Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in southern Africa. It borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania on the north-east, Malawi on the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola on the west. Formerly Northern Rhodesia, the country is named after the Zambezi river.


History


The indigenous Khoisan hunter-gatherer occupants of Zambia began to be displaced or absorbed by more technologically-advanced migrating tribes around two thousand years ago. The major waves of Bantu-speaking immigrants – the Bantu expansion – began in the 12th century.

Among them, the Tonga people (also called Batonga) were first to settle in Zambia and are believed to have come from the far east near the "big sea." The Nkoya people had also come much earlier with some suggesting that they came first into what is today called Zambia from the Luba-Lunda kingdoms in the north.

Other groups followed with the greatest influx coming between the late 17th and early 19th centuries. These later migrants came primarily from the Luba and Lunda tribes of southern Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Angola but were joined in the 19th century by Ngoni peoples from the south. By the later part of the 19th century, the various peoples of Zambia were largely established in the areas they currently occupy.The (Nsokolo People) under the leadership of Joe Nsokolo Chupa also known as Elvin later came and settled in Mbala district in Northern province in the early 18th century.

The earliest account of a European visiting the area occupied by present day Zambia was that of Portuguese national, Dr Francisco de Lacerda in the late 18th century. Others followed in the 19th century. The most prominent of these was Scottish explorer Dr David Livingstone. He had a vision of ending the slave trade through the "3 C's" (Christianity, Commerce and Civilisation). He is also famous for being the first European to see the magnificent waterfalls on the Zambezi River in 1855. He named them Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria. The falls are known in Zambia as Mosi-O-Tunya (in the Lozi or Kololo dialect), "the smoke that thunders." The Zambian town, Livingstone, near the falls is named after him. Highly publicised accounts of his journeys created a lot of interest and a wave of explorers, missionaries and traders after his death in 1873.

In 1888, Cecil Rhodes, spearheading British commercial and political interests in Central Africa, obtained a mineral rights concession from local chiefs. In the west of the country, which came to be known as North Western Rhodesia, the British South African Company, Cecil Rhodes’ company, obtained mineral rights for the area from The Litunga, the king of the Lozi. In the east, King Mpezeni of the Ngoni resisted but he was defeated in battle and that part of the country came to be known as North-Eastern Rhodesia. The two were administered as separate units until 1911 when they were joined to form Northern Rhodesia. In 1923, the Company ceded control of Northern Rhodesia to the British Government after the government decided not to renew the Company's charter.

That same year, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was also proclaimed to be within the British sphere of influence and it was annexed formally and granted self-government. After negotiations, the administration of Northern Rhodesia was transferred to the British Colonial Office as a protectorate in 1924.

In 1953, both Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively) were joined with Nyasaland (now Malawi) to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was established despite overwhelming opposition from Africans, who demonstrated against it in 1960-61 and campaigned for its disbandment. Northern Rhodesia was the centre of much of the turmoil and crisis that characterized the federation in its last years. The campaign was led initially by Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula's African National Congress (ANC) and later by Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party (UNIP).

In January 1964 Kenneth Kaunda was elected the first (and last) Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia. The Colonial Governor, Sir Evelyn Hone, was very close to Kaunda and urged him to go for the post. Soon after that there was an uprising in the north of the country known as the Lumpa Uprising led by Alice Lenshina. She was a self proclaimed prophetess who believed that she had had a visitation from an angel telling her to liberate the people. Many followed her and fought off authorities to their death — men, women and children alike. Her own brother pleaded in the newspapers for her to give herself up. This was Kenneth Kaunda's first internal conflict as leader of the nation.

A two-stage election held in October and December 1962 resulted in an African majority in the legislative council and an uneasy coalition between the two African nationalist parties. The council passed resolutions calling for Northern Rhodesia's secession from the federation and demanding full internal self-government under a new constitution and a new National Assembly based on a broader, more democratic franchise. Led by Kenneth Kaunda, on 31 December 1963, the federation was dissolved, and Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia on 24 October 1964. At that time, Kaunda became the country's first president.

