ZAMBIA

officially Republic of Zambia, formerly (191164) Northern Rhodesia landlocked country in south-central Africa. It has an area of 290,586 square miles (752,614 square kilometres). Zambia has a long land border on the west with Angola but is divided from its neighbours to the south by the Zambezi River. To the southwest is the thin projection of Namibian territory known as the Caprivi Strip, at the eastern end of which four countries (Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe) appear to meet at a pointa quadripointalthough the precise nature of the meeting is contested. Man-made Lake Kariba now forms part of the river border with Zimbabwe. Mozambique is Zambia's neighbour to the southeast, Malawi to the east, and Tanzania to the northeast. The long border with Congo (Kinshasa) starts at Lake Tanganyika, crosses to Lake Mweru, and follows the Luapula River to the Pedicle, a wedge of Congolese territory that cuts deep into Zambia to give the country its distinctive butterfly shape. Westward from the Pedicle the frontier follows the Zambezi-Congo watershed to the Angolan border. The country's name is derived from the Zambezi River, which drains all but a small northern part of the country. Zambia's population is highly urbanized, and large parts of the country are thinly populated. Population is concentrated in the Line of Rail, the area served by the railway linking the Copperbelt with Lusaka, the capital, and with the border town of Livingstone. officially Republic of Zambia, formerly (191164) Northern Rhodesia, landlocked country in south-central Africa. The country extends at its maximum about 510 miles (821 km) from north to south and 860 miles (1,385 km) from east to west. It is bordered to the west by Angola, to the northwest by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa), to the northeast by Tanzania, to the east by Malawi, to the southeast by Mozambique, to the south by Zimbabwe and Botswana, and to the southwest by Namibia. The Zambezi River forms the border with Zimbabwe. The capital is Lusaka. Area 290,586 square miles (752,614 square km). Pop. (1990) 7,818,447 (1997 est.) 9,350,000. Additional reading Irving Kaplan (ed.), Zambia, a Country Study , 3rd ed. (1979), provides introductions to all aspects of the country. D. Hywel Davies (ed.), Zambia in Maps (1971), illustrates most aspects of the Zambian scene. Descriptions and maps of the traditional land use systems are found in Jrgen Schultz, Land Use in Zambia, 2 vol. (1976). Robert E. Baldwin, Economic Development and Export Growth: A Study of Northern Rhodesia, 19201960 (1966), is a short but valuable analytical study by an economist, the closest approximation to a general economic history of Zambia. A.L. Epstein, Politics in an Urban African Community (1958), is a celebrated study, both historical and sociological, of the Roan Antelope mine compound and Luanshya township.Andrew Roberts, A History of Zambia (1976), is an overview. Colonial history is detailed in Robert I. Rotberg, Christian Missionaries and the Creation of Northern Rhodesia, 18801924 (1965); L.H. Gann, The Birth of a Plural Society: The Development of Northern Rhodesia Under the British South Africa Company, 18941914, 2nd ed. (1968, reprinted 1981); Andrew Roberts, A History of the Bemba: Political Growth and Change in North-Eastern Zambia Before 1900 (1973); and Gwyn Prins, The Hidden Hippopotamus: Reappraisal in African History: The Early Colonial Experience in Western Zambia (1980). A more specialized account of the colonial period can be found in Brian Garvey, Bembaland Church: Religion and Social Change in South Central Africa, 18911964 (1994). More recent events are discussed in Elena L. Berger, Labour, Race, and Colonial Rule: The Copperbelt from 1924 to Independence (1974); William Tordoff et al. (eds.), Politics in Zambia (1974); and Marcia M. Burdette, Zambia: Between Two Worlds (1988), which reviews developments since independence with a focus on mining and the ailing economy. William E. Rau, A Bibliography of Pre-Independence Zambia: The Social Sciences (1978), is a basic reference tool; it is complemented by Geoffrey J. Williams, Independent Zambia: A Bibliography of the Social Sciences, 19641979 (1984), covering the early years of independence. Geoffrey J. Williams Andrew D. Roberts The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Administration and social conditions Government Zambia's initial constitution was abandoned in August 1973 when it became a one-party state. The constitution of the Second Republic provided for a one-party participatory democracy, with the United National Independence Party (UNIP) the only legal political party. In response to mounting pressures within the country, the constitution was changed in 1991 to allow the reintroduction of a multiparty system. Under the terms of the new constitution, the president, who is head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces, is elected by universal adult suffrage to a five-year term of office. He is empowered to appoint the vice president, the chief justice, and members of the High Court on the advice of the Judicial Services Commission. During the president's absence, his duties are assumed by the vice president. The president also appoints a cabinet from elected members of the National Assembly. The cabinet consists of 25 ministers, 30 deputy ministers (some ministries have 2), and 9 provincial deputy ministers. The legislature, called the National Assembly, has 150 members, and elections to it are held every five years. Members of Parliament (as members of the National Assembly are usually called) are elected by universal adult suffrage. There is a 27-member House of Chiefs, with a two-year-term rotating membership. It has no legislative function: it may consider bills but not block