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USAfrica Research Information
For many, Zambia is “the real Africa” with genuinely wild national parks, and some of the finest scenery in the region. For long, Zambia’s Parks have been called southern Africa’s best-kept secret. In the south are the Victoria Falls and the Zambesi River- two of the continent’s major highlights. Lake Tanganyika in the Great Rift Valley is the world’s longest lake, stretching almost 700 km north to south, and the deepest in Africa. It measures over 33’000 sq km with a total shoreline of 3’000 km. THE VICTORIA FALLS Known to Africans as Mosi-Oa-Tunya or "the smoke that thunders", the falls are majestic in their splendor as they tumble in curtains of water to the gorge below. The Zambezi River is nearly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) wide at this point and plunges 100 meters (320 feet) over the cliffs. Five separate falls make up the Victoria falls: Devil's Cataract, Main Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Rainbow Falls and Eastern Cataract. When the Zambezi is at its height, the water races over its edge at speeds in excess of 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour). "Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." So exclaimed the first European missionary-visitor Dr David Livingstone in 1855.
Lusaka:
Lusaka is the capital of Zambia. Around 1890, the British South Africa Company appropriated this area. The British Colonial Office controlled this area from 1924. In 1935, Lusaka was named the capital of Northern Rhodesia. The Federation of African Societies set the Northern Rhodesian Congress up here in 1948. Lusaka was at the center of the civil disobedience movement, which ultimately created the independent state of Zambia. Lusaka became the capital of this state. Today, Lusaka has a mixed economy, which incorporates agriculture as well as textiles, manufacturing, and so on. Farming is an important economic activity, as is the raising of livestock. The city has the University of Zambia an international airport at it's outskirts. Major ethnic groups include the Nyanja and Soli. Europeans and Asians are the minorities.
Economy:
Zambia’s economy is heavily dependent on the mining of copper, cobalt, and zinc. Copper and other metal exports account for about 75 percent of the country's export earnings. A collapse in copper prices, oil price shocks, and statist economic policies in the early 1970s had a devastating effect on Zambian economy. This has been compounded by a continual contraction, since independence, of Zambia's food production—turning the country into a food-deficit nation. The resulting economic decline has been catastrophic, with per capita income falling almost 5 percent annually between 1974 and 1990. The Government’s economic reform program recognizes that Zambia’s future lies in diversifying and expanding its economic base and by increasing agricultural production. Since 1992, President Chiluba’s government has initiated a series of ambitious market-oriented economic reforms aimed at reducing state participation in and control of economic activity. Prices have been decontrolled and subsidies eliminated; the exchange rate and interest rates are now market determined; quantitative restrictions on imports have been eliminated; import tariffs have been reduced and their structure simplified; parastatal monopolies have been ended; and crop marketing has been liberalized. The economy recovered in 1999, aided by good weather and a relatively stable exchange rate.
History:
Zambia attained independence from Britain in 1964. Kenneth Kaunda became the country’s first president and proclaimed one-party rule. Opposition parties were legalized in 1990. In a subsequent election in 1991, Fredrick Chiluba the leader of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) defeated Mr. Kaunda. Mr. Chiluba was re-elected in 1996. Next Presidential elections are scheduled for fall 2001. Recently, Zambia has been playing an important role as a mediator in the conflicts in the Central African region.
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