At independence, despite its considerable mineral wealth, Zambia faced major challenges. Domestically, there were few trained and educated Zambians capable of running the government, and the economy was largely dependent on foreign expertise. Abroad, three of its neighbours – Southern Rhodesia and the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola – remained under white-dominated rule. Southern Rhodesia's white-ruled government unilaterally declared independence in November, 1965. In addition, Zambia shared a border with South African-controlled South-West Africa (now Namibia).

Zambia's sympathies lay with forces opposing colonial or white-dominated rule, particularly in Southern Rhodesia. During the next decade, it actively supported movements such as the National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA); the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU); the African National Congress of South Africa (ANC); and the South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO).

Conflicts with Rhodesia (so renamed from Southern Rhodesia) resulted in the closing of Zambia's borders with that country and severe problems with international transport and power supply. However, the Kariba hydroelectric station on the Zambezi River provided sufficient capacity to satisfy the country's requirements for electricity (despite the fact that the hydro control centre was on the Rhodesian side of the border). A railway to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, built with Chinese assistance, reduced Zambian dependence on railway lines south to South Africa and west through an increasingly troubled Angola. Until the completion of the railway, however, Zambia's major artery for imports and the critical export of copper was along the TanZam Road, running from Zambia to the port cities in Tanzania. Also a pipeline for oil was built from Dar-es-Salaam to Ndola in Zambia.

By the late 1970s, Mozambique and Angola had attained independence from Portugal. Zimbabwe achieved independence in accordance with the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement, however Zambia's problems were not solved. Civil war in the former Portuguese colonies generated an influx of refugees and caused continuing transportation problems. The Benguela railway, which extended west through Angola, was essentially closed to traffic from Zambia by the late 1970s. Zambia's strong support for the ANC, which had its external headquarters in Lusaka, created security problems as South Africa raided ANC targets in Zambia.

In the mid-1970s, the price of copper, Zambia's principal export, suffered a severe decline worldwide. In Zambia's situation, the cost of transporting the copper great distances to market was an additional strain. Zambia turned to foreign and international lenders for relief, but, as copper prices remained depressed, it became increasingly difficult to service its growing debt. By the mid-1990s, despite limited debt relief, Zambia's per capita foreign debt remained among the highest in the world.

La Repubblica dello Zambia (Republic of Zambia in inglese) uno stato (752.614 km, 10.462.436 abitanti nel 2004) dell'Africa centro-meridionale.

Confina a nord con la Repubblica Democratica del Congo, a nord-est con la Tanzania, a est con il Malawi, a sud con Mozambico, Zimbabwe, Botswana e Namibia, e a ovest con l'Angola. Non ha sbocchi sul mare.

Lo Zambia una repubblica presidenziale nell'ambito del Commonwealth, membro delle Nazioni Unite e dell'Unione Africana e associato all'Unione Europea. L'attuale presidente Levy Mwanawasa. La lingua ufficiale l'inglese.

In passato lo Zambia aveva nome Rhodesia (da Cecil Rhodes). Il nome attuale si riferisce al fiume Zambesi.


Storia


Fino a circa 2000 anni fa, la regione dello Zambia fu abitata dal popolo di cacciatori-raccoglitori Khoisan. i Khoisan iniziarono ad allontanarsi dalla regione in seguito all'immigrazione di popoli pi tecnologicamente avanzati, con cui alcuni gruppi Khoisan si mescolarono. Le pi importanti immigrazioni si ebbero durante l'espansione Bantu, a partire dal XII secolo, in seguito alle quali le lingue bantu divennero predominanti nella regione.

Fra i popoli bantu, i primi a insediarsi nello Zambia furono i Tonga (o Batonga), provenienti dall'estremo oriente dell'Africa. Anche gli Nkoya giunsero in Zambia in tempi antichi, forse dai regni Luba-Lunda del nord. Ancora di origine Luba e Lunda furono gli immigranti che fra il XVII e il XIX secolo giunsero in Zambia dal Congo e dall'Angola. Dal sud, sempre nel XIX secolo, giunsero gli Ngoni. L'odierna collocazione delle etnie in Zambia era gi sostanzialmente consolidata nella seconda met del XIX secolo.

