Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bordered to the north by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city of Zambia is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the north, the core economic hubs of the country.
On 24 October 1964, Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialistUnited National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from 1964 until 1991. Kaunda played a key role in regional diplomacy, cooperating closely with the United States in search of solutions to conflicts in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Angola, and Namibia. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a one-party state with UNIP as the sole legal political party under the motto "One Zambia, One Nation" coined by Kaunda. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democraticMovement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, beginning a period of socio-economic development and government decentralisation. Zambia has since become a multi-party state and has experienced several peaceful transitions of power.
Edgar Chagwa Lungu (born 11 November 1956) is a Zambian politician who served as the sixth president of Zambia from 26 January 2015 to 24 August 2021. Under President Michael Sata, Lungu served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Defence. Following Sata's death in October 2014, Lungu was adopted as the candidate of the Patriotic Front in a Convention of the Patriotic Front in Kabwe, for the January 2015 presidential by-election, which was to determine who would serve out the remainder of Sata's term. In the election, he narrowly defeated opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema and took office on 25 January 2015.
Lungu was elected to a full presidential term in the August 2016 election, again narrowly defeating Hichilema. Hichilema initially disputed the election result and filed a case at the Constitutional Court to nullify the result. On 5 September, however, the court dismissed the case to Lungu's favour. Lungu was sworn in for his first full term on 13 September 2016. (Full article...)
Image 2Zambia map of Köppen climate classification. (from Zambia)
Image 3Seated female Staffs of office (Kibango), were displayed by Luba kings. In Luba society, women's bodies were considered the ultimate vessels of spiritual power. (from History of Zambia)
Image 18Inside the palace of the Litunga, ruler of the Lozi. Due to the flooding on the Zambezi, the Litunga has two palaces one of which is on higher ground. The movement of Litunga to higher land is celebrated at the Kuomboka Ceremony (from Zambia)
Image 19Enormous Ba-Ila settlement. These communities have been of interest to mathematicians due to their fractal pattern design. (from History of Zambia)
Image 20Inside the palace of the Litunga, ruler of the Lozi. Due to the flooding on the Zambezi, the Litunga has two palaces one of which is on higher ground. The movement of Litunga to higher land is celebrated at the Kuomboka Ceremony (from History of Zambia)
Image 21Three young Ngoni chiefs. The Ngoni made their way into Eastern Zambia from KwaZulu in South Africa. They eventually assimilated into the local ethnic groups. (from Zambia)
Image 22Drawing of the ruler of Lunda, Mwata Kazembe, receiving Portuguese in the royal courtyard in the 1800s (from Zambia)
Image 23Batonga fisherwomen in Southern Zambia. Women have played and continue to play pivotal roles in many African societies. (from Zambia)
Image 24Inside the palace of the Litunga, ruler of the Lozi. Due to the flooding on the Zambezi, the Litunga has two palaces one of which is on higher ground. The movement of Litunga to higher land is celebrated at the Kuomboka Ceremony (from Zambia)
Image 25Three young Ngoni chiefs. The Ngoni made their way into Eastern Zambia from KwaZulu in South Africa. They eventually assimilated into the local ethnic groups. (from Zambia)
Image 26Tribal and linguistic map of Zambia (from Zambia)
Image 27A drawing of Lunda houses by a Portuguese. The size of the doorways relative to the building emphasizes the scale of the buildings. (from History of Zambia)
Image 28Batonga fisherwomen in Southern Zambia. Women have and continue to play important roles in many African societies. (from History of Zambia)
Image 29GDP per capita (current), compared to neighbouring countries (world average = 100) (from Zambia)
Image 41A drawing of Lunda houses by a Portuguese visitor. The size of the doorways relative to the building emphasizes the scale of the buildings. (from Zambia)
Image 57The geopolitical situation during the Rhodesian Bush War in 1965 – countries friendly to the nationalists are coloured orange. (from Zambia)
Image 58Nsima (top right corner) with three types of relish. (from Zambia)
Image 59Ancient (but graffitied) Rock Art in Nsalu Cave, Kasanka National Park in North-Central Zambia. (from Zambia)
Image 60Ila Headman's son in Southern Zambia, Cattle formed an important part of their society. (from History of Zambia)
Image 61A drawing of Lunda houses by a Portuguese visitor. The size of the doorways relative to the building emphasizes the scale of the buildings. (from Zambia)
Image 62Three young Ngoni chiefs. The Ngoni made their way into Eastern Zambia from KwaZulu in South Africa. They eventually assimilated into the local ethic groups. (from History of Zambia)
John Harrison Clark III or Changa-Changa (10 May 1860 – 9 December 1927) was an Anglo-South African explorer and adventurer who effectively ruled much of what is today southern Zambia from the early 1890s to 1902. He arrived alone from South Africa in about 1887, reputedly as an outlaw, and assembled and trained a private army of Senga natives that he used to drive off various bands of slave-raiders. He took control of a swathe of territory on the north bank of the Zambezi river called Mashukulumbwe, became known as Chief "Changa-Changa" and, through a series of treaties with local chiefs, gained mineral and labour concessions covering much of the region.
Starting in 1897, Clark attempted to secure protection for his holdings from the British South Africa Company. The Company took little notice of him. A local chief, Chintanda, complained to the Company in 1899 that Clark had secured his concessions while passing himself off as a Company official and had been collecting hut tax for at least two years under this pretence. The Company resolved to remove him from power, and did so in 1902. Clark then farmed for about two decades, with some success, and moved in the late 1910s to Broken Hill. There he became a prominent local figure, and a partner in the first licensed brewery in Northern Rhodesia. Remaining in Broken Hill for the rest of his life, he died there in 1927. (Full article...)