Zambia

Where the name comes from

Zambia is named after the Zambezi River, which forms much of its southern border with Zimbabwe.

First people

Bantu-speaking communities and kingdoms linked central and southern Africa, and the 300,000-year-old Kabwe skull was found here.^1,2

Known for

Zambia is known for Victoria Falls on the Zambezi and for copper, mined on a large scale in the Copperbelt since the late 1920s.^3,4,5

Outside contact

British company rule began in 1891, and Northern Rhodesia was united in 1911 and became a Crown protectorate in 1924.¹

The modern country

It became independent as Zambia in 1964.¹