News Blog

Agriculture has been slowing down in Zambia and all over Africa. In 2007 Norway tried to fix that problem. Norway had given funds for the conservation farming project.The permanent secretary was chosen to lead this project. The Norway government gave Zambia 5 million U.S. dollars to try to help scale up conservation agriculture among small scale farmers.

Now that they have this money, things will change. Since about 1.3 million people in Zambia live on farms, they will be changed the most, for the better. The low crop and soil productivity will stop and Zambia will become better. Before this problem was a challenge bu the solution exists in today's technology, and now they have the money to buy and help their people.Because of Norway, Zambia has a chance to flourish and become a productive country and feed more poeple in Zambia.

Food and Sports

In Zambia their customs are very different, they have certain ways to eat. One of the most common sample dish is the nshima, which is made from fish, maize, or sorghum. It is eaten with the right and ONLY the right hand. To enjoy this treat completely you have to roll it into a ball and dip it into a meat sauce or vegetables. People who live on the river mostly eat freshwater fish, like bream, lake salmon and Nile perch.

Sports are very popular in Zambia. There are high class golf courses and excellent water sports. This is mostly because of the Zambezi river that provides such a great water source. Soccer is the top sport in Zambia.It is the national sport in zambia. Zambia's soccer team even won the 1988 Olympic soccer game against Italy.

Music and Dance

All the different ethnics groups have a common dance which is the makishi. This dance is mostly for men which is danced at weddings, or initiation ceremonies. Music is just as important, with out it you can't dance. The instruments are mainly the drums. Drums are mostly used for dance/ceremonies. It is sad, in a way, that people don't listen to music like we do. One tye of ceremony is the kuambaka ceremony of the lozi. They celebrate the moving of their king from the dry place to the wet place hut.

Culture

Zambia has a blend of more than 70 ethnic groups. Most of the tribes moved into this area in migratory waves a few centuries ago. English was chosen to be the national language of Zambia. Dance is amazing, with acrobatic spectacle and pulse changing drumming. Many traditional instruments are still played but the use of western instruments are increasing with common hand pianos, the silimba, and xylophone. Dance expresses the people's ideas, life style and thought over the centuries. It protrays a time of trouble and peace, retreat and advance and winning and losing in battles. Zambia's diverse cultures bring with them a wide variety of skills, with crafts that can be found in basketry and objects used in their daily life. Most of the population is Christain, though others combine that with traditional animist beliefs.

Climate and Landforms

The different landforms gives Zambia a wide range of climate. The general height of the land makes it more pleasant than that experienced in most tropical countries. There are three seasons, cool and dry from May to August, hot and dry from September to November and warm and wet from December to April.

Zambia gets it name from the Zambezi River which rises in the north-west corner of the country. Zambia also has 17 magnificent waterfalls separate from the spectacular Victoria Falls. Zambia has the largest water resources in the all of Southern Africa. Zambia has 5 massive lakes and plentiful rivers that are filled with fish.Victoria Falls is a spectacular sight with 546 million cubic meter of running water per minute. Columns of spray can be seen from miles away.

Parks and Game

The parks/game in Zambia has a wide variety of wildlife of birds, animals and vegetation. The famous walking safari originated from this park, and it is still one of the best ways to explore the wildlife. The Changing seasons add to the Park's beauty ranging from dry, bare bush veld in the winter to a lush green wonderland of excitement in the summer time. There are about 60 different types of animals and over 400 different types of birds in this park. This park also has animals close to extinction, so these animals are protected from poachers. One of these animals is the rhino which was nearly poached to extinction. In Zambia you would see antelope, crazy baboons, elephants, buffalo, hippopotamuses, zebras and Thornicrofts Giraffe.

My favorite animal is the giraffe, it is amazing how tall it is. It towers above all others and it is the best. It is the calmest, gentlest and dangerous animals. I also love baboons. They are care free and crazy wild. kind of like me so maybe thats why i like them.

Independence

A militant and former schoolteacher named Kenneth Kaunda took over the leadership of the Africans from the more moderate Nkumbula. Then in 1959 he formed a new party, the United National Party (UNIP). Following this was a huge civil disobedience campaign in 1962. Africans were given a larger voice in the affairs of the protectorate. On the 24^th of October 1964 Northern Rhodesia became independent as the Republic of Zambia. Kaunda was the Zambia’s first president which he was reelected in 1968 and 1973. Kaunda faced many problems in the first 10 years of independence which was uniting Zambia’s diverse people, reducing European control of the economy, and coping with the white-dominated Zambia.

Organizations

In 1946 leaders from these groups met in Lusaka and formed the Federation of African Welfare Societies, this was the first protectorate-wide African movement. In 1948 this organization was moved into the Northern Rhodesia (today it is called Zambia) African Congress. In the early part of the 1950s, under the leadership of Harry Nkumbula, the organization fought against the establishment of the British Federation in Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Their fight was unsuccessful. The British Federation in Rhodesia combined Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia (today it is called Zimbabwe), and Nyasaland (now called Malawi). In 1958 the booming copper industry had attracted about 72,000 white people to Zambia and black people were having increasing white domination in their own homeland.

Losing Power

The mining of copper and lead started in the early 1900s. By 1909 the central railroad from Livingstone to Ndola had been completed. By then about 1,500 Europeans had settled in Zambia. In 1924 the British took over the administration of the protectorate. In the late 1920s extensive copper deposits were discovered in what was soon to be known as the Copper Belt. By the late 1930s about 4,000 European skilled workers and 20,000 African Laborers were working there. The Africans protested the discrimination and poor treatment they were subjected to by having strikes in 1934, 1940, and 1956. Africans then weren’t allowed to form unions, but they did organize secret groups that brought together people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Explorers

In the 18^th century, Portuguese explorers followed the routes of the Swahili-Arab slave traders from the coast to the middle of Africa. (Zambia) This was the first known European visitors. Then the Zulu nations began scattering their neighbors, victims of forced migration began arriving in Zambia in the early part of the 19^th century. The Makalolo people were forced out of Zimbabwe, they moved into the southern part of Zambia. When the Makalolo people arrived in Zambia they pushed Tonga out of the way and took Lozi Land on the upper Zambezi River.

Human Habitation

Evidence of human habitation going back 100,000 years has been found at Kabwe, Zambia. In the beginning of 1000AD, Swahili-Arab slave traders were the first recorded people in Zambia. They gradually moved to this region from their villages and towns on the eastern coast of Africa. Between the 14^th and 16^th centuries, Bantu-speaking people called the Maravi moved from Congo and established kingdoms in the eastern and south eastern parts of Zambia.