Zambia: History

The indigenous hunter-gatherer occupants of Zambia began to be displaced or absorbed by more advanced migrating tribes about 2,000 years ago. The major waves of Bantu-speaking immigrants began in the 15th century, with the greatest influx between the late 17th and early 19th centuries. They 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 latter part of that century, the various peoples of Zambia were largely established in the areas they currently occupy.

Except for an occasional Portuguese explorer, the area lay untouched by Europeans for centuries. After the mid-19th century, it was penetrated by Western explorers, missionaries, and traders. David Livingstone, in 1855, was the first European to see the magnificent waterfalls on the Zambezi River. He named the falls after Queen Victoria, and the Zambian town near the falls is named after him.

In 1888, Cecil Rhodes, spearheading British commercial and political interests in Central Africa, obtained a mineral rights concession from local chiefs. In the same year, Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively) were proclaimed a British sphere of influence. Southern Rhodesia was annexed formally and granted self-government in 1923, and the administration of Northern Rhodesia was transferred to the British colonial office in 1924 as a protectorate.

In 1953, both Rhodesias were joined with Nyasaland (now Malawi) to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Northern Rhodesia was the center of much of the turmoil and crisis that characterized the federation in its last years. At the core of the controversy were insistent African demands for greater participation in government and European fears of losing political control.

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. On December 31, 1963, the federation was dissolved, and Northern Rhodesia became the Republic of Zambia on October 24, 1964.

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 neighbors--Southern Rhodesia and the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola--remained under white-dominated rule. Rhodesia's white-ruled government unilaterally declared independence in 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 the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and later the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), 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 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. A railroad to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, built with Chinese assistance, reduced Zambian dependence on railroad lines south to South Africa and west through an increasingly troubled Angola.

By the late 1970s, Mozambique and Angola had attained independence from Portugal. Zimbabwe achieved independence in accordance with the 1979 Lancaster House agreement, but Zambia's problems were not solved. Civil war in the former Portuguese colonies generated refugees and caused continuing transportation problems. The Benguela Railroad, 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.

The major figure in Zambian politics from 1964 to 1991 was Kenneth Kaunda, who led the campaign for independence and successfully bridged the rivalries among the country's various regions and ethnic groups. Kaunda tried to base government on his philosophy of "humanism," which condemned human exploitation and stressed cooperation among people, but not at the expense of the individual. Kaunda's political party--the United National Independence Party (UNIP)--was founded in 1959 and was in power under Kaunda's leadership from 1964 to 1991. Before 1972, Zambia had three significant political parties, but only UNIP had a nationwide following.

In 1973, the Zambian constitution established a one-party state, and all other political parties were banned. Kaunda, the sole candidate, was elected president in the 1973 elections. Elections also were held for the National Assembly. Only UNIP members were permitted to run, but these seats were highly contested. President Kaunda's mandate was renewed in December 1978, October 1983, and October 1988 in a "yes" or "no" vote on his candidacy.

In response to growing popular demand, and after lengthy, difficult negotiations between the government of President Kaunda and opposition groups, Zambia enacted a new constitution in 1991 and shortly thereafter became a multi-party democracy. Growing opposition to UNIP's monopoly on power had led to the rise in 1990 of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). The MMD assembled an impressive group of important Zambians, including prominent UNIP defectors and labor leaders. After Kaunda agreed to allow multi-party democracy and end the one-party state, Zambia held multi-party elections for parliament and the presidency on October 31, 1991. MMD candidate Frederick Chiluba resoundingly carried the presidential election over Kaunda with 81% of the vote. To add to the MMD landslide, in the parliamentary elections, the MMD won 125 of the 150 elected seats, and UNIP won the remaining 25.

By the end of Chiluba's first term as President, the MMD's commitment to political reform had faded in the face of re-election aspirations. A number of prominent supporters founded opposing parties. Relying on the MMD's overwhelming majority in parliament, President Chiluba in May 1996 pushed through constitutional amendments that eliminated former President Kaunda and other prominent opposition leaders from the 1996 presidential elections. In the presidential and parliamentary elections, Chiluba was re-elected, and the MMD won 131 of the 150 seats in the National Assembly. Kaunda's UNIP party boycotted the parliamentary polls to protest the exclusion of its leader from the presidential race, alleging in addition that the outcome of the election had been predetermined due to a faulty voter registration exercise. As Chiluba began his second term in 1996, the opposition and civil society challenged the results of the election amid international efforts to encourage the MMD and the opposition to resolve their differences through dialogue.

Allegations of massive corruption characterized the latter part of President Chiluba's administration. Early in 2001, supporters of Chiluba mounted a campaign to amend the constitution to enable him to seek a third term of office. Civil society, opposition parties, and many members of the ruling party exerted sufficient pressure on Chiluba to force him to back away from any attempt at a third term.

Eleven parties contested the presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections held on December 27, 2001. The elections saw numerous administrative problems. Opposition parties alleged that serious irregularities occurred. Nevertheless, MMD presidential candidate Levy Mwanawasa, having garnered a plurality of the vote (29%), was declared the victor by a narrow margin. He was sworn into office on January 2, 2002. His opponent, Anderson Mazoka of the United Party for National Development, who lost to Mwanawasa by less than 2%, sued to have the election results overturned. The Zambian Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2002. Opposition parties won a majority of parliamentary seats in the December 2001 election, but subsequent by-elections gave the ruling MMD a majority in parliament.

During his first months in office, President Mwanawasa encouraged the Zambian Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to aggressively pursue its mandate. In July 2002, in a speech before the Zambian National Assembly, Mwanawasa provided details on a number of corruption allegations targeting former President Chiluba, and called for parliament to consider lifting Chiluba's immunity from prosecution. Mwanawasa also established the Task Force on Corruption to investigate and prosecute corruption committed by Chiluba-era public officials.

Mwanawasa was re-elected president on October 2, 2006, with 43% of the vote. Prior to the election, the government in mid-2006 introduced some changes to the electoral process to avoid a repeat of the 2001 election. The changes included the use of transparent ballot boxes, addition of photos on voters’ cards, introduction of an electoral code of conduct, and limits on political campaign donations and handouts. President Mwanawasa suffered a debilitating stroke on June 29, 2008 during an African Union summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and died from complications in a Paris hospital on August 19, 2008. He was succeeded by Rupiah Banda.

On May 4, 2007, the London (U.K.) High Court found former President Chiluba and several others liable in a civil suit for misappropriating as much as $58 million of public resources. In August 2009, after 8 years of investigation by the Task Force on Corruption, a Zambian magistrate acquitted Chiluba of corruption; the government declined to appeal the case. In August 2010, the Zambian High Court refused to register in Zambian court the London High Court's 2007 judgment, arguing that the law did not allow foreign judgments to be registered in domestic courts.

Sources:
CIA World Factbook (September 2009)
U.S. Dept. of State Country Background Notes (October 2011)