Zambia: The Land and Its People
Author: Godfrey Mwakikagile
Paperback: 196 pages
Publisher: Continental Press (31 May 2010)
ISBN-10: 9987932258
ISBN-13: 9789987932252
Part Four:
Major Towns and Cities
ZAMBIA'S population is one of the most urbanised in Africa. About 50 per cent of the people live in towns and cities and in other urban areas including small townships. The highest concentration is in the Lusaka area, the nation's capital.
Lusaka is not only the nation's capital; it's also the largest city in the country.
The largest urban centres in Zambia – call them towns or cities, depending on your definition – are Lusaka with a population of 3.1 million; Ndola, 748,000; Kitwe, 363,800; Kabwe, 213,800; Chingola, 150,500; Luanshya, 124,800; and Livingstone, 108,100.
These are Zambian government figures based on 2010 estimates. There are other estimates from other sources which may be different from those figures. For example, some estimates show that Mufulira has more people than Luanshya and Livingstone.
We start with the largest city, Lusaka.
Lusaka
Lusaka is the capital and largest city in Zambia. It's also the most ethnically representative part of Zambia. Every Zambian ethnic group is represented in this bustling metropolis.
Many languages are spoken in Lusaka. But the two main ones are English and Nyanja.
Bemba, the lingua franca of the Copperbelt, is also widely spoken in Lusaka.
Lusaka is located in the southern part of the central plateau of the country at an elevation of 4,196 feet. It had a population of 3,100,000 in 2007.
It's also the nation's commercial centre. And the country's four main highways – North, South, East and West – radiate from Lusaka.
As the nation's capital, Lusaka is the seat of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. The official residence of the president, the State House, is in Lusaka. The Parliament is in Lusaka. And the nation's highest court, the High Court, is in Lusaka.
Lusaka also is the capital of Lusaka Province, the smallest and second most populous of the country's nine provinces. Lusaka also is an administrative district run by the Lusaka City Council.
Lusaka was the site of a village named after its headman Lusaka. According to history, the village was located at Manda Hill near what's now the National Assembly – Parliament – building.
In the Nyanja language, Manda means “graveyard.” The area was expanded by European – mostly British – settlers in 1905 when the railway was being built.
In 1935, Lusaka was chosen to replace Livingstone as the capital of the British colony of Northern Rhodesia.
The choice was determined by a number of factors: Lusaka's central location in the colony; its status as a major railway station, and for being at the crossroads of the Great North Road, the Great East Road, and the Great West Road.
After the federation of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland – known as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland or the Central African Federation – was formed in 1953, Lusaka became a hub of political activism for Africans in their quest for self-determination as a natural right.
African nationalists were opposed to the federation and demanded full independence.
When Northern Rhodesia became independent in 1964, Lusaka remained the capital. It became the capital of the new nation of Zambia.
Lusaka has also drawn many people from other parts of Zambia, including the rural areas, in search of better life. It's also a major tourist centre.
The city is also home to a large number of foreigners from many countries in and outside Africa. They include diplomats, businessmen, investors, and expatriates. Many of them also work for various organisations. Among them are religious institutions as well as non-governmental organisations commonly known as NGOs.
Lusaka also is the nation's educational centre. The highest academic institution in the country, the University of Zambia, is based in Lusaka.
The university was established in 1965. But it had its beginnings in the colleges which existed before then in Lusaka: Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, and Oppenheimer College of Social Service.
In July 1964, the former Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, a research institute with an international reputation for scholarly research and publications in the field of social anthropology dating back to 1938, came under the jurisdiction of the Provisional Council which had been formed to oversee the establishment of the University of Zambia.
In August 1965, the Oppenheimer College of Social Service was incorporated into the university.
The University of Zambia was formally established in November 1965. The first classes started in March 1966. And President Kenneth Kaunda became the university chancellor in July 1966.
The University began with three Schools: Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Others were added later: Law in 1967, Engineering in 1969, Medicine in 1970, Agricultural Sciences in 1971, Mines in 1973, Business and Industrial Studies at Ndola Campus in 1978, Environmental Studies also at Ndola Campus in 1981, and Veterinary Medicine at the main campus in Lusaka in 1983.
In its first academic year, the university enrolled 312 students. The numbers rose to more than 1000 in 1970. Ten years later, the university had more than 4000 students. Current enrollment stands at 11,500.
Since a very large number of students could not be accommodated at the main campus in Lusaka, it was decided in 1975 that the university should be expanded and have three campuses: one in Lusaka, another one in Ndola in the Copperbelt Province, and the third in Solwezi in the North-Western Province.
The Zambia Institute of Technology in Kitwe in the Copperbelt Province was also transformed into a full-fledged university in 1987.
Lusaka also is home to a number of other colleges and institutions of higher learning in different areas.
Lusaka also has some of the best international schools in Zambia. They include the International School of Lusaka, Rhodes Park School, Lusaka International Community School, French International School, Italian International School, Chinese International School, Baobab College, and the American International School.
Although Rhodes Park School is not classified as an international school, it has a large number of Angolan, Nigerian, Congolese, South African, and Chinese students and others of other nationalities.
Some of the children of Zambia's elite including the children of leading politicians attend Rhodes Park School. Among them were the children of President Levy Mwanawasa and Vice President George Kunda.
The city of Lusaka has many areas of interest including national monuments and institutions.
Cairo Road is one of the main streets and points of interest in the city.
Attractions in the nation's capital include Lusaka National Museum, the Political Museum, the Zintu Community Museum, the Freedom Statue, the Zambian National Assembly, the Agricultural Society Showgrounds , the Moore Pottery Factory, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and the zoo and botanical gardens of the Munda Wanga Environmental Park.
Along Great East Road are the two largest shopping malls in Zambia: Arcades shopping Mall and Manda Hill shopping Mall.
Lusaka is also home to Zambia's largest airport: Lusaka International Airport. The airport is also one of Africa's largest and most important.
The airport lies on the railway line from Livingstone to Kitwe. Lusaka International Airport is used as a public and military airport.
There is also an old airport not far from the centre of the city that is no longer used by civilians but is occasionally used by the president and other high government officials.
