Zambia
Zambia,[a] officially the Republic of Zambia,[b] is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa.[8] 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.
This article is about the Southern African nation. For the 18th-century BC king of Isin, see Zambiya. For the part of Kaliningrad Oblast, see Sambia Peninsula. For the West African state, see The Gambia.
Republic of Zambia
- 19.0% Bemba
- 13.6% Tonga
- 7.5% Tumbuka
- 6.0% Chewa
- 5.7% Lozi
- 5.3% Nsenga
- 3.0% Ngoni
- 3.1% Lala
- 3.9% Kaonde
- 2.8% Namwanga
- 2.6% Lunda (Northern)
- 2.5% Mambwe
- 2.2% Luvale
- 2.4% Lamba
- 1.9% Ushi
- 1.6% Bisa
- 1.6% Lenje
- 1.2% Mbunda
- 0.9% Lunda (Luapula)
- 0.9% Senga
- 0.8% Ila
- 0.8% Lungu
- 0.7% Tabwa
- 0.7% Soli
- 0.7% Kunda
- 0.6% Ngumbo
- 0.5% Chishinga
- 0.5% Chokwe
- 0.5% Nkoya
- 5.4% other ethnics
- 0.8% major racial
- 0.4% unclassified
Unitary presidential republic
27 June 1890
28 November 1899
29 January 1900
17 August 1911
1 August 1953
24 October 1964
5 January 2016
1
17.2/km2 (44.5/sq mi) (191st)
2023 estimate
2023 estimate
57.1[6]
high
dd/mm/yyyy
left
Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. Following European explorers in the 18th century, the British colonised the region into the British protectorates of Barotziland–North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia towards the end of the 19th century. These were merged in 1911 to form Northern Rhodesia. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.[9]
On 24 October 1964, Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom and prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United 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.[10] 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-democratic Movement 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.
Zambia contains abundant natural resources, including minerals, wildlife, forestry, freshwater, and arable land.[11] In 2010, the World Bank named Zambia among the top 10 reformers in the World Bank's Ease of doing business index.[12] The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is headquartered in Lusaka.
