiah Banda who narrowly went on to win his own mandate later
that year. He was defeated by opposition leader Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front in the September 2011 presidential election who died in London on 28th October 2014, being succeeded by his Vice-President Guy Lindsay Scott until a presidential by-election could be held on 20th January 2015. Scott was the first white president of Zambia and was succeeded by Edgar Chagwa Lungu, the country's former Minister of Justice and Minister of Defence, who served as the sixth president of Zambia since 25 January 2015 until he lost the 2021 election to long-time opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema (below).
Today Zambia is a relatively stable multi-party democracy although serious
challenges face the country including widespread poverty, a high prevalence of
AIDS/HIV, poor infrastructure with an under developed health care system, and an
over reliance on copper to drive the economy. The country is also at risk of
drought and floods. This video is from the period of history when President Kuanda sought allies
with the Soviet Union and China. A time when anything seemed possible, even
getting Zambian astronauts to the moon!
Zambia History: Volunteer in Zambia
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Zambia History: Life in Zambia
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Zambia History: Sponsor a Child in Zambia
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Zambia History: Zambia Profile
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