Next we look at Ndola, the second-largest city in Zambia.
In addition to being Zambia's second-largest city, Ndola also is the industrial, commercial, and administrative centre of the copper-mining region which is known as the Copperbelt Province.
Ndola also is the commercial capital of Zambia. And it has one of the three international airports in the country. The third one is in Livingstone in the Southern Province.
Ndola is only 6 miles from Zambia's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's also the area where the airplane carrying United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold crashed on 18 September 1961. He died in the plane crash.
The plane actually crashed near Ndola and not in Ndola itself. Dag Hammarskjold was on the way to Congo to negotiate a ceasefire between the secessionist forces of Katanga Province and UN peacekeeping troops.
There have been many reports stating that the crash was deliberate and that Hammarskjold was assassinated.
Former American President Harry Truman is reported to have said: “Dag Hammarskjöld was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said, 'when they killed him'.”
Truman died in December 1972 more than 11 years after the crash.
A memorial was created at the crash site.
Ndola has since then gained notoriety and international attention as the place where the UN secretary-general died when he was on a peace mission to the former Belgian Congo during the turbulent sixties.
Ndola was founded in 1904 by John Edward "Chiripula" Stephenson just six months after the town of Livingstone was founded, making it the second-oldest colonial-era town in Zambia. It was started as a boma and as a trading post.
The Rhodesia Railways main line reached the town in 1907, carrying passengers between Ndola and other towns including Salisbury and Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia and even Cape Town in South Africa.
The line reached the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. And from there, it was extended to the Benguela Railway which goes to the Atlantic port of Lobito Bay in Angola.
The Angolan port used to handle some of Zambia's copper exports. And it has water sufficient to allow large ships to unload close inshore.
The construction of the railway to Ndola enabled the town to develop through the years and become a major economic hub.
In fact, there was a time when Ndola was the largest industrial centre in Zambia. But the city's fortunes changed. Its economy shrunk between 1980 and 2000, reducing its economic importance.
Many factories and manufacturing firms went out of business. Ndola also had a motor vehicle assembly plant which closed down.
The city has been making slow recovery through the years but it has not regained its former glory as the nation's industrial and commercial centre even if it's still considered to be one, as it indeed is.
Ndola is the largest city on the Copperbelt. But there are no mines in Ndola itself. However, the Bwana Mkubwa open-cast mine is only 6 miles southeast of the city centre.
Although the city has no copper mines, it has played a major role in the copper industry through the years as a mineral processing centre. And it still plays an important role in the copper industry.
Copper exports provide 70 – 80 per cent of Zambia's export earnings, making the city very important to the country's economy.
Ndola also has other facilities and institutions of national importance.
The Indeni Oil Refinery in Ndola serves the whole country as a source of refined oil.
Ndola is also the headquarters of the country's leading newspaper, the Times of Zambia.
One strong sign of Ndola's significance as a commercial centre of national stature is the presence of major banks in the city. Besides the capital Lusaka, Ndola is the only other city in Zambia which has the country's central bank, the Bank of Zambia. And every major bank in Zambia has at least one branch in Ndola.
Also, the largest insurance group in Zambia, ZSIC (pronounced 'zeesk'), owns many commercial and residential properties in Ndola.
Ndola also has a significant number of industries and manufacturing firms. They include beverages, brewing, distilling, manufacturing, construction and building material, ceramics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, copper processing and refining, cobalt processing and refining, engineering, food processing, furniture manufacturing, consumer goods, glass manufacturing, metal processing and manufacturing, paint production, paper manufacturing, printing, cotton processing, textiles, and others.
Ndola also has a very large amount of limestone reserves. The limestones have their own special qualities, not found anywhere else, making them unique in the world. The limestone industry is a major source of the wealth and employment in the city.
Between 1974 and 2009, Ndola supplied more than 50 per cent of Zambia's cement. Its plant, called Chilanga Cement, was named after the location where the company was first built. It was built at Chilanga which is about 12 miles south of the nation's capital Lusaka.
Chilanga Cement has two plants in Zambia. The one at Chilanga was built in 1949; and the other one in Ndola was built in 1969.
Chilanga's largest customer is the Zambian copper industry including the large mining company ZCCM – Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd – which is the main operator of copper mines in Zambia. Chilanga Cement also exports cement and cement clinker to neighbouring countries including Malawi, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
A new plant was completed at Chilanga in 2008. It was expected that it would produce twice the amount of cement that was being produced at the plant in Ndola.
Limestones have proved to be a blessing for Ndola, considering the fact that the city has suffered economically through the years.
A combination of huge limestone deposits and existing transport infrastructure makes Ndola a prime destination for investment in cement and related industries.
Another important processing plant that is based on limestone in the area is Ndola Lime. It's the only producer of lime in Zambia. Lime is very important in the production of cement.
Ndola Lime also serves farmers who require agricultural lime.
Ndola also has a major airport which serves both local and international flights. It has scheduled domestic services to Lusaka and an international service to Johannesburg in South Africa and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
The city has several recreational parks.
One of the most memorable sites in the area is the Dag Hammarskjold Crash Site Memorial about 6 miles north of the city centre.
There was also the Dag Hammarskjold Stadium which was located on the banks of the Kafubu River south of the city. It was demolished in the 1980s in order to build a new one. But a new stadium was never rebuilt on the site. Instead, construction work began in early 2009 on a new location for the stadium
During colonial times, Ndola was a major attraction for British settlers. It had a number of good hotels such as the Savoy Hotel which was built in 1956, the Selborne Hotel and others. There was also Annesley Hotel which was later renamed Coppersmith Arms Hotel. It was located at a site that was later taken by the Royal Hotel.
Other good hotels which were highly rated in Ndola before independence included Ndola Hotel on Cecil Avenue. The street was renamed Independence Avenue after the country won independence.
In the 1950s, Rutland Hotel was rated the best hotel in Central Africa.
But Ndola has been through a lot, experiencing economic decline unprecedented in its history. Many sectors of the economy have suffered through the years. For example, when the city's industrial base suffered considerably between the 1980s and mid-2000s, the hotel and catering industry also suffered.
