Zambia

A

Judiciary

The judicial system includes a supreme court, a high court, and lower courts on the British model. African customary law is applied in special courts.

B

Defense

In 2004 the armed forces of Zambia consisted of an army of 13,500 and an air force of 1,600. Military service is voluntary.

VI

History

Southward-migrating Bantu farmers and herders settled in the area that is now Zambia over a period of several centuries beginning around the 4th century ad. These forerunners of the Sotho and Nguni groups developed mining and metalworking techniques. A new group, the Shona Bantu, arrived in the 12th century. Later, the Karanga clan of the Shona established the great empire of Mutapa, which included southern Zambia. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Lunda and Lozi from the Congo (now the DRC) populated the northern plains and upper Zambezi River area. In the 19th century, the Kololo, fleeing the wars in South Africa, moved northward and established brief control over much of central and northern Zambia before the Lozi once again asserted their dominance. Eastern Zambia was settled by Bantu peoples related to those in Malawi. Despite their differences, these various Bantu groups shared certain common characteristics. They were primarily agriculturists, but most of them also kept cattle. They were tribally oriented, and their states usually were small, except when a dominant king, such as the ruler of the Karanga, Kololo, or Lozi, imposed his will on neighboring tribes. Consequently, when the British moved into Zambia—or Barotseland, as they called it—in the latter part of the 19th century, no powerful kingdoms were there to resist them.

A

British Rule

At the time of British penetration in the area, the strongest state in Zambia was that of the Lozi under Chief Lewanika, who openly solicited British protection. A treaty establishing British protection was signed between the Lozi overlord and a representative of the British South Africa Company in 1889. Eastern Zambia was added to Britain’s empire by Sir Harry Johnston during his conquest of Nyasaland (now Malawi). A regular British resident, titled “agent in charge,” was sent to Lewanika in 1897. Three years later the British government directly assumed jurisdiction over the entire area.

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British government in Zambia (then called Northern Rhodesia) was the same as in its other African territories, consisting of a small central executive authority made up of appointed Europeans headed by a governor; the system of indirect rule allowed great freedom to local rulers. In the late 1920s a major development occurred: the discovery of copper in the north. This led to the extension of the railway and the building of the first smelting plants in the so-called copper belt. By the beginning of World War II in 1939, Zambia had become a major producer of copper, and the extreme urbanization of the northwest was under way. The copper industry brought an influx of European technicians and administrators to Zambia, and although they never gained the political power of European settlers in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), they became a dominant force in Zambian life.

In 1953, under pressure from the white minority in Southern Rhodesia, the British government forced the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, comprising the territories of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (now Malawi). It was dominated by the white population of the territories, and the central government headed by Lord Malvern and Sir Roy Welensky was a reflection of Southern Rhodesian politics. The federation was condemned from its inception by every African politician in the state. The path toward independence was more difficult for Zambia than for most other British African territories because the federation had to be broken first. This was accomplished by Malawi in conjunction with pressure applied by Zambian nationalists, led by Kenneth Kaunda.

B

Independence

The federation was dissolved at the end of 1963. Nyasaland became independent as Malawi in July 1964, and Northern Rhodesia as Zambia in October 1964. Southern Rhodesia changed its name to Rhodesia. Kaunda’s party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), won the first and all subsequent elections until the early 1990s. In 1972 Zambia became a one-party state, but its leadership remained moderate and pro-Western. Private land was nationalized in 1975 as part of an unsuccessful agricultural improvement program. The completion of the rail link to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1976, freed Zambia from its dependence on the Rhodesian- and South African-controlled railway for the transport of its copper.

President Kaunda opposed the white-dominated regime in Rhodesia, and his assistance to guerrilla insurgents proved crucial to the establishment of a black majority government there in 1980. Although Kaunda was reelected to a sixth presidential term in 1988, popular discontent with Zambia’s stagnant economy and his autocratic rule continued to grow. In 1990 food riots and an abortive coup shook the government, and the aging leader agreed to allow multiparty voting. The opposition Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) won the 1991 general election, and its presidential candidate, Frederick Chiluba, defeated Kaunda by a wide margin.

In May 1996 Chiluba’s government amended the Zambian constitution, introducing a controversial provision that required presidential candidates to be from families established in Zambia for at least two generations. The amended constitution also prevented presidents from serving more than two terms. Kaunda, whose parents were immigrants from Malawi, was therefore disqualified on both accounts. In response, the UNIP, under Kaunda’s leadership, boycotted the November 1996 elections. Chiluba was elected to a second term.

In December 2001 elections, MMD presidential candidate Levy Mwanawasa received more votes than any of the 11 opposition candidates. He therefore succeeded Chiluba as president in January 2002, despite having received only 29 percent of the popular vote. Mwanawasa was reelected to a second term in 2006.

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