their passage. Central government is represented throughout Zambia by the provincial government system, by which resident ministers are appointed by the president to each of the nine provinces (including Lusaka Province, created 1976). Each minister is the president's direct representative and responsible for the coordination of policy and for liaison with district councils. The nine provinces are divided into 55 districts, each of which has a district council chairman responsible to the provincial deputy minister; the district council chairman is particularly concerned with political and economic developments. His civil service counterpart is the district executive secretary. The cities of Lusaka, Ndola, and Kitwe have councils and mayors, but the formerly separate management of mine townships on the Copperbelt has been abolished. Justice The court system consists of the Supreme Court, the High Court, subordinate magistrate's courts, and local courts. Because the law administered by all except the local courts is based on English common law, decisions of the higher British courts are of persuasive value; in fact, a few statutes of the British Parliament that were declared by ordinance (decree) to apply to Zambia are in force so far as circumstances permit. Most of the laws presently on the statute book, however, have been locally enacted by ordinance or, since independence, by Zambian acts. The Supreme Court consists of the chief justice and four other justices; it is the court of last resort. The High Court, presided over by a chief justice, has 12 puisne judges and is basically an appellate court. There are three classes of magistrate's courts, with progressive degrees of criminal and civil jurisdiction. Local courts consist of a president sitting alone or with other members, all appointed by the Judicial Services Commission. Jurisdiction is conferred by the minister of justice and may encompass any written law, but punishment powers are limited. Local courts also deal with civil cases of a customary nature. Customary law is followed when it is not repugnant to justice or equity and when it is not incompatible with other legislation. The judiciary remains formally independent, and in this respect Zambia contrasts favourably with many other African countries. The president appoints the chief justice and, on the advice of the Judicial Services Commission, also appoints other judges; however, the constitution severely restricts the president's powers of dismissal, and on occasion judges have not shrunk from challenging the authority of the government or party. At the same time, the scope of the judiciary was seriously limited by presidential powers of preventive detention under emergency regulations brought in at the time of Rhodesian UDI in November 1965 and subsequently regularly renewed by the National Assembly. The ending of these state-of-emergency regulations on Nov. 8, 1991, was one of the first acts of the new government. Cultural life Traditional Zambian art consists chiefly of wood carving, pottery making, and basket weaving. Among musical instruments, drums are the most widely used, but there also are stringed bows, flutes, horns and pipes, xylophones, bells, rattles, and the kalimba, or African piano, made of strips of steel attached to a small board and vibrated by the fingers. Music, dancing, and song are used in tribal rituals and celebrations, as well as for entertainment, varying in form among ethnic groups. With the object of preserving cultural diversity, a government initiative in the 1980s led to the revival of many traditional ceremonies. Some, such as the kuomboka of the Lozi, survived essentially unchanged; others have taken up new forms. The National Dance Troupe performs the traditional dances of many groups. There is a national museum at Livingstone and another on the Copperbelt. The Moto-Moto Museum at Mbala focuses on the traditions of the Bemba people, and there are small field museums at some national monuments. Relics of the country's past are the concern of the Commission for the Preservation of Natural and Historical Monuments and Relics. Since the 1950s the cultural scene has been transformed by large-scale urbanization and exposure to exotic influences from Europe, the Americas, and other parts of Africa. Radio and television (one channel only and restricted to the Line of Rail, Chipata, Mongu, and Kasama) have sped this process. Various forms of theatre have flourished. In the last years of colonial rule, dance drama was developed for nationalist ends; the Chikwakwa Theatre, based at the University of Zambia, pioneered politically radical popular drama in the early years of independence. In the 1980s, aid agencies and other bodies promoted theatre for development, often unscripted and in vernacular languages, and government departments have used drama to communicate agricultural and health messages. The once-noted independence of the press was compromised by government and party control: ownership of the Times of Zambia passed to the party in 1982, and the Zambia Daily Mail has been in government ownership since 1965. The church-owned weekly National Mirror, founded in 1970, was able to take a more independent line, as has the Weekly Post, which first appeared in 1991 in the wake of moves toward a more pluralist political system. The Zambia Publishing House (formerly the Kenneth Kaunda Foundation) is a government-backed publisher of the works of Zambian authors and school textbooks. The few other publishers are mainly church-supported. Zambian scholars have contributed to knowledge in a wide range of disciplines, often in locally published academic journals, though opportunities for research have been restricted in recent years by general economic difficulties. Richard Hamilton Hobson Geoffrey J. Williams