However, there has been a reversal in economic fortunes, with the city witnessing significant improvement in the hotel industry.
Ndola also has major historical and tourist sites. They include The Slave Tree or Mukuyu Slave Tree around which Arab slave traders carried on business transactions in the 1800s, buying and selling captured Africans.
A mukuyu tree is a kind of fig tree. In my native Nyakyusa language, it's called nkuju. There's no letter y in the Nyakyusa language just as there are no letters q, r v, x and z. In Nyakyusa, q is replaced by k, r by l, v by f, and z by s. There is no q or x in Nyakyusa or in Swahili.
Ndola also has the Copperbelt Museum with a collection of gems and minerals of the Copperbelt.
The city also has a renowned research institute, the Tropical Diseases Research Centre (TDRC) at Ndola Central Hospital. A number of research scientists conduct research in the area of tropical disease control at the institute.
Ndola also has been a symbol of decline not only in the context of Zambia but of many other parts of the African continent during the post-colonial era; a point underscored in a report by BBC appropriately entitled “The Last Shirt Maker in Ndola”:
“This year Zambia celebrates the 40th anniversary of gaining independence from Britain. It comes at a sombre time. Zambia is one of the large group of African countries which has become poorer in recent years.
'Get ready for a bumpy ride,' said Sury Patel, as he hunched over the wheel of his 18-year-old Nissan, turning into Independence Way, the main street of Ndola.
You would not have known that we were in a city of half a million people, in the industrial heartland of Zambia. Forty years after independence, Independence Way looks the worse for wear.
It was a narrow road, pitted with holes in the tarmac and with no streetlights to help Mr Patel as he jolted along, peering through the cracked windscreen of his car.
We were heading for a drink at the cricket club where Mr Patel was secretary, as he was of the city's masonic lodge, its main school board, a hospital and several other causes as well.
'There is not an institution in Ndola which I have not been secretary of,' he said, in imitation of the Mikado's Pooh-Ba, as he ordered Rhino beers and settled into a bar stool.
Collapsing industries
The Ndola cricket club was a single-storey, white painted building with a corrugated iron roof and a polished screed floor. It was built some 60 years ago or so and had a comforting architectural familiarity to anyone who has travelled in former British colonies in Africa.
But, like so much else in Zambia, cricket is dying. In Ndola, it is dead already.
'There is no cricket played here any more,' Mr Patel complained, as he remembered the days when his slow bowling had been a feature of the team.
The main copper mine nearby has gone, taking the town's copper refinery with it, and the textile industry has collapsed too. Mr Patel's shirt factory is one of the few still open and he employs only 20 people where he used to employ 200. The closures were inevitable once other industries declined.
It does not take an economic genius to work out that, if most of the purchasers of your shirts lose their jobs, then they can no longer afford to buy them.
But another plague hit the textile factories too. Just as they were losing their domestic market, Zambia was forced to open its borders to imports.
Painful prescription
The order came from the International Monetary Fund, as part of the so-called structural adjustment which these gatekeepers of globalisation demand as the entrance price to the world economy.
The IMF's textbook prescribes short-term pain to make long-term gain. Countries have to open their borders to the chill winds of competition, while removing subsidies from their own industries.
The textbook says that foreign investment will then flood in, opening new competitive industries to replace those that have collapsed. It has not worked in Zambia, at least not yet.
During the period of the most intense IMF-led reforms, it has tumbled more than 30 places down the UN's index of poverty. It is now one of the 12 poorest countries in the world.
Mr Patel simply cannot compete with the cheap second-hand clothing which now fills the markets of Ndola.
The IMF's programme has had another effect too. Foreign companies taking over Zambian factories were given lucrative tax breaks.
There was nothing to stop them taking their tax breaks, stripping out the factories and closing them down, in order to sell goods into Zambia from their plants in neighbouring countries. Not that many Zambians have much money to buy anything any more.
There are signs of decay everywhere across the country. In Livingstone, next to the Victoria Falls, around 20,000 people have lost their jobs in the last ten years.
'Mad waste'
There is huge potential for tourism here, which they have hardly begun to exploit. And amid the industrial wasteland of closed factories, there is now a grain storehouse.
It is a mad waste of resources in a town which should be able to feed itself on the proceeds of tourism. The Victoria Falls are a World Heritage Site, but they should not need the World Food Programme to stay alive.
Back in the cricket club in Ndola, the other men at the bar - all Zambian businessmen of Asian extraction - had a number of different answers to the country's problems.
The socialism of the country's first 25 years was blamed, as well as corruption. But they all conceded that socialism had protected their ability to make money in the early years, and corruption in Zambia is much less damaging than in many African countries.
The country has amazing tourist potential. It has a benevolent climate and has never had a war. Perhaps the IMF's textbook ideas did not work after all.
Mr Patel is not waiting to find out. His three children are now in the United States. His eldest son, who is a trained accountant, wanted to come back to Zambia.
He was prepared to take a pay cut, but not down to the one-tenth of his US earnings which was all he would have made here.
As soon as he can get the right visa, Mr Patel - the last shirt maker in Ndola - is going to join his family in America and Zambia will be the poorer for him going.” – (David Loyn, in his report from Ndola, Zambia, “The Last Shirt Maker in Ndola,” BBC News, Saturday, 22 May 2004).
But there are better days ahead, not only for Ndola and for Zambia as a country but for Africa as a whole.
After Ndola, we look at Kitwe.
Kitwe is the third-largest city in Zambia. It's also one of the most developed commercial and industrial areas in the nation, alongside Ndola and Lusaka, with a complex of mines on its northwestern and western edges.
Kitwe is located close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has a number of townships and suburbs including Nkana East, Nkana West, Mindolo and Garneton. The city is sometimes referred to as Kitwe-Nkana.
Kitwe also has one of the largest mines in Africa: Nkana Mine. It's a copper mine located a little more than half a mile southwest of Kitwe. It's an underground mine and an open pit which has been in operation since 1932. It has produced 6 million tonnes of copper so far.