Gli esploratori portoghesi furono i primi a giungere nella regione dello Zambia, ma non diedero l'avvio a un processo di colonizzazione. Solo dopo la met del XIX secolo gli Europei iniziarono a giungere nello Zambia in numero significativo; erano principalmente esploratori, missionari e mercanti. Nel 1855, il missionario ed esploratore David Livingstone giunse per primo a vedere le imponenti cascate dello Zambesi, che lui stesso battezz Victoria Falls (Cascate Vittoria).

Nel 1888, il magnate britannico Cecil Rhodes, che stava estendendo il proprio impero commerciale a partire dal Sudafrica, ottenne da un capo locale (di etnia Lozi) la concessione per lo sfruttamento delle risorse minerarie della zona occidentale dello Zambia, in seguito chiamata Rhodesia del Nord-Ovest. Gli Ngoni, insediati nella parte orientale del paese, rifiutarono di accordarsi in modo analogo con Rhodes, che persegu la via militare, sconfiggendoli in battaglia e ottenendo il controllo di quella che sarebbe diventata la Rhodesia del Nord-Est.

Nel 1911, la Rhodesia del Nord-Ovest e la Rhodesia del Nord-Est furono unite a formare la Rhodesia del Nord. Nel 1923, la compagnia di Rhodes cedette il controllo della regione al governo britannico (lo stesso accadde per la Rhodesia del Sud, oggi Zimbabwe). Nel 1924, la Rhodesia del Nord divenne un protettorato inglese.

Lo Zambia indipendente si trov immediatamente in una difficile situazione economica e politica. Il livello molto basso di istruzione rendeva difficile sia la formazione di una classe politica che lo sfruttamento delle risorse del paese, in gran parte minerarie, contribuendo a rafforzare la dipendenza tecnologica dello Zambia dall'Europa. Dal punto di vista della politica internazionale, lo Zambia era in difficolt nei rapporti con gli stati vicini governati dai bianchi, in particolare la Rhodesia del Sud e l'Africa del Sud-Ovest (oggi Namibia), amministrata dal governo bianco del Sudafrica. Per un decennio, lo Zambia prese parte nelle tensioni politiche interne dei paesi confinanti appoggiando apertamente partiti e movimenti politici indipendentisti neri, come la National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), la Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), l'African National Congress del Sudafrica e la South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). Questo port a una situazione di crescente tensione ai confini, con conseguenti difficolt negli scambi commerciali con l'estero. La costruzione della ferrovia Tanzania-Zambia (con l'assistenza della Repubblica Popolare Cinese) consent in parte di alleviare questa situazione di isolamento, fornendo allo Zambia l'accesso al porto di Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Fu costruito anche un oleodotto da Dar-es-Salaam a Ndola, in Zambia.

Alla fine degli anni '70, Mozambico, Angola e Zimbabwe (ex Rhodesia) ottennero l'indipendenza. Tuttavia, le guerre civili in questi paesi crearono ulteriori difficolt a causa dell'ingente afflusso di profughi e del danneggiamento di molte strutture di trasporto; di particolare rilevanza fu la chiusura della ferrovia del Benguela, attraverso l'Angola. Inoltre, l'esercito del Sudafrica colp ripetutamente strutture dell'ANC all'interno dei confini dello Zambia. A queste difficolt politiche si aggiunse un crollo dei prezzi del rame (la principale esportazione dello Zambia) sui mercati internazionali.

In seguito a questa situazione di crisi, l'economia dello Zambia divenne sempre pi dipendente da fondi stranieri. Nonostante una parziale cancellazione del debito a met degli anni '90, lo Zambia rimane uno dei paesi con il massimo debito pubblico pro capite.