History of Zambia – Struggle for Independence against Colonial Rule by Leader Kenneth Kaunda

History of Zambia – The southern African country owes her independence and identity to the nationalist leader Kenneth Kaunda who struggled hard against the colonial rule.

The research shows the existence of humans in Zambia between 50,000 t0 60,000 years ago. They were the Bushmen hunters of Stone Age. By about 1000 BC the Bantu people had spread out of their place of origin near Cameron and Nigeria and had reached the areas of eastern and southern Africa. These were expert at ironwork and contributed to the development of culture in the region. Some of the descendents of those people now living in Zambia are the Tonga, Chewa, Bemba and Lozi.

The Arab and East Indian traders had been exploring this area for many centuries and maintained relations with the local population for the purpose of ivory and slave trade. The Portuguese then followed suit and entered into trade and colonization spree. They contacted the tribes living in area between Zambezi Rivers and Lake Tanganyika in 1798. They reached and subdued the stronghold of a local chief near Lake Mweru.

During the middle of 19^th century David Livingstone a Scot explorer entered in the area which was followed by the missionaries. Later a large number of missions were established in the area of Zambezi River and Lake Tanganyika. At that time there was a powerful African kingdom in Barotseland, now the western province of Zambia established and ruled by Barotse, the ancestors of Lozi tribe. The Kololo tribe in South Africa were being pushed out by the expanding power of Zulu. The Kololo entered in Zambia in 1820 and armed clashes started between the Lozi and the Kololo that resulted in the collapse of Barotse kingdom. David Livingstone came in contact with them and was impressed by their good governance of the local population. Later in 1890 the Kololo confronted Cecil Rhodes who was coming from south and entered into an agreement for protection.

The area comprising Zambia therefore came under the occupation of Great Britain in the 1890’s. it was named as North Rhodesia in the honor of Cecil Rhodes who was spearheading the British expansion in southern Africa. It remained governance of his British South Africa Company till 1923. It then became a British protectorate. The period between 1920’s and 1950’s remained a time of discussion regarding the future of British colonies in Africa. Zambia was given the name of Northern Rhodesia, it was predominantly a black population territory as compared to South Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) which had large white population.

In order to ensure good governance and territorial integrity a Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed in 1953, comprising Zambia, Zimbabwe and present day Malawi . The Federation was opposed by the local black population due to fear of domination of the white population. As a resulted the Federation was dissolved in 1963 and North Rhodesia became an independent state on 24 October 1964. It was renamed as Zambia. A national leader Kenneth Kaunda became the first president of Zambia.

President Kaunda was able to impose dictatorship within a decade by neutralizing his political opponents. Being a nationalist leader he reduced his trade relations with Rhodesia which was being ruled by the white. He also completed a railway project in 1975 joining Zambia with Tanzanian ports. Many private businesses including the copper mines were nationalized. 1970’s was a period of economic depression for Zambia due to reduction of copper prices in the international markets. Zambia faced an insurgency problem in the 1980’s when the Kaunda government decided to support the governments of Mozambique and Angola in the military operations against their rebels.

In the late 1980’s a political movement was launched by the opposition against the Kaunda government for restoration of democracy. In July 1991 President Kaunda agreed to draft a new constitution that paved way for elections in September the same year. Kaunda lost the elections and Frederick Chiluba became the president. The new government took immediate actions to improve the administration and law and order in the country. A special attention was given to curb the menace of corruption and drug trafficking. During 1990’s an in-fighting broke out in Congo which compelled thousands of people to migrate into Zambia.

During the multiparty elections held in 1991, Chiluba was again elected as president and remained in power till 2001 when he lost to Levy Mwanawasa.