Kitwe was founded in 1936 in north-central Northern Rhodesia as the railway was being built by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company (BSAC). It was first established as part of a copper-mining centre at Nkana.
The expanding copper mines at Nkana made it the dominant centre in the region and Kitwe started growing in size and significance over the years, finally surpassing Nkana as the main centre.
Kitwe has three institutions of higher learning: Copperbelt University (CBU), a public university that was once part of the University of Zambia (UNZA) but became a separate institution in 1987. It's one of the biggest universities in the country.
Then there is Copperstone University, and the Zambia Institute of Business Studies and Industrial Practice.
The city also has a number of manufacturing plants including beverages, ceramics, chemicals, engineering, plastics, food processing, textiles and others.
The vast majority of the people in Kitwe are Christian as is the case with most in Zambian towns and cities as well as in other parts of the country. But there are smaller groups of other believers as well, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews and others.
Kitwe also has one of the largest numbers of Europeans and people of European descent in Zambia.
Among Zambians, the Bemba are the dominant group in Kitwe. Other groups include the Chewa, Lozi, Tonga, Mambwe, Lunda, Kaonde, and immigrants such as the Nyakyusa from neighbouring Tanzania, a group to which I belong.
Next we go to Kabwe.
Kabwe is the fourth-largest city in Zambia. Located in the Central Province, it has literally played a central role in the evolution and life of Zambia from a colony to an independent nation.
Formerly known as Broken Hill, it was founded when the Broken Hill lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902.
Kabwe also has a claim to being the birthplace of Zambian politics.
The name Kabwe or Kabwe-Ka Mukuba means “ore” or “smelting.” But instead of using an African name, European and Australian mineral hunters named it after a similar mine in Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia.
The mine became the largest in Northern Rhodesia until it was overtaken in the early 1930s by larger copper mining complexes on the Copperbelt.
Apart from lead and zinc, the mine in Broken Hill also produced silver, manganese, and heavy metals such as cadmium, vanadium and titanium in smaller quantities.
In 1921. a human fossil – a skull – which was later named Broken Hill Man or Rhodesian Man, was found in the mine; other sources say in a cave.
The remains of an extinct hominid which is also referred to as Kabwe Cranium were found by a miner.
Until that time, it was the oldest hominid fossil ever found. Also known as the Kabwe Skull or Broken Hill Skull, the cranium was found by Tom Zwiglaar, a Swiss miner, in a lead and zinc mine.
The mine, which occupies a one-and-a-half square-mile area just a little more than half a mile southwest of the town centre, is now closed. But metals are still extracted from old tailings.
Kabwe is also one of the most polluted places in Zambia because discharges from the mine end up polluting the water in the city.
The first railway in the country operated by Rhodesian Railways – when the territory was administered as North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia – reached the Broken Hill mine in 1906. And the town became the northern operational base for the railway. After the mining industry, the railway became the second-biggest employer in the whole country.
A locomotive maintenance facility was built in Broken Hill and, in 1909, the railway reached Ndola in a region that came to be known as the Copperbelt in the late 1920s after the discovery of very large quantities of copper.
The railway workers' unions played a large role in politics in Northern Rhodesia. The country was a British colony in which Africans did not have equal rights. And white workers wanted to protect their privileged status they enjoyed at the expense of blacks.
In racially-segregated colonial times before Africans had the right to vote, the town of Broken Hill was the seat of Roy Welensky, the leader of the powerful Rhodesia Railway Workers Union (RRWU). He later became prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
The federation was opposed by the Northern Rhodesia Railway Trade Union which was the labour union of black railway workers. The union was led by Dixon Konkola. Like the railway union for white workers led by Welensky, the black union was also based in Broken Hill.
Its leader, Dixon Konkola, was one of the leading nationalists in the struggle for independence. But he also came to be one of the most forgotten. Yet his place is in Zambian history is guaranteed.
When one of the leading African nationalist parties, the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC), was proscribed in 1959, Konkola was one of the leaders who formed other political parties to carry on the struggle.
The ZANC was a breakaway from the African National Congress (ANC) led by Harry Nkumbula. ZANC leaders felt that the ANC was not radical enough to lead the struggle for independence. After the ZANC was banned, Dixon Konkola formed the African National Freedom Movement. As Assa Okoth states in his book, A History of Africa: African Nationalism and The De-colonisation Process:
“Simon Kapwewe, a friend of Kaunda's from Lubwa, Munukayumbwa Sipalo and Sikota Wina – young men who had emerged from secondary schools and obtained further education from overseas – now found Nkumbula's leadership too moderate, and were committed to the idea of creating an independent African state.
This aim, they believed, could only be achieved by refusing to compromise in any way with the federal political system.
Kenneth Kaunda, who had been Secretary-General of the Congress since 1953, very neatly expressed this ideal. Nkumbula, the president of the ANC, was clearly less committed to their radical approach. As a matter of fact, he was known to be associating with whites; it was Harry Franklin, a white member of the Executive Council, who had persuaded Nkumbula to call off the boycott of the white trading areas to give the Race Relations Board 'a chance.'
'We will do our best to work for the development of Northern Rhodesia and all its people,' he said, 'but for this we need the help and sympathy of all the liberal-minded Europeans.'
Nkumbula's attitude was underlined when he accepted the constitution of September 1958. While the radical leaders were against this constitution, Nkumbula not only accepted it, but also said that he would stand in the forthcoming elections as an ANC candidate.
As well as fraternising with the whites, Nkumbula was also spending a lot of the party's money and refusing to let Kapwepwe, the Treasurer, keep proper accounts. Furthermore, Nkumbula went to London but failed, for dubious reasons, to keep an appointment with the Colonial Secretary; it was felt he was going to give the Nationalist Movement a bad name.
He also demanded dictatorial powers within the ANC and dismissed branch officials who were not loyal. The younger men felt, therefore that they had no alternative but to break away and form a party of their own.
On October 26, 1958, the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC) was formed. Kaunda was president, Kapwewe Treasurer-General, and Sipalo Secretary-General.
Other members were the Lozi journalist Sikota Wina, and Bemba businessmen Grey Zulu and Lewis Changufu.
ZANC had support in the Northern Province, the Copperbelt and Eastern Province. Outside Zambia it quickly gained support from world leaders such as Nkrumah and Nasser. Nkumbula's support was now restricted mainly to Zambia's Southern Province (Nkumbula's home region dominated by his people the Tonga and the Ila).
The radical leaders, led by Kenneth Kaunda, had vowed they would have nothing to do with the elections held to be held in April 1959.
In February and March of that year there were disturbances in Malawi (Nyasaland) and, fearing that the trouble might spread to Zambia (Northern Rhodesia), Governor Benson decided to act quickly.
Before dawn on March 12, 1959, ZANC officials and 45 of their supporters were taken into custody. Kaunda was first sent to Kabompo, then to prisons in Salisbury and Lusaka. Kapwepwe was sent to Morigu, Wina's home district, and Wina was sent to Luwingu, Kapwepwe's home district; this was to separate the leaders from their supporters.
There was violence at Chilubi Island in Lake Bangweulu and in other parts of the Northern and Luapula Provinces. More than 100 Africans were arrested. The election itself passed off peacefully, Nkumbula winning his seat for ANC in company with 13 members of the United Federal Party and four of the Central Africa Party.
ZANC was proscribed, but other parties immediately emerged. In May 1959, Barry Banda, Dauti Yamba and Paskale Sokota founded the African National Freedom Movement. Dixon Konkola, president of the Railway Workers Union, founded the United African Congress. In June 1959, these two parties combined to form the United National Freedom Party.
A third party, the African National Independence Party was formed by Paul Kalichini. In September 1959, this joined with the United National Freedom Party to form the United National Independence Party (UNIP).
The ANC was meanwhile doing badly. Between June and September 1959, a split had developed between Nkumbula and Titus Mukupo. Fines Bulawayo and a British-trained barrister, Mainza Chona, supported Mukupo. In October 1959, Chona, Bulawayo and Mukupo left the ANC and joined UNIP.
In January 1960 Kaunda was released from o prison; he took over the leadership of UNIP as its president, with Kapwewe as vice-president. Together, Kaunda and Kapwepwe now turned their attention to the organisation of the party.
Kaunda was in a very good position to play an effective role in this. In 1957, he had spent six months in Britain studying the organisation of the British Labour Party. He had also studied the CPP (Convention People's Party) in Ghana. The organisation of UNIP was a combination of these two.
By 1962, UNIP had 23 regional organisations, 67 constituencies, 986 branches and over 6,500 workers.
The party's aim was majority rule and self-government through 'non-violent means plus positive action.' This again shows the influence of Nkrumah, together with that of Mahatma Gandhi. Kaunda following closely the example of Gandhi emphasised that the struggle was against imperialism and colonialism, not against their agents. Despite this non-violence stance, however, there was a certain amount of violence in 1960.
UNIP was a mass party and adopted slogans such as 'one m,an one vote' that would appeal to the masses. The strategy was to work for constitutional changes that would bring about African majority rule in Zambia, enabling Zambia to leave the federation and finally achieve the ultimate goal of independence. Kaunda made proposals along these lines in 1959 and again in March 1960. He also visited London. Accra and Dar es Salaam to gain support.”– (Assa Okoth, A History of Africa: African Nationalism and The De-colonisation Process, Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishers, 2006, pp. 108 – 110).
The town of Kabwe played a major in the evolution of these events in the struggle for independence.
Although many leaders in the independence movement came from many other parts of Northern Rhodesia, there is no question that Kabwe – former Broken Hill – stands out among all the places which produced nationalist leaders and fuelled the nationalist struggle for independence as the birth place of Zambian nationalism.
Today the town is the headquarters of Zambia Railways. But employment levels on the railway have been heavily cut back.
Reflecting its central location and railway union base, Kabwe emerged as the choice by African nationalist leaders for a rally which was held on 26 October 1958 at Mulungushi Rock north of the city. Kabwe was then just a town and still known as Broken Hill.
The rally was held by the Zambian African National Congress led by Kenneth Kaunda. After Kaunda and his colleagues including Simon Kapwepwe later founded the United National Independence Party (UNIP), they continued to hold conferences at Mulungushi Rock. Mulungushi Rock later came to be known as the “birthplace of independence'”in Zambia.
The name of the town was changed from Broken Hill to Kabwe in 1966 shortly after independence.
The city has seen good and bad times. For example, when the mine was closed, the city witnessed economic decline as it did when many railway workers also lost their jobs.
Kabwe has a number of manufacturing industries including the Zambia-China Mulungushi Textiles plant built with the help of the Chinese in the 1980s. Other industries include pharmaceuticals, milling and cotton ginning, and leather tanning.
Commercial farming areas surround Kabwe about 6 miles from the city centre. And road and rail links provide access to markets of the Copperbelt and the nation's capital Lusaka.
To the east and west of Kabwe are areas with good tourist potential, together with the advantages of Kabwe's central location – virtually as the geographical centre of the country – and its proximity to Lusaka. Kabwe also has an international airport, a major asset for tourism.
Notable places and attractions in Kabwe include the Mulungushi Rock Authority which is located north of the city; Bwacha House National Monument where Kenneth Kaunda was elected president of the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC) on 8 March 1958; Big Tree National Monument which is a fig tree with a 165-foot wide canopy which served as a meeting place on many occasions during the early years of the town's history; and Kwame Nkrumah Teachers Training College, among others.
Kabwe is also the birth place of best-selling novelist Wilbur Smith. He was born in the town of Broken Hill on 9 January 1933 in what was then the British colony of Northern Rhodesia.
He's one of Zambia's most well-known authors and probably its most acclaimed novelist. He's also the pride of Kabwe as its native son.
Like other parts of Zambia, Kabwe has had its ups and downs. But whatever the town has gone through, it has never lost its status as the birthplace of the independence movement.
Its name is a symbol of national pride, indelibly etched in the nation's memory to be cherished for generations to come. As one Zambian journalist, Kelvin Kachingwe, stated in his article, “Kabwe: The Nucleus Of National Politics,” published in the Times of Zambia:
“Other than the town being centrally located, Kabwe has often hosted meetings whose outcome or resolutions have gone on to influence the political landscape of the country.
Simply put, Kabwe has a special place in the history of this country. You can call the former mining town a nucleus of national politics, if you like.
And it all started when first republican president Dr Kenneth Kaunda and his childhood friend and former vice-president Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe and their group resigned from the Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula-led African National Congress (ANC) to form the short-lived Zambia African National Congress (ZANC).
It was in fact, on October 26, 1958, that the breakaway Kaunda-Kapwepwe group, travelled to Kabwe to address the first rally which is said to have been a success in that it sent shock waves to the colonial administration.
At that time, Kabwe was considered to be the nucleus of national politics because it was Roy Welensky’s United Federal Party (UFP) seat.
Welensky, the former prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland who was nicknamed Mazambani, lived there and led a powerful European Railway Workers Union (ERWU).
The ERWU for white employees of Rhodesia Railways was very strong in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and this made Roy Welensky a force to reckon with. Little wonder when it came to find a person for the position of Prime Minister for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Welensky was the automatic choice.
Welensky, who later resigned from Rhodesia Railways, formed the United Federal Party and won the support of the powerful European Mineworkers Union (EMU).
Ironically, Kabwe was also the seat for one of the biggest trade unions in the land - the Northern Rhodesia Railway Trade Union under the strong leadership of Dixon Konkola.
Some leaders of the ANC like Grey Zulu, who later became UNIP’s longest serving secretary-general, Paul Kalichini, who had now moved to Kabwe, and Raphael Kombe, were at the helm of the party in the centrally located mining town.
Having addressed a public meeting on October 26, the ANC-breakaway faction officially launched ZANC from Kabwe, which was also known as Bethlehem, after the birthplace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unlike the ANC, the newly formed ZANC posed a very serious threat to the colonial administration forcing them to ban the party a few months after its formation. Its leaders were also arrested or restricted in areas far away from their homes.
But far from quitting, the ZANC leaders went on to form the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which together with the ANC went on to win the political independence for the country. UNIP, whose birthplace was Kabwe also went on to rule the country for 27 years, and was only dislodged by the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD).
And as if by providence, the ruling MMD, whose initial formation, stemmed from a meeting at Garden House motel, was to be officially launched in Kabwe at Kasandamalonde.
The formation and launch of MMD turned out to be the first serious challenge to UNIP’s hold on power in close to three decades. Shortly after its formation, the MMD went on to claim a memorable victory against the UNIP government in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 1991.
The MMD has gone on to rule the country to date suffering what sometimes appeared like irreparable damage in the process. These include the initial resignation of some founding members like Arthur Wina, Emmanuel Kasonde, Humphrey Mulemba, Baldwin Nkumbula, Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika to form the National Party (NP) and the late Dean Namulya Mung’omba and Mbita Chitala, who formed the Zambia Democratic Congress (ZDC). These incidents happened in the first term of the MMD’s rule while in the second and final term of Dr Frederick Chiluba as party president, it again suffered some damage especially when the third term debate emerged.
The debate resulted in the split with a good number of their members of Parliament being expelled. In fact, three major political parties emerged out of the ashes of the third term debate, namely the Republican Party led by Ben Mwila, the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and the Heritage Party (HP).
The FDD was to five years later to go back to Kabwe for its mid-term convention. And like most political meetings held in Kabwe, the FDD affair proved somewhat controversial if not decisive with the election of Munali MP and former Finance Minister, Edith Nawakwi as president, replacing Lieutenant General Christon Tembo who retired from active politics.
Nawakwi became the first woman to be popularly elected president of a political party in the country.
And as if to follow tradition, Dr Nevers Mumba in forming his National Citizens Coalition (NCC) in 1997, chose Kasanda grounds in Kabwe as the venue for the official launch of the party whose membership was primarily drawn from the Christian community.
But although it is the main town of Kabwe that has sometimes gained recognition for hosting these important functions, the Mulungushi Rock of Authority, an obscure location comprising a cluster of rocks near the banks of Mulungushi river 10 kilometres from Kabwe, should in fact take a lot of credit. In fact, the Mulungushi Rock of Authority deserves to be called the living memory of Zambia’s nationalism since it was the exact birthplace of ZANC.
Other than that, it has hosted some of the most controversial meetings in living memory of Zambia with one of the most indelible ones being the 1967 UNIP council meeting at which Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe announced his candidature for the position of vice-president of the party.
The announcement of his candidature pitted him against Reuben Kamanga, and to some (in fact large) extent also caught Dr Kaunda by surprise. Other than that, it also brought out in the open the tribal divisions that existed in UNIP with two factions emerging to support Kapwepwe on one hand and Kamanga on the other.
This is the same meeting that led to the resignation of Dr Kaunda as president for a few hours. Veteran politician and journalist Sikota Wina refers to this time as ‘the night without a president’ in his book.
However, despite Kapwepwe winning the vice-presidency, UNIP was never the same again. In fact, barely two years after his victory, Kapwepwe resigned as vice-president of both the party and the republic saying his tribesmen were being victimised. He later formed the short-lived United Progressive Party (UPP).
Two decades or so later, UNIP went back to the Rock of Authority for another council meeting at which former republican vice president Enock Kavindele announced that he would be challenging Dr Kaunda for the presidency of the party.
That announcement was not welcomed by many UNIP members especially the women who thought Kavindele was insulting Dr Kaunda by challenging him. And because of the pressure, Kavindele pulled out of the race after which he formed his own party before joining the MMD.
Kavindele has himself confessed that the atmosphere at the Rock of Authority was intense such that he had to wear a bulletproof for fear of being shot.
Kavindele returned to the Rock of Authority a decade later to contest the MMD Vice Presidency pitting him against the late Paul Tembo.
The convention as a whole, and the elections for the position of Vice-President in particular, proved controversial. It is also at this same convention that the likes of Brigadier-General Godfrey Miyanda and Lieutenant-General Christon Tembo were refused entry.
In the end, the convention managed to amend the party constitution to allow Frederick Chiluba a third term.
In the next few weeks, the MMD will be returning to the Rock of Authority for its convention at which new party leaders are expected to be ushered in. Already, one Dr Nevers Mumba, a presidential aspirant, is a casualty having been expelled from the ruling party even before he could file-in his nomination papers. Such is the character of the Rock of Authority. But as to whether the MMD will live-up to the historical character of the Rock, it is a wait-and-see situation.
But even if it does not, Kabwe and indeed, the Mulungushi Rock of Authority is a bedrock of Zambian politics.” – (Kelvin Kachingwe, “Kabwe: The Nucleus of National Politics,” in Times of Zambia, Ndola, Zambia, March 2007).
From Kabwe, we go to Chingola, the fifth-largest city in Zambia.
Located on the Copperbelt, or in the Copperbelt Province, Chingola has the distinction of being home to the second-largest open-cast mine in the world: Nchanga Open Pit Mine.
Chingola was founded somewhat later than the cities in the southeastern half of the Copperbelt, in 1943, when the Nchanga Open Pit was started. It was once known to be the cleanest town in Zambia.
Chingola also has an underground mine.
A freight-only branch of Zambia Railways serves the town from Kitwe.
From Chingola we go to Mufulira.
Mufulira grew up in the 1930s around the site of the Mufulira copper mine on its northwestern edge.
The city is located about 10 miles from Zambia's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It's also the starting point of the Congo Pedicle road which connects the Copperbelt to the Luapula Province, making that province Mufulira's commercial hinterland.
A tarred highway to the southwest connects Mufulira to Kitwe which is about 25 miles away, and Chingola, 34 miles away. Another road to the southeast goes to Ndola, the commercial and transport hub of the Copperbelt, about 62 miles away. A branch of Zambia Railways, carrying freight only, serves the mine in Mufulira.
Production at the Mufulira Mine is down from the 1969 peak when the Copperbelt made Zambia the world's fourth-largest producer of copper.
Mufulira is also known as the birthplace of Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa. He served as president from 2002 until his death in 2008 at the age of 59.
Another major urban centre on the Copperbelt and in the country as a whole is Luanshya.
Luanshya was founded in the early part of the 20th century after a prospector/explorer, William Collier, shot and killed a Roan Antelope on the banks of the Luanshya River, discovering a copper deposit in the process.
It's said that when the antelope fell to the ground, its head ended up resting on a rock where an exposed seam of copper ore could be clearly seen. The mining company that was later formed to dig up the copper in the area was named “Roan Antelope Copper Mines Ltd.”
For most of the 20th century, copper was mined in great quantities at Luanshya. But towards the end of the century, mining became expensive, without enough returns to justify the investment in the venture. The result was severe economic problems for Luanshya, a town that was founded, survived, and thrived on copper mining.
But there are still significant quantities of copper underground in Luanshya.
Whether or not the town sees a revival in its fortunes and regains its former glory as one of the main mining centres on the Copperbelt will depend on how efficiently this mineral is extracted and sold.
Farther away from the Coperbelt is Livingstone in the southern part of the country.
Livingstone is a historic colonial city and capital of the Southern Province. It's also a tourism centre and the main gateway to Victoria Falls. It's a border town located about 6 miles north of the Zambezi River and has road and rail connections to Zimbabwe on the other side of the Falls.
There is also a historic place called Mukuni located about 6 miles to the southeast of Livingstone. It was the largest village in the area before the town of Livingstone was founded.
In 1855, Dr. David Livingstone became the first European to explore the Zambezi River in what is now the Livingstone area.
In the 1890s, Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company (BSAC) established imperial rule north of the Zambezi River. He started looking for minerals and was involved in other commercial activities in what came to be known as North-Western Rhodesia.
The main crossing point on the Zambezi River was above the falls at a place called the Old Drift.
As the Old Drift crossing became more used, a settlement was established there. Around 1897, the settlement became the first municipality in the country. It's sometimes referred to as “Old Livingstone.”
But the European settlers were forced to abandon the settlement because it was close to mosquito breding areas. Many people died from malaria.
After 1900, the settlers moved to higher ground and established a settlement. As the settlement grew, it became a town. The town was named Livingstone in honour of the missionary-explorer Dr. David Livingstone.
The town of Livingstone grew fast. It also enjoyed economic prosperity, prompting the British South Africa Company to move the capital there in 1907.
In 1911, the British South Africa Company merged the territory of North-Western Rhodesia with North-Eastern Rhodesia to form Northern Rhodesia.
Livingstone prospered from its position as a gateway to trade between the northern and southern sides of the Zambezi. It also prospered from farming in the Southern Province – where it's located – and from commercial timber production in forests to the northwestern part of the town.
It was an era of prosperity and a number of colonial buildings were erected during that period. And they still stand today.
The capital of Northern Rhodesia was moved from Livingstone to Lusaka in 1935 to be closer to the economic heartland of the Copperbelt industries based on copper, timber, hides, tobacco, cotton and other agricultural products.
But Livingstone remained a prosperous town. The town of Victoria Falls in Southern Rhodesia had the tourist trade, but many supplies were bought from Livingstone.
Of all the towns in Northern Rhodesia, colonial Livingstone took on the character of Southern Rhodesia or South Africa at that time. It was heavily segregated, although colour bar – racial discrimination – was not sanctioned as official policy as was the case in apartheid South Africa. Still, the result was the same.
The northern and western halves of Livingstone and the town centre were reserved for the colonial government and white-owned businesses and residential areas for whites. And the eastern and southern parts were for blacks. A black township even grew in the area. It was named Maramba after the small Maramba River which flows near the place.
Asians and people of mixed race owned businesses and lived in the middle on the eastern side of the town's centre. And they were treated better than blacks.
As independence approached and for a few years after the end of colonial rule, many whites in Livingstone left and moved to Rhodesia or South Africa, refusing to mix and live with blacks and under black majority rule.
After independence, Livingstone benefited from the financial resources of the new government of Zambia which were spent on a number of development projects in town. Livingstone also benefited from tourism and from the money spent by the large number of expatriates who had been employed to assist in those projects.
Livingstone even benefited from spending by black Africans who were now experiencing for the first time the freedom they never enjoyed during colonial rule when they were treated as second-class citizens or not as citizens at all in their native land.
But things changed in the late sixties. After the white minority settlers in Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence, what came to be known as the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in November 1965, Zambia closed the border. And the town of Livingstone suffered a lot.
The town suffered economically due to a decline in tourism and loss of trade after the Zambian-Rhodesian border was closed. Also, the timber industry ended as the forests around Mulobezi were used up. Manufacturing firms also suffered because of poor management.
All this was exacerbated – in the '70s ans '80s – by the nation's economic problems which were partly caused by low copper prices, poor economic management, and wrong economic policies.
Things had gone so bad that even when trade to the south was re-started following Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, Livingstone still could not take full advantage of the new economic opportunities which had now become available in the newly independent Zimbabwe.
But since the end of the 1990s, Livingstone has experienced a resurgence in tourism at Zimbabwe's expense because of the turmoil in that country.
However the town has also come under considerable pressure following the decline in the nation's copper industry and in some agricultural sectors. Many people have moved into town, far more than the town can accommodate in terms of employment and even housing. This has caused a lot of problems for Livingstone.
Crime has gone up. The environment has suffered because of waste problems. And competition for scarce jobs has reached unprecedented levels, fuelling clashes and even leading to family disintegration.
Apart from tourism, the other hope for Livingstone is development stimulated by the Walvis Bay Corridor with the opening of the Katima Mulilo Bridge and completion of the Trans-Caprivi Highway 120 miles east which funnels more trade through the town.
The Walvis Bay Corridor will bring together different transport systems and other infrastructural facilities in the countries in the region to coordinate and facilitate trade for their collective wellbeing, with Walvis Bay in Namibia serving as a major outlet to the sea.
All these links will converge on Walvis Bay. Zambia as a country, and Livingstone in particular, will greatly benefit from all this because of its strategic location.
And if there is to be a local name for the town of Livingstone, it's “Maramba.”
The name predates Livingstone. It's the name of the river flowing on the eastern outskirts of Livingstone and the large township next to it.
The name is used for a number of places and features in Livingstone and has been proposed as the new or as an alternative name for the city as a whole.
In fact, “Livingstone” is the only non-African name for a town or city in Zambia that has not been changed since independence.
One of the reasons given for the preservation of this colonial legacy is reportedly Kenneth Kaunda's fondness for the name. Whether this is true or not, we'll never know. But it's attributed to him.
It's said that President Kaunda did not want the name changed because his father – who came from Nyasaland as did Kenneth Kaunda's mother – was educated by Scottish missionaries who followed in Dr. Livingstone's footsteps. And he wanted the name kept in memory of his father and in honour of those missionaries and Dr. Livingstone himself.
Some people already call Livingstone – “Maramba.” But they have a lot of work to do to convince the authorities to change the name officially.
Livingstone is heavily dependent on tourism. And its name has international recognition as a major tourist destination. Any change of name will adversely affect tourism since many people who want to visit Livingstone, and Victoria Falls, don't know any other name for the town besides “Livingstone.”
The town has also enjoyed success in tourism in recent years. Therefore it's obvious that any suggestion to change the name of the town will be strongly resisted by business owners and employees who benefit from tourism. There's no question that the change would affect recognition of the town as an international tourist destination.
If the name is changed to Maramba, people will be asking - “Where is Maramba?” But if you ask them, “Where is Livingstone?” They will tell you, “Zambia,” or “Victoria Falls.”
And it's very much possible, may be even highly probable, that tourism may grow exponentially in Livingstone in the coming years.
There are many important sites and activities in and around Livingstone for tourists and other people. They include Victoria Falls which is protected and served by the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park on the city's southwestern edge; wildlife safaris – game drives – in the wildlife section of the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park; and birdwatching in the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park.
Other attractions are Batoka Gorges below Victoria Falls in the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park; Zambezi River above the Falls including river cruises, sports fishing, kayaking; Victoria Falls Field Museum featuring geology and archaeology around the Falls; and flights over the Falls.
There is also the Livingstone Museum which is devoted to archaeology, ethnography and history and contains a magnificent collection of memorabilia relating to David Livingstone.
In front of the museum there is a statue in memory of Dr. David Livingstone erected in 2005. There is another statue, also erected in 2005, in honour of Czech explorer and ethnographer, Emil Holub, who made the first detailed map of the region surrounding Victoria Falls in 1875. Holub also wrote and published the first book account of the Victoria Falls published in English in Grahamstown, South Africa, in 1879.
Other places of interest in Livingstone include the Maramba Cultural Centre featuring traditional dancing, singing, costumes; Mukuni Village with its annual Lwiindi Ceremony held in July; Victoria Falls Bridge; and the Railway Museum of the Mulobezi Railway.
The city of Livingstone also has Saint Andrews Church built in1910-11 in memory of Dr. David Livingstone and still in use; Old Government House which was the main government office and governor's residence (1907-1935) when Livingstone was the capital of North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia; and craft markets such as Mukuni Victoria Falls Craft Village.
Livingstone is indeed a historic city. And it's a powerful reminder of a bygone era.
It's the eighth-largest city in Zambia but, in terms of history, it's the most prominent as the embodiment of the era of British imperial glory in Northern Rhodesia.
The ninth-largest urban centre in Zambia is Kasama which we have already looked at when we learned about the Northern Province.
It's classified as a city. But it can also be called a town, not a city, depending on one's definition of “city” and “town.” It's really not large enough to be a city. But it's well-known in Zambia because it's the capital of the Northern Province.
The tenth-largest urban centre in Zambia is Chipata. It's also no more than a town and is the capital of the Eastern Province as we learned earlier.
There are many other towns in Zambia. But the ones we have just looked at are the largest urban centres in one of the most urbanised countries on the African continent.
Even when Northern Rhodesia won independence as Zambia in October 1964, it was already one of the most urbanised colonial territories in Africa mainly because of the industrialisation of the Copperbelt which led to the growth and development of large urban centres in that region.
It became the most industrialised area in the country. And it still is one today. It's the pulse of the nation in a country full of life.